Wierdest Plane Ever

[Simaril]

Originally posted by Crumpp
From what I have read the design was squelched because the average German pilot in 1945 would not have had the skill the land it.

As it has already been pointed out, the concept was sound enough that the USAAF attempted to put it into action.

An experienced pilot could have done it but they were in short supply.

I think this Focke Wulf design is the most interesting and feasible of the concepts:

http://www.luft46.com/fw/ta183-i.html

Combined with the X4 Missiles I think it would have been a formidiable opponent.

Saw an interesting program on the "Military Channel" about the He-162.  According to that program, the Volksjager was actually a good performer for an early jet.

One pilot called it a "First Rate Combat Aircraft".

http://www.vectorsite.net/avhe162.html  

I always thought it was a poor performer in addition to its technical problems which stemmed mostly from Germany's lack of resources.

All the best,

Crumpp

Read recent article in Wings based on US test pilots assessment, at Muroc. They thought the thing was a beast, hard to handle -- though (at work) cant remember what particular instability it had.

[Simaril]

Originally posted by AdmRose
Anyone ever hear of a German project called the Triflugel? Its basically a VTOL plane with three jet engines on rotors that spin around the axis of the plane giving it its lift and thrust. I wish I had a picture of it to post but information on Google is almost non-existant. It probably never made it out of the design stage.

Major problem with rotor tip ramjet concept is endurance -- same thing tried with US helicopter -- the Hiller HJ1. It was noisy as heck, and

The voracious ramjets consumed an enormous amount of fuel. They gulped ten times the amount used by a piston engine of comparable output.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/hiller_hoe.htm


So, though the German plane looked cool and was sufficiently radical to impress the magical thinking of the Hitlerites, it would never have made a practical impact. At those fuel consumption rates, could it have even reached bombers? WOuld the extra fuel required reached diminishing returns from a weight/lift standpoint?  The design looks like just another waste of engineering resources, not at all a wonder weapon...

[Evosnipe]

so this thing is actually like takin the nose of a prop plane (with prop) putting  cockpit on it, and at each prop end puttting a ramjet engine,

man id love to see that fly, or imagine like the stabilizing force in the plane-thing gettting shot, then ure spinning around like mach.6 or watever lol, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
couldnt eject either ill bet


heh