I.Ae.26 Gavilán

[TomZ]

I.Ae.26 Gavilán



After the war the Horten brothers emigrated to Argentina where they were contracted to provide the Argentine Air Force with more modern aircraft. They had brought a number of designs with them form Germany and the first aircraft the produced was the Gavilán (Hawk), an upgraded Horten IX fighter.



The first prototype flew in Argentina in 1947 and production began in 1948. In all 48 examples were produced. In the hands of inexperienced pilots it proved a  difficult aircraft to fly and a number were lost due to accidents. The Gavilán remained in service until 1951.





Model: PM Model 1/72
This is one of the models I finished to take to the Dutch IPMS Nationals which were scheduled for November 27th. However they were cancelled because of Covid. 

[Hobbes]

I wonder what they were thinking with that nosewheel...

[The Wooksta!]

There's an engineering/aerodynamic reason, I just can't remember what it is.  Something to do with angle of incidence for the wing and shorter take offs.

Everyone builds the kits as production models, either forgetting or simply not knowing that they're all based on the V3 which was simply a prototype and the production version was to have been based on a later prototype - the V6 would have had a deeper, more smoothed out centre section with proper u/c doors and not the massive air brake shown here.

[PR19_Kit]

I asked the question about that nosewheel elsewhere, and one of the answers was it came from a crashed B-24.

One can only assume that the Argentinians placed a hefty order for them with Consolidated, even though they had no B-24s.......... 

[Wardukw]

Another goodin Tom ..and not only did Argentina get the Horten but they got a stealth fighter too 
One thing which has always fotten to me is why would the Germans use a wheel off a crashed B24?
Im pretty sure that the Horten Brothers wouldnt have to much trouble getting a wheel from Luftwaffe stocks.

[comrade harps]

A short service life, 1848 to 1951. I wonder what replaced it?

[Flyer]

Love it!

I have a couple of PM kits, this is inspiring.

There's an engineering/aerodynamic reason, I just can't remember what it is.  Something to do with angle of incidence for the wing and shorter take offs.

I said something along those lines in another thread, but it was/is a total guess based on my own R/C flying wing experiences, I have not read/seen any evidence to back up the reason Horton did so.

My reasoning for that guess is that without a tail for leverage having the main gear that far back from the centre of gravity would not allow it to rotate at take off so it would need a high angle of attack instead to lift off at the required speed.

A few year's ago I experimented with landing gear placement on R/C flying wings and inspired by Horten I tried having a high angle of attack and rear set mains and found it best for take off and having the rear mains helped a great deal in eliminating bouncing helping it to "stick" on landing...

[Dizzyfugu]

A short service life, 1848 to 1951.

The whole fleet was eaten by timber worms. 

Nice one. 

[NARSES2]

The whole fleet was eaten by timber worms. 

Someone at Telford had done one with the plywood wings unpainted, looked quite odd for some reason ?

Nice one Tom 

[Devilfish]

The nose wheel was the tailwheel off a He177. It was all they could get hold of at the time.  I think production versions would have had a more "manageable" nose wheel.

[AndrewF]

Excellent once again!

[Snowtrooper]

The nose wheel was the tailwheel off a He177. It was all they could get hold of at the time.  I think production versions would have had a more "manageable" nose wheel.

First and second prototypes did have the tail wheel, but this looks more like the third one with He 177's main wheel instead (just looking at the size, He 177 can't be THAT big to have such a massive tailwheel). There's a high probability that all of the kits are actually based on the V3 since it actually survived the war. (Of course having no physical copy at all has not stopped manufacturers producing even the weirdest Napkinwaffe designs, but there you go.)

[su27rules]

 

[Wardukw]

The problem ive always had with the B24 wheel idea was ..well everything ..the wheel hub was completely different and the B24s tire had tread on it..every pic of the Horten ive ever seen has never had tread on the nose wheel.
The front tire was 3 ft tall and the mains much bigger..so yeah im pretty sure that was crap right from the get go.
He177 is much more plausible.

[The Wooksta!]

The Ju 287 V1 was the one that re-used B24 nosegear, mainly as it was a lash up prototype to test the wing at low speed.