"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...


Morgans wrote:
I had always heard that the fuselage tank was the source of the
instability, with it being so far behind the CG, to give it a dangerously
aft CG. Today, in peacetime, I don't suppose they would ever dream of
putting that much weight that far back, but it was war.

Comments?

I'll take that any day of the week over the Bf-109, where you're main
fuselage tank goes under the pilot's seat, or the Me-163 where you're
sitting squeezed in between two tanks of hydrogen peroxide at your sides.

I always think flying an Me-163 in combat must have been one of the most
crazy experiences in wartime aviation, firstly you have all the explosive
fuel around you, secondly you are shortly to be boosted at tremendous climb
rates into the middle of a heavily armed B-17 formation, thirdly if you
survive all that and manage to get a shot in before the couple of minutes
before the motor dies, you have to glide back like a brick to a tiny
airfield and land on a skid!