[Closed] A long overdue awesome aeroplanes thread!

some wwi grunt with bristol fighter

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b26 marauder aka "the widowmaker" (though went on to have one of the best records of any bomber of wwII)

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I've always liked the Short Sunderland

My dad looked after those for his national service just after WW2, in Sri Lanka, where they were doing patrol runs. Uesd to get lots of trouble with the P&W's - the water thrown up by the props would cause cylinder heads to crack on a regular basis.

Sounded like a real tough gig - on a daily basis they generally had to get up, do (literally) a couple of hours work, before it got too hot to do anything until the evening. At which point they might have a game of football or go for a swim. Hard times!

Handle Page hp42

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Bristol 188:

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Ok, not a complete aircraft, but worth a mention, the largest jet engine made, General Electric's GE90-115B, has produced 568,9 kN of thrust (although rated a bit lower in service).

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For some contrast, Whittle's first production jet (type W1) had just 3.8 kN.

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the superlative pe-2 only matched in versatility by the mosquito

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Some De Havilland love....

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...and an oddball Comet

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DH were a thoroughly excellent aircraft shop.

The other DH Comet (DH88):

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DH [i]were[/i] a thoroughly excellent aircraft shop

They were indeed. Now sadly producing this tat:
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DeHavilland Canada Dash 8 / Bombardier Q400

I know nowt about planes, but love looking at them 🙂 Seeing the Enola Gay in the final picture was a weird one for me. I'd been to Hiroshima only a couple of months before, so to see the plane that brought 'Little Boy' was a real mixture of feelings - stunningly beautiful plane, horrendous purpose.

[url= https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5333/8864422301_78da81bc9e_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5333/8864422301_78da81bc9e_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/evjtVg ]Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/7509988@N07/ ]Ginger F0x[/url], on Flickr

[url= https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3721/8865006456_57dc7a8576_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3721/8865006456_57dc7a8576_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/evntyU ]Udvar-Hazy main hanger[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/7509988@N07/ ]Ginger F0x[/url], on Flickr

[url= https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2805/8864959406_c4fb2f029a_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2805/8864959406_c4fb2f029a_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/evnezG ]Underside of Discovery[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/7509988@N07/ ]Ginger F0x[/url], on Flickr

[url= https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5462/8865002056_7ef7e53939_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5462/8865002056_7ef7e53939_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/evnsg3 ]Vought-Sikorsky OS2U-3 Kingfisher[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/7509988@N07/ ]Ginger F0x[/url], on Flickr

Bonkers Russian K7 from the 30's

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Gentlemen why have you ignored the Junkers JU-52 in its awesomeness?

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page 9, keep up old boy!

page 9, keep up old boy!

Bonkers Russian K7 from the 30's

it did exist but that fantasy render is not it 🙂

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with turrets from the missouri ! 🙂

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b26 marauder aka "the widowmaker" (though went on to have one of the best records of any bomber of wwII)

I really like the Martin 'Murderer', most of them were based in Essex at some point due to their shorter range. When I'm out riding the road bike we pass by most of their bases, it seems really peaceful now and it's hard to imagine what it was like when they were there.

more multi engine madness dornier do x

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Torado. End of thread.

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is this real?

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looks like a Mosquito that's been very heavily - and badly - photoshopped. two engines removed, one of them posted onto the nose.

<EDIT> thought so </edit>

Please note that this is strictly an imaginary aircraft and story and should therefore not be taken seriously by any researcher.
Concept and photo manipulation © Stéphane Beaumort / AviaDesign 2010

you have to be quite careful with half size replica's, rc models, renders and photoshop

Before wind tunnels
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Ten years later...
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the just plain bonkers blohm & voss bv141

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Grumman Skyrocket

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Has to be one of the best threads for a loooong tiiiime 😀

Convair Sea Dart
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And a Martin Sea master
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Leduc ram jet.

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looks safe 😯

I've got an old Sperry Gyroscope brochure I should scan - it's got lots of good stuff, but the best I think is the story of the first public display of their autopilot. This was pre-WWI, very early, and they demonstrated it at an air show, flying low over the crowd in an open two-seater. While about 20ft over the crowd, the pilot stood up and held his arms up to demonstrate that he wasn't controlling the aircraft, and the engineer climbed out of the cockpit and started jumping up and down on one wing to demonstrate how stable it was 😀

The utterly bonkers Taylor Aerocar:
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Food for thought.

Is this the only plane ever actually [u]designed[/u] to kill the pilot?

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Frightening stuff..........

There was quite a grrr looking prop plane used by the US from WW2 to Vietnam for ground attack - cant remember its name though.

douglas a-26 invader bottom of page 1

Carrier-borne single seat ground attack stuff:

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There was quite a grrr looking prop plane used by the US from WW2 to Vietnam for ground attack - cant remember its name though.

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No guns, no fat, photo recon spitfire:

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Yup - Skyraider.

love the f-8 crusader with it's variable incident wing

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Ive never seen the gunless spitfire before. Absolutely stunning looking thing, so clean. Is it actually physically possible for a plane to look nicer than that?

A bit of goose,

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It sits outside the Dornier museum in Friedrichshafen
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Have we done the very cute Bristol 170?

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General dynamics F-111
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Top thread! Remember one of these buzzing the runway at Finningly when I was a kid, then firing it's afterburners up like this, and the noise.....!!!

Years later, as an air cadet, I got to sit in the cockpit of one at upper heyford. Awesome!

Anyone posted [b][u]Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat (G-50)[/u][/b] JapLand Zero killer yet? This is the replacement for Wildcat that constantly got shot down by Zero. This Hellcat established air superiority in the Pacific that later help won the war. It comes with the poweful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine.

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But Sergei, the Americans build their planes with titanium, we have built this from scaffolding poles. How will it go as fast?

Don't fret, Mikhail, we'll just stick two massive f-off engines in it.

Mig 25

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Can't resist another photo of the awesome Sukhoi SU-35S, and this is some really amazing camo, too:

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Me, 1990 something in the front seat of a Tornado at RAF Leeming.

[url= https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7253/6886704060_8eb84d0a97_o.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7253/6886704060_8eb84d0a97_o.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/buyabU ]108[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/7904024@N08/ ]jimmyg352[/url], on Flickr

Then there's the MIG-29; I remember the first time I saw one of these fly at Farnborough, literally sat with my mouth open, thinking 'no *******' way! It's not possible for a jet fighter that size to do what I've just seen!'

Then there's the rather beautiful Sukhoi SU-47 Berkut:

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Really cool camo on these planes!

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These are a few from my work...
J3 Cub Sprayplane we built year before last.
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P-51A, Yak-11, (Cessna 180 in background). Ongoing projects...
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I have more pics, but having issues with Photobucket... Will check back

Chance Vought V-173 “Flying Pancake”

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Lockheed XFV “The Salmon”

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De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle

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You wouldn't want to fall off that!

[url= http://www.texasarchive.org/library/index.php?title=Zimmerman%E2%80%99s_Flying_Wing ]"interesting" video of the development of the flying pancake[/url]

Some more of ours...
Ayres Thrush S2R in the background and a Cassutt racer up front.
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A friend's 1934 WACO YKC which wins awards in every show it is entered in...
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and finally this Grumman Bearcat F8F known as "Rare Bear" which my father-in-law was crew for at the Reno air race last year...
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Caproni Stipa

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another nuts caproni the ca60

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p26 peashooter

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[img] https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTk2oAiEsl-IBfvbtVVr2i4w16JkSo0RynwUrLc5hRcpUriwN7H9Q [/img]

Oh, and also, this is a friend of mine flying her Pitts Special aerobatics plane... She's quite good!

That Caproni Stipa is nuts! Looks like it swallowed a Tiger Moth.

Awesome in a different way to most of those posted here, some of the planes I've done work for:

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...which doesn't make me quite as old as you might think - I also did some work for the Nimrod which was supposed to have replaced it, pictured a few pages ago (and also for the other Nimrod pictured).

Then I also worked on what did eventually replace it:

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I also did a bit of work on the conversion of these:

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...actually come to think of it, here's 2 in 1

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Fits in a suitcase (well, almost, as we all know from Moonraker) Wallis Autogyro:

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aracer, the VC10s looked superb, I guess its something about the rear mounted turbines keeping the wing lines clean that does it, it just looks so much more purposeful than the usual boeing/airbus arrangement.

skidsareforkids, what is your job and can I have it?

First of the few, prototype Spit at Eastleigh airport:

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These days, Eastleigh airport is guarded by this chap:

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Great thread. I see some have posted the original seaplane version of the Spitfire which would have been my top post. Also a Chipmunk which indeed as a young ATC cadet I used to fly out of Hamble. Went to a Spitfire symposium with Douglas Bader and Bob Stamford-Tuck too, airplane anaorak !

I must get searching.

[b]If you skip to 14:30 [/b]of this there is some decent helicopter display footage (too little of the Chinook sadly) and some Harrier tricks. If you love planes Royal Dartmouth Regatta in August has a nightly airshow and IMO is the best place to see the Red Arrows (note cover pick is a still and not in the film). Battle of Britain flights are regular visitors too.

A few taken last week

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I like the selfie on the last one hustler.... 😆

The autogyro was in "You only live twice" not "Moonraker"

The autogyro was in "You only live twice" not "Moonraker"

gah.

Anyway.

Another leftfield number, Fairey Rotodyne, kind of helicopter (rotors were moved by jets at their tip, for takeoff/landing only) and kind of autogyro (main rotor generated some lift when moving forward and was unpowered at this point) and kind of fixed wing plane (lift from the main wing helped the main rotor in forward flight).

technically successful, but noisy at takeoff (them jets), which killed it commercially

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As some others have already said, this is the best thread ever on STW!

sopwith triplane

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oldest surviving british airworthy aircraft 1912 Blackburn Type D

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Bristol M1C replica from the shuttleworth collection

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albatros diii or dv

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more shuttleworth avro triplane replica built for those magnificent men in their flying machines

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along with the bristol boxkite

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Edgley EA-7 Optica

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Inspired by this thread, I re-read The Right Stuff over the weekend, and what a fantastic book that is. Thusly, in tribute, an NF104* -

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* With apologies if it's already been posted - not every picture loads at work. 🙁

another relic from shuttleworth the gloster gladiator

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A DIY* kit jet, the Viper:

* for about $750k and 3000 hours of building time, or about 18 months as your full time job

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