Graphs of Aircraft historical performance.
Graphs of Aircraft historical performance.
(OP)
This will be off topic for most of you.
I am having a debate that goes
"War accelerates the development of scientific and technological knowhow".
I believe it does.
I am having this debate on a science forum with some rather testy chaps who think that it dosent.
They say that there is no evidence that aircraft performance was accelerated by WW2 and the cold war and that these improvements would have happened anyway.
Could someone provide me with links to sites that have statistical evidence to support my argument.
Much appreciated in advance.
Peter.
I am having a debate that goes
"War accelerates the development of scientific and technological knowhow".
I believe it does.
I am having this debate on a science forum with some rather testy chaps who think that it dosent.
They say that there is no evidence that aircraft performance was accelerated by WW2 and the cold war and that these improvements would have happened anyway.
Could someone provide me with links to sites that have statistical evidence to support my argument.
Much appreciated in advance.
Peter.





RE: Graphs of Aircraft historical performance.
I'm agree with you. Try these links.
http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero
http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/baugher_us/
http://www.aviation-history.com/index.html
http://www.whom.co.uk/squelch/bb_aviate.htm
You can find another web sites about aircrafts history searching with Google.
Regards
Fernando
RE: Graphs of Aircraft historical performance.
RE: Graphs of Aircraft historical performance.
Incidently racing is probably the other factor and cost...
(ie schneider trophy etc)
RE: Graphs of Aircraft historical performance.
Read up on the Hawker Typhoon sometime. This is a good example of a project that would have been killed in peacetime.
The Typhoon was a high performance aircraft with a big but unreliable new engine, and structural problems eventually found to be caused by flutter of the horizontal stablizer. It was planned to be a high altitude interceptor, but the engine turned out to have its maximum performance at low altitude.
The Germans were launching low altitude hit and run raids with Focke Wulf 190s that current British aircraft were unable to intercept. The Typhoons were placed in service to intercept them.
Eventually, they straightened out the engine and flutter problems, but it illustrates the sort of hassle an airforce will tolerate from its technology, when it is being shot at.
As far as statistics are concerned, WWI might be a better source. I think that there was much more aircraft development during the period of 1914-1918, than there was in 1939-1945.
JHG
RE: Graphs of Aircraft historical performance.
RE: Graphs of Aircraft historical performance.
Let the Doubting Thomases log onto the NACA Technical Report site at http://naca.larc.nasa.gov to view the massive amount of absolutely fundamental and benchmark work that was done during and just after WWII. If that doesn't convince them, nothing will.
The leap-frog, catch-up game that went on between the opposing sides during that war is phenomenal.
Ed.
RE: Graphs of Aircraft historical performance.
Thanks Ed.