Search results for ""Author Wolfgang Wagner""

This volume, the second in a mulit-volume history of German aviation, discusses the life work of one of Germany's greatest aircraft designers in pictures, tables, drawings and in his own words discussing flight testing of his airplanes. Examined are the birth of Focke-Wulf's airplanes, the ideas and thinking which formed the foundation of Tank's designs, his masterpieces in the areas of long-range and high-speed flight as well as flight test results. The reader experiences the metamorphosis of an aircraft design from the first pencil line on the drawing board to the screaming, nearly supersonic dives during its evaluation phase. Tank would only entrust to civilian pilots, military flyers and the captains of the Lufthansa fleet those designs whose superior flying characteristics, stability, and flawless stall handling he had been able to experience first hand. A mixture of technical history, flight testing and previously unpublished data enable the reader to catch a fascinating glimpse of the aircraft built during the 1930s and 1940s, not to mention the outstanding designs Tank worked on in other countries following the war. All of the classic Focke-Wulf aircraft are to be found: the well-known Fw 200, Fw 190, Ta 152, and Ta 154, as well as the lesser known Fw 57, Fw 187, Fw 189 and others.

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This book, the first in a multi-volume history of German aviation, provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis of of jet aircraft design and development in Germany. The solid description, unique photo material, historical documents, numerous drawings and complete data tables – published for the first time – make this book not only a gripping story but also an indispensable reference work for anyone with an interest in the development of aviation. In August 1939 in Germany a small propellerless aircraft took off on its maiden flight under conditions of utmost secrecy: the world’s first jet aircraft. Apart from Ernst Heinkel, Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain (inventor of the turbojet engine) and a small circle of their co-workers, no one suspected the profound effect that the successful flight of the tiny He 178 would have on aviation. Spurred on by Heinkel’s success, very high speed aircraft were also put into the air by Messerschmitt, Arado and Junkers. On the other hand the designers of jet engines initially encountered almost insuperable problems, for in wartime high-quality raw materials such as nickel, cobalt and molybdenum were unobtainable and substitute materials had to be used in their place. But the designers, who were rushing ahead with their own projects, found a way around this with the help of experienced test pilots: in 1940 the Heinkel 280, the first twin-engined jet aircraft, was flown without engines as a towed glider; Messerschmitt installed an auxiliary piston engine in the nose of its twin-engined Me 262; Arado equipped its twin-engined Ar 234 with jet engines intended for ground tests only. The test pilots became accustomed to landing on just one working engine or none at all. In spite of shortages of strategic materials and the use of replacements, jet engines reached the production stage by the end of the war. But it was only possible to put small numbers of the very high speed aircraft into service, too late to have any decisive effect on the war. The development work on these first jet aircraft led to a tremendous technological leap forward; it was the beginning of advanced technology in aircraft design.

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