Jagdflieger
Senior Airman
- 580
- Mar 23, 2022
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As if I hadn't suspected just something like thatI know. It was a shout out of sorts to John Vasco and Jagdflieger.
Careful...I know. It was a shout out of sorts to John Vasco and Jagdflieger.
Careful...
I was gonna' award you a funny but I was being careful.Careful...
As far as a jet's combustors and turbine blades go, while Nickel is a factor, it's only one of many - Cobalt is also important in high temperature alloys.A big reduction in nickel content was the culprit in exhaust valves corrosion, with disastrous results on reliability for the 1st line aero engines of German production (DB engines suffering also due to not having the oil de-aerator - "Oelschleuder" - like the Jumo engines had; de-aerator was introduced by some time in late 1943). Eventually, the BMW solution to the problem from late 1942 was adopted for the DB engines.
Lack of nickel was also a problem for making durable blades for turbine on jet engines, that was circumvented via the introduction of air-cooled blades made from the chromium-rich alloy.
You can take a look at Calum Douglas' book, or his webinar discussing the rough state of availability of raw materials in Germany, ans steps taken to alleviate the problems.
As for disparity between workforce and machine tools, see for example this document; yes, not all the machines are equal. Basically, Germany in early 1945 have had about the same number of machine tools as the USA, despite having far less population.
IIRC that was the main reason as to why the Panther tank - though 4-5 times more expensive to produce then a Panzer IV - and despite its 75mm KwK 42 L/70 did not have a larger impact then the Panzer IV armed with the 75mm KwK 40 L/48 or the Jagdpanzer IV armed with the KwK 42 L/70......By 1944 only armour thicker than around 100mm used nickel due to supply. There is a lot on the later tanks having
armour that cracked easily but nickel was used to increase the ductility of the thicker plates.....
Was the P-39 affected by the lack of tungsten?
It was. They should have added 5000 kg more so it couldn't take off. Would have been safer.Was the P-39 affected by the lack of tungsten?
Plus the occasional, yet nessecary thread drift.This thread will keep going while it still lacks the requisite number of posts.
Care to explain a bit more? Sounds interesting. I do not know diddley sqwat about what you are saying so ....if you could keep it iron age simple it would be fine.As far as a jet's combustors and turbine blades go, while Nickel is a factor, it's only one of many - Cobalt is also important in high temperature alloys.
But, be that as it may, overall, I don't think it would make much difference in terms of performance - Junkers and BMW's compressor and turbine aerodynamics were, shall we say, sub-optimal, with a low pressure rise per stage, low overall efficiency, and very susceptible to compressor stalls.
I'm doing my bit, sir.Plus the occasional, yet nessecary thread drift.
It was a joke.
Once the United States entered the war the Axis was doomed. Did not matter what they had access to. The problem with German aircraft was fuel not alloys. They had no way to make 150 octane fuel. Though their turbine engines would have been better perhaps with better alloys. Then there was pilot quality and the fact that the US made FAR more aircraft and had much better pilot training. fresh flight school graduates in combat by the Germans was something Robert S. Johnson commented on when people talked of all the P-51 victories. And besides by early 1944 most of their best pilots were dead and they increasingly relied on the poorly trained replacements. Aircraft were not the issue, though as time passed many were being made in underground facilities and even abandoned railway tunnels and suppliers were routinely bombed. The Japanese had the same problem and a with the fuel issue. The war was one of PRODUCTION. A look at the US production shows that nobody else came close. We gave the Soviets almost as much material as we used from D-Day till the end of the war in Europe. At one point they were out of propellant powders for rifle ammo. But it came from the US to save them. Many of their tanks were made with American steel. We gave them 425000 tactical trucks, whole regiments of tanks, about 20000 aircraft. Etc etc. So they had modern military trucks while the Germans were using horse carts.I have, for some time, wondered what the outcome of WWII would have been if Germany had access to an adequate supply of nickel. Whilst I am no historical expert, I have come across a lot of references that a shortage of many key raw materials, but most notably nickel, placed a significant limitation on the ability of Germany to produce high quality metals for use in all their military equipment.
This thought has just recently been reinforced having read about the issues with engine materials in the book The Secret Horsepower Race (Callum Douglas). This is just one example, I know aero-engines were not the only area suffering huge issues as a result of limited nickel reserves. It's certainly interesting to extrapolate on what it could have looked like - just fighter performance alone could have been very different!
The problem with German aircraft was fuel not alloys.