Some nice Luftwaffe stuff

[moot]

That same website in the OP has an excellent collection of documents in the "Archive" section.


http://www.germanluftwaffe.com/archiv/Dokumente/ABC/m/MK%20103/MK%20103%20Maschinenkanone.htm








http://www.germanluftwaffe.com/archiv/Dokumente/ABC/m/Messerschmitt/Me%20410/Me%20410%20B-2%20U-1%20Wa.pdf

And way more...
http://www.germanluftwaffe.com/archiv-englisch/dokumente/web/new%20site/frames2/Dokumente.htm

[Martyn]

There was a lot of interest in flying wings for a long time. The Hortens discovered they had a problem with loss of lift in the centre section of theirs - so they extended the wing in the centre to give it that 'bat-plane' shape. When flown the test pilots (apparently) said it flew really nicely. After the war neither the Brits or the Yanks seriously tried extending the centre section's of their flying wings and testing the aerodynamics the way the Hortens did. I don't know why.

However the 'bat-plane' (Horten IX or Ho-229) internally was a mess. If it they had been given better resources it might have been a very different story. I fail to understand why the allies didn't try to build such a wing using the aerodynamic experience of the Hortens after the war. The original plane itself wasn't adequate to take further - but a new plane may have looked the same/similar.

Even if it had reached service though, the flying wing concept has problems when reaching trans-sonic speeds (excessive buffeting). I'm not sure if that applies to the Horten design - I don't believe anyone has tried - but it probably does.

[Guppy35]

Did NG put a 109 or 190 on the pole?

Chain Home Extra Low

Introduction

In the early stages of the Second World War a German pilot could approach to within 80 miles of the British coast at 10,000 before CH detected him and by descending to 5,000 feet he could avoid CH detection to within 50 miles of the coast. With the introduction of CHL an aircraft flying at 500 feet up to 25 miles away could be tracked with very good accuracy. By 1941 the Germans had discovered that they could evade detection by CH and CHL by flying below 100 feet and skilled German pilots used this deficiency to devastating effect during raids on coastal targets.

http://www.radarpages.co.uk/mob/chel/chel.htm

Until the Spit XIIs of 91 Squadron got em on May 25, 1943

[MiloMorai]

They still managed to get by #91.

[FLS]

There was a lot of interest in flying wings for a long time. The Hortens discovered they had a problem with loss of lift in the centre section of theirs - so they extended the wing in the centre to give it that 'bat-plane' shape. When flown the test pilots (apparently) said it flew really nicely. After the war neither the Brits or the Yanks seriously tried extending the centre section's of their flying wings and testing the aerodynamics the way the Hortens did. I don't know why.

However the 'bat-plane' (Horten IX or Ho-229) internally was a mess. If it they had been given better resources it might have been a very different story. I fail to understand why the allies didn't try to build such a wing using the aerodynamic experience of the Hortens after the war. The original plane itself wasn't adequate to take further - but a new plane may have looked the same/similar.

Even if it had reached service though, the flying wing concept has problems when reaching trans-sonic speeds (excessive buffeting). I'm not sure if that applies to the Horten design - I don't believe anyone has tried - but it probably does.

Northrup built 9 B-35 flying wing bombers. Two were converted to B-49 jet engine bombers. According to John Northrup the program was canceled by Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington when Northrup refused Symington's demand that Northrup merge with Convair .Symington said the B-49 was canceled because of problems with the design. Instead of a Northrup Flying Wing the Air Force bought the Convair B-36.

Northrup's design wasn't based on the Horten, it was a parallel development a few years behind the Horten design. The Hortens started out designing flying wing sailplanes and had a lot of experience with them before the war. Reimar Horten was designing and building flying wings in Argentina after the war and wrote a book "Nurflugal" in the early 80's. Many pictures from the book are on Douglas Bullard's Nurflugel website.

http://www.nurflugel.com/Nurflugel/Horten_Nurflugels/horten_nurflugels.html

[Martyn]

Northrup built 9 B-35 flying wing bombers. Two were converted to B-49 jet engine bombers. According to John Northrup the program was canceled by Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington when Northrup refused Symington's demand that Northrup merge with Convair .Symington said the B-49 was canceled because of problems with the design. Instead of a Northrup Flying Wing the Air Force bought the Convair B-36.

Northrup's design wasn't based on the Horten, it was a parallel development a few years behind the Horten design. The Hortens started out designing flying wing sailplanes and had a lot of experience with them before the war. Reimar Horten was designing and building flying wings in Argentina after the war and wrote a book "Nurflugal" in the early 80's. Many pictures from the book are on Douglas Bullard's Nurflugel website.

http://www.nurflugel.com/Nurflugel/Horten_Nurflugels/horten_nurflugels.html

Interesting. The Horten's wing also had a different lift distribution across the chord to the usual wing arrangement, and they 'twisted' the cross section of each wing to improve the stall characteristics too. I don't believe anyone else took up these ideas after the war. It would have been nice to have seen what the Hortens' could have achieved after the war with a bit of funding. It would have been a relatively cheap research program too. I wonder why it wasn't taken further - NIH?