question: The Messerschmitt Me 263 "Scholle" (plaice) was a rocket-powered fighter aircraft developed from the Me 163 "Komet" towards the end of, which historic event?
answer: World War II
context: Title: De Havilland DH 108
  Passage: The de Havilland DH 108 "Swallow" was a British experimental aircraft designed by John Carver Meadows Frost in October 1945.  The DH 108 featured a tailless, swept wing with a single vertical stabilizer, similar to the layout of the wartime German Messerschmitt Me 163 "Komet" rocket-powered point-defence interceptor.  Initially designed to evaluate swept wing handling characteristics at low and high subsonic speeds for the proposed early tailless design of the Comet airliner, three examples of the DH 108 were built to Air Ministry specifications E.1/45 and E.11/45.  With the adoption of a conventional tail for the Comet, the aircraft were used instead to investigate swept wing handling up to supersonic speeds.  All three prototypes were lost in fatal crashes.
  Title: Rikugun Ki-202
  Passage: The Rikugun Ki-202 "Shūsui-Kai" (Japanese: 三菱 Ki-202 秋水改 , translated as "Sharp Sword, improved") was a direct development of the German Messerschmitt Me 163 "Komet" rocket-powered interceptor aircraft.  None were produced before Japan's surrender that ended World War II.
  Title: Mikoyan-Gurevich I-250
  Passage: The Mikoyan-Gurevich I-250 (Samolet N) was a Soviet fighter aircraft developed as part of a crash program in 1944 to develop a high-performance fighter to counter German turbojet-powered aircraft such as the Messerschmitt Me-262.  The Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau decided to focus on a design that used something more mature than the jet engine, which was still at an experimental stage in the Soviet Union, and chose a mixed-power solution with the VRDK ("Vozdushno-Reaktivny Dvigatel Kompressornyi" – air reaction compressor jet) motorjet powered by the Klimov VK-107 V12 engine.  While quite successful when it worked, with a maximum speed of 820 km/h being reached during trials, production problems with the VRDK fatally delayed the program and it was canceled in 1948 as obsolete.
  Title: Messerschmitt Me 263
  Passage: The Messerschmitt Me 263 "Scholle" (plaice) was a rocket-powered fighter aircraft developed from the Me 163 "Komet" towards the end of World War II.  Three prototypes were built but never flown under their own power as the rapidly deteriorating military situation in Germany prevented the completion of the test program.
  Title: Mitsubishi J8M
  Passage: The Mitsubishi J8M "Shūsui" (Japanese: 三菱 J8M 秋水, literally "Autumn Water", used as a poetic term meaning "Sharp Sword" deriving from the swishing sound of a sword) was a Japanese World War II rocket-powered interceptor aircraft closely based on the German Messerschmitt Me 163 "Komet".
  Title: Lippisch P.20
  Passage: The Lippisch P.20 was a proposed World War II German fighter aircraft.  The P.20 design of April 1943 was an attempt to further develop the rocket-powered Me 163 interceptor into a feasible turbojet powered fighter.
  Title: Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet
  Passage: The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet was a German rocket-powered fighter aircraft.  Designed by Alexander Lippisch, it is the only rocket-powered fighter aircraft ever to have been operational and the first piloted aircraft of any type to exceed 1000 km/h (621 mph) in level flight.  Its design was revolutionary and its performance unprecedented.  German test pilot Heini Dittmar in early July 1944 reached 1130 km/h , an unofficial flight airspeed record unmatched by turbojet-powered aircraft for almost a decade.  Over 300 aircraft were built, but the Komet proved ineffective in its dedicated role as an interceptor aircraft and was responsible for the destruction of only about nine to eighteen Allied aircraft against ten losses.  Aside from combat losses many pilots were killed during testing and training.
  Title: List of surviving Messerschmitt Bf 109s
  Passage: The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was a German World War II fighter aircraft.  It was one of the first true modern fighters of the era, including such features as an all-metal monocoque construction, a closed canopy, and retractable landing gear.  The Bf 109 was the most produced fighter aircraft during World War II, with 30,573 examples built during the war, and the most produced fighter aircraft in history, with a total of 33,984 units produced up to April 1945.
  Title: RCAF Western Air Command
  Passage: Western Air Command was the part of the Royal Canadian Air Force's Home War Establishment responsible for air operations on the Pacific coast of Canada during the Second World War.  When Canada declared war against Germany in September 1939 the command consisted of only five squadrons.  Four of them equipped with obsolete aircraft including a bomber squadron with aircraft from the Great War and there were no fighter aircraft at all for its only fighter squadron (113 Fighter Squadron was thus disbanded).  With the Japanese threat after Pearl Harbor it grew rapidly and played a critical role in fighter and anti-submarine operations in Canadian and American waters during the Aleutian Islands Campaign.  It was there that Squadron Leader K.A. Boomer of No. 111 Squadron shot down a Rufe fighter, the RCAF's only kill in the Pacific Theatre.  On 7 July 1942 a Bristol Bolingbroke pressed home an attack on the Japanese Submarine Ro 32 the pilot F/Sgt.  P.M.G. Thomas of No. 115 Squadron RCAF then led American Destroyers to sink the damaged submarine.  By January 1943 Western Air Command had expanded to include many bomber, fighter and operational units under its control.  By the end of the war the command would involve some twenty squadrons when the last units to join were added in 1943.  These were the 163 Army Cooperation Squadron in March flying Bristol Bolingbrokes and Hawker Hurricanes, in May the 160 Bomber-Reconnaissance Squadron was added flying Cansos from Sea Island BC (before moving to Yarmouth NS in July) and the 166 Communication Squadron formed in September flying various types.  In addition to the new squadrons, new aircraft types came on line replacing the command's remaining Supermarine Stranraers and Blackburn Sharks with Canso's and the Bolingbrokes and Beauforts with the Lockheed Ventura.  Countless training missions and operational patrols bolstered the air activity over the coastal areas but there was not much action until RCAF Western Command was on the look out for General Kusaba's Fire Balloons that the Japanese called the Fūsen Bakudan Campaign.  In February and March 1945, P-40 fighter pilots from 133 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force operating out of RCAF Patricia Bay (Victoria, British Columbia), intercepted and destroyed two fire balloons, On 21 February, Pilot Officer E. E. Maxwell While shot down a balloon, which landed on Sumas Mountain, in Washington State.  On 10 March, Pilot Officer J. O. Patten destroyed a balloon near Saltspring Island, British Columbia.  During another interception a Canso forced down a fire balloon which was examined at the army headquarters.  Patrol activity was joined by the Operational Training Schools (OTS) operated by Number 4 Training Command of the BCATP.  They were the No. 3 OTS flying the Canso and Catalina and No. 32 OTS with Ansons, Beauforts and Swordfish at Patricia Bay.  In April, 1944 the No. 5 OTS Heavy Conversion unit stood up at Boundary Bay when 16 B-24 Liberators arrived fresh from American factories.  By the end of September 1944 RCAF 5 O.T.U. had grown to sizeable force of some 87 aircraft including 38 B-24 Liberators, 35 B-25 Mitchells, 5 Bolingbrokes, 8 P-40 Kittyhawks and a single Norseman.  With the end of the war in Europe these aircraft were joined by a number of Victory Aircraft Lancaster X bombers which were to be used to train the British Commonwealth's Very Long Range Bomber Tiger Force that would soon be sent to bomb the Japanese mainland from Okinawa.  With the unconditional surrender of Japan the RCAF's Tiger Force bomber squadrons were disbanded before they flew overseas and the total draw down of the Western Air Command was suddenly undertaken.  Within several months almost all the flying squadrons would be completely stood down.
  Title: Messerschmitt Bf 109 in Yugoslav service
  Passage: The Royal Yugoslav Air Force (VVKJ) operated the German Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3 fighter aircraft from August 1939 to April 1941.  During that period, the VVKJ obtained 73 Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3s from Germany, marking the second-largest export sale of the model.  When the country was drawn into World War II by the German-led Axis invasion of April 1941, a total of 46 Yugoslav Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3s were serviceable.  They achieved some successes against "Luftwaffe" aircraft, but all Yugoslav Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3s were destroyed or captured during the 11-day invasion.
citations: Messerschmitt Me 263 Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet