Hans Guido Mutke

Who was Hans Guido Mutke?

Hans Guido Mutke was a fighter pilot for the German Luftwaffe during World War II. He was born in Neisse, Upper Silesia.

On 25 April 1945, Mutke landed at Dübendorf, Switzerland, flying the Me262A-1a jet fighter, 'White 3', from 9 Staffel, Jagdgeschwader 7. He claimed that he got lost during a combat mission and landed there by mistake, although there were suspicions that he'd defected. The Swiss authorities never attempted to fly the plane, keeping it in storage and returning it to Germany on 30 August 1957. He sued the post-war German government, unsuccessfully, for the return of the plane, claiming it was his own property.

Mutke also made the controversial claim that he broke the sound barrier in 1945 in an Me 262, but mainstream opinion continues to regard Chuck Yeager as the first person to achieve this milestone in 1947 in a Bell X-1 .