"Jay Stranahan" wrote in message
...
Just mildly curious, because this information doesn't seem to be
available on any of the web sites I visit: What sort of gee forces were
WW2 fighter aircraft built to withstand? I keep hearing stories about
wings coming off in dives or very tight sustained turns -- were they
*that* much more fragile than modern military craft?


Depends on the aircraft

The Spitfire and Hurricane were just about unbreakable being
able to handle more g than the pilot but the Me-109 was
known to have suffered wing tip and tail spar failures and had real
compressibility issues. One of the results was that despite the
theoretical performance Luftwaffe pilots were often a little
more hesitant about really aggressive manoeuvering than their
RAF opponents.

The early versions of the Hawker Typhoon also had
structural problems with the prototype actually breaking
just aft of the cockpit, fortunately the pilot survived.
Improvements were made but tail failures were always
a problem.

Keith




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