Afternoon clue. Thanks; Ernie P.
What warbird do I describe?
1. During WWII, a number of nations explored, designed, tested and perhaps constructed a variety of “Emergency Fighters”.
2. These were planes intended to be produced, should supply lines be cut and certain “strategic materials”, normally essential to modern aircraft production, become unavailable.
3. By and large, these “Emergency Fighters” were simply taken to the “proof of concept” stage; and then forgotten until such time as they might be needed, should the war effort not go in their favor.
4. However, a number of these planes were seriously considered, and intended to be put into mass production.
5. And this is the story of one such plane.
6. Strangely enough, this project started as a design for a glider.
7. A wooden glider.
8. The glider was a very simple and straightforward design.
9. It was intended to be very easy to control.
10. The program was rushed so rapidly that the plane was being constructed even before the plans were finalized.
11. The first flight was performed even before the results of wind tunnel testing was completed.
12. The first flight seemed to confirm the glider was easy to control and quite stable.
13. Unfortunately, the second flight revealed some nasty problems with vibration as speed was increased.
14. So, the tail was reinforced and a second stabilizer was added.
15. Which seemed to correct the problems for the moment.