If one's good, two's awesome! The FW-380

[kerick]

Me likey.

I've often wondered about zwillings with the tails unconnected by a horizontal stabiliser.
Surely it makes sense to do so as it would add rigidity and drastically reduce twisting moments on the central wing section?

I've always liked the idea of having separate stabilizers, in theory if you loose one there is a backup that (hopefully) still works, even if it's just to get into a attitude to bail...

Engineering wise it's a nightmare --- the twisting forces imposed on the wing center section are tremendous, in so much you have to over-design the center section to compensate, which means heaver structure with corresponding heavier weight.  Joining the two tail together allows you to build with a much lighter structure, something that was all the rage towards the end of the war.

The P-38, F-82, Bf-109Z, P-61 and C-119 all had a single stabilizer between the tail booms. Seems that it was the way to go. Personally, I find it better looking.

[kitnut617]

They cannot have been all bad though as the He111Z had separate stab's on twin fuselages and much more recently the Transavia PL-12 Airtruk has separate stab's on booms, both of those aircraft didn't seem to have a problem with the layout.

The He111Z wasn't very successfully, and wasn't produced in any quantity, it was more of a panic solution to try to get an adequate glider tug. Plus the center section was really quite broad so strength was naturally built in.

The PL-12 is a different case too as the booms have only the tail to worry about, on the F-82 and other similar designs like Faust's project, the engine is at the front end of the fuselage, if the fuselage starts twisting the center section, the engine thrust line is bobbing up and down as the center section gets twisted compounding the problem, the two you mention don't have that problem to such an extreme.

[Faust]

Man, between the radar pod and the stabilizers, I've really gotten things humming, eh?

I agree on the horizontal stabilizers; they would be less effective and there would be a lot more stress on the fuselages due to my design. However, I wanted something different and something that looked "rushed" or "not fully thought out". Everyone used the centre stabilzer, so that seemed like a cop-out. Having to make a new centre section for the wing would have been enough work for near-collapse Nazi Germany in the first place, so I figured a fighter like this would be more likely to be rushed into production if it could use as many existing parts as possible. Thus, it is "cheaper" for the FW guys and Luftwaffe to just use normal stabilziers, and damn the consequences. Sounds similar to other desperation weapons, right? Think Natters and other not-quite-apparently-logical weapons!

As for the pod, I agree it seems a bit small, and I know German designers only had a few dish-type radars at war's end. However, again, I thought it  looked cool, and one doesn't associate podded, dish-type radars with the WWII Luftwaffe, so it made for a neat and really "Luft '46-ish" addition. Range on it would be poorer than a standard "antler type", probably, but it's less draggy so maybe that would compensate for the reduced range? I am not aware of any podded German radars from the end of the war myself. However, I thought:

"If they had a radar like the US mounted on the ends of wings, they'd likely put it in a pod." So, I did that. I hate the bulges on the ends of wings housing radars.

It's likely this one of my wilder What Ifs, but it's done mostly for fun and to look cool. I want to put as much practicality as I can into my designs, it's true, but sometimes the "cool factor" wins out.

I'm glad this has engendered some discussion! That means it was all worth it!

[zenrat]

I see the logic behind your decisions and it is a gorgeous build.