262 tail wheel....

[titanic3]

didn't the Me-262a-1 had tail wheels, but the Germans replaced it with the 262a-2 with nose wheel due to no forward view while taking off? or was there an earlier version before the 262a-1?

[Lusche]

Only the first prototypes had a tailwheel. Me 262 V5 was the first to have a tricycle gear.

[titanic3]

Originally posted by Lusche
Only the first prototypes had a tailwheel. Me 262 V5 was the first to have a tricycle gear.

oooohhh, ty lusche.

[CAP1]

Originally posted by titanic3
didn't the Me-262a-1 had tail wheels, but the Germans replaced it with the 262a-2 with nose wheel due to no forward view while taking off? or was there an earlier version before the 262a-1?

only the prototypes had the tail wheel.........they changed it to tricycle gear due to the fact that the pilot had to allow some speed to build, then push the stick foward a bit to bring the tail up(it wouldn't come up on its own like modern tail draggers). this i guess you could imagine is kinda a hairy move.....think it lead to some noseovers.........but to the best of my knowledge, all combat versions had trike gear..

BTW.......nice observation, and good question!!:aok

[Xasthur]

tail-dragging 262s had to tap the breaks to force the nose down.

The tail-low position gave it no evelator authority.

[TUXC]

I think the jet engine nozzles pointed downwards also tended to damage the runway.

[Jonny boy 8]

ive seen films of the me262 tail wheel version,(history channel) it only looks a little diffrent, but the reson they got rid of the tailwheel verson was poor visability.

p51srule

[Serenity]

Originally posted by Jonny boy 8
ive seen films of the me262 tail wheel version,(history channel) it only looks a little diffrent, but the reson they got rid of the tailwheel verson was poor visability.

p51srule

DONT TRUST HISTORY CHANNEL!!! Theyre completely untrustworthy. Take EVERYTHING you see there with a dump-truck-sized grain of salt.

[Jonny boy 8]

.......................... .......OK  ill forget what i just readed.

p51srule:aok

[Krusty]

It wasn't visibility. You didn't need that to take off (hell look at most WW2 planes). It was because the pilot could not get the tail to lift off the ground, and had to perform a dangerous brake tap once at speed to allow the plane to take off.

That's what Serenity means by "don't trust the history channel": they take broad strokes to generalize very fine details. Sometimes what they say applies, sometimes it doesn't.

[Xasthur]

Krusty is on the money.

[clerick]

Nope, wrong again....  The REAL reason that they changed it was that the trike gear looked so awesome on the P38 that the Germans had to have it too.  Unt das ist der truth.

p38srule!

[Wes14]

Originally posted by clerick
Nope, wrong again....  The REAL reason that they changed it was that the trike gear looked so awesome on the P38 that the Germans had to have it too.  Unt das ist der truth.

p38srule!

Amen:aok

[KD303]

Yeah, if you look at footage of tail wheel versions taking off, you'll see a white line painted on the ground which told the pilot when he should hit the brakes to bring up the tail plane. Not very practical, looking out for that, dabbing the brakes,and doing all the usual pilot stuff too. Oh well, at least they didn't go for that old German fave of sticking a huge dolly underneath and landing on a retractable skid...

[Lusche]

Originally posted by KD303
Yeah, if you look at footage of tail wheel versions taking off, you'll see a white line painted on the ground which told the pilot when he should hit the brakes to bring up the tail plane. Not very practical, looking out for that, dabbing the brakes,and doing all the usual pilot stuff too. Oh well, at least they didn't go for that old German fave of sticking a huge dolly underneath and landing on a retractable skid...

Yep.