WWII Russian aircraft

[bent barrel]

According to the published specs., WWII Russian fighters were comparable to contemporary Axis and Allied fighters in most important regards, like armament, speed, manueverability, armor, etc. But while everybody else used aluminum, stressed skin construction to save weight and achieve these goals, the Russians used steel and wood!! There had to be a price to be paid by using such antique and heavy methods. Does anybody have any insights or just plain old opinions??

cheers.

[HolyHappiness]

Not all non-soviet aircraft were made of aluminum. Take the DeHaviland Mosquito for example, it was made of plywood. Many pilots nicknamed it the "wooden wonder". However, I don't know as much when it comes to soviet aircraft so I can't help you there, sorry.

[bent barrel]

The Germans made use of plywood also, most notably in the HE162 jet fighter ( a jet, yet!), and we even used some fabric coverings (early F4U's). And I never could quite understand why the Mosquito did what it did.

But still...

[Chris_B]

US militaria forum and all that...but they (the Soviets) used a type of composite called "Delta wood" which was essentially a wood impregnated with a type of plastic resin. It was hardly an antique idea to use this type of material

 

North American Aviation also played with some composite materials using wood and plastics, pre-war. Edgar Schmeud, the chief designer of the P-51, was part of teams that explored these types of composites at NAA

 

There were definite advantages to using composite wood structures for the Soviets, such as manufacturing savings (wood is easy to cut), non-essential war material usage, performance of lightweight materials, and use of less skilled labor

 

There's still a lot of misconception about what the VVS (Soviet Air Force, or "Air Army") did and how they did it, but they weren't using the type of wood or even plywood that you see at Home Depot

[NebrPatch]

The Soviets had a bad habit of throwing some of their best engineers in prison. One example is Tupolev. By keeping some of their designers imprisoned, they may have suffered from a "brain drain", and the aircraft manufacurers had to use existing methods & materials.

 

Tom

[gwb123]

The Germans were no better. A number of their aircraft engineers for advanced designs were sent to the Eastern Front, but later recalled when their work won approval.

[Cobrahistorian]

I think it comes down to the fact that the Russians were not as technically adept. Sure, they got US Lend-Lease P-39s, P-40s and B-25s, all of which have steel plating in their construction. The Russians, however, couldn't figure out how to mount said armor plating in their new designs, so they decided to make the skins from it instead.

 

Oh by the way, I just picked up this vintage bridge for a song. Eastern side of Manhattan. Anyone interested?

 

Jon

[gwb123]

As fascinating as this topic is, at this point it does not seem quite relevant to US Militaria or collecting.

 

For what it is worth, I vaguely recall the US experimenting with a wood composite fighter, but it was never fully developed.

 

Reluctantly I'm afraid I have to close this topic as being outside the focus of this forum.