Daydream Notes

I made this kit a few years ago now; but only now have taken its picture. It's Tamiya's I-400 kit. The I-400/I-401 are fairly famous (I mean I saw a comprehensive documentary on them out of PBS), so I'll skip the info dump this time.  Just for context, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) had some exceptionally large submarines, as the expected combat zone was the entirety of the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese warmed up to the aircraft-carrying subs for a few reasons. First, some of their submarine classes were large simply because they were built for trans-pacific operations. Second, for those finding things in the Pacific reasons, the idea of scout aircraft was seen as sensible, regardless of what job the submarine was assigned to. The Japanese were also really good at submarines, and really good at aircraft carriers, so making it practical came much easier. Finally, the Japanese were also the people who made floatplane versions of their fighters to operate air cover in ...

When writing the post on the V-2/A4, I fell down the rabbit hole learning how the A4's guidance system worked. I couldn't really work it into that post, as it was already way too long, so I present those details here, both because the details I learned are pretty cool,  and also to back up a claim I made: that the guidance system was a hard limit on the Third Reich's missile ambitions. While in theory later missiles could have been developed with the A4's motor, the guidance system would have to be completely redone, an development project that it's difficult to imagine the historical Third Reich ever finishing.   The Obvious, Stated I know quoting the dictionary is a hoary old cliche, so let me just say my research made me reflect on the phrase "guidance system". Before I started, I assumed a kind of black box that did the guidance thing. But once I got into it, I realized that "system" implies a bunch of mechanisms doing guidance: working, but...

Being ahead of your time is a paradox. The further you strive ahead technologically, the bigger your theoretical advantage over your rivals. But as you get further ahead, you run into problems nobody has encountered before. With the flying wings from the last post, these problems revolved around stability.  This youtube of a pilot from the YB-49 program gives you some idea of what is covered by "problems", but in short a flying wing without a conventional tail had a Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde personality. Flying Wings are sedate and agreeable to fly -- until you blunder into the Hyde part of the flight envelope. Then, if you get out alive you would count yourself lucky. In the hypothetical world of operational Nazi flying wings, a lot of German pilots would have accidentally bumped into Mr. Hyde. This was really not a problem the Nazis could have solved, if the Horton Brothers had their way and kept tails entirely out of it. Pure flying wings only returned to serious c...