Keith Willshaw wrote:
"Mike Zaharis" wrote in message
...


robert arndt wrote:


"Boomer" wrote in message

...

the U-2 was little more than an F-104 with high aspect wings to

overfly

unfriendly airspace. Not much of a "concept" there, just the only way

to

achieve that kind of altitude with the tech of the day. I guess the

Germans

invented the F-104 as well. There were "big wing" recon planes in

WWII, I

guess they were stolen from Germany too.


Gee, the U-2 bears a rather strong resemblence to the F-104, does it?
Let's look at the DFS 228 captured by the US in 1945 and studied for a
year before being given to the British to evaluate (which led to the
Slingsby T-44 concept):

http://www.luft46.com/prototyp/dfs228.html

Yeah right, the DFS 228 has NOTHING to do with the U-2. Get real.

Rob

Rob, let me be the first to defend you. Here's the original aircraft that

proved to the world

that high aspect ratio wings are good - and it's Nazi-era German!

http://www.luftfahrtmuseum.com/htmi/itf/goe3.htm
http://www.hobbyclub.com/Gal-minimoa.htm



Do you seriously think high aspect ratio wings werent invented
until 1936 ?

Francis Herbert Wenham at the Aeronautical society in London
built a wind tunnel and demonstrated the advantages of high
aspect wing ratios for gliders in 1871

This was understood by most of the aviation pioneers including Lillienthal

Keith



Maybe I should have included the HTML commandes [Sarcasm] and [/sarcasm].