Sir Fly
New member
So I did some more research, and the V-173 had exceptional slow speed performance and STOL capabilities. In fact, the Navy was so impressed by it's carrier-based opportunities that it even considered pursuing VTOL capabilities (I guess the ship's speed added enough lift?). But the planes max speed was a mere 138 mph, making it impossible to be used as a fighter unless it's power plant is improved (the XF5U, the upgraded fighter ordered by the Navy, had Pratt and Wittny engines and 4 bladed props).
Scaled down, this plane would be pretty slow (64 mph would be a little fast). Also I read somewhere that it seemed to fly in level flight with a high angle of attack, as if it was in a perpetual high-alpha. I will have to keep these things in mind when testing the prototype. If the plane has too high of a stall speed and can't fly slow enough to look scale, I will change to the symmetrical airfoil.
And I also realized it had elevators in between the vertical stabs and elevons as well, so I will have to add them in to the design (before I only had elevons on the horizontal stabs).
Scaled down, this plane would be pretty slow (64 mph would be a little fast). Also I read somewhere that it seemed to fly in level flight with a high angle of attack, as if it was in a perpetual high-alpha. I will have to keep these things in mind when testing the prototype. If the plane has too high of a stall speed and can't fly slow enough to look scale, I will change to the symmetrical airfoil.
And I also realized it had elevators in between the vertical stabs and elevons as well, so I will have to add them in to the design (before I only had elevons on the horizontal stabs).