What a great thread. I really like the pics of the chipmunk. Got loads of hours in them when I was an air cadet. I also remember going to Holbeach ranges on a couple of occasions watching A10's, jaguars, harriers and tornados doing bombing and strafing runs was just awesome. One particular memory is of being in the tower being given a talk by one of the controllers who then asked a jaguar to do a fly past for us. He did 3 passes and the last one we were all convinced he was going to hit us. Amazing.
i also remember driving along the loch from north North Ballachulish to Fort William watching Buccaneers and tornados blasting past us over the loch so low you could see the pilots faces.
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!
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).
For some contrast, Whittle's first production jet (type W1) had just 3.8 kN.
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
page 9, keep up old boy!
and page 4page 9, keep up old boy!
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.
😆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
Has to be one of the best threads for a loooong tiiiime 😀
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 😀
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
Yup - Skyraider.
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?







































