Zizi6785
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MESSERSCHMITT ME 328 DEVELOPMENT & POLITICS | Mortons Books
Messerschmitt Me 328 Development & Politics
I'm proud to have contributed to this book!
I wish there were ebook versions of these available as well.
Happy reading!These three arrived just in time for my summer vacations (2 via mortons and 1 by amazon). So now I will have a good read.
Done and dusted.
An interesting and fascinating look into an idea which was never able to deliver on its promise of a cheap, easy-to-build but very fast and capable airplane, thanks mostly to issues with the propulsion system. An aircraft that never got the resources it needed to bring it to fruition... but this mostly due to the fact that the engines were always down on the promise of thrust while simultaneously doing their best to shake both pilot and aircraft to death - a problem which was never solved before the aircraft was overtaken by progress and circumstance and the axe fell.
The non-technically-minded reader can be forgiven for asking why the V-1 did not appear to have a problem in this regard - after all, thousands were built and launched and reached their targets. Appendix 2 (page 162, column 2) makes it clear that it very definitely did, although I think it could have been noted more prominently in the main body of the work that Messerschmitt weren't the only ones to have trouble with the structural and pilot integrity of pulsejet-powered aircraft.
I have now read all three of Dan's Development and Politics books. If the story of the Me 309 is one of terminal mismanagement and the 262 one of splendid promise hindered by the dragging of feet, that of the 328 has to be a Greek tragedy; a seemingly sure-fire technological bet that sadly turned out to be a busted flush.
Alas, too late to rescue the airplane's bad name in this regard.The noise/vibration problem does seem to have been alleviated somewhat by repositioning the engines - and the FGZ claimed at the end of the war to have solved it by putting two pulsejets right next to one another.
Reading about the Me262 being considered to use multiple pulsejets sometimes makes me wonder what would have happened if they'd tried that on the Me262 V1 (with the piston engine there to take over if it failed), or simply lashed out and tried to solve the 328's power issues by putting two pulsejets under each wing. They might have found the mutual resonance solution by accident, assuming that relocating it into the tail wasn't also part of the cure.But actually getting more thrust out of them seems to have been a bridge too far.
Reading about the Me262 being considered to use multiple pulsejets sometimes makes me wonder what would have happened if they'd tried that on the Me262 V1 (with the piston engine there to take over if it failed), or simply lashed out and tried to solve the 328's power issues by putting two pulsejets under each wing. They might have found the mutual resonance solution by accident, assuming that relocating it into the tail wasn't also part of the cure.
"And isn't it ironic... don't you think..."Presumably, although there were clearly project drawings showing Me 328s with multiple underwing pulsejets, it was thought that they ought to get the singular units working properly first and go from there - little realising that actually 'going big' might have provided the solution they'd been looking for.