Many unique aircraft configurations came out of Germany in World War II, one of these was the Blohm
and Voss BV P 208. By using longitudinal and directional control surfaces located outboard of the wing tips they
are removed from the downwash of the main wing. Additionally, the result is fewer component surfaces with less
total surface area, thereby reducing both friction and interference drag and manufacturing cost.
The configuration should lend itself well to low-observability, making it a good stealth candidate.
The P 208, provided the author an opportunity to analyze an unconventional configuration with the
conceptual NASA design codes RAM, VORVIEW, and ACSYNT. A lack of wind tunnel or flight data prevented
the evaluation of the performance of these codes for this configuration. However, results are presented for future
comparison and evaluation.
Claims of aerodynamic benefits of the P 208 configuration appear largely to be verified. The P 208
suffers from poor natural short-period longitudinal stability and an unstable Dutch-roll, neither of which are
beyond the means of artificial control. The most immediate need for future work is a structural analysis and
determination as to the structural and dynamic feasibility of the configuration.
