UNUSUAL DESIGN
NEW GERMAN AIRCRAFT.
A LOP-SIDED FREAK.
A lop-sided freak is the asymmetrij cal Blohm and Voss 141 low-wing reconnaissance monoplane, which a cablegram has stated to be in production for the Luftwaffe. The design breaks right away from the usual practice of balancing the structure of the machine evenly on either side’ of the ■fore and aft centre-line. The fuselage housing the engine meets the long wing, not in the orthodox middle, but" at about one-third distant from the nearest tip. To offset this uneven balance a short glass nacelle, joined to the wing at a similar distance from the other tip, houses the crew, who in a normally centrally-placed fuselage would be behind the engine and propeller. A lop-sided tail-plane, projecting from one side only of the rudder, gives the impression that half has fallen off or been shot away. The tail-plane projects to the same side os that part of the wing fore-shortened by the unev. nlv-'fioem ty vl: g'.’. A pilot encountering the aircraft tor the first time might well d übt his sanity.\ The basic reason for the design is to obtain an unobstructed field of view, extremely important in an observation and reconnaissance machine. It is believed that the engine is a . Bramo Fafnir 1000 h.p. radial, giving a maximum speed of about 220 miles an hour. Claims that the new type has already achieved successes on the Eastern Front have been made by the Germans, but there is no evidence that the Russians have yet mot this flying monstrosity. Armament claimed to consist of cannon and machine-guns there is a cone turret in the tail of the nacelle —suggests that the lop-sided monoplane is intended to have a moie oftensive role tn an mere ieconnais* sance.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 August 1942, Page 4
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294UNUSUAL DESIGN Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 August 1942, Page 4
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