Warbird Information Exchange

Who developed the concept of the rounded-off aircraft bow, like the B-29 and then the Boeing C-97/Stratocruiser (as well as the earlier Boeing Stratoliner)? I don't mean early World War I era aircraft with the pilot's seat up front with a rudimentary windshield but a fully enclosed cockpit in the style of that classic stepless Boeing front end?

If you mean with the cockpit glazing as part of the nose, possibly the Heinkel HE-111? Initially designed in 1934.

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Always looking for P-51D parts.

Excellent thought. I'll bet you're right, at least in terms of serious production airplanes.

It was starting to appear on paper airplanes by the late 1930s. One of my favorite "pulp fiction" airplanes, Bill Barnes' Charger, sported such a nose in the Oct. 1938 Air Trails. Around the same time, Consolidated's first sketches for the B-24 had such a nose.

The first Heinkel to use this nose probably was the He 119 (1936), although it had a propeller drive shaft running through it. The He 111 initially had a conventional stepped nose, and switched to the non-stepped, all-glazed nose with the 111P variant. The first prototype 111 with that nose, the V8, first flew in January 1938.

August

How about the Sikorsky Ilya Muromets?
Certainly stepless (though more vertical than the 111) some look like the back of a '30 art deco railway observation car.
Along that same line is The 1919 Farman Goliath transport.

If you don't count those, the de Havilland DH. 84 Dragon biplane twin, of 1932 might be a contender. No cockpit step, but not completely glazed.
The feature seemed to be popular in Germany with the Ar 232 twin boom transport, Ar 234 jet, the cockpit half of the Bv141 observation ship, the Heinkel 177 heavy bomber, Messerschmitt 264 "Amerika bomber", and Siebel Si 204 light transport.
And while it doesn't predate the Heinkel, the Bugatti 100 is a worth mentioning (and likely the only front engined single engine airplane in the group).
For looks, hard to beat the Republic Rainbow. And the Republic SeeBee deserves a mention. And don't forget the C-46.

And while we are on the topic, do the early radome-less C-130As qualify?

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
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I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

i'd add the Bristol Blenheim 1. But it likely comes down to when they could actually manufacture the necessary windshield shapes in glass or plexi(?) Note that the German designs were often made of many flat panels.

The Bell YFM Airacuda may not have been the first, but it got a lot of publicity.

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I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.

Thanks to all. Lots of good ideas. (I'm doing a Stratocruiser article.)