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Advent Horizon posted:It should be noted that the pictured aircraft is an original Goose with a Mackinnon turboprop conversion. Antilles may have owned the type certificate but I don't believe they ever turned out a single new-build, or even built-from-parts, aircraft. As noted, the TwOtter has the twin seaplane market pretty much cornered with a much newer design. Even then, Viking started Series 400 production using old airframes (they're all-new now). There's this crazy guy who built an experimental Widgeon out of composites: http://www.gweduck.com/ Not really available to the general public, or certificated. Also, I didn't realize that all 182's now are diesel powered. Huh.
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Mar 22, 2015 04:58
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Party Plane Jones posted:Guess it ain't happening. Aw that's kind of a bummer. Not that I would ever be able to afford something like that but still.
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Mar 22, 2015 07:45
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Terrible Robot posted:This is a hilariously unfortunate nickname/portmanteau. It would be if it was pronounced "Tw@-ter" but it isn't, so it's not 
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Mar 22, 2015 10:59
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It's pronounced like "twaught" in parts of the US, so it works there.
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Mar 22, 2015 12:12
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MrChips posted:Also the
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Mar 22, 2015 12:46
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Why are so many aircraft skins so ripple-y? Seems awfully un-aerodynamic. Also it seems strange to me that there are so many very small panels and very very many rivets, instead of larger panels with less rivets.
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Mar 22, 2015 16:06
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AnimalChin posted:Why are so many aircraft skins so ripple-y? Seems awfully un-aerodynamic. You're misunderstanding the way airplanes are constructed. Grummans of that period, and a vast majority of metal-skinned airplanes, are constructed with semi-monocoque fuselages. That IS pretty much one large sheet of aluminum. (I think there's a join between sheets just aft of the co-pilot window, directly above the wheel cut-out, and there's another panel join running along the bottom face of the side of the aircraft, where it is riveted to the structure of the hull. You can see the double lines of rivets where panels are joined.) However, skin is riveted to internal structures called frames and stringers. The skin is actually bearing structural loads, and isn't just riveted on to the internal structure to make it pretty/aerodynamic. The ripples you can see are pretty minor, and mostly visible because that aircraft is freshly waxed, and sitting in sunlight. The effect is called oil-canning.
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Mar 22, 2015 16:16
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AnimalChin posted:Why are so many aircraft skins so ripple-y? Seems awfully un-aerodynamic. It's a semi monocoque design, so what you're seeing is a stressed skin (sheets, not panels of aluminum) riveted at regular intervals to internal stringers and formers. Being an airplane that lands on its belly on water, that's a lot of stress the structure needs to accommodate, so there would be more in the way of internal structure to rivet to than a typical airliner (etc.) with shock absorbing landing gear.
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Mar 22, 2015 16:27
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A good friend of mine got the chance to fly recently. He suffers from a fairly substantial vision impairment. A mutual friend of ours works at Buzzfeed and arranged for him to test out some high-tech goggles that makes it easier for him to see. This was the result. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIRZsoz2G2M
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Mar 22, 2015 23:25
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holocaust bloopers posted:A good friend of mine got the chance to fly recently. He suffers from a fairly substantial vision impairment. A mutual friend of ours works at Buzzfeed and arranged for him to test out some high-tech goggles that makes it easier for him to see. This was the result. That is awesome!
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Mar 23, 2015 01:51
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My oldest celebrated her 5th birthday Saturday, so we had a daddy-daughter trip to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo to see some airplanes. Most of the pictures I shot were of her, but I did get a couple decent shots of some of the aircraft.  B-model Blackbird. Only one left. That's one of its engines on a cart back there under the port wing.  Are we still talking about Catalinas?  The happiest Crusader.  XP-55 Ascender. Three made, this is the only survivor.  B-25H with bonus birthday girl. I'd have shot more, but it was busy and I was trying to keep tabs on the birthday girl. Their collection is seriously impressive, and spans two buildings. They have one of each of the Grumman -cat fighters all the way up to the Tomcat, a ton of other WWII stuff, some killer first, second, and third gen jet fighters, two MiGs (a -17 and a -21), a ton of rocket engines and capsule models in their space wing, and they even have this Dauntless that they dragged off the floor of Lake Michigan back in '93. It's about a two-hour drive from Detroit, but it's totally worth it. They've really stepped up their game, and it's like a mini Wright-Patt in there. If you're in Michigan or in respectable driving distance in Illinois or Indiana, I highly recommend it.
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Mar 23, 2015 02:06
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The Air Zoo also has a restoration hangar that you can pester the front desk to go see with an escort. Some various odds and ends in there, last time I was there...10 years back, they had the XP-55 in progress, an F-4, and a lot of engines, and can't remember what all else, it was fun to have a docent all to ourselves to talk it up. Neat pictures, I've always liked the rear end-ender. Few crazy aircraft resulted from that RFC, including the Swoose Goose, and one other I'm forgetting that was also really weird. Slo-Tek fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Mar 23, 2015 |
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Mar 23, 2015 02:11
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Yup, the restoration hangar is just the old museum building. It's also stuffed with all sorts of odds and ends like the MiGs, a Starfighter, the rattiest loving Phantom I've ever seen, a Cougar, a goddamned Saturn V engine hanging from the ceiling, the flight deck of a Sea Stallion, all sorts of weird stuff. We walked right in, no guide or docent or anything.
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Mar 23, 2015 02:19
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Oh cool, I had no idea there was a surviving XP-55, thanks for sharing!
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Mar 23, 2015 02:36
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holocaust bloopers posted:A good friend of mine got the chance to fly recently. He suffers from a fairly substantial vision impairment. A mutual friend of ours works at Buzzfeed and arranged for him to test out some high-tech goggles that makes it easier for him to see. This was the result. If they don't license the design for Geordi La Forge's visor and make some in that form factor, I will be highly disappointed.
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Mar 23, 2015 04:45
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I stopped by the air park outside the Palmdale, CA airport yesterday and took some photos. They have a small collection of a lot of weird planes that were designed there or used there in some capacity. Also a bunch of century-series fighters. I'm on a laptop and a lovely connection at the moment, so I can't do a full run down right now. But here's one of the coolest: a shuttle carrier 747. It's not roped off or anything, you can walk right up to it (and underneath it!). Very impressive. Right next to a B-52, as well. 
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Mar 23, 2015 05:42
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Wingnut Ninja posted:I stopped by the air park outside the Palmdale, CA airport yesterday and took some photos. They have a small collection of a lot of weird planes that were designed there or used there in some capacity. Also a bunch of century-series fighters. I'm on a laptop and a lovely connection at the moment, so I can't do a full run down right now. But here's one of the coolest: a shuttle carrier 747. It's not roped off or anything, you can walk right up to it (and underneath it!). Very impressive. Right next to a B-52, as well. What? No obligatory pictures of the SR-71 and the A-12?
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Mar 23, 2015 06:25
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God the F-8 Development timeline is depressing. Oct '47: first supersonic flight Sep '52: Navy issues bid requests May '53: Vought wins Mar '55: First prototype flight Sep '55: First production delivery Apr '56: First cat launch Sometime in 1957: squadrons deploy
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Mar 23, 2015 06:25
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Shim Howard posted:God the F-8 Development timeline is depressing. To be fair, the reason poo poo got done more quickly back then is because 1) the D-I base was still working out how to horse-gently caress the government out of every cent possible through red tape and loopholes, and 2) even though the car factories stopped making tanks, all the engineers who were given carte blanche to pretty much try and develop anything that'll shorten the war were still alive and very talented. Most of the bullshit revolving around something like the F-35's development and deployment stems from the coming together of mechanical/aeronautics engineers and computer hardware/software engineers/coders having to make things work in harmony instead of 0/1 code that determines whether or not a missile is armed or not. Case in point, the Raptors almost suffering a catastrophe because no one thought to ask 'hey what happens if/when they cross the international date line' and 'ooops, guess our planes don't need that gun for IOC anyway.' BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 10:42 on Mar 23, 2015 |
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Mar 23, 2015 09:52
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Also, it doesn't make sense to spend ten years creating a plane that only has a ten year service life, like a lot of models in the post-war era.
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Mar 23, 2015 12:31
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smackfu posted:Also, it doesn't make sense to spend ten years creating a plane that only has a ten year service life, like a lot of models in the post-war era. The F-4 took 5 years from start to first flight and was in service the following year.
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Mar 23, 2015 13:17
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hobbesmaster posted:The F-4 took 5 years from start to first flight and was in service the following year. And is still in service today, more than will be said about the F-35 in 50 years I suspect.
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Mar 23, 2015 13:28
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Gather 'round children, and listen to the story of how modern(ish) US military procurement works... The government has a huge, seemingly bottomless vat of pork that they earmark for things like new jets and things. Doesn't matter where it comes from, or even if it actually exists in real terms at all. What happens is they distribute that pork in barrels all over they USA and even a few firkens get sent abroad to their friends and allies. And then the part of the government that runs these things tells everyone to whom they sent those barrels of pork: "Build me a pig!". And that's how the F35 was born.
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Mar 23, 2015 13:34
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hectik posted:my most played sim before adulthood was F-29 Retaliator, Oh man, that was the first game I ever played on my Amiga circa 1988 or so, unfortunately the version I had was bugged to poo poo. Pretty impressive for it's time that enemy aircraft could pop flares which actually worked too.
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Mar 23, 2015 14:34
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These are the kind of planes I was thinking of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_F4D_Skyray https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_F7U_Cutlass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_F-11_Tiger Hundreds built, and under ten years of service before being retired.
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Mar 23, 2015 14:57
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CroatianAlzheimers posted:B-model Blackbird. Only one left. That's one of its engines on a cart back there under the port wing. • The lighting on that Blackbird is loving awesome • I just love pushers. I swear to god if I ever get enough money I'm getting myself one • Your kid is adorable e:  
marumaru fucked around with this message at 15:31 on Mar 23, 2015 |
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Mar 23, 2015 15:28
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Inacio posted:• The lighting on that Blackbird is loving awesome Yeah, it's crazy. That's a really long exposure, about a second if I remember correctly. It's really dark in that corner, and the only light directly on the Blackbird are a couple orange-gelled stage spots in the ceiling (you can see them lighting up the canopies), and those red landing lights in the plinth lighting up the ventral side of the aircraft. In situ, the thing looks like it's waiting for clearance on a ramp in Hell. quote:• Your kid is adorable Heh, thanks. It's really the only thing that keeps us from selling her and her little sister to the gypsies some days. CroatianAlzheimers fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Mar 23, 2015 |
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Mar 23, 2015 15:44
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Inacio posted:• The lighting on that Blackbird is loving awesome I love pusher designs, but I love tractor push/pull designs even more  You sexy bastard I think you all are due for another Rocket post too.
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Mar 23, 2015 15:53
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Inacio posted:• The lighting on that Blackbird is loving awesome There's a half dozen or so flying catfish based around me. Great to walk around and look at, not so great when they enter the pattern at 250-something and controllers almost get you in a midair with them. But it was the sexiest almost death I've had 
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Mar 23, 2015 16:52
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P.180s are legit faster than Citation I's at altitude. When you call traffic they're overtaking to them, you can HEAR the smug.
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Mar 23, 2015 17:03
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CommieGIR posted:I love pusher designs, but I love tractor push/pull designs even more Seriously, I love that gawky bastard. When littlest aviatrix and I were at Udvar-Hazy a couple years ago, her mind was totally blown by that airframe. "Daddy, it has a backward propeller!"
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Mar 23, 2015 17:31
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BIG HEADLINE posted:'ooops, guess our planes don't need that gun for IOC anyway.' To be fair, this is probably true. Even back in Vietnam, the Navy's air-to-air kill ratio beat the poo poo out of the Air Force's after TOPGUN (and Navy F-4s didn't have the internal gun), so the real lesson there wasn't so much "plane need gun to make other plane stop fly" as it was "pilot need ACM training to make other plane stop fly".
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Mar 23, 2015 17:59
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MrYenko posted:P.180s are legit faster than Citation I's at altitude. So an airplane from the 1990s beats a jet from 1968 that was optimized for short field operations? Shocking.  Mr. Showtime posted:To be fair, this is probably true. Even back in Vietnam, the Navy's air-to-air kill ratio beat the poo poo out of the Air Force's after TOPGUN (and Navy F-4s didn't have the internal gun), so the real lesson there wasn't so much "plane need gun to make other plane stop fly" as it was "pilot need ACM training to make other plane stop fly". They need to stop pretending that the gun is for anything other than CAS missions.
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Mar 23, 2015 18:09
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hobbesmaster posted:So a It's always funny when this happens, regardless of the reason. Had a Beechcraft Baron chewing up a Southwest Boeing 737 on final the other day. I had already switched Southwest to the tower or I might have poked fun at him.
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Mar 23, 2015 18:11
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holocaust bloopers posted:A good friend of mine got the chance to fly recently. He suffers from a fairly substantial vision impairment. A mutual friend of ours works at Buzzfeed and arranged for him to test out some high-tech goggles that makes it easier for him to see. This was the result. That's awesome, it's always nice to see technology doing good practical work to remind you that not everything is terrible in the world.
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Mar 23, 2015 18:25
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The Ferret King posted:It's always funny when this happens, regardless of the reason. Inertia is a bitch. Whats vref on a light 737/738? Like 120ish?
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Mar 23, 2015 18:36
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I'm taking a trip to Puerto Rico next month, and I thought I'd check with this thread if I'll be passing any notable air museums or attractions worth seeing while there or on the way. I'll be leaving from Birmingham, AL for San Juan, most likely stopping in Miami for an hour or 3 depending on exact flight. Anything airplane related worth picking a longer layover flight to check out? There are also flights with layovers in Atlanta and Charlotte, but all too short to bother leaving the airport really. I see the Wings Over Miami museum has a Catalina and an A-26, which are almost enough reason on their own imo.
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Mar 23, 2015 19:27
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I The Ferret King posted:It's always funny when this happens, regardless of the reason. I got to do this a lot going into midway back in my freight dog days. So satisfying. Flying turboprops is also really satisfying in the terminal because you can go like 100 knots faster than the jets and still get pulled back to vref at the marker.
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Mar 23, 2015 19:43
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VOR LOC posted:I In before our resident osprey pilot one ups everyone by going 200kias over the fence and hover taxiing over the piano keys or something equally ridiculous.
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Mar 23, 2015 19:56
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VOR LOC posted:
This. I fly the Q400, and it's always entertaining to get asked to slow down because we're overtaking a CRJ, plus the fact that we can do CAT III approaches with the airplane means that it's not uncommon for us to make it into some airports while the CRJ's and Embraers are trying to figure out how much longer they can hold before they have to divert.
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Mar 23, 2015 20:18
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