the sexiest aircraft

F-104 Starfighter. Dood.

That would be seven helical rows, but that is not how it is described.

Tom

SR's? I don't think so. Pretty sure you mean U-2's.

I'm too far from Moffett (actually Sunnyvale, not San Jose) to know what's coming and going now, but I doubt anyone could easily afford to fly SR's today. I'm sure that NASA has U-2's converted and were flying out of Moffett for lots of science stuff.

But, didn't Google just buy Moffett, or something like that?

Amazing that B-52's and U-2's are still around and working hard.

For twenty or thirty years, in the US, anything imaginable was possible and got done. Now I think we realize we were like Wiley Coyote and just hadn't noticed that we were doing impossible stuff (running on the air after the edge of the cliff.)

Ah, the good old days.

I like the P-38 too. Not sure it beats a SR-71 though. Karl

wrote >

Charlie Charlie

Vell, i know about a chap that has one sitting right in his driveway! check out

The norwegian F-104G 637 two seat starfighter are under resturation to operational status!

And i like the spits too. And the good old sabre

Always woundered what whould happened if Rolls-Royce had developed the utterly INSANE crecy engine, and shoehorned it into a spit!

The Rolls-Royce Crecy was a 2-stroke 90 degree V12 liquid cooled aero engine of 26.1 litres capacity, featuring sleeve valves and direct petrol injection. Single cylinder development began in 1937 under project engineer Harry Wood. It was designed by Sir Harry Ricardo. The first complete engine was built in 1941 and produced 1400 hp. There were problems with vibration and the cooling of the pistons and sleeves. The firing angle was 30 degrees and 15lb supercharger boost was typical. Bore was 5.1" stoke 6.5" compression ratio 7:1 and weight 820 kg. The thrust produced by the 2-stroke exhaust was estimated as being equivalent to 30% of the power of the engine, and was exceptionally loud.

Unlike most 2-stroke engines, supercharging or turbocharging was used rather than crankcase compression to force the charge into the cylinder. Stratified charge was used where the fuel was injected into a bulb like extension of the combustion chamber where the twin spark plugs ignited the rich mixture. Operable air/fuel ratios of from 15 to 23 were available to govern the power produced between maximum and 60%. The lean mixtures reduced detonation allowing higher compression ratios or supercharger boost. Supercharger throttling was used as well to achieve idling. The supercharger throttles were novel vortex types, varying the effective angle of attack of the impeller blades from 60 degrees to 30. This reduced the power required to drive the supercharger when throttled and hence fuel consumption at cruising power.

The sleeve valves were open ended rather than sealing in a junk head. They had a stroke of 30% of the piston and were 15 degrees in advance.

It was named after the Battle of Crécy, battles being the chosen theme for Rolls Royce 2-stroke aero engines. There were however no subsequent Rolls Royce engines of this type, and rivers were used for jet engine names.

Sir Henry Tizard was a proponent of the engine as Chairman of the Aeronautical Research Council. The power of the engine being interesting in its own right, but also the exhaust thrust at high speed and altitude making it a useful stop gap between engines such as the Rolls-Royce Merlin and anticipated jet engines.

Only six complete examples were built when the research was terminated in December 1945. An additional eight vee twins were built. Serial numbers were even, Rolls-Royce practice being to have even numbers for clock-wise rotating engines when viewed from the front. Crecy number 10 achived 2500 hp on 21 December 1944. Subsequently single cylinder tests achieved the equivalent of 5000 bhp ( holy shi**! ) for the complete engine.

taken from:

"Ed" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

The dreaded R4360. That's the one I memorized the firing order for at my A&P exam in 1972. And the bastards didn't ask me.

Garrett Fulton

There is one on display out here in California, at March AFB.

Habu Rocks!!

Gunner

The aim of untold millions is to be free to do exactly as they choose and for someone else to pay when things go wrong.

In the past few decades, a peculiar and distinctive psychology has emerged in England. Gone are the civility, sturdy independence, and admirable stoicism that carried the English through the war years . It has been replaced by a constant whine of excuses, complaints, and special pleading. The collapse of the British character has been as swift and complete as the collapse of British power.

Theodore Dalrymple,

Make it 3

Gunner

The aim of untold millions is to be free to do exactly as they choose and for someone else to pay when things go wrong.

In the past few decades, a peculiar and distinctive psychology has emerged in England. Gone are the civility, sturdy independence, and admirable stoicism that carried the English through the war years . It has been replaced by a constant whine of excuses, complaints, and special pleading. The collapse of the British character has been as swift and complete as the collapse of British power.

Theodore Dalrymple,

But if Elson is right, and it's hard for me to believe, it was a very badly engineered aircraft. Any aircraft without flap asymmetry protection is an accident waiting to happen. Been working on them for 38 years now, and I've never encountered one without flap asymmetry lockout. Something that stupid just can't be sexy from where I'm sitting. I guess you can get away with it on the type of thing that Bede built. I sure wouldn't have flown in it.

Garrett Fulton

On Fri, 13 Jan 2006 23:08:40 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, JR North quickly quoth:

No, it was the shorter-winged BD-5A that was the squirrely one. As I read it, the rest had longer wings and much more stability.

--- Chaos, panic, and disorder--my work here is done.

Comprehensive Website Development

On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 10:37:36 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "everyman" quickly quoth:

Hell, if you guys want BIG and sexy, forget the Blackbird. Gimme Mitchell Gant's (Clint Eastwood's) Firefox or an SST.

Smaller and sexy were Airwolf (Bell 222A) and the Super Cobra. Both are sleek and sexy airships and both had superb teeth. ;) --- Chaos, panic, and disorder--my work here is done.

Comprehensive Website Development

On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 04:32:34 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "Keith Marshall" quickly quoth:

My stomach is now up in my throat, Keith.

When I was 14, my parents took us to Catalina Island. We floated over on the ferry and had a wonderful day on an exotic isle. My parents returned on the ferry, but my sister (dragged by me) and I wanted to fly back on the amphibious plane. There we were, doing about 20 knots, watching the flying fish travel along with us. They were in the air while we were still in the water. It was beautiful.

Then the pilot got enough speed to take off and as soon as we were clear of the water, he pulled back the stick and we were at about a 45 degree climb. There was a brief gust of wind which shook the plane and my entire seat frame came off the track and I was in freefall. My throat closed so I couldn't scream as I landed on the passenger behind me, luckily large, strong man. He held me and my seat as we gained cruising altitude. Once we leveled off, the copilot came back and helped a couple other passengers reinstall my seat (and my sanity.)

I'll never forget my exciting flight in a Goose, I tell ya.

The next time I saw Catalina Island was from the air. I had finished Basic Aviation class in high school and Dad (retired USAF pilot) had allowed me to take off (in the rented Cherokee C) and fly to Catalina and back. He landed it even though I felt competent in doing so. That was a much more enjoyable flight for some reason.

--- Chaos, panic, and disorder--my work here is done.

Comprehensive Website Development

Looks like a Hummingbird. :) Randy

Do you know how loud a B2 is when it passes right over your driveway? Even several hundred feet up it shakes the air in your lungs. Gorgeous birds!

Mike (I live 15 miles from Whiteman AFB, which also houses my personal favorite, the A10 Warthog)

Wow, everyone should have a great memory like that! The kind of thing that makes you look at life a little differently. :-)

But maybe not quite so memorable? :-)

BTW, I'm sure I've been to your site before but I clicked on the link to check it out and none of the images are working. :-(

Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com

"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"

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(click on the links at the bottom for more pics)

Dammit, now I gotta move the blackbird and the connie down a notch. Bugatti just took number 1.

technomaNge

Wow - that Hughes is nice! - however it would look better without that radial engine tho' - it spoils the noseline.

I have to go with the Spitfire for a prop plane ( Mustang is a just bit too muscley - a sort of venus Williams of a plane! P38 is just too girly) I have a soft spot for the Corsair too, but it's a bit of a plain jane from some angles (but than I always fancied Barbra Streisand too)

I go with the Blackbird for jets too

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