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Pete57 said:So far as the turbulent flow around the P-80 inlets is concerned, this had nothing to do with the aircraft nose section's shape, but rather with the relatively slow boundary layer around the fuselage 'stagnating' inside the air intakes themselves.
The phenomenon was called 'duct rumble' and at times it could be clearly heard by observers on the ground.
In order to investigate it, Kelly Johnson rode 'piggy back' on one flight with either Milo Burcham or Tony LeVier at the controls, and he correctly diagnosed the cause.
The problem was corrected with the installation of so called 'splitter plates' that removed the boundary layer from within the air intakes and vented it out thru some slots in the upper and lower portion of the intakes themselves.
This fix was introduced sometimes in the P-80A-1's production, but some previous aircraft (one of the two XP-80As and the XF-14 prototype, off the top of my head) were fitted with hand-made specimens that were of slightly different shape.
Why? Even though we know Germany possessed far superior turbine engine aircraft at the time the allied leadership didn't know how their hardware compared with Germany's. It was to their best interest to assume they had something far superior.....Udet said:"It appears that the Allied Headquarter were extremely cautious in preventing their new technology from falling into the wrong hands, and initially ordered the RAF's Gloster Meteors to fly missions that were 'away' from the frontlines"
Really... i find myself at a loss for words whenever i read this particular comment.
FLYBOYJ said:Why? Even though we know Germany possessed far superior turbine engine aircraft .....
syscom3 said:Great post Pete.
Although you argue your points well, I still think that the P80 cannot be considered a WW2 aircraft simply because it was activated right when the war ended and never went on a combat mission. Too bad it was never moved to the PTO where it could have made an interesting "kamikazi" interceptor.