Thanks KT, but as with so many books, this is wrong in so many ways.
The length of the Komet is 5.92m and the height is 2.80m. Source: D.(Luft) T.2163 B "Me 163 B Flugzeug-Handbuch" Teil 0 "Allgemeine Angaben".
The maximum speed is on the deck and depends more on environmental temperature than anything else. The speed at 10km altitude could be anything and it's of no interest whatsoever.
The "initial climb" equals the speed. 5000m/min would be 300kph. Seriously, no one keeps you from going almost 1000kph on the deck, pull up and "initially" climb three times that fast.
The "service ceiling" is misleading for a Me 163. It can climb (especially zoom climb) much higher. Thing about "service ceiling" is that it denotes the
sustainable max. altitude. Taking the
very limited flight time of the Me 163 into account, by the strict definition of it, the "service ceiling" for the Me 163 is ground level.
Fuel consumption: We know that the specific fuel consumption of the HWK 109-509 A-1 is roughly 5.3 lbs / 1000lb sec. at sea level, full throttle. Source: "Analysis and evaluation of german attainments and research in the liquid rocket engine field" vol. vii "thrust control" - ADA800132, feb. 1952.
1700kp thrust equals 3750lbf, so we get a fuel consumption of 19.875 lb/s at full throttle on the deck.
With 2018kg of fuel this results in 224 seconds full throttle time max, that's 3 minutes and 44 seconds.
I know this looks disappointing and it contradicts reports from e.g. Wolfgang Späte ("4-5 Minuten Vollschub") or many other sources which like to state 7.5 minutes burn time, but hey: You can't betray physics.
If a Me 163 ever made a powered flight for more than 4 minutes, then it's just for the simple reason that they've throttled back, which they had to do anyway.
"2 1/2 min from top of climb or 8 min in total" means the climb would take 5 1/2 minutes, which it doesn't. The climb takes 2 1/2 minutes if you do it right.
Mike