![Atop Empire State- in construction; Chrysler Bldg & [Daily] News in middle foreground. (1931)](http://www.retronaut.co/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Atop-Empire-State-in-construction-Chrysler-Bldg-Daily-News-in-middle-foreground.-1931--199x123.jpg "Balancing on the Empire State, 1920s")
‘The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet was a German rocket-powered fighter aircraft. It is the only rocket-powered fighter aircraft ever to have been operational. Test pilot Rudy Opitz in 1944 reached 1,123 km/h.’
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Thank you to Luftwaffe Photos
The fuel tank was behind the pilot and if it leaked into the cockpit (not unknown with the falling standards in German industry as the war went on) it would melt the pilot’s flesh.
Designed by the Godfather of Modern Aerodynamic Design according to NASA, Alexander Lippisch. The Space Shuttle was designed in part because of this Delta Wing Design, the breakthrough that makes all flight possible at high speeds.