Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaws2002
Intentional or not, the Germans acknowledged the advantages of swept wing and built on it.
Like it or not, they were the pioneers of swept wing design and everyone else copied them. FACT.
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First things first
No one I know is saying the Germans were not pioneers in
supersonic swept wing theory!
All I am saying is what STORMBRIDS and many others are saying
That the Me262 was NOT the first swept wing jet fighter design with the
intent from the start of the design process to sweep the wings to take advantage of swept wing theory!
As we all know the Me262 stared out as a straight wing design!
The 'reason' the wings were swept was to correct the cg due to the heaver than expected engines.
Prior to the end of the war, the Germans were working on some designs that were intended to take advantage of swept wing theory, because at some point during the war they realized Busemann and Walchner published work titled "Profile Characteristics at
SUPERSONIC Speed" also applied to slower speeds (as in less than SUPERSONIC, SUBSONIC)
On that note
supersonic swept wing theory was no secret!
In that prior to the war a conference on high speed flight held in Rome where Busemann gave a lecture title "Aerodynamic Lift at
SUPERSONIC Speed".
So everyone knew about swept wing theory prior to the war!
On that note STORMBRIDS had this to say about the conference in Rome
Quote:
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Originally Posted by STORMBIRDS
The real surprise then is why was this knowledge of the swept wing not taken advantage of worldwide before it was experimentally proven on the Me 262. The only plausible (if somewhat vague) explanation was the resistance to new ideas found in all scientific circles
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As you can see they concluded, as many who have worked in aerospace know, changing the 'status quo' can be a slow process sometimes
But there are other reasons!
For one at that time there were no piston or jet engines that would come close to propelling a fighter or bomber to supersonic speeds, thus it was not a real viable option from the start, which could also explained why there was no initial interest and probably why everyone stuck to what they knew worked.