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ehnus posted:So I hear this U-2 is a hard airplane to fly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eamnTyfkUBY This is awesome. In the current edition of the Air & Space mag they do a story on Kelly Johnson (Skunkworks founder). He was basically a control freak when it came to management which is where his true genius was. There is a story in there about the first landings of the U-2. He told the test pilot to land on the front wheel, not the back. The test pilot tries and tries but the plane keeps bouncing. It is almost sundown when the pilot says "gently caress it" and lands tail wheel first and is finally able to get it down. Kelly is reportedly ticked the pilot didn't do it "right" but doesn't say anything. At the party afterwards to celibrate it he challenges the pilot to an arm wrestling match and slams his hand down so hard on the table that the guy shows up the next day with it in a splint. Guess the rumors of his temper weren't too far off either.
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Mar 15, 2010 17:15
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Fats posted:It's pretty astonishing in person. They even have an SR-71 tucked under one of the wings (along with a ton of other cool aircraft). Two things were truly astonishing about the Spruce Goose to me: - The tail. Holy balls, that tail is so goddamn tall. That thing really imparts a sense of scale to me when I'm standing near the plane. - Getting inside and looking towards the rear, I felt like I was looking at an optical illusion. The disappointing thing is that Evergreen wants something like $40 a head just to be allowed to go up into the cockpit, and then another ~$15-20 to have your picture taken at the pilot's seat. Thanks but no thanks.
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Mar 15, 2010 20:00
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Here is something that may not be as fast or as sleek as the aircraft up to this point but is is definitely aeronautical insanity. The Ultra-flight Lazair Small light and slow Twin engines with a top speed around 45 mph Sadly the website looks like it is from the early 90's http://www.lazair.com/
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Mar 15, 2010 20:26
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Am I correct in understanding that you need nothing more than a drivers license to fly one of these?
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Mar 15, 2010 20:28
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Preoptopus posted:Am I correct in understanding that you need nothing more than a drivers license to fly one of these? That probably depends heavily on what country you are in. I can only speak for Canada and here you are required to have an ultralight pilot permit which can be had for a few thousand dollars.
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Mar 15, 2010 20:46
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14 engines. Wingspan larger than a C-5 or 747. 100,000ft service ceiling. Weighs less than an Elise and takes off at jogging speed. And most unique of all, it has no fuel tanks whatsoever. What could this marvelous aircraft be? Why, it's the Helios, of course:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NCOPLEJOl0
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Mar 15, 2010 20:54
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In the US, that is correct. All you need is a Driver's License and a fair bit of moxie. Note that the twin engine plane above may not qualify because it has two engines, I'm not entirely sure, but you may need to get a Light Sport Pilot license, which as I understand it, is not terribly difficult or expensive to acquire unless you're a 500 lb retarded chain smoker or something.
jandrese fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Mar 15, 2010 |
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Mar 15, 2010 20:58
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Being a 500 pound chain smoker doesn't disqualify you from getting your Sport Pilot. You don't need to pass a medical. You do, however, need to have not failed a medical. So if you fail your regular medical you can't fly, but if you know you're going to fail and just let it expire you're fine. Edit: I'd also like to see the plane that could fit a 500 pound chain smoker and still qualify as a Light Sport. Maybe if you moved the controls to center in a Skycatcher...
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Mar 15, 2010 21:31
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I recently look a trip down south to Kermit Weeks' Fantasy of Flight. I've been there at least five times but this was the first time we actually got to go inside and look around.   I can't remember the exact name of this plane. It was something like Short.. something or other. A luxury float plane. The inside was amazing. A double-decker plane with a small "bar" on the second level.  I can't remember what this was either. THis guy is so rich he has broken up airplanes sitting around.  At one point in the tour, they took us into a hanger filled with engines and spare parts for different airplanes. It was so filled, there was hardly any room to walk. Engines sitting on shelves from top to bottom and everywhere. It was absolutely amazing. I only hope to ever be that rich.     As much as I'd love to post every single picture that my dad took that day, I don't want to image spam the thread. If anyone's really extremely interested in seeing more pics, you can add me on facebook I guess (URL in profile). Or, if you're just that much of an enthusiast and you live close enough, I recommend just taking a trip down to Lakeland for a day and looking at everything. It's really not something you can enjoy just through an album full of pictures. There's so much to see and even interact with (which was my favorite part) that it's impossible to show in pics.
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Mar 15, 2010 23:23
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Well, you could start a thread, I dont think anyone will complain. That said i dont think anyone would complain if you posted more here.
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Mar 15, 2010 23:25
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I'll just post more here. :B Hellcat!    There was an entire B-17 in the building. In the building. Also, I apologize for the dark pics of these but it was inside, in a "war zone" type setting, which was very very dark.   The inside of the Short somethingorother.    This was actually a small lawnmower engine, if I remember correctly, that had been installed in an old ultralight.    
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Mar 15, 2010 23:53
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blambert posted:It's the best bit of TV I've seen in ages. There goes an hour of my night. But it was worth it.
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Mar 15, 2010 23:56
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silversiren posted:Oh Jesus.  No force on Earth could have kept me from running over and dry humping the poo poo out of those 2.
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Mar 16, 2010 00:13
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silversiren posted:Hot piss! Soooooo many Merlins!
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Mar 16, 2010 00:15
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DiscoDickTease posted:Hot piss! Soooooo many Merlins! The tour guide dude mentioned something like each of those engines were worth $55k a piece. I want to win the lotto. 
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Mar 16, 2010 03:02
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Voted 5.
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Mar 16, 2010 03:09
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DiscoDickTease posted:Hot piss! Soooooo many Merlins! Weeks has large sections of a Lancaster stored somewhere. Back in the eighties, before he acquired it, it was undergoing restoration to flying status when a hanger roof collapsed and crushed it.
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Mar 16, 2010 04:35
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rocket_350 posted:Weeks has large sections of a Lancaster stored somewhere. Back in the eighties, before he acquired it, it was undergoing restoration to flying status when a hanger roof collapsed and crushed it. Yeah I think they told us about that. It was destroyed when Andrew roared through, correct? A large portion of the collection was kind of blown away.
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Mar 16, 2010 06:04
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No, it was in the UK when it was wrecked. It's kind of a sad how fast it went from a nice looking museum piece to a pile of parts. http://www.lancaster-archive.com/lanc_surv_kb976.htm
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Mar 16, 2010 07:41
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What's all this fixed wing nonsense? When I was a kid, my dad flew 53's, and I got to see about 20 fly in formation over our house. They also gave that F-117 pilot a ride out of serbia. gently caress yo stealth aircraft. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SropLtHGew4 I make no apologies for Bon Jovi  You know who lead those apaches into iraq taking out those radar sites so that your fancy pants planes could bomb the poo poo out of it? That's right. MH-53s. blugu64 fucked around with this message at 09:07 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 08:19
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I saw an MH-53 on static display at an airshow once that I could have sworn had 5 engines. It confused the poo poo out of me.
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Mar 16, 2010 09:20
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More Lightning goodness:
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Mar 16, 2010 10:02
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silversiren posted:
It looks like it started out as a Short Sunderland.
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Mar 16, 2010 10:11
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Sockington posted:There goes an hour of my night. Set aside another half hour, details his training and more planey things. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N05NXotFvFs blambert fucked around with this message at 10:36 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 10:27
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WT Wally posted:It looks like it started out as a Short Sunderland. It is. It was a Short Sunderland MkIII converted to a MkV before being refit for passenger service.
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Mar 16, 2010 16:46
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I present to you bitches, the LOUDEST loving PLANE ever made. What's that? You already know which plane it is? You think it's the Tu-95 Bear? gently caress that, it's the XF-84H Thunderscreech.  Click here for the full 1800x1230 image. This is an experimental plane, only one built, derived from the F-84 Thunderstreak. It was made to test the possibility of making a supersonic turboprop. Aside from having a propeller designed to go supersonic out front, it also had an afterburner. That's right, an afterburning turboprop. Even without using the afterburner, it is unofficially the fastest propeller aircraft ever built. The propeller spun at a constant 3,000 RPM, which combined with a 12 foot diameter meant that even at idle, the tips were going Mach 1.18. How loud is this motherfucker? Wikipedia has an entire section of its article devoted just to the sound of this thing, something that even the old Bear doesn't get. The feats it can accomplish just by yelling at you include: -Even at idle, the shock coming off the propeller could knock a man down. -Like a top fuel dragster, it can induce nausea and headaches in the people nearby. -One guy had a loving seizure because of it. -After the first few tests, Edwards AFB told the Republic engineers to gently caress off and tow it the hell away whenever they wanted to run the engine, because it was causing damage to components in the control tower. -On the ground, it can be heard 25 miles away. For those not in the know, a sound originating close to the ground can't travel nearly as far as one originating at altitude. That makes this thing on par with a gunpowder factory exploding. -One test pilot flew it one time, and then refused to fly it ever again. That's right. It scared a loving TEST PILOT into quitting. The bad: -Out of 12 flights, there were 10 forced landings -Since there was only one propeller, it torqued like a motherfucker -The engine was built by Allison, otherwise known as the engine people who almost made the P-51 a lovely plane. This is largely why it had an 83% forced landing rate.
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Mar 16, 2010 17:17
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ApathyGifted posted:I present to you bitches, the LOUDEST loving PLANE ever made.
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Mar 16, 2010 17:30
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ApathyGifted posted:
The problems with the engine on the Thunderscreech mostly came from the fact that it was too complex. Allison created the T40 by taking two of their T38 turboprops, bolting them together and adding a hellishly complex clutched gearbox and propeller control system (which required 25 vacuum tubes to operate). The idea was that one of the power sections could be shut down in flight to improve range, but the idea never worked that well, and the tendency for the gearboxes to fail spectacularly and the unreliability of the vacuum tubes in the prop control system doomed the engine. Allison did make up for the J40 fiasco in the form of the T56, which has been reliably powering the C-130 fleet (among others) since 1954, with over 18,000 of the engines being delivered to date.
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Mar 16, 2010 19:23
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azflyboy posted:The problems with the engine on the Thunderscreech mostly came from the fact that it was too complex. So it's an FD with wings.
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Mar 16, 2010 20:06
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But even less reliable. Probably has a vacuum diagram that makes the FD vacuum diagram look like Malevich's Red Square and Black Square.
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Mar 16, 2010 20:12
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slidebite posted:I would love to http://aviationtrivia.info/documents/xf84_h.wav
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Mar 16, 2010 20:57
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Fucknag posted:http://aviationtrivia.info/documents/xf84_h.wav "Thunder, Thunder, Thunderscreech HOOO!" Zee Contents:   Mo'fucken German ALBATROSS up in yo' grill. Sterndotstern fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 21:02
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blugu64 posted:What's all this fixed wing nonsense? About 10 years ago I saw one of these doing circuits between Albert Bridge and Chelsea Bridge over the Thames. It was virtually silent. Creeped me out tbh.
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Mar 16, 2010 21:24
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Sterndotstern posted:"Thunder, Thunder, Thunderscreech HOOO!" I love how he even has the period appropriate clothing, including the scarf hanging out the back.
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Mar 16, 2010 21:31
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decahedron posted:They should just make a new version of the Spad. Thing's a beast. Here's a picture courtesy of Wiki: Sometimes I think the same thing. If the thing that's needed right now is close air support against low tech people, there's no reason why you need a airplane made from unobtanium. Hell, you could (theoretically) just use WW2 designs and get good results. Also, I love this thread. I grew up in a small town that was basically just a airport, so sitting in on a big nerdy airplane conversation really reminds me of my roots. VikingSkull posted:loving largest plane the US military uses, largest plane "mass produced", and second largest to a plane the Russians are proud of but only exists in glorified prototype form. That's right, gently caress you Antonov. Um, I think you are forgetting about the An-124. 20% bigger then the C-5, world's largest mass produced airplane. Here it is with some trucks to provide scale  Here it is loading 5 APCs to take somewhere  Here you can see the internal crane of the 124, for loading shipping containers    OK, I have two questions in case anybody here knows the answer. First, an empty shot of the An-124's interior:  You see how the interior walls are covered in something? It looks like some sort of fabric. First, what is that? and Second, why do cargo planes do this? Second, shot of the cockpit:  Note the fans for the pilots. So, world's biggest airplane, can lift 120 tons and carry 80 passengers at the same time, etc, etc. But it doesn't have air conditioning? Nebakenezzer fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 22:07
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Nebakenezzer posted:
That fabric is insulation blankets. Aircraft skin is incredibly thin (under 1/2 inch thick), and the temperature at 30,000ft is normally in the -40/-50C range, so the insulation reduces the amount of bleed air required to keep the aircraft warm and makes the interior quieter as well. The insulation also keeps the fuselage skin from getting damaged if something bumps into it. As for the fans, they're something the Soviets used in pretty much all of their aircraft since the 1940's. The blades are made out of rubber or plastic, so that's why there isn't a guard around them. The AN-124 is pressurized and therefore air conditioned (engine bleed air has to be cooled before it can be used to pressurize the cabin), but the fans help keep the crew from roasting on the ground when the engines aren't running. azflyboy fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 22:15
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Forgot, no....didn't even know it existed. Welp. Also I get the A-1 love, but seriously the A-10 is doing that exact job right now. A prop plane might be cheaper, but you're gonna lose a ton of them to rifle fire.
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Mar 16, 2010 22:20
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Nebakenezzer posted:Um, I think you are forgetting about the An-124. 20% bigger then the C-5, world's largest mass produced airplane.
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Mar 16, 2010 22:24
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I present to you, the de Havilland Venom: Click here for the full 800x533 image.  Click here for the full 980x705 image.  Click here for the full 1024x768 image.  Although the SR-71 is my all-time favorite aircraft because, well, drat, I fell in love with the de Havilland Venom the very first time I ever saw one at an airshow. These photos don't really do justice to the Venom. I've been fascinated by aircraft for my entire life and of the hundreds I've personally seen flying, I've never seen a craft that looked more like it belonged in the air than the de Havilland Venom. Every turn was grace personified and the lines of the Venom's body are amazingly sleek in person. To me, the Venom looked like it was simply painted into the sky, as if it were a part of the environment, like a cloud. I am sure it's a clunky piece of junk in many ways compared to the generations of aircraft that succeeded it, but every time I see one fly, I still see perfection. Also, the Venom was pretty beefy armaments-wise for a fighter/bomber of its generation, sporting four cannons, up to eight (I think) rockets, as well as a couple of bombs. With a top speed of around 640MPH, a range of over 1,000 miles, and potent weaponry, the Venom is a great example of an early jet fighter.
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Mar 16, 2010 22:28
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Nebakenezzer posted:I saw one of these on final approach to 19R at Dulles one morning and stopped to watch it fly overhead. It was freaking awesome.
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Mar 16, 2010 22:46
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