Airborne Oddities of WWII

[cheddar cheese]

Why not, they managed it with conventional monoplanes...

 

[Anonymous]

Why not? I mean, no they could not completely fill it, the plane would be too heavy. But there is room for a lot of fuel in that "wing".

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

yes but what i meant was that wouldn't be a hollow wing, there'd be lots of other stuff they'd have to fit in aswell.............

 

[cheddar cheese]

The Gotha Ho-229 never had a fuel problem, in fact it had a very good range. The pancake is similar so theres no reason why it would be less.

 

[cheddar cheese]

The Gotha Ho-229 never had a fuel problem, in fact it had a very good range. The pancake is similar so theres no reason why it would be less.

 

[cheddar cheese]

The Gotha Ho-229 never had a fuel problem, in fact it had a very good range. The pancake is similar so theres no reason why it would be less.

 

[R Pope]

I should have made myself clearer---the actual, full-sized, full-powered Flying Flapjack never got off the ground. The in-flight pics are of the plywood test vehicle, note the non-retracting gear, and no circular ducts inboard of the props.

 

[BlackWolf3945]

I think that when the B2 Bomber was being designed the Ho-229 was being looked at for inspiration.

I doubt it. The inspiration, according to designer Hal Markarian, came from an earlier Northrop design; the YB-49 flying wing.


Fade to Black...

 

[Chocks away!]

This:

A terror induced weapon

Very nasty indeed

Hot Space

we have a queen fan here. I was just listening to Innuendo!

 

[Anonymous]

I should have made myself clearer---the actual, full-sized, full-powered Flying Flapjack never got off the ground. The in-flight pics are of the plywood test vehicle, note the non-retracting gear, and no circular ducts inboard of the props.

It never got off the ground by USN decree. They decided they didn't want to pursue any new prop designs - jet power was the rage.

Damn shame, the planes were ready for test and they were ordered destroyed. I can undertand the Navy abandoning the project, but I cannot understand the need to order them destroyed.

=S=

Lunatic

 

[rebel8303]

Maybe it was considered to be confidential or maybe they just wanted to get us to think of a reason to fill our pathetic lives

 

[Vahe Demirjian]

The Junkers Ju 287 is my favorite airborne oddity from WW2, largely because its use of forward swept wings presented an unusual sight to ground-based sightseers. The first two prototypes were made by mating the FSW with parts from other aircraft, but the subsequent four prototypes and production Ju 287 were to use the fuselage and retractable landing gear of the Ju 188/288/388. Only the first prototype (with four engines) flew, the second was nearly complete when the Nazis cancelled all bomber programs to focus on the Emergency Fighter Program in late 1944, and the third was under construction when the Soviets overran Dessau. Both V1 and V2 were blown up by the Nazis near the end of the war to prevent them from falling into Allied hands, but the Americans overran Brandis in April 1945 and remnants of the V2 were used in building the EF 131, which flew in the USSR in 1947.

 

[Wurger]

The pictures haven't been sourced. Please follow our rules. This is my last warning.

 

[Vahe Demirjian]

Blohm und Voss came up with a project for a jet bomber with a W-shaped forward swept wing, the P.188. Info about the P.188 is available at these links:

Blohm & Voss BV P.188.01 Luft '46 Entry
http://www.luft46.com/bv/bvp188-4.html
Blohm & Voss P 188 - Wikipedia

 

[Admiral Beez]

Burnelli CBY-3

https://alchetron.com/cdn/burnelli-cby-3-efec5f44-4bdb-4f94-ad32-fb5bdfbc1b3-resize-750.jpeg

 

[Zipper730]

I actually think the F5U was a good concept. However, they should have made it into a bomber instead of a fighter.

You're idea isn't out there. If it was a bit larger, powered by two R-3350 or R-4360's with a slightly higher aspect ratio (it'd free up more room between the blades) with either an internal weapons bay or external weapons mounts, you could carry a good amount of whoop-ass.

The proto fighter version was capable of 430 mph speed using two 1350hp P&W R-2000-7 engines, with the fixed landing gear shown above. Further testing revealed a top speed of 504 mph.

The plane never flew other than a hop or two. I'm not sure how they came up with the top-speed estimates, but I remember some figures going even higher than the 504 figure you listed. I'm not sure if they're true, however.

I have my doubts about this design as a fighter, I just don't see how it could roll sufficiently well to dogfight

Actually, it's compact and has all the mass in the middle. It looks like it would roll very well. That said, I could be wrong.

 

[WARSPITER]

Now I know where the different craft for the Star Wars movies came from.