What was lost?

Hi.

Many professors and researchers ponder exactly what happened to the Library of Alexandria and what knowledge and discoveries we might have lost.

Some see a parallel with Luft 46 aircraft designs.
Many plans and data were destroyed at the close of WW2 and it begs the same question, "what was lost"?

Any views on this and what might have been?

Cheers
Peter


[edit on 1-2-2006 by flitzer]

Originally posted by flitzer

Many plans and data were destroyed at the close of WW2 and it begs the same question, "what was lost"?

Any views on this and what might have been?

I'd think most of the data was "recovered", since pretty much all the Nazi researchers were taken to the USA or to Soviet Russia to continue their work. While the actual numerical data may indeed have have been lost, the knowledge gained by the researchers collecting it will have remained.

Hi kilcoo

Many thanks for your reply.

You are probably right.
Much was recovered and most German researchers did continue their work with various aircraft industries.

Its just that I come across ocasionally new, to me at least, designs and variants.
For example there was a Dornier canard design with 3 jets arranged in clover leaf formation in the rear fuselage, but I have seen only one illustration in one book. I have not seen any other references anywhere.

And its reported data, papers etc where destroyed before research establishments were over run by advancing allied forces.

Basically I was asking what just might have escaped the general pool of information we DO know about.

Thanks again and cheers
Peter

Far be it from me to dismiss the idea entirely but I think anyone who imagines that the last days of WW2 saw some amazing new and unique aerospace knowledge lost forever is amusing themselves with their daydreams.

As stated, the bulk of the German plane and engine design teams fled and ended up continuing their work elsewhere.

......and come on, lets be honest.
A series of imaginitive sketches or even wooden mock-ups (as was seen with the Focke Wulf Ta183, they liked their wooden mock-ups) - however 'radical' - are no substitute for the proper discipline of a properly designed and constructed (not forgetting thoroughly tested) series of prototypes.