Friggin love your channel man keep it up. How long did these animations take to makes? I know you've been wanting to do this particular aircraft for a minute
Imagine the level of mechanical stress that hull would suffer. It may be cheap to produce, but the maintenance would be horrendous. If you want to replace the rotor, you'd have to dismantle half of the construction. Not to mention that this would be impossible to crashland on land.
The USAF made similar aircraft after the war, the Lockheed XFV and the Convair XFY Pogo but a major problem was that it was very difficult for the pilot to know where the ground was for the latter aircraft and the XFV never did any Vertical takeoffs and landings before it was canceled due to performance issues. The Triebflugel would have been and infeasible aircraft had it flown.
@@oerlikon20mm29 I don't see how piloting an interceptor that is more dangerous to yourself than to the enemy is considered 'cool'. But if flying in a deathtrap that would almost certainly cause your death is your idea of cool, I won't question it. I also do not hate on anything, but that design is clearly a folly.
Hi. For the question of distribution of fuel to the rotary wing, the whole idea is was pretty fantastic, since the fuel will be a heavy carbonhydrate that will generate something like a gel essentially the rotary wing will take with spade from one exit point of the fuselage. The fuel was also the lubricant: the idea was somehow modified later in some early versions of SR71 until they came with their own ideas. Three radial rings of Triebflügel provided the control to some stepper motors (don't imagine something like today's technology) that could rotate along the radial ring and provide a higher angle of attack. Take care everybody. Special thanks to the creator of the video, I was waiting 40 years to see this.
There is an "i" missing in the title ! It's "Triebflügel" and not "Trebflügel" :)) Otherwise i love your channel !! That try to pronounce "Triebflügel" at the end was adorable, i always love it when people try it :))
The Germans in WW2 were screwed up but they were ambitious and had a lot of good ideas when it came to military hardware. The ME262 is a good example of that.
@@laa0fa502 well, the way the wonderwapon program worked was, if you got approved, you got better food and didn't have to join the army. So there was incentive. Pair that with Goering being pretty gullible regarding what was practical and what wasn't, and it was easy to get into the program.
The Me-262 was an exception to the rule. Most of their weapons projects were failures or even outright stupid. Even the successful ones did have their issues.
Lovely animation, but the wings should be near horizontal during the "spin-up" and take off phase. they would then rotate to the position you show them in to provide more forward thrust.
@@BARelement true. The History Channel had an animation of one of those years ago, and it was very nice! He should have watched that one for some tips to accuracy.
@@58fins So true. Plus they included the ring of fire from the ram jets. And the wings should've been spinning much faster. That video also had a post-apocalyptic feel to it.
4:17 The ramjet is perfect for this particular VTOL Aircraft. Because it’s not used to provide thrust, rather like the Rotodyne, they are used to spin the propeller. Still, the propeller needed to be spinned-up like a helicopter, the tip speed of the propeller can achieve supersonic speed even when the plane is at stand still. There are also some error in your animation. At startup, the propeller should be “feathered”, unlike in-flight feather, the blades will try not cause any lift to minimize drag (similar to helicopters, when start up the collective should be at minimum). Ramjets would point almost horizontally, to allow air enter the jets. The statement at 4:49 is also wrong, the plane don’t take off with secondary engine like other ramjet aircraft. Rather it’s only used to spin the propeller. Once secondary engine spin the propeller fast enough, the ramjets can ignite because the tangential speed would be enough, just like the rotodyne’s main rotor. Again, lift is provided by the propeller, not the the ramjets. At cruise, the tip-jets can never point parallel to flight direction, they need to be at angle to drive the propeller to keep it spinning.
Vehicle safety didn't prevent the Germans from fielding the Me-163 which required a special suit to keep feul leaks from dissolving pilots and would occasionally blow up on the runway.
You could put them to your advantage. Early biplanes had massive rotary engines(imagine a radial but the entire engine spins) that made the planes turn super fast when they were turned the right way.
Just by seeing the 3D model, it's evident that countering the torque of the rotating wings would have been a major issue. Even rocket-powered wooden fighters does not seem as such a far-fetched project compared to this one.
I'm not sure about that. As the torque is applied at the wingtip the resulting force on the center of the airplane should be very small (as compared to a central engine 'pushing' the wings)
I was wondering how they would counteract the friction-drag. Trim on tail fins could do it, but that would only work once it was at a decent air speed.
@@pudlyjongearhead2851 maybe with an internal gyroscope But yeah I don't see how this much engineering effort could compete against pointdefence fighters like the me163 "Komet" or bachem "natter "
Interestingly, McDonnell, Hiller, Mil, and a Dutch company all experimented with ramjet-powered helicopters after the war, using the rotor's rotation to feed the ramjets. But, again, subsonic ramjets have poor efficiency in general and still required a secondary engine to spin it up to minimum start speed.
You've mentioned everything but the actual mechanical reality behind it which would also be pretty bad - it'd cost far more to make, would take more fuel to fly, and it'd be far more prone to breakages because to have such a massive wing in rotation... The pressures on it would be immense, and it even has the jet engines mounted on those too, meaning that if this thing didn't tear itself apart normally, it certainly will at any chance it gets like turbulence or crack in the metal...
A truly lovely video once again. Thank you for creating so many amazing videos to enjoy. I always wondered for this design, how do the Ramjets at the wingtips even receive their fuel from the main body? What kind of mechanism could provide any kind of fuel from the center to the moving wings/propellers?
Bruh ur narration is legendary ...and I also should add . I was very interested in this aircraft as a child and as I got older I made rc versions of this ..each one failed until 1 day I stumbled upon a Configuration that worked with the three 50 mm edfs .. this modle is really tail heavy so to fix that I put a C sized battery in the nose .. ...the next day after the wood glue dried...I tested it .. I got a few successful hovers but that's all I would push out of it .until I added a flight controller. Before I added it there was no stabilization at all ...the day after I had just added as3x and control surfaces on the tailplanes . ... SHE FLEW AFTER THAT I managed to do a circuit around my yard about 5 times ....but as I would try to get it into forward flight ...the rotors would spin so dang fast they would fly apart Almost every time after that . ...mainly were the edfs were attached..and if one edf would go it would be rele unbalanced and it basically threw itself apart .. I do have a video or two but ya no . The quality kind of sux compared to videos now
I remember a fake photograph depicting this aircraft on a spanish (as from Spain) magazine. The first time I saw this crazy design was on Luft46. From all the ideas the nazis had for stopping the allied bombers for me the only one that was really promising was the Wasserfall project. I hope some day seeing a video of it here. Thanks for another excellent video
I have a book written by a WW2 German Radar Engineer. It details the guidance systems they had worked out to guide the Wasserfall. They had gotten quite far and tested a lot.
I never understood how they thought these would work to get pilots in quickly or land these without an enormous amount of difficulty. Plus you certainly couldn't have an "ejecto seat cuz" without a looking like some Cabbage run through food processor.
The triebfugel is my favourite aircraft designer by germany and im realy happy to see it on this channel. Also can you make a video about heinkel lerche or Andromeda Gerat or maybe sonnen gewehr that would be amaizing
What you have to remember is that these designers were under pressure to prove thier designs were good enough to be extradited to the US. These designers often overstated claims about thier inventions in order to decent life with no war crimes linked to them.
Honestly, I believed they grabbed up waaay more of them than we can imagine, and not just scientists. Good to see someone mentioning the fact they brought them over here, and were given a free pass. Lot of people still don't know about that. God knows how many of them actually escaped to Antarctica, South America and Africa.
@@michaelcarter3149 watch tv seris in search of hitler.. Yea south America still cities to this day German communities if they find out your asking ..one they don't know two sleep.lightly
There have been several attempts to build scale flying model of the Triebfluegel and they all suffered the same issue as the wings begin to spin before takeoff, they caused the aircraft become unbalanced and once, the did the aircraft became airborne the fuselage started counter rotating as the fins at the tail were not big enough to counter the torque from the wings. It is still one of my favorite designs of an experimental aircraft and what's a great disappointed to find out that it would never fly.
The stress in the "arms" of the plane would probably snap the arm in half. A cheap piece of metal can only stand so much stress. And imagine having to bail out. You'd be mincemeat before you get to the ground
there are two mistakes in the clip. Firstly, the wing-rotor has to be in a flat angle on startup to gain enough rotation force by the ramjets. The animation shows the jet nacelles almost in vertical position. Secondly, the ROckets are not shown on the take off scene. They are only used to gain enough rotation and air flow into the ramjet to start up the ramjets when Triebflügel is still on ground. All lift force is produced by the rotation wings only at full ramjet power and not by any rockets.
SUGGESTION: First Aircraft To Have Electronics: - How did things go, what were the edges in combat - What were the edges technically First Aircraft To Have Electronic Stabilizers - What went wrong, - The solutions Basically... Like our evolution from Nokia Phones to 120Hz Phones, 12gb RAM, but its planes
i think they have something like the "Focke Wulf Trebfluegel" design in Captain America the First Avenger Film . Red Skull used something like that escape in the 3rd quarter of the film .
That vehicle does not have any kind of torque compensation. In fact it will become uncontrollable as soon as it loses contact to the ground. There is physically no way to control an airborne vehicle without torque compensation. Usually that is done by a 2nd rotor or large static wings. The FW Triebfluegel doesn't have either of that.
Should mention this project is quite different than the “American bomber” project, which were their focus in 1942-1943. In late 1943 the US daytime and British Night time bombing repeatedly hit Nazi airports caused 5e Germans looking into VTOL which can take off without a runway.
Another issue with this - the massive gyroscopic effects of that huge rotor would have made this thing very difficult to steer, very poor maneuverability, not something you want for a fighter.
Just one more question: how is the huge angular momentum of the propeller compensated? This airplane would result in something like a helicopter with now tail rotor, spinning in the Opposite direction as the rotor.
What would keep the body from rotating. In a helicopter you have a tail rotor, in a prop airplane you have wings and can counter with flaps. I fail to see where the counter rotating measures fits in on this plane. Sure the tail have flaps and that could work when the plane gains speed, but how about takeoff and especially landing. For flaps to work the plane needs speed, and to land it you need to be able to hover and slowly descent. I find the concept interesting, but i think for it to work you need two rotors, one spinning left and one spinning right.
Sorry, had to stop when the assertion that the ramjets on the rotary wings wouldn't work when standing still. That is true if you are talking about the wing tip, but not the aircraft as a whole as the wing tip can be moving rapidly when the aircraft is standing still. Hiller built a number of ramjet powered helicopters such as the Hornet that flew fine. Subsonic ramjets are not very efficient and running a rotor tip supersonically is not practical for a number of reasons. The Trebfluegel had to have an engine, or some method or rotating the wing to start the ramjets, but would not be needed once off the ground. In fact, driving the rotor from an engine applying torque from the fuselage is not possible in flight as it would just rotate the fuselage in the opposite direction, having no anti-torque system like a modern single rotor helicopter with a tail rotor. I would think that controlling this beast would beyond the technology of the era and would be the major initial roadblock to successful flight.
Love the channel Nick. Especially the aviation videos. Hi from Dublin Ireland. Have you done any fitness videos? would love to see you in a tank top. From what i can see, your traps look so developed. Everyone wants to see more!!!
I know it actually got developed, but this was always my first question when seeing it. A helicopter needs a tail rotor or twin counter rotating rotors to cancel out the torque and keep the helicopter from spinning. What does that on the Trebfluegel? I don't understand what counteracts the torque of the propeller/wings. They're spinning at near supersonic speeds, what's keeping the main structure of the aircraft from spinning? Anyone know?
Amazing airplane, thanks for the cool content on your channel. Also props for trying to pronounce the U-umlaut (spelled 'UE' in Triebfluegel). However you failed miserably :)
You spoiled the suspence! Implying the crafts failed, before the story of the carfts ability would begin. Heh, although it was clear how it would never work. 4:11 The narror/small spand, land legs, the very vertical body, equal to the over extended wings, acting like a singular propeller, which had NO rotory to sync with. 5:37 Not to mention mini jet engines, spinning at the tip of main-wings, like a big fan. Just epic🤣. 🤔Today those feature could be helpful, for land/decending crafts from orbit, like a Mell-Falcon rocket, having another double try-pod fold stand, but used only like a dive landing propellers. Even used for commercial future *Orbitliner* (vers the term 'airliner'), possibly in mkcro atmosphere planets, maybe😏
haha yes! my favourite channelo has arrived. Honestly when I first sat down I thought it was rocket jets... but then i found out they rotate at 200 rpm as a helicopter... and I'm like no way this things insane
I saw you were struggling with the pronounciation at the outro... the video title has a slight spelling mistake. It's: Focke-Wulf Triebflügel (Triebfluegel on your keyboard). Triebflügel translated is put together from the words Trieb and Flügel, meaning Drive Wing basically. A very german and literal translation for this crazy design anyway...
How would this thing roll, ie aileron control? Also how did they intend to counter the torque? Or was torque not a problem since the engines were mounted individually on the wing?
No. A helicopters blades develop torque, so the fuselage goes in the opposite direction. The tail rotor is necessary to counter this torque. The wings on the craft in question do not develop torque on the fuselage. There are some home built that use hydrogen peroxide jets to power their rotors and because there isn't an engine developing torque, they only need a tail rotor for yaw control.
There are multiple problems with this design. For 1 an emergency escape would be impossible because you would get sucked into the rotor. Once in the air it would be almost impossible to keep from spinning out of control because of the constant force turning you to the left. and finally trying to land would be extremally dangerous because the cockpit would be sticking straight up meaning you wouldn't be able to see the ground and make changes. This is only a small list of problems with this design
"Trebfluegel"? You mean "Triebflügel". "Trieb" (Antrieb) meaning "drive" and "Flügel" meaning "wing". BTW Not only did they forget about the difficulties of landing this thing, how about ejecting?
”...would you really want to risk those few skilled pilots that you had left on an experimental death trap machine? Perhaps not” **cough*Me 163 komet*cough**
I remember back to my high school days back in the mid 2000s when I first came across these cool designs anyway it would be interesting had civil aviation took some inspiration from some of these concepts.
It's great seeing your face more often but I feel that there are moments where it's too sudden and so feel like it'd be better consolidated if it was just once occurring perhaps at the end in a conclusion and in the sponsors to not distract from the content. Just a recommendation but nice video still
Hello F&E! Can your team discuss about an Indonesian plane that was discontinued? Its name was N250 Gatotkaca and it was the most advanced aircraft of its time, relying on 2 turboprop engines. Thank you!
@@laa0fa502 Let me explain, the N250 Gatotkaca is not a clone of Dash 8, the plane was indeed made to complete the prototype of the N235 Tetuko aircraft, an aircraft created as a collaboration between CASA and Nurtanio (now known as IPTN), after the N235 prototype successfully flew, Nurtanio and Indonesia built their aircraft itself based on the prototype N235, and be N250
question, if they spin the prop wing in take off using a different engine does that means they need 2 type of fuel to get this thing airborne and thus when ramjet kicked in it becoems a deadwieght ?
There is something fundamentally wrong with all the animations. The ramjets are not pointing backwards during flight, they are rather used to propel the "propeller" and should therefore be pointing along the rotation (primarily, see graphic at 4:31, it's called "tip jet"). This also makes the angle of attack of the wings much shallower which was pointed out by others.
