So glad stewartc came up with the name for the Martin-Baker, it was driving me nuts!
Always nice to see a photo of Maya and Mercury, very fond of seaplanes in general.
I know the noisy plane at the top, I’m struggling to remember what it is, looks somewhat like a Voodoo.
Back shortly.
Republic XF-84H ‘Thunderscreech’, reputed to be able to induce vomiting from 100 metres away!
Edit:
After manufacture at Republic’s Farmingdale, Long Island, plant, the two XF-84Hs were disassembled and shipped via rail to Edwards Air Force Base for flight testing.[2] First flown on July 22, 1955, the XF-84F had incredible acceleration but soon its impracticality was discovered. It was unsuited to combat due to the engine’s 30 minute warm up time but the most serious concerns were vibration generated from the 12-foot propeller diameter and mechanical failures of the prop pitch gearing.[13] The prototypes flew a total of 12 test flights from Edwards, accumulating only 6 hours and 40 minutes of flight time. Lin Hendrix, one of the Republic test pilots assigned to the program, flew the aircraft once and refused to ever fly it again, claiming “it never flew over 450 knots (830 km/h) indicated, since at that speed, it developed an unhappy practice of ‘snaking’, apparently losing longitudinal stability”.[14] Hendrix also told the formidable Republic project engineer, “You aren’t big enough and there aren’t enough of you to get me in that thing again”.[13] The other test flights were fraught with engine failures, and persistent hydraulic, nose gear and vibration problems.[2] Test pilot Hank Beaird took the XF-84H up 11 times, with 10 of these flights ending in forced landings.[15]
Noise
The XF-84H was quite possibly the loudest aircraft ever built (rivaled only by the Russian Tupolev Tu-95 “Bear” bomber[16]), earning the nickname “Thunderscreech” as well as the “Mighty Ear Banger”.[17] On the ground “run ups”, the prototypes could reportedly be heard 25 miles (40 km) away.[18] Unlike standard propellers that turn at subsonic speeds, the outer 24–30 inches (61–76 cm) of the blades on the XF-84H’s propeller traveled faster than the speed of sound even at idle thrust, producing a continuous visible sonic boom that radiated laterally from the propellers for hundreds of yards. The shock wave was actually powerful enough to knock a man down; an unfortunate crew chief who was inside a nearby C-47 was severely incapacitated during a 30-minute ground run.[18] Coupled with the already considerable noise from the subsonic aspect of the propeller and the dual turbines, the aircraft was notorious for inducing severe nausea and headaches among ground crews.[11] In one report, a Republic engineer suffered a seizure after close range exposure to the shock waves emanating from a powered-up XF-84H.[19]
The pervasive noise also severely disrupted operations in the Edwards AFB control tower by risking vibration damage to sensitive components and forcing air traffic personnel to communicate with the XF-84H’s crew on the flight line by light signals. After numerous complaints, the Air Force Flight Test Center directed Republic to tow the aircraft out on Rogers Dry Lake, far from the flight line, before running up its engine.[14] The test program did not proceed further than the manufacturer’s Phase I proving flights, consequently no USAF test pilots flew the XF-84H. With the likelihood that the engine and equipment failures coupled with the inability to reach design speeds and subsequent instability experienced were insurmountable problems, the USAF cancelled the program in September 1956.[20]
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