Fourth Quarter (Oct - Dec) 2008 Volume 21, Number 4 The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum Editorial ortunately for aviation enthusi- asts, the global inventory of war- F birds includes flying examples of many of the world’s most significant combat aircraft. There are exceptions, of course. For example, pending restoration of the Commemorative Air Force’s B-29 Fifi, there is currently no airworthy Boe- ing Superfortress. Many of the more ob- scure German and Japanese aircraft types used in World War II do not exist at all. England, whose aircraft industry over the years has built some of the most interest- ing aircraft ever to fly, has a regrettable habit of cutting these historic treasures up for scrap. Thus it is very exciting news that, after a Herculean worldwide fund- raising and restoration effort, there is to- day a flying example of perhaps the most famous post-War British aircraft of all— S The Soviet Union built more than 13,100 the Avro Vulcan. Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15s, and many more Development of the Vulcan began in Featured Aircraft were made under license by Czechoslovakia, 1947 at the A.V. Roe (Avro) factory, near Poland and China. In this photo from June Manchester, England. The Air Ministry’s ow does one decide how much 1989, the late John MacGuire pilots his two- specification called for a heavy, high-alti- influence an aircraft design has seater ex-Polish Air Force MiG-15UTI Mid- tude, high-speed, long-range bomber to on other aircraft? When you re- get over the southern New Mexico desert H near the new War Eagles Air Museum. serve as Britain’s airborne nuclear deter- duce an aircraft to its most basic compo- rent. In case Avro’s radical delta-wing de- nents—lifting surfaces, control system, sign failed, the Ministry at the same time powerplant (unless it’s a glider) and a contracted with the Vickers-Armstrong place for the crew to work—then all air- Contents and Handley Page aircraft companies to craft are fundamentally identical. But it is develop “insurance bombers.” In the end, indisputable that some aeronautical inno- Editorial......................................1 the Royal Air Force (RAF) put all three vations directly influenced the course of Featured Aircraft........................1 aircraft into service as the world-famous aviation development worldwide. The jet From the Director.......................2 “V-bomber” force—the Vickers Valiant, engine is one example of such an ad- Historical Perspectives ..............5 Handley Page Victor and Avro Vulcan. vance. Another is the swept wing. Tailspins with Parker..................6 Membership Application ............7 Editorial (Continued on Page 8) Featured Aircraft (Continued on Page 2) 1 www.war-eagles-air-museum.com Plane Talk—The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum Fourth Quarter 2008 Featured Aircraft (Continued from page 1) From the Director Practical demonstrations of both of ith autumn underway, days these innovations, as well as many oth- are cooler, the winds have di- ers, first took place in Nazi Germany dur- W minished and the nights are ing the Third Reich. Considering condi- really pleasant here in the Chihuahuan tions in the Reich late in World War II, it Desert. So the old excuses of “It’s too hot is remarkable that German scientists and to volunteer at the Museum” or “It’s too engineers accomplished so much. Politi- windy to volunteer,” while they may be cal alliances morphed often, with very valid at certain times of the year, most real risks of arrest, imprisonment and definitely do not hold true now. Fall and death to those in the wrong place at the winter are probably the best seasons in wrong time. Demented megalomaniacal the area, and there is no better time for Führer Adolf Hitler micro-managed Ger- you to come out and spend some quality man industry and military operations volunteer time with us. with bizarre directives, impossible de- Another reason for you to come out mands and ever-changing priorities. Non- is that it seems things are always busiest stop Allied bombing forced factories to for us during the last three months of the disperse, and caused debilitating short- year. The big RV Fly-In in early October ages of fuel, metals and other critical re- should draw more than 100 aircraft from sources. Yet dedicated German designers S This rendering, used without permission around the country, and up to 400 people. still developed and fielded innovative, from www.luft46.com, depicts Focke Wulf’s We can use volunteers to staff the regis- groundbreaking technological triumphs Ta.183 in a camouflage paint scheme as it tration table, meet and greet visitors, con- such as the twin-jet, swept-wing Messer- might have appeared if it had gone into pro- duct informal tours, guide traffic, give di- schmitt Me.262 Schwalbe (Swallow), the duction before World War II ended. rections, answer questions about the Mu- tail-less, rocket-powered Messerschmitt seum and the area, and so on. The Chili Me.163B Komet interceptor and the ex- and aerodynamicist Dipl. Ing. Hans Mul- Cookoff follows close behind the Fly-In, traordinary Vergeltungswaffe Zwei (V-2) thopp of Focke Wulf Flugzeugbau (Focke and we can always use judges in addition long-range ballistic missile. Wulf Aircraft Company). The Ta.183 to the many other areas in which volun- In the final days of the War, U.S. Ar- had been scheduled for its first flight in teers can help out. No culinary experi- my Air Corps General Henry H. “Hap” June 1945 and for full production by Oc- ence is required—just a desire to have a Arnold set up a team of scientists called tober. None was ever actually built. If it good time and sample some great chili the “Scientific Advisory Group,” led by had been available in quantity, the (and maybe some not-so-great chili!). Be expatriate Hungarian aerodynamicist Dr. Ta.183 could have turned the tide of the sure to bring your own antacid tablets. Theodore von Kármán of the California War for Germany, at least temporarily. Feel free to come to the Museum any Institute of Technology, to examine cap- What the Soviet Union did with its Thursday at noon for our weekly volun- tured German military technology. One windfall is disputed. Some modern Rus- teer appreciation lunch. And thanks very result of the team’s evaluation was al- sian aviation historians hold that the much for your dedication and hard work. most immediate. The great advantages of Ta.183 did not influence Soviet aircraft We really appreciate it! swept wings, based on German wind tun- design at all. But the War-ravaged Soviet nel and flight test data, led Boeing Air- aircraft industry did everything possible Skip Trammell craft Company in 1945 to put a swept to get back on its feet. For instance, Tu- wing on its existing straight-wing B-47 polev’s Tu-4 Bull bomber was a copy of bomber design, which had been under the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, suppos- Plane Talk development since 1943. The rest, as the edly even including patched bullet holes Published quarterly by: saying goes, is history. (the Soviets had reverse-engineered three The Soviet Union also took advan- B-29s that had made emergency landings War Eagles Air Museum tage of German technology. In the ruins in Siberia during World War II). Most 8012 Airport Road of the Reichsluftministerium (German Air historians thus believe that some of the Santa Teresa, New Mexico 88008 Ministry) in Berlin, the Red Army found (575) 589-2000 technology from the unbuilt Ta.183 later a complete set of plans for the Ta.183, an emerged in one of the best-known and Author/Editor: Terry Sunday advanced swept-wing turbojet fighter de- most widely used aircraft of the Cold Chief Nitpicker: Frank Harrison signed by Dipl. Ing. (Diploma Engineer) War—the Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15. Final Proofreader: Kathy Sunday Kurt Tank (the “Ta” prefix of the aircraft [email protected] designation comes from his last name) Featured Aircraft (Continued on page 3) www.war-eagles-air-museum.com 2 Fourth Quarter 2008 Plane Talk—The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum Featured Aircraft (Continued from page 2) cated duct passed on both sides of the cock- Set up in Moscow in December 1939 pit. The MiG-15’s hori- by aircraft designer Artem Mikoyan, the zontal stabilizer was A. I. Mikoyan OKB (Opytnoe Konstruc- midway up the vertical torskoe Byuro, or Experimental Design tail, not at the top, and Bureau) became OKB MiG in 1942 when the main landing gear aeronautical engineer Mikhail Gurevich retracted into the wing joined the company, which added his ini- instead of the fuselage. tial to its name (the small “i” is the Rus- The wings of the two sian word “and”). Over the years, OKB aircraft were very simi- MiG has produced some of the world’s lar. Even if the Soviets best and most significant aircraft. did not really copy the Some sources report that OKB MiG Ta.183 (as they did the built six Ta.183s from the German plans B-29), the MiG-15 ob- soon after the War, using 5,100-pound- viously benefited from thrust British Rolls-Royce RB-41 Nene the Germans’ work. centrifugal-flow turbojet engines rather The first produc- than the lower-thrust axial-flow Junkers tion MiG-15 flew on Jumo 004B or Heinkel HeS-011 turbojets December 31, 1948, in the original design. First flight report- and the new jet entered edly was in June 1947. Flight tests soon service with the VVS revealed several aerodynamic problems.