Wright Flyer/GE Jet Engine

It would be like putting warp engines on the HMS Surprise. It would be cute but imoral. :-)

Jim Klein

No. Apparently I don't watch enough television anymore or I mentally tune out commercials.

I'm gonna guess that some wit mounted a jet on the Flyer. I would think the vibration would tear the craft apart. I do remember gluing 5" gun turrets from a battleship kit to a Revell DC-4 when I was a kid. Best protected transport in the world but just outright silly when you think about it. :)

Bill Banaszak, MFE

think the revell kit would be a good candidate?

immoral? ok, i'm up.

You wouldn't get that far. The weight of the engine (it was mounted on the top of the upper wing), would crush the whole thing like an egg shell!

F Marion

Apropos of this subject, considering how the USAF keeps resparring and re-engining the B-52, some day I-m going to do a small scale one with warp nacelles. Kim M

LOL. That will probably be about right. If the History Channel got it right in their documentary and the big brute still has some service life in 2045, most of us will probably not still be in service. Outlived by a plane. Who would have thought.

The 2045 claim made me curious so I went mining and dug up this:

Somebody Ouija me in 2045 and let me know if any of them make it.

WmB

To reply, get the HECK out of there snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net

I'll leave a note for my descendants.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

With a lot of luck the human race will have come to its collective senses by

2045 and there will be no need for the BUFF (with or without warp engines...), except to remind us of our folly. But I doubt it - we've had umpteen centuries and this is only 40 years away...

RobG

i've been wondering about that. doesn't the airframe have a finite life? wasn't the last one built in like 64 or something? didn't age take the b-26's out of vietnam?

One of these days I'll build my fantasy plane. There was a time when everyone was re-engining DC-3s. Lots of turboprop combos. I thought I'd build one with a couple of DC-9 pods on fuselage :-)

I remember an old joke when I was in the AF. Someday the AF will retire its last manned aircraft. But they'll fly all the dignitaries to the ceremony in Goony Birds.

what is the company that rebuilds and refurbs? i wonder how many are left?

One company was (is?) Basler.

The SAAF also did some C-47 turbo conversions.

In the same vein does anybody make a Turbo Tracker conversion? I have not seen one yet. Since I used the Hasegawa props for my two Yak-11 conversions this would make a great conversion.

Tom

the company i'm thinking of did the ill fated ricky nelson bird. i'm glad drug related was disproved.

That sounds like the aircraft used in the movie "Fate is the Hunter" with Rod Taylor and Glenn Ford.

-- John The history of things that didn't happen has never been written. . - - - Henry Kissinger

That was one of the Super DC-3 conversions, IIRC.

Radial engines were retained, but the undercarriage now had doors to cover them. Different tail, too.

They were called the C-117D, R4D-8, YC-47F AND YC-129 in US military sevice.

My favorite was the XCG-17, a cargo glider variant with pods over the engine firewalls and a tow connection on the belly. I started an Airfix conversion of one back when Dave Boksanski was still alive and there were no ESCI or Italeri kikts of the Goony, much less detailing parts.

I'll have to finish that someday.

Tom

thanks. i'll google them up.

umpteen centuries and this is only 40 years away...

Quite true. Like the Klingons, we humans are a warrior race. Even if we don't like to admit it.