[Crumpp]

over yours

Let's examine your sources and compare it to mine.


Stormbirds, it is the Me-262 project. A company with the objective of selling airplanes. They are not a scientific organization.

The Me 262 is available for sale and would make an excellent center piece for any museum or private collection. The price has been reduced from $1.1M to $650K USD. In addition to "Gelbe 5", the third and final flying Me 262 example is nearing completion and is also available for sale. The flying aircraft is a two-seat example which can be converted to a single seat for movies, airshows, etc. and is priced at $2.5M USD. Interesting trades and possible financing considered.

http://www.stormbirds.com/project/general/updates.htm

Your other source is Dennis Jenkins. A very knowledgeable man and a consulting engineer who spent 20 years working in the Space Shuttle program. However he is not a primary source nor was he there conducting research in wartime Germany.

http://www.amazon.com/Dennis-R.-Jenk...ntt_dp_epwbk_0

He wrote books for profit in other areas of interest.

The article presented at:

AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference and Exhibit
11-14 August 2003, Austin, Texas

Is from a scientific organization and not for profit.

Once more, it comes directly from the horses mouth. The scientist involved were all friends and colleagues both before and after the war.

Special tribute must be given to Theodore von K´arm´an who for a
second time (after World War I) brought together scientists whose
personal contacts had been destroyed by World War II.

The author of the article knew these men and was a colleage.

Director retired, Institute of Flight Research, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Lilienthalplatz 7, D-38108 Braunschweig, Germany,

Once more, it is impossible to say that Mtt was not aware of the benefits of swept wing design. They were the first company in the world to design an aircraft purposely to take advantage of swept wing technology.

It was already stated that the first true industry project utilizing an
aft-swept-wing concept was the P 1101 designed by Messerschmitt
in 1944/45 (Ref. 6). After the availability of German captured windtunnel
test data and industrial design details, direct derivatives of
this configuration were developed in the United States at Bell23
(X-5) and in Sweden at SAAB (J-29) with the expertise of former

So while the statement the Me-262 was not originally designed with swept wing technology is factual, it is not factual to claim it did not benefited from Mtt knowledge and the German leadership of the world in swept wing research.

Here is the paper from Boeing summarizing the contribution of German research and development during the war.

the effect of the advances demonstrated by the German research and development efforts during WW 2 were profound.

Taken as a whole (rather than as mere bits and parts of interesting gadgets), the German work helped crystallize, reinforce and “make very real and immediate” the conclusions men like von Kármán and Dryden, and policy makers in the military and government with whom they were influential, were reaching in attempting to create a strategic roadmap for scientific research and weapons development in the new post-war world.

From a Letter written by Theodore von K´arm´an:

G.S. Scharer (sic)
Volkenrode
Germany
5/10/45

B. Cohn
Boeing Aircraft Co
Seattle Wash USA

Dear Ben,

It is hard to believe that I am in Germany within a few miles of the front line. Everything is very quiet and I am living very normally in the middle of a forest. We have excellent quarters including lights hot water heat had electric razors etc.

We are seeing much of German aerodynamics. They are ahead of us on a few items which I will mention. The Germans have been doing extensive work on high speed aerodynamics. This has led to one very important discovery. Sweepback or sweepforward (sic) has a very large effect on critical Mach No.
This is quite reasonable on second thought. The flow parallel to the wing can not effect (sic) the critical Mach No and the component normal to the airfoil is the one of importance. Thus the critical M is determined by the airfoil section normal to the wing and by the sweepback.

..............................................This is not complicated by adding a body at the center but is badly effected (sic) by most nacelles.

..................Naturally many control and stability problems are to be encountered in using large amounts of sweep. (Here out of ink!)

.................................................. .........................................

Sincerely,

George

Notice the Me-262 has nacelles while the Me-163 and P-1101 do not.

In summary, you can form your opinion based off your commercial and far removed from the original, sources. They fit your agenda and you are most welcome to it.

I personally believe the scientist who were there from both sides and the engineers that did the design work both during and after the war.

The characterization that the wing sweep of the Me-262 was accidental is factually not correct. It is intellectually dishonest.