Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnewsc!cbnews!cbnews!military
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: wing structure etc.
Message-ID: <1990Oct29.025029.6094@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 29 Oct 90 02:50:29 GMT
References: <1990Oct23.190713.7324@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct26.015709.25351@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 20
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
>From: dps@otter.hpl.hp.com (Duncan Smith)
>NO! NO! NO! The Bf108 had a very angular wing, like the
>Bf109. The elliptical wing of the Spitfire, which was
>incidentally much more difficult to manufacture, has
>often been taken to represent British engineering's
>quest for the elegant solution and British industry's
>traditions of craftsmanship were fully exercised in
>making it. The Spitfire took fully three times the
>man hours to produce compared with a 109.

Actually, it wasn't just the shape.  The Spitfire's wing structure was
also an... interesting... piece of engineering.  The main spars were
made of multiple nested square tubes, which made them very strong and
light but must have been an incredible horror to mass-produce.
-- 
The type syntax for C is essentially   | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
unparsable.             --Rob Pike     |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry