Ordinarily I would be super happy for a 1/48 version, but I really wanted one in 1/72, to go with my other Luft 46 kits. Waah waah, OK I’m drying my tears. Oh what the heck, I really don’t care what scale it is, this is THE Luftwaffe “Napkin Fighter” that spurred my interest in the genre. The old 1/72 Huma kit can finally be retired.
Woo hoo, can’t wait to see all the crazy paint schemes people will do on this wacky canvas! And all you need for a Hydra version is a new canopy and decals!
Nice to see AM brining out some aircraft. I would like to see this in 72nd, i would deffinetly do another to go alongside the Huma kit. I won’t be getting the 48th kit but will be looking forward to seeing the builds of those that do.
As outlandish as it looks, I think it could have flown. The Convair “Pogo” tailsitter built postwar successfully demonstrated vertical takeoff, transition to horizontal flight, and vertical landing. But it was also discovered that even with a seat that tilted, the pilot could not see the ground during landing, making it difficult to gauge exact touchdown position, descent speed and altitude. Remember this was the wild and wooly days of analog vacuum powered instruments which had lag and were not 100% accurate. Today, with modern digital instruments, landing could be completely automated, perhaps using a portable beacon placed at the exact landing spot.
I do wonder how the Triebflugel would have handled in horizontal(ish) flight, being that it had no wings. Its flight path would probably look like the Dow-Jones average. Ejection would probably have been like the Do-335 - the wings would blow off via explosive bolts before the pilot exited the aircraft.
I got really excited when I heard the announcement. I would really like to build it. The triebflugel is my all-time favorite (albeit non-existent) aircraft.
I am not entierly sure how they would have carried out the landings, or the take off for that matter, with those engines. My understanding is that ramjets need to be moving at a certain speed before they can work, so they would certainly have been no use going backwards. Rockets could have been added to get the wings rotating and up to speed for take off, but not sure how it would have worked on landing.
One very substantial issue is that unlike say the Osprey or Pogo, this thing could not perform level flight as no lift would be generated in forward flight.
Another engineering issue would have been how to keep the center fuselage from spinning once the thing was off the ground? All that mass spinning couldn’t have been stabilized by those puny fin surfaces. Still a very cool looking thing.
Yes, the Triebflugel would have been another expensive waste of time and resource for Germany, but the concept was audacious.
The Triebflugel would have needed either a rocket booster or “donkey engine” to start the rotor wing moving to a point where the ramjets could ignite. Books on the subjet suggest a Walther liquid fueled rocket booster system, but carrying another type of fuel and oxidizer tanks would have been unecessarily complex. An on-board 2-stroke gasoline engine like the Me-262’s starters or an external ground starter cart could have been used . During landing, the rotor wing would still be going full tilt, so loss of ramjet ignition would not have been a problem.
The nature of the ramjet powered rotor wing would negate any torque effects like that in a helicopter, as the engines are pushing on the wings, not fuselage. The Fairey Rotodyne, among other experimental helicopters, demonstrated and validated this feature.
The big deal killer IMHO is the landing procedure. How a low-time fighter pilot would be expected to gently back this thing down into a small clearing in the Black Forest and avoid the swarms of Allied jabos filling the skies over Germany is just too much to imagine.
BUT, it’s a darned cool looking Luft 1946 design, and I’m gonna get one! Here’s my Huma kit:
A good friend of mine was a test pilot in the Navy. He flew the F4, the F14, and the Osprey. He said that was the one airframe that really scared the piss out of him.
I still think bearing drag would kill you. And John is right; this thing would be tough on the pilot pool.
So there have been sprue shots out for a while. I wonder where the kit is? I didn’t see pics posted of it from the All Japan Plamo show last week. Maybe it’s still in the queue at the molding factory? I Googled it and came up with nothing new.
Yeah, I know I have too much stuff already. But I’m gonna do the Luft ‘46 rain dance anyway. And ask the model gods for a 1/72 version while I’m at it.
I think i will join you in that G. I did check the AM site the other day and there aircraft section is still empty. They have also announced a couple of more armour kits on there. It seems as though they only put them on the site when they arereleased. So i guess the wait goes on.
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