4 ms·
It's a lovely project, but I wouldn't be so sure it would "win the war". Raw speed and aesthetics sometimes take a back seat to other considerations. For exampl
by beat 13y ago
It's a lovely project, but I wouldn't be so sure it would "win the war". Raw speed and aesthetics sometimes take a back seat to other considerations. For example, what was its range? Its ammo load? Its durability and aerodynamics when damaged? Its reliability?
If the plane doesn't have the range to get to the battle, fight the battle, and get back home again, it will fail. If it dies the moment it is grazed by some flack, it will fail. If it runs out of ammo while dogfighting, it will fail. If it's too unreliable to stay in the air without excessive maintenance, it will fail. If it costs twice as much to manufacture as a slightly less effective plane, it will fail. Et cetera.
In WWII, there was something of an arms race for the largest, most heavily armored and heavily armed tanks. Germany developed the Maus, and Great Britain developed the Tortoise, and the US had the T-28. None ever saw battle. They were too expensive to build and too difficult to transport to the battlefield.
I suspect the Bugatti Veyron fighter might have been another case of the same problem, had it ever made it to production - overoptimizing one sexy feature at the expense of other, necessary ones.
- darklajid 13y agoKinda reminds me of the 'Cats on ship' submission and the Bismarck reference. That (and the Tirpitz) was arguably a failure as well, trying to 'build big'. I agree, estimating how things would've turned out is .. next to impossible. And 'Look what this thing can do!' was proven to be irrelevant in a good number of cases.
- rjsw 13y agoThe Bismark and Tirpitz were arguably well balanced as battleships, their failing was not being aircraft carriers.
- dagurp 13y agoThe V-tail tells me it was not designed as a fighter. I'm not a mechanic but they are supposed to be a nightmare to maintain
- teleclimber 13y agoThere is also a small fin + rudder below the v-tail. It's possible the 'V' parts are elevators only. They are at a rather shallow angle and therefore wouldn't contribute much to the yaw axis.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- chadillac 13y agoLooking at the thing it likely would have been some kind of scout or spy plane. It would have been small enough to not be noticed easily and hard to hit with AA fire. Fast enough to get in and get out before anyone knew it was there, and could outrun anything chasing it. Agile enough to out maneuver whatever attacks it would have come under while fleeing it's chaser. If you could have had these guys 20 miles behind enemy lines reporting troop movements, incoming bomber runs, etc. It would have been very handy at the time... considering they were still using messenger pigeons...