Busemann had proposed in 1935 the advantages of swept wings for high-speed flight and this was later applied to the Me-262 jet at 37o. However, variable-sweep wings were something new altogether and Messerschmit's designer Voight started with a research aircraft as jet fighter proposal in 1942- the Me P.1101 which would have manually-set variable-sweep on the ground prior to take-off. This would be a three-position type, but two years passed before work started on the actual first machine. The V1 was under construction at Oberammergaus and when this unknown facility was overrun by US troops they found the Me P.1101 85% completed. It was never really intended for the jet fighter competitions (that role taken over by the Fw Ta 183) but served as the basis for the postwar Bell X-5 which had variable-sweep in-flight. Most people do not know that the Bell X-5 was directly derived from the captured Me P.1101. Had it been completed and had entered the jet fighter contests, the P.1101 would have had a He S 011 jet engine of 2865 lb st and armed with 4-6x 30mm MK-108 cannon and operational Kramer X-4 wire-guided AAMs!!! For research, it's jet engine was a single Jumo 004B and no armament was fitted...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RJMhXfXVJMY/Tjpn5r59ovI/AAAAAAAAB4M/tW6o9tsIcGA/s640/mep1101al1.jpg http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/imgs/messerschmitt-me-p1101_9.jpg Bell X-5: http://76.12.160.15/aircraft/imgs/bell-x5_10.jpg