Me-262 replica
There is a good visual tell of where this airplane was flying, if you know to look for it.
Lots of stories surround the Me-262. The Jumo 004 engines were pretty crappy, often having a TBO of 12 hours. The wings were swept slightly to move the CG because the engines were heavier than designed. The replicas use J-85s, which easily have several hundred more pounds of thrust per side. The replicas are redlined at 500mph; they can be outrun by a good Reno racer.
Cat Pawtector!
3 hours ago
7 comments:
Not that bad an engine design, originally. Trouble was, the turbine blades called for more cobalt and molybdenum than the program could get in the wartime economy, and they wound up using ersatz materials.
Thanks, interesting looking bird in flight!
And how many operational jet fighters did the USA have in WW2?
A couple of P-80s, I think. Not that we really needed them.
Yes, a P-80 squadron was deployed to England, flew some training missions and was designated operational -- just in time to get news of the surrender.
An elegant design, indeed. Dolfo Galland said, "It felt like angels were pushing." When I asked Rudi Opitz how it was to fly, he smiled and just said, "Nice!"
FVH
The redline of 500 mph is because nobody really understood aerodynamics close to the speed of sound back then, and as you got closer to the speed of sound it got... tricky. Still, the Germans got the aerodynamics better than anybody else of that first generation of jet fighters, mostly by accident -- the wings were swept back to balance the engines around the center of gravity, but that also made the wings aerodynamically work better at high speeds.
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