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That is a very interesting question that i have asked in several forums without clear response
I also wonder if Bf 109K would benefit, drag wise, from an annular radiator
What i do know is that every late war german aircraft had such radiators . Also while Me 410A had underwing radiators , future variants would replace them with annular radiators. Of course that does not mean nessecary lower drag. Main German motivation in mid/late war was not performance but easy production, easy repairs and general simplification , very often with significant performance penalty
Just read the section from the link Tomo gave about the trials with the different radiators, so I have some questions:
Did the german power eggs have sliding gills as they seem to offer less drag than hinged gills?
Not sure if I get it right (english is not my native language) but is it that the chart gives the annular/drum radiator a lot less drag compared to the other cooling designs?
A successful exchange of a inline engine with an annular one on a fighter was the Ki-100.
The Ki-61's fuslelage was designed to accommodate an inline engine afaik.
Riarcato answered the 1st question. The cooling drag, with energy recovery (=hot radiator?) is claimed to be 13% of Tempest V total drag, and only 4.5% with annular one. The table does show that it should make less drag than other radiator set-ups in use.
The Ki-61 airframe was adopted for radial engine, resulting in Ki-100.
Here's a Messerschmitt 109 with a radial. It was supposed to have flown quite well.
View attachment 228478
Here's a Messerschmitt 109 with a radial. It was supposed to have flown quite well.
View attachment 228478