Does the Alpha VF have variable geometry wings?

[ShadowLogan]

Currently the Alpha has a (Fighter Mode) Length of 10.25m and a wingspan of 8.2m (in the OSM it is supposed to be 6.4m, and back in the 1E Palladium RPG days it was 6.7m wingspan with a length of 10.3m, which could just be a rounded 10.25m figure), for a Length to Wingspan ratio of 1.25 (1.6 in OSM and 1.53 1E PB RPG). While working on another project I noticed that (official) lineart does not maintain this ratio.

Image Sources (online sourced images I used GIMP's measuring tool, physical I used a ruler):
-the OSM Artbooks have a 3 profile view of the Alpha, with a measured ratio of ~1.45, which would imply a wingspan of ~7.1m (if the length is assumed to be correct)
-OSM lineart of the A/B-stack, measuring just the Alpha section it had a ratio of ~1.40, with a wingspan of ~7.3m
-the MPC instruction had a ratio of ~1.50 for a wingspan of ~6.8m, thinking the online source might have distorted the dimensions of the pic I measured again using my physical copy (H) for a ratio of ~1.54 and a wingspan of ~6.7m
-measuring the (Toynami-H model) MPC physically had a ratio of ~1.45 with a wingspan of ~7.1m
-AotSC pg78 has a top down view (2 actually) of the Alpha with a ratio of ~1.39 for a wingspan of ~7.4m.
-RT.com's Size Comparison Chart comes in at a ratio of ~1.26 with a wingspan of ~8.1m (arguably the closest)

Now in the animation and the OSM artwork, the Alpha in Fighter Mode is shown to have anhedral wings (from a front profile the wings angle downward from the body, this can be see in the realworld AV-8B Harrier II, the F-4 Phantom has partial dihedral wings which angled upward instead of downward). This type of wing design is supposed to improve maneuverability of fighter-type aircraft.

Question could we explain all of these measurements by giving the Alpha Fighter Variable Geometry Wings that change the anhedral angle? There is some precedent in the realworld, the Soviet-era MIG-105 spaceplane (unmanned), which used dihedral wings could adjust the angle. That was the only example I could find, and while it sweeps in the opposite direction it shows it can be done (even if the example is in a different quadrant). Plus the Alpha's transformation gear is already setup to adjust the wing along this axis, so mechanically (most if not all of) the hardware for this is already present. While we could claim "animation error", the animation does have at least one instance where the angle seems to be very steep ("Curtain Call") that could be used to justify the notion appearing in the animation.

As the only front profile view is (one of) the OSM artbook (digital version of this can be found on the uRRG website), I will use that. Which means the overall wingspan will be 7.1m IF we assume the length is correctly done at 10.25m in the top view. Using GIMP's measuring tool I calculate the downward angle of the wing to be 18.18deg, with a (calculated) horizontal size of ~2.28m from the root to a point perpendicular to the tip after its drop of ~0.75m, resulting in the length of the wing edge (or the hypotenuse of a right triangle) to be ~2.39m. Since the wing's leading edge won't change length in this type of VG setup, that means at a ZERO Degree angle, the wingspan would increase by 0.11m on each side or 0.22m overall (grand total of ~7.32m), which would still leave us short by ~0.9m if we try to get to the 8.2m, but it could lineup with some of the other measurements (and increasing the angle would reduce the wingspan).

So to answer the question. For the most part yes it could explain the measurement differences IF we toss out the RT.com Wingspan AND the RT.com Size Comparison Chart. AotSC while is out of this range, it was also done with a manual ruler where the other images are done using GIMP's measuring tool inside the image, so the 0.1m gap might be nothing more than a result of manual measuring error/precision. IF we don't toss out the RT.com Wingspan and Size Comparison Chart image, then the answer would be no based on the OSM front profile lineart, however that is only if we start from the ~7.1m wingspan implied in the lineart multi-view.

A few side notes:
1. IF we reset the Wingspan to the OSM spec of 6.4m, the gain drops to ~0.21m which might allow an explanation for the OSM to 1E RPG difference (especially if done manually back in the day, but I have no way to confirm this is the actual case).
2. at 34deg angle the wingspan is 6.8m, at 38deg angle the wingspan is ~6.7m (as 1E PB RPG), and the OSM's 6.4m comes in at 49deg
3. The 1E RPG's VF-1V creation has this to say about the wingspan in Fighter Mode (of 14m) states "jet and guardian modes wtih wings fully swept", which is odd and started me thinking along these lines since the VF-1V doesn't have the swing-wings of the VF-1 as seen in the artwork attributed to the unit (more evidence the VF-1V artwork even in 1E should be ignored?). Running everything again using the VF-1V F-mode dimensional length as constant, means it would have a wingspan ~9.3 and ~11.3m depending on the reference pic (well short of the required 14m). Using 9.9m from the equivalent image "wingspan" as used in the Alpha, that would mean adjusting its angle to 0degress would mean a wingspan of ~10.1m Though it should be noted the VF-1V is not a perfectly scaled-up Alpha (using 1E dimensions) on all 3-axis, which might have additional drawbacks when plugged in here (off-hand I would think this, so take all aspects here with some grain of salt please).

[drewkitty ~..~]

Do the Alpha VFs have variable geometry wings?
Only within the limitations of their mechamorphisis folding patterns. Nothing like the Valkyrie's ("tomcat") swept wings.

I would say that they would they are automatically "carrier wings" which can fold up to conserve space on a hanger deck.

[Peacebringer]

I'm not sure, but, I can't think of which anime it came from (probably Gundam), but they had fighters very similar to Alpha's in design. I'm not too sure on how aerodynamic they would be, but if you look at an F-4 Phantom, which is proof that if you give a brick enough thrust, it will fly.