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Some aircraft just look right


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Guest Maj Millard

I've walked around and closely viewed the Mustang and DC 3... There is no a bad angle on either. For shear beauty the Bugatti racer or Spitfire ( any mark ) Bombers....the Vulcan and Victor. Fighter jets... Mirage III, F 86 Saber, F4 Pantom. Airliners...Concorde and DC-8 or B707. Stintson Gullwing, Beech Staggerwing, and Cessna 195 are hard to beat in their class.

 

Wittman tailwind and Gee Bee R1 for sport racers...but the prettiest of all...the Monocoupe 110 Special.....!!

 

 

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I hd the great fortune to undertake a work trip to gather information on aircraft storage and conservation, visiting with 'access all areas' privileges to the USAF Museum, the US Naval Air Museum, the San Diego air museum, Duxford, the UK Mosquito museum and more than a week at the Silver Hill restoration and storage facility of the NASM, and a side-trip to a major US private Warbirds museum ( not, unfortunatley, the Planes of Fame facility).

 

Saw the Hughes Racer 'up close and personal' - the finish is just amazingly perfect, every single flush rivet done to perfection. Crawled down the rear fuselage tunnel to the rear gunner position of Enola Gay. Kicked the tyres on an F-117. Crawled all over lots of aircraft that few people even know really existed!

 

The most amazing aircraft to see at first hand is, in my opinion, an SR-71 (saw two, at San Diego and the USAF Museum, and even when you're standing beside them, they exude a presence that can only be described as 'evil incarnate', with a major dash of 'no human could fly that thing, this is aliens territory'). Even just standing there, they look organic and somehow, alive.

 

The FW 190 is magnificent, even by Spitfire standards. The Mosquito is superb in the flesh. The Me262 is beautiful in every line (though rough as guts in the finish).

 

But of all the things I saw, absolutely the most visceral was the Tigercat at Duxford. Head-on, they are just two huge engines and props with a capsule for the pilot, impossibly slim and delicate. And every line, from any view, is simply perfect.

 

 

 

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Bit tongue in cheek chaps but a few Beavers did . I think they were AG planes. Bit of concern at the time. The DHC-1 has a fairly low time centre section spar. Nev

Saw a couple of mangled Beavers prior to departing the land of the frozen North but both cases were resultant from being caught out by weather conditions. Would like to research this aspect of 'wings falling off'. Got any pointers as to when & where? cheers

 

 

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Guest Maj Millard
This does it for me.. Santos Dumonts[ATTACH=full]33925[/ATTACH]

Santos Dummont took his own life at middle age due to a debilitating illness ( possibly MS). He was certainly a very early pioneer and always very eccentric in his style.

 

 

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Guest Maj Millard
Bit tongue in cheek chaps but a few Beavers did . I think they were AG planes. Bit of concern at the time. The DHC-1 has a fairly low time centre section spar. Nev

The DHC2 wing attach bushes can wear badly, particularly the rear one, to the point where quite a bit of front to rear wingtip movement can be the result. Every chain has its weak link, and the Beaver is indeed a very solid chain otherwise.

 

 

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Yeh

 

Santos Dummont took his own life at middle age due to a debilitating illness ( possibly MS). He was certainly a very early pioneer and always very eccentric in his style.

tragic end to an eccentric fellow. Not sure I'd eat at his dinner table , scared of heights and all. Lol

He believed whole heartily that he was the true invented of aircraft, when ww1 lost so many lives with "his" invention he couldn't handle the blood on his hands ( in his own words) so he ended his life . Mental illness at its worst. He was a true pioneer.

 

My no 1 hero

 

Edit : I'm going to build a demoiselle one day, just not out of bambo and bed sheets ;)

 

 

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This has always done it for me since the Snowy Mountains Authority flew them out of Cooma in the 50's and 60's. Don

That's the Beaver at Hobart in Constitution Dock unless I'm mistKen?

 

Kaz

 

 

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Thread-drift The early Beavers had alloy strut fittings that would hold up to original maximum design weights, (there's a photo somewhere of a float Beaver that went IFR and looped out the bottom of a cloud and bent a wing about 30°, but landed safely).

 

But when they came to Australia and started Ag work in our rough conditions, a couple managed to pull the wings off (not sure if it was a new aircraft that failed).

 

All beavers now have steel strut fittings and doubler plates on the wings for Ag and sea-plane work.

 

There may have been a few extra mods around the tail as well, I know the tailwheel fittings were beefed up.

 

 

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