Ta 154

[spicmart]

The Ta 154 was supposed to be Germany's counterpart to the wooden De Havilland Mosquito. It should be able to successfully fight the Mosquito in a night time engagement.
So superior speed was paramount and while the design was sleek it did not have what obviously was the single most important feature for late-war planes in order to achieve better speed, a laminar flow wing.
Wonder why this wasn't incorporated.
But as a (day) fighter it seamed to be in a class with the P-38 as it was very manouverable for a heavy fighter. Its fuel tanks were only fuselage-housed giving it a better inertia and thus a better roll rate comparable to most twin-engined fighters which mostly (also) had wing tanks.
20% better wing torsional stiffness than that of the Fw 190 also helped to give it an agility rivalling that single-engined planes.

 

[michaelmaltby]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei03mkG8X1k

 

[tomo pauk]

The Ta 154 was supposed to be Germany's counterpart to the wooden De Havilland Mosquito. It should be able to successfully fight the Mosquito in a night time engagement.
So superior speed was paramount and while the design was sleek it did not have what obviously was the single most important feature for late-war planes in order to achieve better speed, a laminar flow wing.
Wonder why this wasn't incorporated.
...

A million dollar question
The single-most important feature for the late-war fighters was that engine has plenty of power at all altitudes, that incorporating the 2-stage supercharging of either 'flavor' (including turbosupercharging). Laminar-flow wing was good, but there was plenty of fighters that were well above 400 mph that were without the laminar-flow wing.
Granted, a low-drag wing and power surplus are bound to create an over-performer.

 

[michaelmaltby]

isn't a laminar wing "less forgiving" ...? and we are talking about a plane that will be flown by green pilots .... from basic field positions.

 

[spicmart]

A million dollar question
The single-most important feature for the late-war fighters was that engine has plenty of power at all altitudes, that incorporating the 2-stage supercharging of either 'flavor' (including turbosupercharging). Laminar-flow wing was good, but there was plenty of fighters that were well above 400 mph that were without the laminar-flow wing.
Granted, a low-drag wing and power surplus are bound to create an over-performer.

Oh yes. But I meant just the airframe.

 

[spicmart]

isn't a laminar wing "less forgiving" ...? and we are talking about a plane that will be flown by green pilots .... from basic field positions.

Yes. I forgot about that and the fact that it was going to be a night fighter primarily also demanded it to be a more forgiving aircraft for
start and landing.
The wing loading was quite high though.

But it is one neat looking plane.

 

[Old Wizard]

 

[davebender]

fight the Mosquito in a night time engagement
Don't think so. It was rare for WWII era German night fighters to engage their RAF counterparts. Luftwaffe night fighters were designed to shoot down heavy bombers.

 

[GregP]

They were designed to shoot down enemy aircraft at night. I doubt seriously if the designers could know what aircraft were being engaged. The only real nod to "bombers" might be considered cannon armament. Otherwise they were simple aircraft equipped to handle night flying better than day fighters. That meant, primarily, radar and a radar operator.

So the whole "night fighter design" was radar, a second crewman, and perhaps cannons for armament in a regular aircraft. Otherwise you had a standard military airplane.