Originally posted by VO101_Isegrim
Nose with a downward angle. Smart.
Though I`d think having such a beast radial engine in front can make thing a tad different than viewed from outside.
Did you know that the F8F Bearcat owes much of its concept to Kurt Tank's Fw 190?
Roy Grumman and Chief Engineer Robert Hall went to Britain to test fly a captured 190A-3. They were extremely impressed with the 190 and upon return to Bethpage, Long Island, set out to design a fighter that incorporated much of design philosophy of Tank's most important aircraft.
They used the powerful R-2800 engine and a laminar flow wing of only slightly less area than the extremely agile Wildcat. They also designed it for carrier duty. This meant positioning the pilot higher so that the view over the nose was optimized for seeing a flight deck on approach. I view it as the Frankenstein evolution of the Wildcat
What they eventually built was probably the best prop driven dogfighter ever made, and certainly the most superlative carrier fighter of the war. Tank would have been proud had he known that his influence resulted in such a beast of an airplane.
My regards,
Widewing