Weird planes

[DownwardDog]

I knew they did that, but never realised they ran it with just one of the engines.

The TP400 has over double the power of the C130 engines. Fitting all four would have pulled the wings off.

 

[mauvais]

Talking of weird engine configurations, I only became aware recently of the practice of carrying spare engines on commercial flights.

 

[2hats]

A set of space related airframes - two modified 747's - the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and SOFIA observatory:

and then the Myasishchev VM-T and the An-225 both used for transporting the Soviet space shuttle and rocket components:

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Lockheed-Martin CATBird

Got a Pfteven face

 

[DownwardDog]

Westland P.12. I'm sure somebody thought it was a good idea.

 

[DownwardDog]

Latécoère 521. I would have liked to have to done the Brest-Miami flight in this. 31 hours, but you got a sleeping compartment.

 

[DownwardDog]

F-4E in "Chico the Gunfighter" fit with quadruple SUU-23 20mm gatlings. That would wreck your shit.

 

[spitfire]

Westland P.12. I'm sure somebody thought it was a good idea.

That's just a Lysander with no arse isn't it?

 

[2hats]

The Reichenberg (Fieseler Fi 103R) 'suicide' version of the V-1:

Dornier Aerodyne :

Nemuth Parasol:

 

[2hats]

HZ-1 Aerocycle:

 

[Crispy]

HZ-1 Aerocycle:

Brave guy

 

[2hats]

Nimbus EosXi metaplane (both aerodynamic and aerostatic lift):

and the Goodyear Inflatoplane:

Finally (moving even further from an airplane, but it's fun), an aerojelly:

 

[A380]

Piasecki PA-97 Helistat

 

[DownwardDog]

He-111Z. I wonder what its roll rate was.

 

[Idris2002]

Westland P.12. I'm sure somebody thought it was a good idea.

Hang on, this was real?

I presume there was meant to be a cannon mounted in the rear turret?

 

[pogofish]

Hang on, this was real?

I presume there was meant to be a cannon mounted in the rear turret?

The idea never went past the prototype/flying mockup stage, so the intended four cannons were ever fitted but but yes that was the idea.

Another Lysander variant was more successfully fitted-out with cannons attached to its undercarrage fairings - the idea was that its low speed/low level performance meant it would be the ideal aircraft to strafe German troops with if they ever landed on our shores - also most lysander pilots were used to difficult/low level operation due to its main task of close work with ground troops and infiltrating agents into enimy territory. Only one was ever fully prepared and tested for this role though.

 

[Idris2002]

He-111Z. I wonder what it's roll rate was.

"Go home HE111Z, you are drunk".

 

[Idris2002]

This one used to take off from Shannon, if memory serves:

 

[T & P]

This is probably a very daft question... But why haven't we seen jet engined seaplanes? Take-off speed too high for water perhaps? Imagine all the airport congestion problems it would solve...

 

[2hats]

P6M Seamaster

e2a: also the Beriev Be-10

Both difficult to control at take off.

 

[A380]

This is probably a very daft question... But why haven't we seen jet engined seaplanes? Take-off speed too high for water perhaps? Imagine all the airport congestion problems it would solve...

I think that the salt water and turbine blades don't really mix well. There were a few after the second world war but by then there were runways almost everywhere:

But there were some cool efforts:

SR1 A

How much would you want to have one of these?

 

[gosub]

The runways everywhere of ww2 meant people switched with sea planes going from mainstream to niche

 

[agricola]

Westland P.12. I'm sure somebody thought it was a good idea.

The whole turret fighter concept is infuriating now, so it must have been absolutely maddening at the time.

 

[pogofish]

The whole turret fighter concept is infuriating now, so it must have been absolutely maddening at the time.

IIRC some of the USSR's most successful aircraft in WW2 were turret fighters but they were facing a very different kind of air war - The whole concept depended on bombers being relatively slow and vulnerable compared to fighters - However as WW2 went-on and particularly after, into the cold wwar, bomber design advanced to the point that they became redundant because the speeds and operational ceilings increased so much.

 

[pogofish]

This is probably a very daft question... But why haven't we seen jet engined seaplanes? Take-off speed too high for water perhaps? Imagine all the airport congestion problems it would solve...

Quite a few turboprop seaplanes as well - but again, the problems inherent with jet engines and seawater did make things difficult.

Also, in the UK's case, the whole landscape of long distance air travel was transformed by the number of land-based bombers that could be transformed into land-based passenger planes on the cheap and the political double dealing/land-grab that foisted Heathrow on us as the UK's primary transatlantic civil airport.

Seaplanes retained a much more important position in the colonies - particularly the Far East but often with ex-US seaplanes and other countries like Russia and Canada made a lot more use of them internally.

 

[superfly101]

Seaplanes retained a much more important position in the colonies - particularly the Far East but often with ex-US seaplanes and other countries like Russia and Canada made a lot more use of them internally.

Tales of the Gold Monkey

 

[A380]

Sea Bee/Teal.Off to meet Lord Summerisle.

 

[Chz]

You'd never really be able to take advantage of a jet powered seaplane. The slow takeoff speeds necessitate a wing design that's not well adapted to high speeds. So you'd never get any of the advantages of a jet, and all of its disadvantages. The P6M in the photo (American 4-engine one) was probably the only 20th century project that ever delivered something usable, but it cost billions in 21st century dollars to develop.

The Russians have one that they've just come up with, but there doesn't really seem to be any advantage to it using jets over props beyond cool factor.

 

[A380]

You'd never really be able to take advantage of a jet powered seaplane. The slow takeoff speeds necessitate a wing design that's not well adapted to high speeds. So you'd never get any of the advantages of a jet, and all of its disadvantages. The P6M in the photo (American 4-engine one) was probably the only 20th century project that ever delivered something usable, but it cost billions in 21st century dollars to develop.

The Russians have one that they've just come up with, but there doesn't really seem to be any advantage to it using jets over props beyond cool factor.

Not pixels...

 

[Crispy]

Not pixels...

Seriously?!