Pretty neat. I did not realize the Nazis had this technology.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529548,00.html



Good thing they did not put it into production.

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They had a bunch of stuff in development. Also some flying, but not in enough numbers. Also, lack of pilots, fuel and spare parts kept a lot of Me-262 grounded.
The Me-262 was still viable till the late 50's, maybe early 60's. Also, it was still relatively early in its development. The He-162 (??) Salamander was flying at the last month or so of the war. While not as fast as the Me-262, at 470 mph it was faster than most prop driven fighters. The Germans also had a swept wing fighter I think in at least mock up. THe Ta-152 (??). It looks a lot like a F-86 Sabre or Mig 15. The Arado 264 (??) jet bomber was also flying. I think it did recon over England. And the Donier Arrow was a 475 mph piston driven fighter. Aerospace used a lto fo the info from German WW2 sources for a long time.

I don't think the allies were slouches either. THe Britts had a few note worthy aircraft. The Gloster Meteor was operational. It flew combat against the V-1 buzz bombs. I think they stationed a squadron to fly against the Me-262, but never encounterd any. Some were still flying on thier original engine into the late 60's. Part of what held back the Me-262 was their engines had only 25 to 50 hours flight time, till they needed rebuilt. The germans used axial flow and the Britts used centrifical flow. Whittle new about axial flow, but he determined that the materials available then were capable with axial flow turbine.
The DeHavalin (sp) Mosqito was aslo radar resistant for the time. It had a speed of at least 400 mph. Being of wood and also some form of radar absorbing paint, it was hard to counter.
Tom

A "stealth" fighter wouldn't have done any good. It couldn't have been produced in great enough numbers to have any effect. The goose was cooked with the failure of "Barbarossa". The disaster at Kursk was the end of their battlefield domination. Everything after that was just delaying the inevitable. Even if they were successful with the Ardennes Forest offensive ("Battle of the Bulge") it was merely a delaying tactic to enable them to negotiate from a position of strength.

No North Sea access meant they were essentially "land-locked". No access to the Ukranian or Ploesti oilfields meant they were on borrowed time. "Stealth" fighters aren't that stealthy when they are sitting on the ground due to lack of fuel.

FWIW, the Ta-152 was a development of the Fw-190. "Ta" was used to recognize Kurt Tank's contributions to the design. You are probably thinking of the TA-183...another Tank design. It definitely looks like a MiG.



This is basically the flying version, the Argentine Pulqui II. Even more MiG-like!!!!

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The problem with a flying wing like that as we found out is that its such an unstable platform you need computers to be able to fly it.

The Germans were probably 10-15 years ahead of the allies in advanced technoligy. Everyone rushed to get their scientists as the war was winding down and many ended up at NASA.

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Yes, thanks for the correction. The numbers for the other planes may also need to be checked. I was going of the top of my head.
I also doubt that these mircle planes could have turned the tide at the time they were becoming operational. No fuel, no flying. A year earlier and they would have been effective. Part of what did the Germans in a Kursk was they didn't have aircover. Also, the Panther tank was still getting the bugs out. Without airsupieroirty their Blitzkreig type of attack wasn't effective.
Also, Nothrup was working on flying wings during that time too or a bit latter.
Tom

Actually Hatteras, I believe the HO 229 was an exceptionally stable platform. The Horten brothers had pioneered flying wing gliders on which the design was based and in pre powered gliding trials the full scale test bed handled exceptionally well.

You're right in general about the german lead in technology but the allies did have some interesting planes too. Northrop built a flying wind at that time and there were no computers around to fly it.

My father in law worked for Nasa in Houston just before the Apollo program got going. He say's the germans who were all over the place there were arrogant as hell but they knew their stuff.

- Peter.

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Try 20-30 in some cases..... IR guided missiles, shoulder launched anti-air rockets, TV guidance, air-to-air missiles ....you name it they thought of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_weapon



Most of these weapons came too late to have an impact on the war but the really scary part is that it could have been the other way around. I think around 1940 Hitler decided to cut almost all weapons research for two years (Mistake) And then when the projects were allowed to start again there was no organization for the projects. So instead of having all of the relevant engineers working on one surface-to-air missile you would have several groups working on 5 different missiles.

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Yep, they had some amazing stuff. Just lacked the capacity to bring it into production quickly, and the time. If Hitler started the war when he originaly wanted to in 1945 things might have turned out differently.

I still think the German army was one of the finest forces every fielded. They were able to do things that no one else could do at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zielger%C3%A4t_1229

They were field testing this way before everyone else...

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I read one interesting article that stated that the key technological device that the Germans failed to perfect when it could have, was the helicopter. If Germany had possessed a large fleet of them it could have negated the advantage of the English Channel, putting them in a much better position to possibly defeat the British before turning their attention to Russia. One could see that numerous divisions landed at all compass points, supported by Stukas and helicopters targeted at armor as well as used for troop deployment, with the Air Blitz on top of it all destroying their economy, would have given the English one hell of a time.

It also mentioned how choppers would have been uniquely suited to Germany's small squad infantry tactics, and would have negated Russia's major advantage in large tank production by providing an additional and highly effective anti-tank weapon to the Wehrmacht. One can see by looking at both Stalingrad and Kursk that a helicopter fleet, placing large numbers of troops behind the Stalingrad defenses and destroying heavy tanks at Kursk as German fighters provided air cover, could have meant German victory. But in the end, helicopter development was stymied by lack of funding, as Goring was more interested in aircraft development, if the effort had been properly funded, the Germans were not very far from developing effective helicopters, in fact at the beginning of the war they were considered one of the top researchers in the technology.

I have a feeling Guderian and Rommel would have loved a chopper force. They could have combined them right into the panzer divisions and used them to drop infantry off way behind enemy lines. IE capture a bridge 30 miles ahead of the panzer division so they can roll right across it.

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Well thats partly true. Landing troops is one thing but keeping them supplied is another story. One way or another a port would have had to have been captured and held. Now helicopters could be used to complete such a mission, with a bit of glider support. (Especially since no one in England would have seen it coming) The problem would have still been the Royal Navy. But again had time been bought and things like the Fritx X glide bomb been further developed, that advantage also could have been negated.

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Their goose was cooked the day they declared war on the U.S. Back then nobody could match the U.S. industrial output - not even Russia.

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I think that's the prettiest airplane I've seen.

And if wishes were horses...

Attack helicopters in the 1940's are a figment of somebody's over active imagination. Don't think Apache or Huey, think 1950's era Sikorskies and the "bubble top" Korean War type air-beaters. So you tell me, in a conflict between ANY fighter/pursuit aircraft and 10 of those whack-whackers, which one will be returning to base? I don't care what you armed the helicopters with, a 400 MPH armored plane is going to use them for targets.

Still comes down to fuel. It's more energy efficient to deliver a troop of paratroopers or glider soldiers than to spot drop 10 (and that's a stretch) troopers in isolated locations.