I’m not sure if you can call theM-tail on the Bonanza a “modification” since it was originally designed and flown with it.
There is an interesting section on the tail selection in Those Incomparable Bonanzas by Larry Ball. He notes the feature was first tested as an experiment for application on future high speed aircraft on a AT-10 trainer in 1943.
It doesn’t say whether it was purely a Beech initiative or if it was done at the behest of NACA (now NASA) or a university.
Specifically it states:
-On low wing types, it gets the horizontal stabilizer out of the turbulence caused by the wing at some speeds.
-It reduced surface to fuselage intersections which cut drag.
-The AT-10 testbed didn’t offer any weight savings but the designers felt that if it were designed into a h del from the beginning, a weight savings could be realized.
-Based on some flight test data from the AT-10, it was believed that a V-tail offered better soon recovery. Apparently, in conventional tail designs, the horizontal stabilizer, when stalled, can blank out part of the vertical stabilizer and rudder. It was felt the o figure AT-10 had better soon recovery than the stock model.
At any rate, the Bonanza underwent extensive (and probably unprecedented) wind tunnel studies for a “light” aircraft.
In other words, it wasn’t designed and built by some blokes in a shed. The primary designer was Ralph Harmon and the team that designed the very successful and long lived (32 years) Twin Beech Model 18.
Was there any difference in the aerodynamic features of the rest of the Bonanza i.e. wings, fuselage and engine thrust line etc. between the V tailed version and the conventionally tailed version. Perhaps there isn’t and the removal of the V tail actually worked to actually enhance performance by removing an unrecognised problems Certainly the Me 109 and the Polish aircraft are really just a conventionally tailed aircraft that have had the empennage changed to a V. It really appears to me that those aircraft that have worked successfully with a V tail in whatever form have close attention paid to the fuselage and its aerodynamic function as a part of the lift rather than simply as a streamlined protective enclosure for the crew and payload. But I could be wrong.
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