Re: Von Braun - Great American?



mike flugennock wrote:


Damn, they wanted the pilot to sit _right_next_ to that engine. Couldn't have been healthy...

Pilots who saw it either laughed at it or were appalled at the thought of flying it.
According to its designer, Richard Vogt, the idea was to compensate for the motor's torque, but this seems a pretty severe way of doing it
Eric Brown flew one of the BV-141s and said that despite its extremely odd looks it actually flew quite nicely.
To me it looked like Vogt was just screwing around though and making something odd for the sake of making something odd.
The far more conventional FW-189 got the major production contract and worked quite well in its intended role.
After the war, Vogt came to the U.S. and started designing strange aircraft for us also. One of his ideas: "Let us hang F-84s on der wingtips of der B-36s!": http://www.airwar.ru/image/idop/bomber/b36/b36-11.jpg


They also made this hideous thing, which started as a Messerschmitt Bf-109:
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/files/blomm_vossbv155.jpg


Looks a bit short compared to the wing span. Looks like a mistake.


I've got a model of it; It looks like someone took some sort of strange cropduster and tried to turn it into a fighter.
It's is one of the most subtly unattractive aircraft I have ever seen, making even a He-177 look good by comparison.

Pat
.