Luftwaffe: Secret Designs of the Third Reich

[newsdeskdan]

Has anyone seen it for sale in the U.S. as of yet?  I haven't...

I'm told there is usually a six week lag, so expect to see it on sale towards the end of June/early July.

[gatoraptor]

Has anyone seen it for sale in the U.S. as of yet?  I haven't...

I'm told there is usually a six week lag, so expect to see it on sale towards the end of June/early July.

We can fly cargo across the Atlantic in 8 hours or less, and even cargo ships can make the journey in less than a week, so it always puzzles me why British publications always take so long to make it here to the colonies.  I think that "slow boat" doesn't go to China, it comes here!

[steelpillow]

I think that "slow boat" doesn't go to China, it comes here!

It goes to China first.

[newsdeskdan]

Has anyone seen it for sale in the U.S. as of yet?  I haven't...

I'm told there is usually a six week lag, so expect to see it on sale towards the end of June/early July.

We can fly cargo across the Atlantic in 8 hours or less, and even cargo ships can make the journey in less than a week, so it always puzzles me why British publications always take so long to make it here to the colonies.  I think that "slow boat" doesn't go to China, it comes here!

You could always order it direct from classicmagazines.co.uk although this apparently adds £4.45 to the price, making the overall price a not inconsiderable $15.20 (£11.44). 

[newsdeskdan]

Just turned up in my local newsagent, here in the UK. WH Smith may have been voted the worst high street retailer in the UK but they are the BEST newsagent anywhere near me.

Dan, so many nuggets of pure gold, I hardly know where to start - canards, shark's fins, twin fuselages, B&V asymmetric flying boats, the list of never-before-revealed wonders is truly - well, I am lost for words so, er - beyond words.

My absolute solid platinum favourite has to be the DVL outboard-tail prone-pilot tandem-fuselage jet fighter. I would never, ever have believed it if it was not from our own Newsdesk Dan doing his legendary thing with original documents and drawings. I suspect that it may actually be a two-stage plane rather than a single tandem design, as the intermediate "tail" makes no aerodynamic sense while the two are conjoined. The final sketch also has nose and tail fairings dotted in, though whether fixed or jettisonable is not clear. The outboard tail might look a touch small when the front half is flying alone, but wind tunnel work had shown that it was more effective than a conventional one so did not need to be so large. The B&V ones were not as small because they were brought forward on shorter booms instead - especially the P 215 - which reduced their efficiency back to normal.
By the way, Pohlmann's story of the B&V aircraft works had more to say about this line of projects than his colleagues did, but he too is silent on whose idea it was.

Keep that next one coming!

I also shop regularly at WHSmith - can't see what the problem is. There's a lot of diverse material in Luftwaffe: Secret Designs and it worries me that such a broad range might put people off. Depending on how this one does I'll either go back to a more focused approach for the next one or put out a second volume of oddities.

UPDATE: I received this 3D printed model of one of the newly discovered aircraft designs featured in Luftwaffe: Secret Designs this morning (see attached - 1/144 scale Arado 'Dreieck'). Modelled by contributing artist and forum member Hamzalippischh and produced by Shapeways in the US.

[gatoraptor]

UPDATE: I received this 3D printed model of one of the newly discovered aircraft designs featured in Luftwaffe: Secret Designs this morning (see attached - 1/144 scale Arado 'Dreieck'). Modelled by contributing artist and forum member Hamzalippischh and produced by Shapeways in the US.

Or, in other words, who really designed the A-12?  Maybe Frito-Lay got the idea for Doritos from the Germans.

[newsdeskdan]

UPDATE: I received this 3D printed model of one of the newly discovered aircraft designs featured in Luftwaffe: Secret Designs this morning (see attached - 1/144 scale Arado 'Dreieck'). Modelled by contributing artist and forum member Hamzalippischh and produced by Shapeways in the US.

Or, in other words, who really designed the A-12?  Maybe Frito-Lay got the idea for Doritos from the Germans.

It does seem to be a remarkably similar shape to the A-12 (albeit with a fin and protruding engine housings), but not much like a Dorito, sadly. I think Frito-Lay are more likely to have got the idea from the Hortens' H X or Lippisch's DM-3. 

[Wurger]

Just got mine here in Europe`s westernmost corner! It is absolutelly packed with excelent stuff for the Luftwaffe buffs. I would start to review the preface, and asking Dan to please ID the quad (20mm MG151?) tail turret on the top, next to the Fw 191 cabin view. To which project did it belong to? Also, on the left bottom page, I didn`t knew that the Ta 254A-1 projected nightfighter had a hood, on a B-stand, I presume facing rearwards.

[newsdeskdan]

Just got mine here in Europe`s westernmost corner! It is absolutelly packed with excelent stuff for the Luftwaffe buffs. I would start to review the preface, and asking Dan to please ID the quad (20mm MG151?) tail turret on the top, next to the Fw 191 cabin view. To which project did it belong to? Also, on the left bottom page, I didn`t knew that the Ta 254A-1 projected nightfighter had a hood, on a B-stand, I presume facing rearwards.

The Focke-Wulf tail turret is dated November 21, 1942, but was from a bundle of design papers, rather than being included in a particular report so the aircraft it was intended for is unknown to me. Yes, there was apparently a proposal to include a rear-facing turret on the Ta 254 A-1 and the drawing shows profiles and weights for a DL131/1 (solid line, 340.2kg), DL15/131 (double-dotted line, 302.5kg) and WL131 (single-dotted line, 283kg).

The drawings around the edge of the preface show (clockwise from the Me 609 in the top left corner), Heinkel P 1079 (otherwise unknown version), Focke-Wulf Ta 153 wing detail design, Focke-Wulf tail turret, Fw 191 cabin brochure drawing, Dornier Do 335 wind tunnel model with pointed nose, DFS Robbe test flight photos, BMW 028 turboprop, Blohm & Voss BV 141 B cabin layouts, AVA 'large aeroplane' designs, Arado Ar 240 V1 WNr. 0001 weights, Arado Ar 65 aerodynamics, Focke-Wulf Ta 254 A-1 turrets, Junkers EF 100 breakaway zones, Junkers Ju 85 mock-up, Messerschmitt Enzian E1 scale plan, Messerschmitt Me 210 wind tunnel model and Me 209 wing test model and Messerschmitt Me 328 flight test photos.

[Wurger]

Dan, is it possible to have the tail turret reproduced here? Does that design paper bundle included more armament schemes?

[newsdeskdan]

Dan, is it possible to have the tail turret reproduced here? Does that design paper bundle included more armament schemes?

Sure, but that's all there is I'm afraid.

[richard B]

Hello!

The book is still unavailable in France :

[newsdeskdan]

Hello!

The book is still unavailable in France :

I'll make enquiries about the retail situation in France on Monday.

UPDATE: I'm told we're in touch with Amazon to try and get the issue of sales via Amazon.fr resolved. Apparently it's not quite as simple as just ticking a box in the management console.

[Zizi6785]

It was fast

Lonewulf Models:
"Latest 1/72 conversion set straight out of the mould, fits like a dream. Its the Junkers Canard wings for the Messerschmitt Me 163. Junkers wind tunnel tested these wings to see if it could improve the control of the Me 163. They weren't the first, Lippisch had experimented with the idea of retractable canards. Will be on e-bay during the week."

[moin1900]

Received my copy. Excellent work. Great articles. Very nice artwork. Lots of drawings of unknown and very unusal projects. And lots of descriptions of very unknown projects, like in the article about the Henschel projects. A must have for everyone who is interested in the history of the german aircraft designs during WW2.