Unusual Project

And who says the wings are too small...

And who says the wings are too small...

Fit a big enough engine & wings are not so important ?

I wonder if the designers used the torque recation to aid in following the course. The Reno Air Racing Association motto sums up pylon racing quite succinctly : Fly fast, fly low - turn left !

Nigel B

A classic example? F104 starfighter...more like a manned missile than an aircraft! One of my favourites when the Italians used to come over for the airshow.

Edited By ChrisB on 11/09/2020 17:18:52

This is still necessary in space for driver comfort. Centrifugal force still needed.

What gets me about space movies is the way the tail gun still has to be manually operatd like radar and computers haven't been invented but they can't sell the gaming rights without that. Then there is the super pilot guiding the ship down a narrow trench when Tornados already had and used an automatic system in the first Gulf war, again essential for games sales. I've not heard of a game simulating the geek hammering at a keyboard to jam the approaching missle just in time - no market for a game that doesn't feature killing people.

You don't need a symmetric aeroplane for it to be able to fly...

But they do have a habit of only going round in circles

It seems the GeeBee racers were so fast that could fly hide and turn wide!

Neil

"So you want a Starfighter? Buy an acre of land in Germany and wait."

The Canadians had a good aerobatic team that displayed most years at RAF Mildenhall airshows with Starfighters, the later genaration of F 104's had a sting in their tale if you had flown early MK's, the early planes you ejected out of the bottom if you had to but the later ones came out of the cockpit, it wasnt unknown for a pilot to flip a later version forgetting he would do himself a mischief if at low level.

Martin P

Apparently English Electric Lightning pilots had to turn an engine off just before landing to stop the brakes wearing out. As two engines idling were powerful enough to accelerate the plane up to 80 mph on the ground the brakes had a hard life!

I asked ex-RAF fighter pilot what they were like to fly: 'indescribable' he said, 'you have to experience it'.

Dave

Percentage of airframes lost through 'accident':

Germany - 32%

Italy - 37%

Canada - 46%

Countries with fewer planes and less active use did better...

Neil

The starfighter acquired a few nicknames, widowmaker, ground nail and flying coffin were some. I remember my dad calling it the widowmaker when we lived in Germany during the period of many being lost.

Mike

Here we go, I hope Jason approves of the panel lines!

I think you cheated. Your first pic showed one wing with mounted engine, not two. The Germans built - or maybe just designed - something similarly asymmetric in WW2, and I thought you were taking that forward.

Now what you've done looks like a cartoon Gloster Meteor...

Nicely printed, if that's what you did.

.

^^^

MichaelG

In a similar vein - as a cadet on camp at RAF Wildenrath I asked a Harrier pilot what it was like hovering and I still remember he said it was **** hard work, but " when you need to bang off quickly - 120 knots and drop the nozzles - its the best feeling in the world!"

Looks good Neil though did I spot an engine fire or two

The last F104 I saw (and sat in) had lost it's wings and was once flown by Chuck Yeager. North American Eagle. Unfortunatly even without wings it still crashed in August lst year killing it's driver, Jessie Combes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Eagle_Project

On a happier note Burt Rutan designed and built an asymmetric aircraft
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutan_Boomerang

Robert G8RPI.

That's the tachyon drive for you...

The late JS's Debs was good at hiding her light under a bushel. She built a plane to a Rutan design, flew it across the Atlantic in both directions and I understand it's now in the museum at Oshkosh.

Neil