At the South African Museum of Military History, a two seater Night Fighter version of the Messerschmitt 262 is on permanent display. This particular type, designated the ME 262 B-1A\U1, was a conversion from a two seater trainer aircraft into a Night Fighter by Blohm und Voss. This was a hastily developed project in order to meet the urgent need for aircraft capable of combating the highly sophisticated and advanced Allied Night intruding aircraft i.e. the Mosquito. Although started as a project in 1939, it was only produced in June 1944 and was forced into a situation of flight testing and training before all the developmental problems had been solved. The first two seater aircraft were training aircraft designed to facilitate the conversion of pilots from propeller driven fighters to the unusual jet motors. A current two seater trainer version is still on display at the museum at the Naval Air Station in Willow Grove in the United States of America.

It was only at the end of July 1944 that the fighter started flying operationally, with the Bomber version having a short but unsuccessful sequel in August. This version was soon abandoned in favour of the fighters because of the small bomb loads and the inaccuracy of the bomb sights at such high speeds. The 262 was held in awe by the Allied and German pilots, but was a very difficult aircraft to fly. Having personally spoken to a pilot who flew 262 fighters against the Allied bombing raids, it was verbally accounted to me that they needed very long take-off runs, and it was only once the wheels were retracted that the aircraft would start responding to the controls. Response was also very much more sluggish than found in the advanced propeller driven aircraft that had by that time reached a peak of sophistication. The engines were also very unreliable and used to flame-out during manoeuvres, especially if this was accompanied by rapid throttle changes. Nevertheless, this aircraft achieved remarkable success against Allied aircraft.