Why does the shuttle throttle on ascent?

MichaelJP wrote:
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!


As a glider it was superb, thanks to Lippisch's background as a glider
designer.
Although the pilots tended to dive away at high speed to escape enemy
fighters once their fuel was gone (and to get back to base ASAP for the
same reason), it had a really good gliding performance, and the pilots
who flew it said its handling qualities were superior to any other
German aircraft.
It's only drawback in gliding flight was that it was _too_ good at it -
once it got down in ground effect near landing, it had a tendency to
just float along above the ground till speed bled off and it would
settle down. Even the addition of underwing extensible spoilers didn't
completely solve the problem, and a lot of pilots were injured or killed
by the aircraft remaining stubbornly airborne down the whole length of
the landing field (they landed on grass generally) and not touching down
till it arrived on the rough ground outside the field's boundaries.

Pat

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...


MichaelJP wrote:
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!


As a glider it was superb, thanks to Lippisch's background as a glider
designer.
Although the pilots tended to dive away at high speed to escape enemy
fighters once their fuel was gone (and to get back to base ASAP for the
same reason), it had a really good gliding performance, and the pilots who
flew it said its handling qualities were superior to any other German
aircraft.
It's only drawback in gliding flight was that it was _too_ good at it -
once it got down in ground effect near landing, it had a tendency to just
float along above the ground till speed bled off and it would settle down.
Even the addition of underwing extensible spoilers didn't completely solve
the problem, and a lot of pilots were injured or killed by the aircraft
remaining stubbornly airborne down the whole length of the landing field
(they landed on grass generally) and not touching down till it arrived on
the rough ground outside the field's boundaries.

Pat

Thanks Pat - the ME-163 is modelled in the superb combat flight sim IL-2,
trying it last night they must have modelled this aircraft quite nicely as I
found it very difficult to bleed off enough speed in the hold-off, exactly
as you said above. Landing on the grass the skid dug in and certainly a real
aircraft would have been destroyed.

Difference is I could reset for another go

Doing some other testing I found it impossible to recover from a spin
entered from a slow-speed stall. Wonder if that's correct?

MichaelJP wrote:
Thanks Pat - the ME-163 is modelled in the superb combat flight sim IL-2,
trying it last night they must have modelled this aircraft quite nicely as I
found it very difficult to bleed off enough speed in the hold-off, exactly
as you said above. Landing on the grass the skid dug in and certainly a real
aircraft would have been destroyed.

Obviously somebody did their research when writing the program for it.
It might have something to do with the fact tat the ailerons also serve
as its elevators.
Does the simulator have the spoilers on it?
The controls for them are located just to the left of the control stick.
There's a manual pump mechanism handle with a ball top, and to the rear
of it the actual flap control lever.
On the actual aircraft you turn the control handle 180 degrees, then
pump the pump handle six times to put the flaps fully down.
Difference is I could reset for another go

Doing some other testing I found it impossible to recover from a spin
entered from a slow-speed stall. Wonder if that's correct?

It's supposed to have a very abrupt and severe stall according to Eric
Brown's flight notes; he states it goes into a steep spiraling dive, but
you can recover from it in a "straightforward" manner. I don't know it
that means you turn into the spin and convert it into a dive or what.
BTW, he was able to get the one he was flying up to 440 mph in _gliding_
flight in a dive, which gives you some idea of just how aerodynamic this
little thing was.
He wrecked his Komet by doing progressively faster and faster ballasted
landings as tests for a British high speed research aircraft that the
RAF was planning, till the skid finally came through the floorboard of
the cockpit after a landing at 158 mph.

Pat

MichaelJP wrote:
Thanks Pat - the ME-163 is modelled in the superb combat flight sim IL-2,
trying it last night they must have modelled this aircraft quite nicely
as I found it very difficult to bleed off enough speed in the hold-off,
exactly as you said above. Landing on the grass the skid dug in and
certainly a real aircraft would have been destroyed.

Obviously somebody did their research when writing the program for it.
It might have something to do with the fact tat the ailerons also serve as
its elevators.
Does the simulator have the spoilers on it?
The controls for them are located just to the left of the control stick.
There's a manual pump mechanism handle with a ball top, and to the rear of
it the actual flap control lever.
On the actual aircraft you turn the control handle 180 degrees, then pump
the pump handle six times to put the flaps fully down.

Don't think so, but it does have landing flaps. IL-2 is pretty good as a
simulator but it models 100's of different aircraft and variants so it has
to make compromises and not all the subtleties are there. Amazing value
though for the price.

Difference is I could reset for another go

Doing some other testing I found it impossible to recover from a spin
entered from a slow-speed stall. Wonder if that's correct?

It's supposed to have a very abrupt and severe stall according to Eric
Brown's flight notes; he states it goes into a steep spiraling dive, but
you can recover from it in a "straightforward" manner. I don't know it
that means you turn into the spin and convert it into a dive or what.
BTW, he was able to get the one he was flying up to 440 mph in _gliding_
flight in a dive, which gives you some idea of just how aerodynamic this
little thing was.
He wrecked his Komet by doing progressively faster and faster ballasted
landings as tests for a British high speed research aircraft that the RAF
was planning, till the skid finally came through the floorboard of the
cockpit after a landing at 158 mph.

Pat

Interesting, what's your source for the Eric Brown story, I'd like to read
more.

MichaelJP wrote:

Interesting, what's your source for the Eric Brown story, I'd like to read
more.


Eric Brown wrote a series books about the 487 types of planes he flew
in his career as a test pilot.
The one I have is "Wings of The Luftwaffe"(all the titles have "Wings"
in them).
Each aircraft type has both a cutaway of the whole aircraft, and a
detailed drawing of the cockpit from the pilot's perspective with
everything labeled.
He gives an overview of all the handling characteristics of each type:
http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Luftwaff.../dp/0385135211
In another book, "Wings of the Weird and Wonderful" he actually flew one
of these: http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/bv141.html

Pat