another convair prototype xf-81

No pics, but spent a bit of time last night watching a Vulcan going through it’s paces over Elvington Airfield. Awesome aircraft.
Also had a spitfire fly over on Sunday.
Both have very distinctive sounds.

My old man did his national service as a fighter plotter at Nottingham in the early fifties. He told me a story about how the USAF used to do exercises with F86 Sabres, intercepting Canberras. Flying flat, they could catch up fairly easy, until the Canberra went into a climb……..and NOTHING could keep up with them!

Reminds me of a story I read about a Concorde captain chatting to some Blackbird pilots; the BB had been cruising at mach something-daft over the Atlantic when it was overtaken by a Concorde…

See if I can dig it out.

Edit: Found it. Not technically overtaking, but you get the gist.

Dug this up from my archives – one of the pictures that I have taken that I am most happy with!

Scanned print of a Sea Hurricane at Duxford:

I was buzzed by a pair of these guys a couple of weeks ago… They were under 100ft directly above me and hauling ass. What a noise!

Just imagine if Boeing had won the JSF competition 😯

Just imagine if Boeing had won the JSF competition

It’d be on budget and on time? 😉

Wasn’t the Boeing offering pretty much superior in every way other than looks?

UTIAS Ornithopter No.1

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-qS7oN-3tA[/video]

soviet x-planes ebook

Can’t believe that’s the first Canberra posted!
it’s not

Whoops! You just can’t get the spotters these days…

Wasn’t the Boeing offering pretty much superior in every way other than looks?

apparently not, says wiki

wikipedia

Arguably the most persuasive demonstration of the X-35’s capability was the final qualifying Joint Strike Fighter flight trials, in which the X-35B STOVL aircraft took off in less than 500 feet (150 m), went supersonic, and landed vertically — a feat that Boeing’s entry was unable to achieve

…

When near to the ground, the Boeing X-32 suffered from the problem of hot air from the exhaust circulating back to the main engine, which caused the thrust to weaken and the engine to overheat

The United States Department of Defense officials and William Bach, the UK Minister of Defence Procurement, said the X-35 consistently outperformed the X-32, although both met or exceeded requirements.

That x-planes book is awesome. I had completely forgotten about the Ye8 and mig1.44. The 1.44 is now hidden under a tarp here, along with a whole host of other Russian goodies.
mig 1.44

lovely shot of a bearcat in military trim

griffin powered seafire xvII

for low level grunt clipped wing spitfire xiv also griffin powered

kurt tanks high level masterpiece Ta 152

Republic xp 72 super thunderbolt

the folly of a single engined attack jet !

republic f105D Thunderchief full up!

Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster

another pusher

Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet

Always liked the Wyvern. Bit like Klunk’s Martin-Baker – contraproptastic.

kurt tanks high level masterpiece Ta 152

you have to hand it to ze germans they had some absolutely brilliant engineering minds……its just tragic they had to follow that mental ballbag intent on world domination

Blackburn Firebrand

Fairy Gannet

Chinese J-10

Gulfstream G350, probably more in my dreams than most of the planes here…

This thread keeps on giving, Klunk’s mass of the wierd and the wonderful is superb!
Although I question the captions for the Fury/Seafire, shouldn’t they be the other way around?
Regardless, some astounding stuff, and the Griffon clip-wing Spit is absolutely my favourite.

republic f105D Thunderchief

If Guy Martin named a plane….

Although I question the captions for the Fury/Seafire, shouldn’t they be the other way around?

Around 1944, the aircraft project finally received its name; the Royal Air Force’s version becoming known as the Fury and the Fleet Air Army’s version as the Sea Fury.[10]

A total of six prototypes were ordered; two were to be powered by Rolls-Royce Griffon engines, two with Centaurus XXIIs, one with a Centaurus XII and one as a test structure. Hawker used the internal designations P.1019 and P.1020 respectively for the Griffon and Centaurus versions, while P.1018 was also used for a Fury prototype which was to use a Napier Sabre IV.[11]

I absolutely love the Fairey Gannet! I did all the work on a book about it for a print/publishing company years ago, doing all the page layouts, selecting photos, cover, etc.
I had piles of amazing pics, including some of a Gannet which had lost the two outermost wing panels in an incident on patrol, I believe in a dive, but safely made it back to base.
Found this pic of one in its more aggressive rôle, with bomb-bay doors open, and one engine stopped for extended loiter:

Here, although it doesn’t show the cover: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0948251514/thunderandlightn

Christ, was it 1990 I did that?

nice f16 fighting falcon study

more american might Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey

artic foxbats

a nervous Transall C-160

Let me take this thread down a little. 😉
(I love this first one – I would love to see the 2seconds later shot!)

Klunk deserves a medal for services to this thread!

convair f106a delta dart unguided genie nuclear tipped air-to-air missile launch

saab drakens

Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II AKA the lemon (it’s very badly designed) which will be sitting duck for enemy fighters.

If Britain buys this piece of junk they have only themselves to be blamed. It’s scary how bad this plane is to be in production and to replace the whole fleet in some countries. DO NOT buy this plane!

What a piece of junk.