The Planes that never were

[Cid]

What's the jet with 21✠53?

 

[dylanredefined]

What's the jet with 21✠53?

F104 starfighter. Interesting history of that aircraft and the Luftwaffe.

 

[pogofish]

My favourite mad F-104 variant:

Zero Length Launch - aka Runways - Pah! We don't need 'em.


I think 21-53 and definitely D-9518 - as its the only survivor, plus a few other exhibits are on holiday to Schleißheim from the main aviation gallery in Deutsches Museum Munich, which is currently being rebuilt. Due for completion sometime in 2018.

 

[A380]

My favourite mad F-104 variant:

Zero Length Launch - aka Runways - Pah! We don't need 'em.


I think 21-53 and definitely D-9518 - as its the only survivor, plus a few other exhibits are on holiday to Schleißheim from the main aviation gallery in Deutsches Museum Munich, which is currently being rebuilt. Due for completion sometime in 2018.

Well, with an aircraft so safe to begin with what could possibly go wrong?

 

[A380]

A few highlights from Flugwerft Schleißheim:

Midweek fares in February Luton Munich £25 each way... This, the science museum and the BMW museum I shouldn't.

 

[pogofish]

Midweek fares in February Luton Munich £25 each way... This, the science museum and the BMW museum I shouldn't.

Yes you should...!

Get yourself a 4-ring Isar Karte from the MVV stand in the airport, then S1 line straight from the airport to Oberschleißheim and a local bus or 15/20min walk through beautiful baroque palace gardens to the airfield/museum. You could stop in the Blue Carp for a beer on the way.

Then back to the station and into the Hauptbanhof, then the 16-tram from the Nord Tramstellen, straight to Deutsches Museum - Sorted!

BMW museum is well worth it too and there is some interesting industrial/auto design stuff - eg an original Porsche model and a Tatra 87 Streamliner at the Pinakothek der Moderne.

Pinakothek der Moderne - Wikipedia

And if you want a truly jawdropping collection of Old Master paintings, the Alte Pinakothek across the road will keep you very happy indeed - And its cheap entry all year because of the renovations. 100 bus from beside the Nord Tramstellen or a tram direct from Karlsplatz (Stacchus), one stop away from the Hauptbahnhof.

 

[pogofish]

I had the pics on my other machine:

Here are 21-53 and D-9518 in their old home at the main museum:

Two prototypes of the EWR VJ 101C single-seat experimental VTOL aircraft were built. Generally similar, they were both of high-wing monoplane configuration, primarily of light alloy construction, had retractable tricycle landing gear and accommodated the pilot in a pressurised cockpit, seated on a Martin-Baker ejection seat. Powerplant comprised six RB.145 turbojets, developed jointly by Rolls-Royce and MAN-Turbomotoren, with two mounted vertically in the fuselage, immediately aft of the cockpit, and two in a swivelling pod at each wingtip.

Those in the fuselage were used only for VTOL and low-speed flight, those in the wingtip pods for VTOL, low speed, transition from vertical to horizontal flight, and high-speed flight. Control of the aircraft in flight had been explored by a hovering rig powered by three Rolls-Royce RB.108 lift-jets, and by May 1963 this had made a total of 70 flights.

The VJ 101C X-1 prototype was flown for the first time in free hovering flight on 10 April 1963. It had exceeded a speed of Mach 1 several times before it crashed, following a vertical take-off, on 14 September 1964. The VJ 101C X-2 differed by having afterburning engines in the wingtip pods, providing greater power for take-off and landing, and this made its first hovering flight on 12 June 1965. Four months later, on 22 October, the X-2 achieved the first full transitions from vertical to horizontal flight and vice versa, but development was discontinued soon after.

Production of a single-seat interceptor was planned, under the designation EWR VJ 101D, but this would have differed considerably from the research prototypes. VTOL lift would have been retained by a battery of Rolls-Royce/ MAN RB.162 lift-jets in the fuselage, but primary propulsion would have come from two Rolls-Royce/MAN RB.153 turbofans mounted in the rear fuselage, these relying upon thrust deflection for control purposes. However, none of these aircraft was built.

Wonder where they have squirrelled away the Bachem Natter though..?

 

[Idris2002]

I'll just leave this here:

 

[Idris2002]

Er... I'm not an aviation expert or anything, but they appear to have filled the lifting gas bit with things like people, aircraft and power stations. Many of which are heavier than air.

If you look at the section directly above the loading ramp and the green-shaded area, that's labelled 'lift' in Cyrillic. I'm not sure if it would have been big enough to provide lift for the people, aircraft and power stations, mind.

 

[A380]

British Aerospace Cosmiste Multi role recovery Capsule - 1987

 

[Idris2002]

A Spitfire. With floats.

 

[A380]

Real or pixels? I hope real...

 

[pogofish]

A Spitfire. With floats.

Err....

The Spitfire descends directly from the RJ Mitchell designed, Supermarine Schnider Trophy aircraft - the S4, S5 and S6-B.

All floatplanes.

 

[pogofish]

Real or pixels? I hope real...

Types 355 and 359 - yes they were real, although one type never flew and only a handful of planes were converted to the other before the Air Ministry lost interest.

The idea for the first type was when the invasion of Norway was seriously considered but the demand for Spits at home was such that it got converted back to wheels for normal service and the second type was intended for the defence of Greek islands but the Germans got-in there before they could be deployed and the few planes converted landed-up in Egypt. There was also some interest in using them out East but that came to naught too.


The Supermarine 305 however, that's a real plane that never was - A 2-man spit with a movable heavy machine gun turret - based on the Spitfire wings, tail, engine and undercarriage but with a new fuselage - A British equivalent of the Il-2 Sturmovik perhaps?

 

[pogofish]

Sacrilege!

 

[A380]

Lancastrian Jet. Not really a plane that never was, more a flying testbed, but still the worlds first jet passenger plane.

Avro Lancastrian - Wikipedia

 

[pogofish]

In a similar vein - An afterburning Lincoln...!

Again a testbed for the Derwent, not intended for production.

 

[spitfire]

A Spitfire. With floats.

I'll spare you all a photoshopped image of me in waterwings. It wouldn't be as pretty.

 

[Idris2002]

"The Rockwell XFV-12 was a prototype supersonic United States Navy fighter which was built in 1977. The XFV-12 design attempted to combine the Mach 2 speed and AIM-7 Sparrow armament of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II in a VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) fighter for the small Sea Control Ship which was under study at the time. On paper, it looked superior to the subsonic Hawker Siddeley Harrier attack fighter. However, it proved unable to produce enough thrust for vertical flight, even with an installed engine delivering more thrust than its empty weight, and the project was abandoned."

Rockwell XFV-12 - Wikipedia

 

[Idris2002]

At least they got some of their ramjet planes into the air - Whilst ours got cancelled before they left the drawing board or made it to completion in the prototype stage.

Although not strictly a ramjet, wasn't the SARO SR-53 prototype the only UK mixed jet/rocket aircraft to make any significant number of flights?

Always liked the Flying FLask/Leduc Ramjet - Yes, that cockpit is made out of Pyrex!

And the Leduc Ramjet pilot seems to have found his flying experience . . . memorable, if facial expression is any judge;

 

[hot air baboon]

Project Greenglow and the battle with gravity - BBC News

When, in the late 1980s, the aerospace engineer Dr Ron Evans went to his bosses at BAE Systems and asked if they'd let him attempt some form of gravity control, they should probably have offered him a cup of tea and a lie down. Gravity control was a notion beloved of science fiction writers that every respectable theoretical physicist said was impossible.


...came to nowt ofcourse....




....or did it...

 

[DotCommunist]

suacer nazis in the north pole

 

[hot air baboon]

Alternative 3

 

[Idris2002]

suacer nazis in the north pole

MUST DIE

 

[ViolentPanda]

MUST DIE

A Troma production.

 

[pogofish]

One wonders what happened to this P3 Orion - A cancelled project or did they simply taxi it into a wall..?

 

[Saul Goodman]

One wonders what happened to this P3 Orion - A cancelled project or did they simply taxi it into a wall..?

 

[pogofish]

Again, from the Convair Archive:

Not so much a plane that never was - more an ejection system that never made the grade:

The "type B" - kiss your ass goodbye ejection system.

And some poor guy actually got to test it!

However it remains the USAF's rarest ejection seat - many were produced but fitted to only a few aircraft with the rest rapidly scrapped as the rising number of fatal ejections prompted them to seek an urgent re-design.

It was also notable for needing the firing of around thirty different explosive/pyrotechnic charges in order to blast its way out of a fuselage and over the tail of an aircraft at supersonic speeds, before the parachute could actually be deployed!. Pilots were ordered to never use it at low speeds/altitudes as there was no chance whatsoever of survival.

 

[Tankus]

Wasn't there one that fired downwards

 

[Ergo Proxy]

On an ejection seat related note the BREMONT MARTIN BAKER MBI

Since 1946, British aerospace company Martin-Baker has saved the lives of at least 7,450 pilots. That's because it makes ejection seats—one of the most vital pieces of safety equipment on any high-speed aircraft. Martin-Baker seats are the best of the best, tested to the most punishing levels of endurance and extremes of shock, vibration, temperature and more. Amazingly, Bremont's Martin-Baker watches are all put through the same rigours used on the ejection seats, at the same test facility. Fitted with anti-shock movement mounts and Faraday cages, the MB watches are made to be the ultimate endurance chronometer, able to survive just about anything short of a direct meteor strike. Recognised by their red aluminium barrel, original MBI pieces like this one are exceptionally rare because they are only given to those who have actually ejected during flight.

One's up for sale atm - yours for around £30,000