K5DH wrote:
Looking at the "cool factor" at air shows, a full-scale, accurate, replica Stuka would be mighty hard to beat. Seeing some of the superb restorations and recreations that have been completed lately, I would think the world's talented pool of Warbird shops could produce a replica Stuka relatively easily.
A flyable Stuka replica would be number one on my list to reproduce as well. The problem with Stuka's is that the engineering blueprints don't exist, or more accurately, didn't survive the war. The reason we haven't see a flying Stuka yet is that it will be an exceedingly complex aircraft to reproduce without engineering data. What that means is that it has to be reverse engineered from existing airframes. As we all know, that is not so easily accomplished. There are only two complete Stukas around with a smattering of hulks, recoveries and fragments surviving as well. Even Paul Allen, with the unlimited resources he has, is not having an easy time with it. There is a reason that Allen had the Chicago Stuka 3D laser scanned - because it is exceedingly hard to restore or reproduce a flyable example out of one that is not complete and has a lot of parts missing. Also, something that went kind of under the radar, is the fact that FHCAM is offering substantial amounts of money for engineering blueprints for the Stuka. If I remember correctly, they are offering something like $50,000 for the drawings.
I've heard that the FHCAM Stuka has a long ways to go and it will be some years before we see it fly. As soon as they do complete it to airworthy, that means they will have essentially reversed engineered it enough to replicate it. Once that happens, it will open the door to facilitate the process of unlimited Stuka reproduction. BUT, I don't think that FHCAM will ever release that data. To do so, would mean their Stuka would no longer be the only flyable example in the world. It would dilute the value of that airframe and they would lose exclusive bragging rights.
So, unfortunately, I think the Paul Allen example will likely be the only example of a flyable Stuka any of us will ever get to see, barring discovery of complete blueprints somewhere or a very complete example is recovered from somewhere in Europe.