Diving plane

Diving Plane Small wing that projects from either the side of the submarine hull or the conning tower and provides directional control when the submarine is submerged. 

Dive Bombing. This rype of bombing, which preceded skip bombing (See below), is an effort to improve its accuracy. Aiming his plane at the target, the pilot plunges downward at a steep angle (not over 70°), opens his airbrakes as the bomb is released, and pulls out of the dive upward immediately. 

Your jet climbs upward to avoid the missile, then dives for the ground. You can t shake the programmed missiles as they home in on your plane. You ll have to out-maneuver them or shoot them before they launch. But you d better be fast. Joystick required. 

The event was very unusual and involved a strange sequence of events. Evidence showed that the pilot was locked out of the cockpit. The only other occupant was the co-pilot. He overrode computer controls for the flight and deliberately set the plane into a steep dive that lasted about 8 minutes, ending in the crash. 

Such planes could make the most of rapidly increasing engine power to dive and climb. Shorter wings turned away better and were less prone to warp or shed under the inertial forces of extreme manoeuvres. Timber and fabric construction was taken to the limit of its practicality. While fighter plane designers looked elsewhere for structural forms to gain competitive advantage, canvas-covered... 

Jack Bruce, The SESA Aircraft in Profile (1965). The accretive process of early biplane design is well illustrated in the way the prototype s initially weak wing structure (it killed its designer) was readily modified to make the front-line planes capable of the strongest dive. 

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