Untouchable Pursuit depicts Hans Guido Mutke in a Messerschmitt Me 262 during the final weeks of the Second World War. Mutke later claimed that an extreme high-speed dive in the jet had taken him through the sound barrier—a claim that remains disputed.
Me 262 Production Aluminum
The relic associated with the artwork comes from aluminum sheet removed from an Me 262 production facility as German manufacturing collapsed in May 1945. A Czech worker reportedly carried the material away and later used it as roofing. Decades of protection with the stamped surface facing downward preserved original manufacturer markings.
Me 262 production aluminum preserving its AWS manufacturer markings.
Surviving manufacturer markings on the Me 262 aluminum.
Mutke's High-Speed Dive
Mutke described losing control of an Me 262 during a steep high-altitude dive in April 1945. He reported violent buffeting, an airspeed indicator at its limit and difficulty recovering the aircraft. The jet landed with structural damage, and Mutke later argued that these events indicated a transition through Mach 1.
The claim has never been established as a confirmed supersonic flight. Compressibility effects at very high subsonic speed can produce severe buffeting and control problems, and the Me 262 was not instrumented to document a Mach 1 event. The first officially documented piloted supersonic flight remains Chuck Yeager's Bell X-1 flight of 14 October 1947.
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