ju 87 undercarridge

[rochie]

i've just watched a show on the ju 87 and it left me wondering why was the stuka built with fixed undercarridge, would it have been a better and longer lived front line weapon if it could raise it wheels or would it have been impossible to have raised wheels on a ju 87

[Jerry W. Loper]

Originally Posted by rochie

i've just watched a show on the ju 87 and it left me wondering why was the stuka built with fixed undercarridge, would it have been a better and longer lived front line weapon if it could raise it wheels or would it have been impossible to have raised wheels on a ju 87

The Luftwaffe had plans to replace the Ju-87 Stuka with the Ju-187, which had retractable landing gear and the famous bent wings, but the Ju-187 didn't have a sufficient performance advantage to make production worthwhile. (The Ju-187's speed was only 249 m.p.h.) Personally, I don't know that giving the Ju-87 retractable gear would have done much good; it still wouldn't have been able to elude enemy fighters which would still have a 100 m.p.h. advantage; IMO some World War II aircraft that had fixed landing gear (like the Japanese Aichi D3A Val dive bomber) didn't need retractable gear.

[rochie]

and i imagine the fw 190 could do all the attack work that was needed so why spend the time, money and material for little or no gain in performance

[Kurfürst]

Fixed landing wheels are rather useful for a dive bomber (which is why they typically kept it), they limit the speed of the dive and probably it is structurally also beneficial (no need to weaken the wing structure with wheel bays etc).

And indeed JaBo versions of the FW 190s replaced to Stukas to considerable extent later in the war.

[rochie]

Originally Posted by Kurfürst

Fixed landing wheels are rather useful for a dive bomber (which is why they typically kept it), they limit the speed of the dive and probably it is structurally also beneficial (no need to weaken the wing structure with wheel bays etc).

And indeed JaBo versions of the FW 190s replaced to Stukas to considerable extent later in the war.

i never thought of the wheels as simple dive brakes cheers Kurfürst