[ghostwriter]

das tragische daran ist, …
dass arnolds eigentliche "Me 262 A-1a, die #500491",
den krieg und alles andere überstanden hat und im
museum in den staaten steht!?

When surrendered to the Allies on 8 May 1945, Me 262A-la wk/nr 500491, 'Yellow 7' had seven kill markings painted on the rear of its fuselage. This aircraft had been the personal mount of Ofw Heinz Arnold, who flew with 11./JG 7 from Brandenburg-Briest. On 3 March 1945 Arnold had opened his Me 262 kill-account with two aircraft destroyed- a P-47 and B-17, both near Genthin. Four days later over Wittenberg, he claimed a P51 Mustang. On 18 March, Arnold submitted claims for a pair of P51`s that had fallen to his cannon fire, followed by a single B17 on the19th and 21st. He claimed a further two B-17s on 22 and 24 March, Wk/nr 5000491 was unserviceable at Alt Loennewitz when, on 16 or 17 April, Arnold took a replacement Me 262A-lb into an action from which he failed to return. Ofw Heinz Arnold had been one of a very small, and highly select, group of pilots who had become an ace on both jet- and piston-engine aircraft during World War 2; he had earlier scored 42 victories with JG 5 over the Eastern Front, prior to scoring seven, or perhaps even nine, victories with Me 262A-la wk/nr 500491. Having scored all his jet kills over such a short period of time, it is likely that he would been awarded the Knight's Cross had he survived.

On 18 April wk/nr 500491 was flown from Alt Loennewitz to Saaz, whereupon it became the aircraft of Lt Muller, who flew it until the end of the war. Muller made the final Luftwaffe flight of wk/nr 500491 when he flew from Prague-Ruzyne to Lager Lechfeld on 8 May. He later said that he handed this aircraft over to Karl Baur, the former chief test pilot of experimental aircraft for Messerschmitt who, by this stage, was working for the USAAF, and leading the training of American aircrews on the new jets. However, M/Sgt Eugene Freiburger accepted the surrender of wk/nr 500491 and its pilot, Lt Muller.

At Lager-Lechfeld it was allocated Watson's Whizzers' number 888, and was initially christened 'Dennis' after Eugene Freiburger's son. When Col Watson's team of pilots arrived at Lechfeld, it was renamed Julie' and then 'Ginny H'. After leaving lager Lechfeld, wk/nr 500491 was flown to (Cherbourg, via Melun, by Lt James K Holt, before being shipped to the USA on HMS Reaper and ascribed Foreign Equipment No FE-III for use in USAAF trials. It was located firstly at Wright Field in August 1945, and then at Freeman Field the following month, before being transferred to No 803 Special Depot, Park Ridge, Illinois, during July 1946, and placed in storage. By 1950, wk/nr 500491 had been moved to the National Air and Space Museum's Silver Hill annex in Maryland. Restoration at the Paul E Garber Preservation Restoration and Storage Facility at this location commenced in 1978, and extensive corrosion in the nose was discovered. Over 6000 hours were consumed in the successful transformation of this aircraft back to it's original configuration, and it now resides in the National Air and Space Museum, in Washington DC.

http://www.stormbirds.com/schwalbe/s.../survivors.htm