Effect of Operational Fw 187s on British Production Plans

[parsifal]

is that a good or bad thing?

 

[Shortround6]

It sure wasn't steel tube and fabric

 

[parsifal]

daves git the detail wrong, but in one sense he might have point. Ive read that Hurricanes did use older construction techniques than the more modern types.

but then, that really is an academic argument. the most advanced fuselage and wing construction in 1938-41 was, in my opinion the japanese Zero, which used a nhew product, super duralumin, and reduced the number of fasteners within the frame to an absolute minimum. by accepting all the penalties that carried with it, the Japanese were able to design an aircraft using an engine of modest size and output, which in turn allowed them to extend the range of their new fighter to fantastic distances. The price of course was structural strength.

 

[fastmongrel]

Rear fuselage of the Whirlwind was magnesium alloy.

Strictly speaking any aircraft made of a 2000 series alloy is made with magnesium as Mg is one of the alloy components along with Copper, Manganese and sometimes Silicone depending on the use. How much Mg was in the Whirlwind rear fuselage would be interesting to find out.

 

[Shortround6]

The British were not short of aluminium pre-WW II or even during most (all?) of WW II.

The type of construction used in various British aircraft had to do with the tooling/experience/expertise of the different factories at the time the different aircraft went into production.

A number of countries started programs for alternative aircraft made of wood or steel in case of an anticipated shortage, that does not mean there was an actual shortage.

Attempting to claim that Britain had an aluminium shortage because Hawker elected to use a form of construction they were both familiar with and equipped for is really stretching logic.

 

[stona]

I always thought that the 2000 series was an aluminium/copper alloy.....could be wrong though.

Silicone must be a typo as a component of a metal alloy surely.

Cheers

Steve

 

[fastmongrel]

I always thought that the 2000 series was an aluminium/copper alloy.....could be wrong though.

Silicone must be a typo as a component of a metal alloy surely.

Cheers

Steve

Whoops yes should be Silicon. Unless of course your trying to make Alloy breast implants.

Duralium is a brand name just like Hoover and is used in a similar and usually incorrect way to describe any age hardening Aluminium Alloys containing copper, Manganese, Magnesium and sometimes Silicon. Nowadays the correct way to describe it would be a 2000 series aluminium though that wouldnt have been correct in 1940.

 

[nuuumannn]

These days 'Alclad', which is also a brand name, is the metal of choice for aviation structures and refers to the structural make-up of the metal. Alclad has a five percent of overall thickness layer of pure ali on each side sandwhiching ali alloy between. The pure ali is a sacrificial layer to encourage corrosion on its surface rather than on the alloy beneath. 2024 T3 is most commonly used in aircraft structures and has other alloying metals, like others, but copper is the highest percent of alloy material. The following numbers show the biggest percentage of alloying material with ali:

1xxx = pure aluminium, 2xxx = copper, 3xxx = manganese, 4xxx = silicon, 5xxx = magnesium, 6xxx = magnesium and silicon, 7xxx = zinc.

Its also worth remembering that aluminium was originally named 'Aluminum', but the '-ium' was added to match it with other elements that had a similar suffix, like strontium, lithium etc...

 

[nuuumannn]

1930s Britain had a shortage of aluminum.

Bingo! Dave, read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiduminium and this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Aluminium and this http://www.ebha.org/ebha2008/papers/Perchard_ebha_2008.pdf

You might learn something.