03.03.2010, 03:27
There are a number of posts about it here now, so I'm going to write what I think;
To call dive bombers a "good diving" plane is a little extreme. Since what I believe we're talking here is the performance of a plane on very high speeds without breaking or attaining that very high speeds quickly. The design philosophy behind dive-bombers is not the "performance" per se, but how long it can carry out the dive and how accurate it is. As a consequence almost all of the dedicated dive-bombers have dive brakes installed, to keep the aircraft slow on a dive and give the pilot optimum chance for a successful hit. Most of the dive-bombers' "never exceed speed" is lower than most of the fighter planes' level cruise speed we're talking about here.
As in the Vultee Vengeance(A-31), the wings had a zero angle of incidence not because it was designed to dive fast, but because by diving at 90 degrees, it was designed to dive "accurate", to eliminate the "tracking" in a dive to be more precise. But this design had a side effect of a high "nose-up" level flight attitude which made it very uncomfortable for the pilots to fly it during level flight and landings. As a matter of fact this design was "corrected" on the new A-35 which was an improved version of the A-31.
So maybe dive bombers aren't exactly what we're looking for here. Heck! the guy even said; "what other fighter planes are excellent in the vertical?"
Maybe read the posts, too next time. Not just the headline...
Thought I should mention that.
Aristo
To call dive bombers a "good diving" plane is a little extreme. Since what I believe we're talking here is the performance of a plane on very high speeds without breaking or attaining that very high speeds quickly. The design philosophy behind dive-bombers is not the "performance" per se, but how long it can carry out the dive and how accurate it is. As a consequence almost all of the dedicated dive-bombers have dive brakes installed, to keep the aircraft slow on a dive and give the pilot optimum chance for a successful hit. Most of the dive-bombers' "never exceed speed" is lower than most of the fighter planes' level cruise speed we're talking about here.
As in the Vultee Vengeance(A-31), the wings had a zero angle of incidence not because it was designed to dive fast, but because by diving at 90 degrees, it was designed to dive "accurate", to eliminate the "tracking" in a dive to be more precise. But this design had a side effect of a high "nose-up" level flight attitude which made it very uncomfortable for the pilots to fly it during level flight and landings. As a matter of fact this design was "corrected" on the new A-35 which was an improved version of the A-31.
So maybe dive bombers aren't exactly what we're looking for here. Heck! the guy even said; "what other fighter planes are excellent in the vertical?"
Maybe read the posts, too next time. Not just the headline...
Thought I should mention that.
Aristo