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I have heard of some bombers outurning fighters and with the big wing of the B-2 it could possibly be done at some combination of airspeed and altitude. Some whiz could probably calculate some turn rates. I find it hard to believe that the B-2 would be trying to turn with a figter, or even get close to one. It is expensive!
I have heard of some bombers outurning fighters and with the big wing of the B-2 it could possibly be done at some combination of airspeed and altitude. Some whiz could probably calculate some turn rates. I find it hard to believe that the B-2 would be trying to turn with a figter, or even get close to one. It is expensive!
Agreed. The B-2 most likely wont outturn any of the major US fighters in service atm, but the fact that the pilots believe it will says abit about the capabilities of the a/c. Most bomber pilots wouldn't ever dare make such a claim. But since the flying wing design provides so much more lift than any conventional design the turn performance of even a bomber will be much better than normal.
Agreed. The B-2 most likely wont outturn any of the major US fighters in service atm, but the fact that the pilots believe it will says abit about the capabilities of the a/c. Most bomber pilots wouldn't ever dare make such a claim.
Not wishing to be rude but I very much doubt that the B-2 has ever exceeded the speed of sound so it is no faster than fighters from the 1950s. Its safety feature is its stealth. If radar can't find it (other than allegedly during precipitation) and it flies its missions during the nocturnal hours it simply can't be detected. If it can't be detected it can't be intercepted so it remains immune from enemy action.
Not wishing to be rude but I very much doubt that the B-2 has ever exceeded the speed of sound so it is no faster than fighters from the 1950s
But Soren, how can you call a design that has issues serious enough to prevent it from ever seeing service 'excellent'?
And this has what to do with turn rate?
Agreed. The B-2 most likely wont outturn any of the major US fighters in service atm, but the fact that the pilots believe it will says abit about the capabilities of the a/c. Most bomber pilots wouldn't ever dare make such a claim.
And while we're on the subject, what do you know about the B-2s turn rate?
I never said the issues were serious enough to prevent it from ever seeing service,
quite the contrary infact. I explained that the reason the flying wing design isn't used much today is partly because engine power has increased as much as it has, making lift production less important than in the past. Aircraft today litterally power themselves through hard turns by use of excess thrust.
In WW2 and immediately after the flying wing design could've proven very useful however it was largely forgotten until the late 80's.
lingo,
Where did I mention that the B-2 was ever supposed to be supersonic ? We were talking about turning, not speed
davparlr,
The sole reason I believe that we aren't seeing many flying wing fighters around is the fact that such a design always will have issues with lateral stability. Furthermore since the power of engine these days often supercede the actual weight of the a/c there simply is no need for the huge amount of lift a flying wing provides. But there are ofcourse other factors which are considered, such as visibility from the cockpit and so on, and a flying wing design usually doesn't permit a lot of visibility to anything below the a/c.
Nevertheless, some interesting designs sometimes turn up:
No, but history does. In the 5-10 years that followed WW2 no similar fighters were developed or used anywhere else, despite the mass export of this technology.
Well, not entirely, but what about the 40's and early 50's?
No it wasn't. The flying wing has long been the holy grail of aircraft designers, even before the Wright brothers, Northrop, Boeing Avro, Armstrong Whitworth, Handley Page and many others were all developing flying wings before during and after the war and new designs appearted regulary through the 60, s 70's and 80's. Why, after 1945, was the Brilliance of the Hortens (for that is something I readily accept) still not enough to see such a design put into service?
"Nearly all the new aircraft projects in Germany at the end of the war were tailless designs. I was interrogated by the British after the collapse, along with other designers. We talked about our work, but did not reveal our findings. It was therefore both, tragic and comical to see first the British then the Americans engaged all the same problems that we did ten years before.
I tried to offer my services to the Fairy Aircraft Company in 1947 for work on the supersonic delta aircraft, but while the management was positive in all respects, the general hate-attitude of the people against Germans driven by public press made working there impossible.
As long as experimentation with high aspect ratio flying wings was undertaken in England without proper knowledge of the bell shaped lift distribution, the flying qualities would have been unstatisfying.
(Sic: "Solange man in England mit großen Seitenverhältnissen experimentierte, ohne die Glockenauftriebsverteilung zu kennen, mußten die Flugeigenschaften unbefridiegend bleiben")
Northrop published details of a new aircraft similar to the H V at that time. The machine had negative dihedral wing tips in an apparent (but useless) attempt to combat the skid-roll moment. I tried to contact M. Northrop and offer my assistence, but without success. Later, Northtop factory wasted a large amount of money on several unsuccessful heavy bombers, similar to the H VIII or H XVIII. They could certainly have benefitted from my knowledge of high aspect ratio flying wings! "
Nothing at all. I was replying to:
Agreed. The B-2 most likely wont outturn any of the major US fighters in service atm, but the fact that the pilots believe it will says abit about the capabilities of the a/c. Most bomber pilots wouldn't ever dare make such a claim.
And while we're on the subject, what do you know about the B-2s turn rate?
I don't think anyone claimed to be knowledgable about the B-2 turn rates, only what a report on what some pilots claimed.
Later, Northtop factory wasted a large amount of money on several unsuccessful heavy bombers, similar to the H VIII or H XVIII. They could certainly have benefitted from my knowledge of high aspect ratio flying wings!