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Thusly

No cheating, name it!
dunno, looks like something Q branch came up with it the 70s, love it 😃

tbh that’s fairly normal compared to half of the things this guy manages to dig up! https://instagram.com/cessnateur?igshid=7362aveyz4v9
A quick google says it’s an Edgley optica, nice looking craft designed for slow speed flying
quick google
I did say no cheating! Pub quiz rules!
Mashr, that's awesome. Shall lose myself in there for a while!
Ain't that Mark Hamill's plane from Slipstream?
CaptainFlashheart
Member
Mashr, that’s awesome. Shall lose myself in there for a while!
You should probably set aside the rest of the day. Helps that the guy really knows his onions too
Perchy, there may have been some influence from it on the 'bubbleship' in Oblivion.
Shall lose myself in there for a while!
Not possible in this though:

Oh, from G-INFO that Optica is owned by John Edgley.
Why yes, yes it is....

Saw one of these at the Fleet Air Arm Museum last week.

😂
I think I managed to out myself as an airplane nerd last time we did this, I'm staying away from this thread.
Wait...
I think hols 2 aircraft is America's attempt at a vtol back in the day. It was a bit crap.
No idea of its name.
Edit: better angle

Sofamans aircraft is called a cri cri although nows probably a good time to declare I'm a light aircraft engineer lol .The cri cri I think is the world's smallest manned twin engined aircraft I believe
Mat that's a shorts skyvan easy peasy
Convair Pogo stick from hols2.
Real name please, not the nickname.
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And also this scary looking mo fo

I seem to remember the cri cri was powered by two chainsaw engines.
mrmonkfinger
Member
Real name please, not the nickname.
Thrust Measuring Rig.
Spotters autogiro towed up behind ships?
That Edgley was all over the news when I was a kid, being both locally made and a bit crashy.
There was a jet version of the Cri Cri which always looked fun.
Sarumite, ajaj?
The Flying Bedframe or something like that is its nickname I think.
Ok, so the Shorts was easy, if still laughably odd dimensions...
How about this...

I used to fly from Glasgow to Belfast semi-regularly in a Loganair Shorts 360.
I used to fly from Glasgow to Belfast semi-regularly in a Loganair Shorts 360.
Ahh, the Shorts Ultra Shed, as opposed to the Super Shed and the basic Shorts Shed shown above.
think that was FIAT's attempt at a helicopter
This is a copy of a photo taken by my dad, I think at Farnborough, I dare say quite a few will recognise it...

This is a copy of a photo taken by my dad, I think at Farnborough, I dare say quite a few will recognise it…
Chipmunk?
Gosh...without googling, that's an Edgely (spelling?) Optica, a Ryan something silly or other, a Shorts Skyvan, Flying Bedstead - sorry wasn't it a Bristol or RR testbed (Bristol designed the Pegasus engine, subsequently merged into RR) no idea as to the name, no bloody idea as to the helicopter but the fuselage is beautifully Bauhaus hmmm, prototype British (the serial places it circa mid fifties) R&D platform with a fat fuselage possibly (speculatively) containing lift-jets hence the mesh cover. The metalwork is god-awful, as befits a low volume prototype which would have possibly been farmed out to someone like Bolton & Paul or possibly Handley Page to knock together.
Convair, dammit. Not Ryan. The letters spelling "CONVAIR" on the tail were a giveaway. VSTOL, which seems to be a theme.
I expect a Fieseler Storch any time soon.
Northwind has it. Nicknamed the Flying Bedstead. PJM I think it was entirely Rolls responsible for that thing at that point as it had two Nenes.
The scary autogyro is/was a Hafner Rotochute. Designed to replace a parachute. Apparently worked well enough, but a parachute was easier and bailing out of a fast moving airplane less problematic.
After doing that, the designer did this:

I admit defeat at XG900 and had to look it up.
This for the rotary wing win.
I can imagine Flashy having one of these as a runabout...
Also,
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Yeah, there was some wacky stuff like that going on early WW2.
Then the Horsa/Hamilcar/Hadrian turned up, and it was easier to stick your jeep / tank inside one of those.
The police trialled the Optima for loww speed survailance, but i think they were on the crashy side and a pilot died so they were withdrawn
They used it for years in Hampshire (based at Daedalus?)
I remember the Optica (OP) over the skies of Belfast when I was a kid. I remember hearing the whine of an engine overhead one day riding my bike, spent ages looking for it in the sky, finally seeing the odd shape. It intrigued me for years and when the internet came around for me and my passion for aviation, I was really chuffed to find out about it. G-BMPF was the airframe that was used for a time for surveillance.
Thought that was precisely what the optima was designed for. Police surveillance and similar applications. Slow speed, good all round visibility, long loiter time, cheaper alternative to a helicopter. Pretty pointless aircraft for any other application.

The one I posted is the Short SC1, it’s painted on the nose! It was the first true fixed- wing VTOL jet, with five engines, four for vertical lift, and one for horizontal flight, it was also the first aircraft of its type to be able to transition from vertical to horizontal flight, and the first with fly-by-wire technology. The photo I have, I’m certain, was taken in 1958.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_SC.1
When I looked at that picture, I thought it looked like a Harrier Jump jet early prototype, I wasn't far wrong!
SKYVAN!!!!
The most fun plane to jump out of. Sooooo much fun and a big reason to go to DeLand.
https://skydivedeland.com/dropzone/aircraft/
I've jumped the top three of those ^^^
Possibly not all that unusual but an odd looking thing none the less.
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Gannet AEW.3.
Sibson had a Skyvan as well!
Bugger. Looking for a pic of this plane and found it crashed killing the pilot this year. I built a scale slope soaring version of it. A delightful craft.
That sucks.
It was a lot like a full size Zagi.
Nobody has the flying saucer ID'd yet?
Another entry:
the flying saucer: it's an Avro Aerocar
[url= https://i.ibb.co/YjR8QRn/northrop-tacit-blue.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.ibb.co/YjR8QRn/northrop-tacit-blue.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
A good friend of mine was the project manager for this. Was based out of Area 51 during testing.
LeeW - Northrop Tacit Blue.
Easy.

That Rotodyne just reminds me of a massive daddy long legs.😀
Blimey.
sootyandjim - is it the wonkywing?


sootyandjim – is it the wonkywing?
That's not its official name.
AD-1 innit
not sure what any of these are so any and all made up names may be valid.




I do know this one which just makes me think of Manta rays

That Rotodyne just reminds me of a massive daddy long legs.
Try this...

arial crane, MI10? maybe
what about this oddity

not sure what any of these are so any and all made up names may be valid.
I recognise the 4th one down
XP-55
The Gannet didn’t look quite so ungainly in its ASW rôle, but it was a big plane!

I put together a book about the Gannet years ago, and I had a large stack of photos to choose from, a couple of which showed a Gannet that lost both outer folding wingtips in flight, the pilot kept it in the air, and landed it safely.
Sadly, I can’t find a copy of it now, I thought I’d kept a copy of all the books I worked on, but it seems not. 😕
Well, after a fair bit of grepping around the interwebz, I managed to find a copy on Amazon; sodding heck, I wish I’d kept a few copies now!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0948251514/thunderandlightn
I was always impressed with the Israeli pilot who landed an F15 after losing a wing in a mid-air collision. I think everyone would have given him a pass if he'd just bailed out.
The rest of the plane is expensive, he may have thought they would dock his wages if he came back without it.
CFH, Sibson uses a Cessna Caravan now. Skyvans are getting rare; expensive to run and need a lot of jumpers to be worth it. DeLand only bring it out when they have bigway jumping on and need two planes.
I always liked the X-29. Forward swept wings just look so awesome

the Furzocopter
Colin truly is a visionary...
Dubai police now:

77ric
The barrel with the prop in is a Caproni prototype, for research into ducted fans. Didn't have a name (technically).
More Caproni:

hot fiat, the flying wing is a Northrop, couldn't tell you the designation though.
yup, the saucer is the Avrocar

