Göttingen 765: attempt 3 with a Messerschmitt drawing

A small number of Me 163B factory drawings have surfaced in the archives of the National Air and Space Museum and the Deutsches Museum. One of the drawings, number 8.163-510 Blatt 27 dated July 1942, includes a cross section of the wing root. There is no guarantee that the drawing is 100% accurate. The drawing is not meant as a definition of the root section, it is merely a view of the wing.

Of interest is, that the plan view drawing (not shown here) shows a straight trailing edge. On the real aircraft, the trailing edge is also straight, except for a small inboard part, where the wing root fairing starts, and the trailing edge has a small curvature. The lack of this curvature makes this drawing most likely better suited for measurements than for example photos of museum aircraft, because the chord length is correct.

Another useful detail is the incidence angle of the wing root section. I rotated the drawing 3.67 degrees to arrive at a horizontal chord line. That suggests a root incidence angle of about 3.7 degrees. This figure agrees only with one of the various quoted angles.

Bob Adams digitally measured the drawing, and kindly contributed the contour data listed below. Shown for reference are plots of the coordinates, made in Excel.

Contour data

(note: the coordinates are not smoothed to achieve mathematically smooth contours, without discontinuous curvatures)

Normalised
x-coordinate

Normalised
y-coordinate

1.000000 0.000093
0.987500 0.001197
0.975000 0.002444
0.962500 0.003861
0.950000 0.005325
0.937500 0.006789
0.925000 0.008325
0.912500 0.009909
0.900000 0.011541
0.887500 0.013269
0.875000 0.014998
0.862500 0.016726
0.850000 0.018358
0.837500 0.020038
0.825000 0.021766
0.812500 0.023543
0.800000 0.025343
0.787500 0.027263
0.775000 0.029111
0.762500 0.031031
0.750000 0.033143
0.737500 0.035256
0.725000 0.037391
0.712500 0.039599
0.700000 0.041808
0.687500 0.044048
0.675000 0.046281
0.662500 0.048514
0.650000 0.050716
0.637500 0.052906
0.625000 0.055118
0.612500 0.057204
0.600000 0.059153
0.587500 0.061112
0.575000 0.062881
0.562500 0.064556
0.550000 0.066231
0.537500 0.067906
0.525000 0.069580
0.512500 0.071192
0.500000 0.072824
0.487500 0.074289
0.475000 0.075668
0.462500 0.077006
0.450000 0.078238
0.437500 0.079461
0.425000 0.080524
0.412500 0.081546
0.400000 0.082431
0.387500 0.083316
0.375000 0.084126
0.362500 0.084769
0.350000 0.085411
0.337500 0.086015
0.325000 0.086583
0.312500 0.087007
0.300000 0.087269
0.287500 0.087329
0.275000 0.087252
0.262500 0.087011
0.250000 0.086678
0.237500 0.086198
0.225000 0.085678
0.212500 0.084757
0.200000 0.083836
0.187500 0.082675
0.175000 0.081354
0.162500 0.079833
0.150000 0.077911
0.137500 0.075589
0.125000 0.072826
0.112500 0.069784
0.100000 0.066221
0.087500 0.062378
0.075000 0.057854
0.062500 0.052810
0.050000 0.047125
0.037500 0.040839
0.025000 0.033193
0.012500 0.023258
0.009375 0.019964
0.006250 0.016201
0.003125 0.011675
0.002500 0.010507
0.001875 0.009225
0.001250 0.007781
0.000625 0.005505
0.000000 0.000000
0.000625 -0.005828
0.001250 -0.007989
0.001875 -0.009670
0.002500 -0.011021
0.003125 -0.012281
0.006250 -0.016394
0.009375 -0.019636
0.012500 -0.022158
0.025000 -0.028697
0.037500 -0.033543
0.050000 -0.037151
0.062500 -0.040369
0.075000 -0.042633
0.087500 -0.044873
0.100000 -0.046666
0.112500 -0.048281
0.125000 -0.049637
0.137500 -0.050863
0.150000 -0.051688
0.162500 -0.052348
0.175000 -0.053233
0.187500 -0.053952
0.200000 -0.054506
0.212500 -0.054989
0.225000 -0.055461
0.237500 -0.055898
0.250000 -0.056239
0.262500 -0.056593
0.275000 -0.056911
0.287500 -0.057076
0.300000 -0.057206
0.312500 -0.057206
0.325000 -0.057171
0.337500 -0.057265
0.350000 -0.057371
0.362500 -0.057293
0.375000 -0.057191
0.387500 -0.057090
0.400000 -0.057027
0.412500 -0.056924
0.425000 -0.056733
0.437500 -0.056563
0.450000 -0.056371
0.462500 -0.056008
0.475000 -0.055736
0.487500 -0.055640
0.500000 -0.055616
0.512500 -0.055592
0.525000 -0.055472
0.537500 -0.055160
0.550000 -0.054800
0.562500 -0.054392
0.575000 -0.053984
0.587500 -0.053456
0.600000 -0.052664
0.612500 -0.052016
0.625000 -0.051536
0.637500 -0.051104
0.650000 -0.050576
0.662500 -0.049856
0.675000 -0.049279
0.687500 -0.048703
0.700000 -0.047935
0.712500 -0.046999
0.725000 -0.045967
0.737500 -0.044887
0.750000 -0.043927
0.762500 -0.042895
0.775000 -0.041767
0.787500 -0.040639
0.800000 -0.039271
0.812500 -0.037711
0.825000 -0.035983
0.837500 -0.034110
0.850000 -0.032334
0.862500 -0.030294
0.875000 -0.028349
0.887500 -0.026334
0.900000 -0.024029
0.912500 -0.021557
0.925000 -0.019061
0.937500 -0.016181
0.950000 -0.013253
0.962500 -0.010181
0.975000 -0.006844
0.987500 -0.003484
1.000000 0.000093


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