Blohm & Voss Ha 137 with wingtips ?

BAROBA

BAROBA

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Does this plane have winglets applied to the tips of it wings?
I thought those were a recent invention....
Maybe this question is something for its own topic...

Cheers,

Rob

Mole said:
I agree with Stargazer that Flitzer does lovely work on the illustrations. On the question of the downturned fins, i believe that many designs deliberately placed the fins in the propeller slipstream to improve rudder authority at low speeds without needing excessively large and draggy fin area. The overall impression of the design is very much that of a big brother to the B&V Ha.137 dive bomber/ground attack aircraft. In fact, I suspect that it would have used the same steel tubular spar/fuel tank design.

Blohm_Voss_Ha_137_front_view.jpg
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Check the Wikipedia entry for Richard Vogt. He was well and truly ahead of his time!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Vogt_%28aircraft_designer%29

At Boeing, Vogt was especially involved in the design of vertical takeoff systems and hydrofoils. He also investigated the effect of the length and shape of wings on the flying range, and he proved that small extensions attached to both tips of the wings improved the aerodynamics and increased the operation range of the aircraft. This finding has been widely used in the design of modern aircraft, where the extension parts are well-known as the wing tips or winglets. His last assignment was the after-launch evaluation of the design of the Boeing 747.
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Looks like he was onto winglets as early as the 1930s!
 
Skyraider3D said:
Check the Wikipedia entry for Richard Vogt. He was well and truly ahead of his time!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Vogt_%28aircraft_designer%29
Click to expand...

While I am a great fan of Richard Vogt's designs, I think in this case those are wingtip masts for wire radio aerials as you can see in this 3-view. Those masts may also have served a purpose in indicating the dive angle to the pilot when dive bombing. There might, however, be a story there...perhaps the wingtip masts improved performance and inspired further research into winglets?

blohm-und-voss-bv-137.gif
 
Somewhere I have a great article about the life of Fred David, an Austrian Jew who worked for Ernst Heinkel, then fled with his wife to Japan where he helped design the "Val" dive bomber, only to find that country building military ties to Germany, so they fled again, finally settling in Australia, where he was promptly arrested as an "enemy alien" when the war began. Soon afterwards, he became chief designer of the Commonwealth Aircraft Company under Lawrence Wackett and led projects including the Commonwealth Boomerang fighter-bomber. Now THAT would make a great movie!

This is not the article I was thinking of, but here is the crux of the story: http://dbdesignbureau.buckmasterfamily.id.au/FAC65_elliptical_wings.htm

BAROBA said:
Thanks for the link,Ronnie :)
His biography reads like a moviescript ready to be make :)

Cheers,

Rob

Skyraider3D said:
Check the Wikipedia entry for Richard Vogt. He was well and truly ahead of his time!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Vogt_%28aircraft_designer%29
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
cluttonfred said:
perhaps the wingtip masts improved performance and inspired further research into winglets?

blohm-und-voss-bv-137.gif
Click to expand...
It could be, because on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Vogt_(aircraft_designer) you could find following:
From August 1960 to August 1966, he served as a staff member on the team of George S. Schairer, who was the chief aerodynamicist in the research and testing division of Boeing. At Boeing, Vogt was involved in the design of vertical takeoff systems and hydrofoils. He also investigated the effect of the length and shape of wings on the flying range, and he proved that small extensions attached to both tips of the wings improved the aerodynamics and increased the operational range of the aircraft. This finding has been widely used in modern aircraft, where the extensions are known as wing tips or winglets.
 
Modern winglets are usually attributed to a NASA engineer named Richard T. Witcomb.
The first use of wiglets is usually attributed to Burt Rutan’s Vari-Eze, plans-built homebuilt which first flew in May 1975.
 
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Yes, of course, but even in Wikipedia article, it is said that R. Vogt worked on winglets, too. There is one really interesting patent from him filed as early as 1949.

Twisted wing tip fin for airplanes ​


I mean, it is not a revolutionary, rather an evolutionary thing - engineers coped with wing tip vortices and induced drag since the very beginning of flight..
But Vogts post war influence is quite remarkable, it seems, he is the only German wartime chief designer to be working in the USA post war.. I would really like to know more about his work at Boeing with George S. Schairer. Especially his last assignment on B747 Jumbo jet after launch design review, remembering that B747 had huge issues with wings.
 
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Hi,

cluttonfred said:
Somewhere I have a great article about the life of Fred David, an Austrian Jew who worked for Ernst Heinkel, then fled with his wife to Japan where he helped design the "Val" dive bomber, only to find that country building military ties to Germany, so they fled again, finally settling in Australia, where he was promptly arrested as an "enemy alien" when the war began. Soon afterwards, he became chief designer of the Commonwealth Aircraft Company under Lawrence Wackett and led projects including the Commonwealth Boomerang fighter-bomber. Now THAT would make a great movie!

This is not the article I was thinking of, but here is the crux of the story: http://dbdesignbureau.buckmasterfamily.id.au/FAC65_elliptical_wings.htm
Click to expand...

That does indeed sound quite fascinating!

The linked article mentions the Australian author Keith Meggs planned to write a biography of Fred David ... does anyone happen to know if that was ever published?

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)
 

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