Why Aren't Swing Wing Aircraft Made Any More?

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Written, Researched, and Presented by Paul Shillito

Images and footage: Images and footage : General Dynamics, USAF, US Navy, RAAF, RAF, Grumman, US DoD

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[RaderizDorret]

They were ditched because the cost of maintaining them was insane. The F-14's maintenance cycle was 50 hours of wrench time for each hour of flight time.

[BionicRusty]

Swing wings.
The pop up headlights of aviation.
S3xy, cool and a damn shame they’re gone.

[josephpiskac]

I am 71 years old and it is amazing to have lived through the rise and completion of various technologies.

[lorentzinvariant]

If I may, I would like to suggest a topic. The humble slide rule. Back in the day, they were a pretty big deal. Being a slide rule collector and enthusiast, I can also say emphatically, there are things you can do with a slide rule that are impossible on a calculator. If you really understand them, they can be quite powerful. And they were used to build the modern world.

[etep]

I am a struggling aeronautical engineering student.
Your videos keep me motivated in my darkest moments,

[robertborglund]

The F-14 Tomcat had 6000 moving parts, the F-18 had 1700.

[paulholmes]

On the F-111 aircraft, we seldom had any maintenance issue regarding the swing mechanism nor the items to accommodate it in the fuselage. Yes, we had major wing carry through box issues early on, but the design was sound, just the issue of welding embrittlement bit us in the butt, big time, and we lost a few crew, unfortunately, again, early on. IIRC (I was an Aircraft Production Superintendent) at most we had to keep an eye on the over wing fairing systems, but it was never, ever a chronic issue like some of the early avionics and stab actuators, just a check for wear on pre & postflights.

[phoenixrising]

Small correction; it's B-47 Stratojet not Stratofortress. Great video, I miss watching this channel regularly. Please keep making more videos

[ryanjohnson]

That "Swallow" design @10:31 is gorgeous... I wonder where that model is now.

[trustnoone]

I feel that saying "In 1947 Busemann moved to the US" is underrepresenting the scope of Operation Paperclip somewhat.

[AdamJRichardson]

Man the Vickers Sparrow looks like it's straight out of Thunderbirds. Amazing!

[jbtechcon]

13:51 He finally gets to the point and vaguely answers the question. The video would have been a lot more interesting if they'd focused on answering the question and detailed HOW swing-wings create stability and HOW active controls do it better, leaving stealth to be major design factor. It's such a shame and rather frustrating when a title poses an intriguing question but then content barely addresses it.

[maximilliancunningham]

John Boyd studied the swing Wing concept at length, and concluded that additional weight and complexity, was not worth it.
On the other hand, he never had to land on carriers.

[matthewnewnham-runner-writer]

As a former F-111 fighter jock, this was an enjoyable watch. Thanks for your insights and best wishes from Spain.

[richardconway]

Hey Paul, may I suggest that you do an episode on *torpedoes* ?

I've always been fascinated by these things, but not really understood them, especially how they made them effective in ww2 era given that they were unguided. Some of the modern designs are insane, like the super-cavitating rocket propelled ones.

Anyway, thanks for the video, fascinating as usual.

[maxsmodels]

Swing wings were an aerodynamic solution that have since been surpassed with superior powerplants, flight computers and far more advanced aerodynamic designs. Advances in materials have aided that greatly. Herr Busseman looks like a Hollywood casting directors idea of a German scientist.

[ProjectSerpo]

Yes they are. I grew up in the 90s so the F-14 Tomcat has always had a special place in my heart.

[dmac]

The Tomcat is my favorite of the swing wing aircraft. For a big aircraft is was quite maneuverable at low speeds with the wings straight. It had the first microprocessor (custom made) that controlled a flight computer that governed the wing sweep. The Tomcat's wing sweep was automatically set by the computer based on aerodynamics at any given moment.
I would imagine the hinged design limited their max g more than what later aircraft like the F-15 and F-16 were limited to. And there was more maintenance required for them than ones with a fixed sweep or delta wing.

[chrissmith]

The English Electric lightning made do with almost no wings at all, pilots used to joke that the the Lightnings wings were only there to space the navigation lights apart.

[garryb]

You said since 1981 no new swing wing aircraft have been built. The Tu-160 didn't enter service till 1987 and it is currently in production. The Tu-22M3 remained in production into the 1990s