Boom aircraft free#

The first of those was the Heinkel He-111 Z (for Zwilling = Twin), which added a fifth engine to be able to pull the giant Me-321 transport glider. Here the advantage was a smaller overall surface area to house two engines, their coolers and turbochargers, and the pilot (picture below, source).ĭuring the war, again the requirement for more powerful aircraft arose, and to avoid the delay of a fully new design, existing aircraft were combined, shortening the development time greatly. Since there were two engines already with a big space requirement for the turbocharger, Lockheed decided to use a two-tailboom design. The engine manufacturers could increase power output only slowly, so a number of designs ( Lockheed P-38, Messerschmitt Me-110, Bristol Beaufighter, Northrop P-61) tried to use two engines. However, unlocking the performance potential possible with these designs required much more powerful engines. Remember that at the beginning of the 1930s fighters were still biplanes ( Hawker Fury, Heinkel He-51), and new designs like the Caudron 460 or the Messerschmitt Bf-108 showed that sleek aerodynamics and high wing loading were the way ahead. The second group arose due to the performance requirements of modern, all-metal, stressed-skin designs with cantilevered wings. The advantage is obvious: No structure at the rear fuselage.

Boom aircraft free#

Also, some early jet aircraft used a two-boom layout to keep the tail structure free of the jet blast. Here the designers wanted to create space for the propeller or a loading ramp. 2, the Saab 21 (picture below, source) or the Gotha Go-242. The first group comprises aircraft like the D.H. Examples are the Junkers 322 or the Blohm&Voss BV 141, both single-fuselage designs with an offset cockpit. You could add a third group, those with two distinct fuselages and an offset pilot position, but an offset cockpit could also be a result of other design considerations.

There are two groups of twin boom designs: Those which were designed that way from the outset, and those which were later derived from single-fuselage designs.

Shorter development time for high-performance aircraft.Smaller overall surface area for two-engine aircraft, or.No structure directly aft of the fuselage, which helped to integrate the propulsion, or improved access to the cargo area, or improved pilot vision,.Depending on the design, one of three advantages made designers choose a twin-boom layout: