3D artwork: Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe – part 2 – Junkers Ju EF 130 flying wing

Sorry for the late reply, JDK. Seems my reply notification e-mails don’t always arrive!
http://home.wanadoo.nl/r.j.o/skyraider/ca-15_1_1024.htm

PS. Part 4 of SWotL here:
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=50646

Advanced technology’s nice, but God is always on the side of the big battalions.

The Tiger and Panther were unarguably better than the Sherman, but…

Great pics Skyrader. Thanks for sharing. Fancy posting a big version of your CA-15 pic here?

LOL 🙂

I guess a better view from the nose could have been the reason? Centre-of-gravity reasons more like it. Or perhaps he thought “it looked cool” 😉
But it’s effectively a flying wing, which indeed is quite novel!

Sure, but he must have had some reason for doing it. Greater stability in the transonic zone, I´m guessing! 🙂

Is the guy in the back “the engine”?

Hehe, not necessarily, given the fact swept wings are intended for high speed 😉

Wow – was he ever ahead of his time!

Swept wings

Don’t forget John Dunne, who was designing a swept wing aircraft as early as 1908 . . .
Borrowed from this site:
http://www.earlyaviators.com/edunne.htm

Yes point taken.

However, given more materials, fuel etc,…the likes of aircraft like the Gotha Go-229 which was virtually ready to fly would have given the Allies a headache or 2 (assuming it did fly like it’s designer intended).
All I’m say is the potential was there. The resources weren’t.

TNZ

The Gotha 229 did fly with jet power – unfortunately it crashed due to a probable engine failure.

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/baugher_other/go229.html

Eric, I believe there was. Britain and some other countries were experimenting with new wing shapes as well. But nowhere it was as advanced as in Germany, neither where they appreciating the high-speed potential of swept wings.

TNZ, if you like “1946” speculations, check out these books:
http://www.luft46.com/jbbooks.html
Coincidentally, I have made some illustrations for vol.2 of The Alternate Luftwaffe which will be out in the next few months.
And if you have never seen the main site before (http://www.luft46.com), go check it out. Don’t miss the LuftArt gallery. It’s what got me started making 3D aviation art!

Was there not some swept wing research already underway in the US BEFORE the captured German data was available?

😀

Thanks for the replies, guys! 🙂

Either way it’s in interesting topic, which can be debated endlessly! 😉

Don’t forget though, that the Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger was designed, built, flown and mass-produced in a matter of months! By May 1945 many had been delivered and hundreds were coming off the production lines. An amazing feat given the situation Germany was in by then!
To give some hard facts, the He 162 was designed in September 1944 (based on the P.1073 which was a private paper design project of Heinkel), first fown in December 1944 and by February 1945 over a hundred had been built alread.

Apparently it was built for school-boy pilots to fly straight off glider training !!!
And not easy to fly to boot !!! 😮
Plus had some build quality issues (like aileron coming apart on the well-known test flight)
Beautiful jet though.

TNZ

So, providing the nuke age wasn’t used in Europe (like Vietnam for instance) and the war extended beyond 1945, would the allies not progressed as much in aeronautical design?
I mean to say, as fabulous as the B-36 and P-80’s were, they’re not exactly breakthroughs in design, rather evolution of (then) current themes.
Meteors weren’t a lot faster (if any) then the Centaurus-Furys, so really were the Allies progressing in aircraft design ?? The Germans seemed to be.
It’s easy to write them off as time ran out for them.

Just my opinion on this fascinating thread.
Thanks Skyraider3D for kicking it off !!!

Cheers
TNZ

I got to intervene here! 😀
Unless you’re talking about straight-wing F-86s (as originally designed), this scenario wouldn’t be possible. You see, Alexander Lippisch, the deisgner of the Me 163 Komet, was responsible for the design of the F-86’s swept wings. Lippisch would not have worked for North American if it wasn’t for Germany’s collapse! 😉

You got me! Of course you’re right. I got carried away with the fantasies….but that’s why we have them…to get carried away.

Good thing I didn’t say B-47…those swept wings came from the same captured research. Hat’s off to “Watson’s Wizzards”.

…or given a few more years, B-36s escorted by F-86s.

I got to intervene here! 😀
Unless you’re talking about straight-wing F-86s (as originally designed), this scenario wouldn’t be possible. You see, Alexander Lippisch, the deisgner of the Me 163 Komet, was responsible for the design of the F-86’s swept wings. Lippisch would not have worked for North American if it wasn’t for Germany’s collapse! 😉

Damien, thanks. The Meteor idea is nice, but Monogram didn’t want too much speculation with the image. In fact, the flak bursts aren’t present in the image as used in their book (Jet Planes of the Third Reich, the Secret Projects, vol.2).

…assuming it did fly like it’s designer intended.
TNZ

That’s my point getting it into service…and of course, lack of well-trained pilots. Without then, even a wonder plane is worthless.

You’re right, a fascinating topic…imagine B-29s escorted by F-80s…or given a few more years, B-36s escorted by F-86s.

Thanks for the replies, guys! 🙂

Either way it’s in interesting topic, which can be debated endlessly! 😉

Don’t forget though, that the Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger was designed, built, flown and mass-produced in a matter of months! By May 1945 many had been delivered and hundreds were coming off the production lines. An amazing feat given the situation Germany was in by then!
To give some hard facts, the He 162 was designed in September 1944 (based on the P.1073 which was a private paper design project of Heinkel), first fown in December 1944 and by February 1945 over a hundred had been built alread.

Turbo NZ,

The war would have lasted as long as it took 5 B-29’s to nuke Germany even deeper into the stone age. Plus the Brits had Meteors the US had F-80’s ….coming on line in large numbers
Take care,
TTP

Yes point taken.

However, given more materials, fuel etc,…the likes of aircraft like the Gotha Go-229 which was virtually ready to fly would have given the Allies a headache or 2 (assuming it did fly like it’s designer intended).
All I’m say is the potential was there. The resources weren’t.

TNZ

Looks truly awesome !!!
Imagine if WW2 had have gone through to 1946 or 1947..

Cheers
Chris

Having read both volumes of “Luftwaffe Secret Projects” is seems that the authors seem to underestimate the difficulties in putting a prototype into the air, get it properly sorted out, into production then into service and combat.

All these magnificent paper planes…were just that, paper.
Arguably the easy part.
If the UK, US, and USSR had trouble introducing advanced jets into their air arms in the late 40s and throughout the 50s…imagine the difficulty the Luftwaffe would have had during wartime.

It’s not that the Luftwaffe ran out of time…they ran out of materiels, fuel, and personnel (production, maintence and pilots).
They had great ideas…but undeveloped paper airplanes wouldn’t have saved them even if they had 2-3 years before the land armies swallowed the Reich.

It the war had been fought on computer simulators, there would have been fewer people killed.