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Weird Wonderful Airplanes of a Bygone Era

The Army Air Corps first tried aerial refueling back in the 1920s....took about another 30+ years to get it right though.
 
Were a lot of our experimental aircraft post-WW2 created from captured German blue-prints and engineers?
 
OUSOONER said:
Were a lot of our experimental aircraft post-WW2 created from captured German blue-prints and engineers?
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I believe so, the Germans had some designs that were out of this world.

That B-17 with the single prop looks pretty cool, I've never seen that before.
 
Look at the chord width on that XB-15! Crazy.

And German aeronautical data had a huge impact on post-WWII designs...the B-47 ended up with swept wings, as did the F-86. The germans were working on a swing wing design, which ended up going into the X-5, which was the precursor to all the variable geometry a/c.
 
Nice website. I've been looking for photos of a number of these aircraft...some are pretty hard to find.

Attached are three other "oddities" of aviation for your viewing pleasure.

I'm still trying to figure out what the "rotate" speed must have been for the Sea Dart...
 

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  • F2Y Sea Dart.jpg
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Pags said:
Look at the chord width on that XB-15! Crazy.

And German aeronautical data had a huge impact on post-WWII designs...the B-47 ended up with swept wings, as did the F-86. The germans were working on a swing wing design, which ended up going into the X-5, which was the precursor to all the variable geometry a/c.
Click to expand...

From what I've read, the Germans originally went with the swept wing in the jet fighters primarily to solve their CG problem. It was only later that anyone realised the trans-sonic aerodynamic benefits of it. Serendipity happens.

Either way, clever folks, those Germans. Makes it kind of hard to account for the horrible reliability of their VW Jettas and Passats...
 
I loved the P-51 with the ramjets. I wish a friend of mine was still alive so that I could show him that picture. I used to work at the local airport as a lineman. One rainy day I'm reading a book about WWII aircraft and was looking at a picture of a Me-262 when a voice behind me said "Last time I saw one of those it was shooting at me.". The guy behind me flew Mustangs in WWII and Sabres in Korea. He pulled up a chair and went through the book with me.
 
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