Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/04/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 05:51 PM 4/1/2007, G Hopkinson wrote: >Jim, just recalling my aviation history, I think that the Kurt Tank at >the FockeWulf works addressed this when first committing to >using a radial BMW engine for their new fighter. Initially a ducted >spinner was used but it proved to add little benefit and was >abandoned. FWIW, in my view easily the most handsome fighter designs >of the period. Hoppy The idea of using ducted cooling for radial engines began with some studies conducted by NASA's predecessor, NACA, in the 1920's. Junkers glommed on this and then Kurt Tank picked it up. The FW-190 was a remarkable flexible platform -- the Germans tended to produce a lot of "good for one sort of job only" aircraft but some of their more flexible designs -- the FW-190, the JU-88, and that absolute workhorse, the JU-52 -- were exceptions to the rule. Kurt Tank was a genius, as was Willi Messerschmidt. These guys were both gifted designers in their own right but were also really capable industrial managers, a rare mix. But "handsome"? Uh -- have you ever seen a Spitfire? Or a Typhoon? Or a Mosquito? Or, for that matter a Mustang or a Havoc? I have known three or four guys who flew Spitfires and Hurricanes, and they all had their hearts on the Hurricane: the Spit was a great "at the edge" airplane but the Hurricane was a lot more of a decent gunnery platform at slower speeds, and it could out-turn a Bf-109E. The FW-190 is, like the P-47, a thug of an aircraft: it did its job with grand efficiency but it certainly had a face made for radio. And note that after the War, the growing number of successor states glommed on the HE-111 and the Bf-109 and the P-47 and P-51 and A-20 and the like, but the FW-190's were just scrapped. Those epic battles in '56 over Cairo were Israeli B-17's against Egyptian Spitfires and Bf-109's. By that time, Kurt Tank was out in the East with Hindustan Aviation. Marc msmall@aya.yale.edu Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!