ORIGINAL: el cid again
Ram - I refer you to a 2006 book just out
Luftwaffe Over America.
Also to The Air War - the comparitive economic study - not that 2 volume picture book by Jablonski.
I am a fan of German aircraft designers in this era - of Messerschmidt and Hoenkel in particular -
and not prone to think or say "everything American - or Anglo - is superior" - and am rather famous for
saying the Axis did this or that better than many Americans or Brits like to think.
Several factors prevented successful development of German bombers of the larger sort: not least among these
is a failure to try during important years. But in the end all analysts conclude Germany lacked the economic
and technical foundation to compete successfully.
Within this I don't find anything that disagrees with what I say. I just pointed out that german engines were as good as the British or US ones- they were not better, but neither behind. In some ways they were better, in other they weren't. But Germany had magnific aero engines that had nothing to envy to those of the Allies, other than production levels, that, of course, germany couldn't push as high as the allies did.
That was all my point, and in no point disagrees with this paragraph...so we agree
Germany did develop a lot of concepts we use today. There was no airfield in Europe big enough for most of the bomber designs of WWII they came up with - but we built even bigger airfields all around the world - and adopted air refueling - and jet engine packs to go under the wings - all in imitation of German WWII era research that fell into our hands (and also into Russian hands). And there is no doubt Germany led the world in jet engine development (even if the first operational jet fighter was British and not German) or that its concepts of jet fighter configuration were superior even to those we used AFTER the war was over (here I refer to swept wings).
I think the US had it's own deal of advanced studies about swept wings, lifting bodies and air wings (Northrop's studies about flying wings were very advanced already for 1943). Those studies weren't completed by 1945 and the german work on those things was put to good use, but the germans weren't THAT ahead of the United State on aerodynamics (they were light years from the british and the soviets, though).
Japan did get some engine technology from Germany - but it was in the 1150/1175 hp class - and it only was significant during the midwar period (being an upgrade from the thousand HP engines then being used). They never did get a proper engine in mass service with more than 2200 hp. Germany - which shipped significant amounts of nuclear materials to Japan - and shared many technologies - was unable to outfit Japan with engines able to compete on a timely basis - with a single exception.
Not in agreement here. Japan had, and extensively tested, a full Fw190A3 sent from Germany in 1942, with a perfectly working 1650hp BMW801. Germany offered Japan a licence to build the model, but the japanese refused it.
They didn't like the plane because of high wingloading (not very intelligent, to be true, because speed and high speed maneouverability were much more important and on those the 190 excelled), but they learnt a lot from the way the plane itself was engineered, the most remarkable thing being the engine mountings which latter allowed the Ki-100 to exist (the japanese took the mountings of the BMW801 as an example on how to fit a big radius engine within a small airframe, and worked from that point).
Then, of course, it's the problem about the planes and engines themselves, that they might have been very difficult to be r
replicated on japan. Even if they liked it I really think the Fw190 would've been never been able to be produced at Japan.But the fact is that the japanese had access to more german technology than one would might think at first.
Also, I just think that german fighters would've never been adopted by the japanese, because the fighter doctrines of both nations were so different. Where germans focused on hit and run and high speed maneouvering combats, the japanese always loved planes which could turn in a dime.
In fact I've always wondered why the japanese adopted the Ki-61, for it was very far from the kind of fighter the japanese loved. It wasn't a really good turner at all, and given that the Ki-44 was quite disliked by its crews for it's (relatively, for a japanese fighter) lack of low speed maneouverability, and that the Ki-61 wasn't that better than the Tojo in that regard, as I say I find it surprising that the japanese adopted it at all.
