two 2500 hp Junkers Jumo 222A/B,
NASM, Jan 2014
Information from NASM
On June 16, 1945, a team of 25 intelligence officers and men from U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) Intelligence Service, as part of "Operation LUSTY" (Luftwaffe Secret TechnologY) under Col. Harold E. Watson, took control of three 1st Night Figher Group He 219s at Grove, in South Jutland, Denmark. These aircraft were made flight-worthy by "Watson's Wizzers" and flown to Cherbourg, France. From Cherbourg, under "Project Sea Horse," these aircraft, including He 219 A-2 with construction number [Werksnummer] 290202, was shipped to the United States aboard the Royal Navy ship HMS "Reaper". Together with 21 other captured German aircraft the He 219s were reassembled at Ford Field, Newark, NJ. Reregistered FE-614 (later T2-614; "T2" stood for the Office of Air Force Intelligence) and flown to Freeman Field, Indiana, this aircraft was tested along with another of the three He 219s, an He 219 A-5, construction number [Werksnummer] 290060, registered as FE-612. In 1946, the A-2 was transported to Orchard Place Airport, Park Ridge, Illinois, near the present O'Hare International Airport. Here it was temporarily stored in a vacant U.S. Government factory previously used by Dodge Automobile Company to build Douglas C-54s. Transferred to the Smithsonian's National Air Museum on January 3, 1949, the He 219, together with 82 other aircraft at Park Ridge, was crated and shipped to the Smithsonian's Silver Hill, MD., storage facility in early 1955. The He 219 A-2 is currently on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center.