Allied reaction to the Me 262 swept wings

[Siegfried]

Again great info but I have problems believing that 7 prototype aircraft had "used" 262 parts on them. Perhaps remanufactured parts reversed engineered from the original hardware. I know this was still in the post war period but if this was actually done it was beyond risk, it crossed the line into stupidity.

BTW, excellent site!

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It may go back to a time when engineers still had a feel and sense of materials as a skilled tradesman might. I don't immagine that the slat mechanism was all that difficult to inspect or complicated a mechanism.

 

[tyrodtom]

I find it pretty incredible that the put used components on the first 7 aircraft, when there was only 3 prototypes. The first production F-86's flew in 1948, and the first 4 had slats parts adapted from a Me262?? From a wing with a different sweep angle, span, and NACA profile.

 

[stona]

The first seven aircraft used the German design not the actual parts. This often gets misrepresented as a literal swopping of parts from one wing to another!
Slat locks were a major modification introduced by the US engineers. The slats could be locked closed to ensure that asymmetric deployment did not occur. The lock was linked with the undercarriage to ensure that the slats were unlocked when the undercarriage was deployed for landing. None of this was a feature of the Me262 whose slats were entirely independent and automatic.
It is true to say only that the Me262 slats provided the basis for the american system.
The modified lockable slats were installed on the first 159 fighters and the locks were removed in early 1949 when an entirely new slat system was incorporated into the fighter.
Cheers
Steve

 

[FLYBOYJ]

''It may go back to a time when engineers still had a feel and sense of materials as a skilled tradesman might. I don't immagine that the slat mechanism was all that difficult to inspect or complicated a mechanism.

Sorry pal, but I can tell you that no engineer in his or her right mind would allow parts to be placed on a production aircraft from an unknown source, especially from an enemy combatant. I could tell you that even in that era Quality Assurance managers wold have hung any engineer who would even had thought of that by his nuts in the office of the company president! In an R&D world maybe, but once in production everything changes. Back then MiL-Q-9858 was still young but very much enforced on the PRODUCTION shop floor.

BTW - the ONLY absolute way the strength of those parts would have been verified was by destroying them either during a tensile pull or during a spectra analysis.

The first seven aircraft used the German design not the actual parts. This often gets misrepresented as a literal swopping of parts from one wing to another!
Slat locks were a major modification introduced by the US engineers. The slats could be locked closed to ensure that asymmetric deployment did not occur. The lock was linked with the undercarriage to ensure that the slats were unlocked when the undercarriage was deployed for landing. None of this was a feature of the Me262 whose slats were entirely independent and automatic.
It is true to say only that the Me262 slats provided the basis for the american system.
The modified lockable slats were installed on the first 159 fighters and the locks were removed in early 1949 when an entirely new slat system was incorporated into the fighter.
Cheers
Steve

Thanks for the info Steve