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The ventral radiator placement in many WW2 fighters was supposed to be less draggy than underwing radiators afaik? So why wasn't that changed with the Me 109?
Examples were the series 5 Italian fighters, the Ki-61 and the Yaks.
The ventral radiator placement in many WW2 fighters was supposed to be less draggy than underwing radiators afaik? So why wasn't that changed with the Me 109?
Examples were the series 5 Italian fighters, the Ki-61 and the Yaks.
The ventral radiator placement in many WW2 fighters was supposed to be less draggy than underwing radiators afaik? So why wasn't that changed with the Me 109?
The undercarriage takes up little to no belly room. It pivots on gear mounts that attach to the firewall.
But, the main fuel tank is in the belly just behind and below the pilot's seat. So, any belly radiator would necessarily be towards the rear a bit. There is no room at all froward of the fuel tank ... the floor is cockpit floor and that is right on top of the wing structure. Underwing radiators were no disadvantage, if well designed. The ones on the Bf 109 were. The oil cooler is not a factor at all. It is on the bottom of the cowling, below the engine mount, not on the fuselage.
The 109f was tested with a ventral radiator. Here:
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQO0LucY8vYRZdV1PAITveDJqj9mPv_8ebMLzvrV1vtC6Ech5we
Obviously, it didn't make enough of a difference in performance.
It was also tested with tricycle landing gear. The 109 was a prisoner of Willy Messerschmitt's poor aerodynamics as well as the requirement of being able to out-climb opponents. Instead of balanced ailerons, it had horn aileron balances. Instead of hiding larger wheels and guns inside the fuselage and wings, it's small size required the addition of draggy bulges.
The only thing that would have improved the 109's drag co-efficient enough to matter would have been the laminar flow wing which was used in the 262 and P-51.
I'm a 109 fan. The hard-to-swallow truth is that it had too many faults to enable it to compete throughout the entire war.
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The 109 was a prisoner of Willy Messerschmitt's poor aerodynamics as well as the requirement of being able to out-climb opponents. Instead of balanced ailerons, it had horn aileron balances. Instead of hiding larger wheels and guns inside the fuselage and wings, it's small size required the addition of draggy bulges.
The only thing that would have improved the 109's drag co-efficient enough to matter would have been the laminar flow wing which was used in the 262 and P-51.
I'm a 109 fan. The hard-to-swallow truth is that it had too many faults to enable it to compete throughout the entire war.
The combat speed was important, and that would be whatever speed you could achieve when going from cruise to combat with something like 30 seconds to accelerate from cruise to whatever speed you were going when you joined combat. It was largely around 300 - 325 mph, and then you had more important things on your mind than airspeed.
Second only to surface radiators and leading edge radiators, I would think the dorsal radiator would be the least draggy of them all, since the top airflow is already distrupted by the cockpit, and the bottom is smooth.The ventral radiator placement in many WW2 fighters was supposed to be less draggy than underwing radiators afaik?
The ventral radiator isn't automatically better.
I doubt that the Hurricane's ventral radiator was any better than the Spitfire's wing radiator.
The ventral radiator on the P-40 prototype worked so well they moved it to under the nose after the first few flights. Similarly for the Hawker Tornado prototype, the chin radiator being carried forward to the Typhoon.
There was a proposal for a ventral radiator for the Spitfire, but the need for continued production trumped any improvements that may have been made.
The ventral radiator placement in many WW2 fighters was supposed to be less draggy than underwing radiators afaik? So why wasn't that changed with the Me 109?
Examples were the series 5 Italian fighters, the Ki-61 and the Yaks.