Weird planes

[spitfire]

"Hey guys, I've had a great idea! Why don't we...."

 

[spitfire]

New one on me.

Made as a scale flyable mock up for a larger version.

Miles M.30 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[A380]

 

[spitfire]

chonky

 

[T & P]

The military aviation equivalent of a 6' 5" rugby player accusing you of looking at his bird in the pub and asking you to step outside.

 

[Idris2002]

The military aviation equivalent of a 6' 5" rugby player accusing you of looking at his bird in the pub and asking you to step outside.

"Eh no, I wasn't looking at your "bird"". . .

"Why not? Is there something. . . wrong with her is that what you're saying?"

 

[2hats]

SOFIA observatory:

SOFIA is currently in Europe, based at CGN, and has been doing circuits the past week. Will be here for the next three weeks.

SOFIA

 

[DownwardDog]

That thing behind Alan Partridge is one of the 90s vintage Replica mockups from the RCS study. It's been given a Halfords rattle can paint job and been put on a set of Tornado landing gear. It's an utterly laughable PR stunt. The FOD guards are a nice touch.

Japan hasn't acquired anything but a US combat aircraft for 75 years. The idea that they are going to weaken their most important military and strategic partnership to get in on the Airfix led Tempest consortium isn't credible.

Wow, I was wrong about his. Chapeau, kebabking

Sweden are out of Tempest and Japan are in and it's now called the Global Air Combat Program.

 

[kebabking]

I'm surprised that Sweden are out...

Gripen looks to be on a shakier nail than a couple of years ago - it's lost out to F-35 in any number of sales completions, including the most important one, Finland - I'm just not sure I see it having the longevity it once looked like having. Tempest at least looked like having some workshare for Saab.

The French/German thing (FCAS?) may or may not have room for Saab, so it's either that, go it alone (astronomical price), or buy whatever the US is selling in 2035/40 and watch Saab go to the wall...

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Surprised Italy are involved, sure it'll look great but it'll need to come with an AA membership.

 

[spitfire]

Surprised Italy are involved, sure it'll look great but it'll need to come with an AA membership.

They’re doing the flightsuits.

 

[DownwardDog]

I'm surprised that Sweden are out...

Gripen looks to be on a shakier nail than a couple of years ago - it's lost out to F-35 in any number of sales completions, including the most important one, Finland - I'm just not sure I see it having the longevity it once looked like having. Tempest at least looked like having some workshare for Saab.

The French/German thing (FCAS?) may or may not have room for Saab, so it's either that, go it alone (astronomical price), or buy whatever the US is selling in 2035/40 and watch Saab go to the wall...

Gripen hasn't won an export order since Brazil in 2014. The first problem it has is the F-16s released into the market by F-35 operators like Norway. The second problem is Dassault's sales team who know how to close a deal by any means necessary.

The French are trying to get the Saudis into FCAS which makes some sort of sense.

 

[DownwardDog]

I still see problems ahead for Tempest/GCAP. The 'partnership of equals' between UK and Japan will be hard to manage and the schedule is ludicrous. The last great British/Japanese engineering collaboration gave us the Triumph Acclaim...

 

[clusterfarce]

HZ1 Aerocycle. Over literal chopper?

 

[MrCurry]

Haven’t heard much about the Fan wing project lately. Would be cool to see it fly at full size though. I think a few RC models have been made:

Images from FanWing website. It boasts a STOL capability and fuel efficient properties. Low top speed though, obviously. I don’t know how well it would cope with bird strike, either.

 

[MrCurry]

HZ1 Aerocycle. Over literal chopper?

You wouldn’t want to lose your balance and drop into the blades.

 

[a_chap]

I don’t know how well it would cope with bird strike, either.

Probably copes a lot better than the poor bird

 

[T & P]

Looks like two giant Dyson upright vacuum cleaners stuck together with a few alerons slapped on

 

[Dogsauce]

Looks like two giant Dyson upright vacuum cleaners stuck together with a few alerons slapped on

Hopefully with better build quality, otherwise they’re seriously fucked.

 

[MrCurry]

I’m tempted to make an RC model fanwing, they look so cool! Finding the right balance point for the centre of gravity might be fraught with issues though.

 

[DownwardDog]

Haven’t heard much about the Fan wing project lately. Would be cool to see it fly at full size though. I think a few RC models have been made:

Images from FanWing website. It boasts a STOL capability and fuel efficient properties. Low top speed though, obviously. I don’t know how well it would cope with bird strike, either.


View attachment 355447

It's a Shorts Skyvan fuselage with Mi-17 engines on it.

 

[MrCurry]

It's a Shorts Skyvan fuselage with Mi-17 engines on it.

Yeah.. just a visualisation of course, so I suppose they cobbled it together which whatever seemed to fit nicely. The actual concept of the aircraft could be realised with any number of different fuselage / engine configurations, but I suspect the fact it’s yet to get off the ground means it has some fatal flaws, or at least serious drawbacks.

Perhaps the cruising speed is simply too low to make it commercially viable.

 

[2hats]

A new X plane: the X-66A ('Sustainable Flight Demonstrator'). NASA, with Boeing, intend to carry out some serious surgery on an MD-90 to add a transonic truss-braced wing (TTBW; lift generating truss) with a view to creating a much more fuel efficient 2 engine successor to the 737.

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Next Generation Experimental Aircraft Becomes NASA’s Newest X-Plane - NASA

NASA and Boeing said Monday the aircraft produced through the agency’s Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project has been designated by the U.S. Air Force as the X-66A.

www.nasa.gov

Separately, the X-59 ('Low Boom Flight Demonstrator'), QueSST (Quiet SuperSonic Technology), is now scheduled to begin flight tests this year.

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