German planes

[GRUNHERZ]

Yep widewing is correct, the Do335 was merely one of the new class of 470+ mph prop fighters late in the war.  Personally I dont think it would compete all that well against scores of more nimble single engine fighters of the same performance class. It could have been a great nightfighter though.

All of that was kinda pointless considering the 540mph Me262 and 580mpg P80 let alone the new German fighters in the 600mph class - including some modified 262s. It was a new age for fighters.

[HoHun]

Hi Grünherz,

>Yep widewing is correct, the Do335 was merely one of the new class of 470+ mph prop fighters late in the war.  Personally I dont think it would compete all that well against scores of more nimble single engine fighters of the same performance class.

Well, the thing about the Do 335 is that it achieved very high speeds at low to medium altitudes. Other high-speed fighters were really fast only at very high altitude.

It's all about engines anyway - replace the DB603E by the DB603L, and watch the Dornier gain yet more speed.

Still, jets were the way to go - there were actually plans on the drawing board to convert the Do 335 into a hybrid prop/jet :-)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

[Glasses]

Bah they're all immitators of the true   great Aeronautical Engineer  Kurt Tank!

[GRUNHERZ]

Originally posted by HoHun
Hi Grünherz,

>Yep widewing is correct, the Do335 was merely one of the new class of 470+ mph prop fighters late in the war.  Personally I dont think it would compete all that well against scores of more nimble single engine fighters of the same performance class.

Well, the thing about the Do 335 is that it achieved very high speeds at low to medium altitudes. Other high-speed fighters were really fast only at very high altitude.

It's all about engines anyway - replace the DB603E by the DB603L, and watch the Dornier gain yet more speed.

Still, jets were the way to go - there were actually plans on the drawing board to convert the Do 335 into a hybrid prop/jet :-)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

I thought of that and there is some truth there but then again the Spiteful was faster at the same alt, the P51H did 440mph at a ridicoulsly low alt like 5k or spomehing so it wasnt much of a slouch anywhere. There was also an even more powerful P51H class on the way too. (L model I think)

I had always wondered about the prop/jet petential of Do335 - good to hear someody was thinking of doing it.

[MiloMorai]

Originally posted by HoHun
It's all about engines anyway - replace the DB603E by the DB603L, and watch the Dornier gain yet more speed.

Still, jets were the way to go - there were actually plans on the drawing board to convert the Do 335 into a hybrid prop/jet :-)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

Yes the Do P232/3-06. There was also the Do P254 which was to be produced as the He 535.

There was also proposals for a twin , ala 109Z. Junkers was to produce it as the Ju 635.

[storch]

Don't forget the Austrailian entry.  The Commonwealth CL-15 which was built around the mighty Griffon-61 and was a brilliant and totally homegrown project.

The English and Canadians had some logical and potent extrapolations of existing designs also.
The Hawker Seafury, deHavilland Hornet.

Had the war lasted all combatant nations had piston engined aircraft that were pushing the technological limits of these designs.

The United States had a piston/turbojet hybrid in the works also
in the form of the Ryan FR-1 Fireball for the US Navy.  Grumman had the excellent F8F Bearcat in service and deployed at the end of hostilities with the F7F Tigercat ready to go.

Even the backwards soviets had interesting stuff based on stolen allied advances.

Germany and Japan would have kept up, but barely.

[HoHun]

Hi Grunherz,

>I thought of that and there is some truth there but then again the Spiteful was faster at the same alt, the P51H did 440mph at a ridicoulsly low alt like 5k or spomehing so it wasnt much of a slouch anywhere.

Do you have actual speed data of the kind we have for most WW2 planes for any of the post-war monsters? That would be intersting to compare. Usually, I only find single figures that are not very informative by themselves.

About the only one for which I have seen a detailed speed breakdown is the F4U-4 (for which a BuAer data set exists), but apparently, this is not thought be be representative for service aircraft for some reason - or at least not for WW2 examples. I'm somewhat puzzled by that.

>I had always wondered about the prop/jet petential of Do335 - good to hear someody was thinking of doing it.

The interesting thing about the Do 335 is that it started out as high-speed bomber, and Major Schreiweis, the leader of the service trials unit was a bomber pilot. He considered the Do 335 obsolete from the moment he heard it was to be a propeller aircraft He considered the Ar 234 the much better aircraft, especially as the Do 335 was getting further and further delayed while the Arado was already in service.

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

[GRUNHERZ]

There is some data about the P51H bearking down the speed by alt, I dont know where it is.

The Spiteful numbers I saw also quated a deck speed of 410mph or so.

[Rino]

Originally posted by MiloMorai
Try the He 219 as being first.

The Do335 explosives that blew away the prop.

................

Raptor01, careful with yor claims or you will have to join that club a few others here are in, a couple just recently.

     Don't know about the first seat used, but I always thought
the Saab J-21 was the first to mount one.  First flight 7/30/43.

[Westy]

Damn Widwing beat me to it with the P47M. Well. I can still.....


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