red750 Posted June 25 Author Posted June 25 The Miles M.20 was a Second World War British fighter developed by Miles Aircraft in 1940. It was designed as a simple and quick-to-build "emergency fighter" alternative to the Royal Air Force's Spitfires and Hurricanes should their production become disrupted by bombing expected in the anticipated German invasion of the United Kingdom. Due to the subsequent shifting of the German bombing effort after the Battle of Britain towards British cities in what became known as The Blitz, together with the dispersal of British fighter manufacturing, the Luftwaffe's bombing of the original Spitfire and Hurricane factories did not seriously affect production, and so the M.20 proved unnecessary and the design was not pursued. To reduce production time the M.20 employed all-wood construction and used many parts from the earlier Miles Master trainer, lacked hydraulics, and had spatted fixed landing gear. The fixed undercarriage freed space and payload sufficient for twelve .303 Browning machine guns and 5000 rounds, and 154 Imperial gallons (700 litres) of fuel (double the range and ammunition capacity of the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire). The M.20 was fitted with a bubble canopy for improved 360-degree vision. Two prototypes built. 1
red750 Posted June 25 Author Posted June 25 The Westland F.7/30 (or Westland PV.4) was a British fighter prototype. A single prototype was built in 1934, but the type was not put in production because its performance fell far below the RAF's requirements. The Gloster Gladiator won the F.7/30 competition. Full details here.
IBob Posted June 25 Posted June 25 Something interesting going on with the upper outer leading edges there?
pmccarthy Posted June 25 Posted June 25 3 hours ago, IBob said: Something interesting going on with the upper outer leading edges there? Slats? 1
red750 Posted June 26 Author Posted June 26 The Gerhardt Cycleplane has been called the world's first successful human-powered aircraft. It was designed by Dr. William Frederick Gerhardt (January 31, 1896 – March 15, 1984), and assembled by the staff of the Flight Test Section at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio. It was flown in 1923. The Cycleplane was constructed using private funds by members of the McCook Field Flight Test Section. Preliminary construction took place in secrecy in a barn loft. Officials from the base's Engineering Section later allowed Gerhardt and his crew to move into the McCook Field helicopter hangar for the aircraft's final assembly and storage. The Cycleplane had seven narrow vertically mounted wings, two attached to the small wood-and-fabric fuselage, and the other five stacked above it to a height of nearly 15 feet. A single pilot sat in an open cockpit near the wing roots where he pedaled a bicycle gear attached to a large two-bladed propeller. The aircraft made its first flight in July 1923. During initiate flight tests, an automobile towed the Cyleplane into the air and released it. Afterward Gerhardt was able to maintain stable, level flights for short periods of time. The only human-powered takeoff of the Cycleplane was a short hop of 20 feet (6 m) with the craft rising 2 feet (0.6 m). 1
BrendAn Posted June 26 Posted June 26 1 hour ago, red750 said: The Gerhardt Cycleplane has been called the world's first successful human-powered aircraft. It was designed by Dr. William Frederick Gerhardt (January 31, 1896 – March 15, 1984), and assembled by the staff of the Flight Test Section at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio. It was flown in 1923. The Cycleplane was constructed using private funds by members of the McCook Field Flight Test Section. Preliminary construction took place in secrecy in a barn loft. Officials from the base's Engineering Section later allowed Gerhardt and his crew to move into the McCook Field helicopter hangar for the aircraft's final assembly and storage. The Cycleplane had seven narrow vertically mounted wings, two attached to the small wood-and-fabric fuselage, and the other five stacked above it to a height of nearly 15 feet. A single pilot sat in an open cockpit near the wing roots where he pedaled a bicycle gear attached to a large two-bladed propeller. The aircraft made its first flight in July 1923. During initiate flight tests, an automobile towed the Cyleplane into the air and released it. Afterward Gerhardt was able to maintain stable, level flights for short periods of time. The only human-powered takeoff of the Cycleplane was a short hop of 20 feet (6 m) with the craft rising 2 feet (0.6 m). what i find more interesting is they had the use of a helicopter hangar in 1923. didn't realise helis were thought of then. 1
red750 Posted June 26 Author Posted June 26 The Blohm & Voss BV 144 was an advanced twin-engined commercial airliner developed by Germany during World War II but intended for post-war service. It was unusual in having a variable-incidence wing. Two prototypes were built by Breguet in France. The BV 144 was an all-metal cantilever monoplane of broadly conventional layout with a high wing and twin tail fins. It had a crew of three and was intended to carry 18 to 23 passengers. A very unusual feature of the BV 144 was the variable-incidence wing. The wing mechanism had already been test flown on an Ha 140 floatplane. Combined on the BV 144 with a tricycle (nosewheel) landing gear, which was also still unusual in those days, it ensured the comfort of the passengers by maintaining a level fuselage during takeoff and also allowing the fuselage to sit low to the ground for ease of boarding. An electro-mechanical device rotated the wing by its main spar, up to 9°. The BV 144 was powered by two wing-mounted BMW 801 MA radial engines. For history and specifications, click here.
red750 Posted June 27 Author Posted June 27 The Blériot 125 (or Bl-125) was a highly unusual French airliner of the early 1930s. Displayed at the 1930 Salon de l'Aéronautique in Paris, it featured accommodation for twelve passengers in separate twin fuselages. Between them, these pods shared a tailplane and a high wing. The centre section of wing joined the fuselage pods and also carried a nacelle that contained an engine at either end and the crew compartment in the middle. When flown the following year, it displayed very poor flight characteristics and although attempts to improve it continued on into 1933, certification could not be achieved and the sole prototype was scrapped the following year.
BrendAn Posted June 27 Posted June 27 47 minutes ago, red750 said: The Blériot 125 (or Bl-125) was a highly unusual French airliner of the early 1930s. Displayed at the 1930 Salon de l'Aéronautique in Paris, it featured accommodation for twelve passengers in separate twin fuselages. Between them, these pods shared a tailplane and a high wing. The centre section of wing joined the fuselage pods and also carried a nacelle that contained an engine at either end and the crew compartment in the middle. When flown the following year, it displayed very poor flight characteristics and although attempts to improve it continued on into 1933, certification could not be achieved and the sole prototype was scrapped the following year. french pilot said it handled like le porker. 1
IBob Posted June 27 Posted June 27 Let's see...............how can we maximise drag here.........while making sure everyone on board gets to fully appreciate the roar of the engines..........hmmmmm 1
red750 Posted June 28 Author Posted June 28 The Landgraf H-2 was an American single-seat twin-rotor helicopter designed by Fred Landgraf and built by the Landgraf Helicopter Company of Los Angeles, California. Although awarded a development contract by the United States Army, it was not developed and was overtaken by more advanced designs. Fred Landgraf formed the Landgraf Helicopter Company in September 1943 to develop and manufacture the H-2. It had an enclosed structure for one pilot and an 85 hp (63 kW) radial engine driving two rotors, each rotor fitted to a short boom on each side of the fuselage. It had a fixed tricycle landing gear. The H-2 first flew on 2 November 1944 and the company was awarded a development contract by the United States Army. It was not developed or bought and the company ceased operations by the end of the 1940s, with only one prototype built.. Unlike conventional helicopters, the H-2 used a tension-rod drive system to drive the side-by-side rotors. Control of blade pitch was also unconventional, with the blade shells rotating freely about the spars, controlled by ailerons near the tips.
red750 Posted June 28 Author Posted June 28 The Rutan SkiGull is an amphibious aircraft designed by Burt Rutan. The SkiGull is a two-seat composite/titanium aircraft equipped with retractable ski undercarriage that can have wheels attached for water, snow or land operations, landing on around 400 feet of surface, but with a range to cross oceans. The engine is configured to operate with Swift Fuel, auto or boat fuel. The aircraft is being developed privately. Public disclosure of the SkiGull design was made at the EAA's Airventure convention in 2015. Details included ability to operate in ocean waves with skis or land on smooth water or grass with skis retracted, 140 knot cruise speed (optionally 177 knots turbocharged), quiet flight, water takeoff in 460 feet, high wing with 47-foot span (foldable), ground transportation without a trailer, a single 44-percent-span Fowler flap behind the main propeller, and two electric motors with forward-folding reversible propellers to simplify docking and give optional takeoff power. The SkiGull performed water tests in October 2015. It has two 12 hp electric motors for docking, but they can also fly the plane 8 miles without the piston engine. The plane can loiter for 35 hours. First flight tests in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho lasting 1.8 hours were successfully completed November 24, 2015. Tests included basic stability and control in cruise configuration and with flap down and skis extended.[9] Rutan states that his goal for the aircraft is "something that we'll look back and say, 'what this airplane is and is able to do, in terms of operating in beaches, rough water, and have the kind of capabilities that it has, is not just something a little better than the best floatplane, but something that is really truly breakthrough in nature.'" Ongoing work is addressing refinements such as stall characteristics and pitch attitude in water. Changes also include larger wheels functionally independent of the skis and no longer configured as a "tail dragger." Only one SkiGull has been built to date.
red750 Posted June 28 Author Posted June 28 The LH Aviation LH-10 Ellipse is a two-seat light aircraft kitplane designed by LH Aviation of France and manufactured by Morocco . It is a low-wing single-engine pusher configuration with a tandem seating arrangement, and is constructed of composite materials. The plane is marketed in a surveillance configuration as the Grand Duc (Eurasian eagle-owl). The LH-10 Ellipse is a low-wing, tandem two-seat light kit aircraft, powered by a 100 hp Rotax petrol engine in a pusher-propeller configuration. Its low weight and unusual configuration is designed to deliver a very high cruising speed with exceptional fuel economy. This high speed and a relatively high 50-knot stall speed will exclude it from the UK Microlight or United States LSA categories, so a full single-engine private pilot certificate will be the minimum certification requirement to fly it in these countries, which are not the immediate target of the manufacturer, anyway. At the 2008 Farnborough Airshow LH-Aviation said that for the future they would be looking into LSA/ELA compliant production, possibly for the United States. The airframe is constructed of composite material based on ingredients produced by DSM. The production model is powered by a Rotax 912 four-cylinder reciprocating engine. (It has been tested using the 100 hp ULS variant, other options having been tested and discarded.) The undercarriage is a tricycle design, and will be available in fixed or electrically retractable front wheel configuration. The plane's design, with propeller in the tail and a short-nosed fuselage with a forward pilot seat in glider configuration, offers a field of view of 300 degrees. Three built to date.
red750 Posted June 29 Author Posted June 29 Rayne Viggenite The Viggenite was initially a one-of-a-kind two-seat homebuilt aircraft designed and built by Joe Rayne. Construction of the aircraft took some 10 years and the first flight was made on August 9, 1983 with an 150-160 hp Lycoming O-320 engine. The wings were based on those of Burt Rutan's VariViggen design, but with all-metal rather than composite material construction and these were mated to a metal construction fuselage of Mr. Rayne's own design. The type was not intended for amateur construction. However, a second example (named Viggenite 13B) was built by Keith O. Lewis and this aircraft, powered by a Mazda 13B rotary engine, flew during 2005.
red750 Posted June 30 Author Posted June 30 The Pilatus SB-2 Pelican was a civil utility aircraft developed by a purposely founded development bureau at the ETH Zurich on behalf of the Federal Air Authority. In November 1940 it was decided to go on with the project and build the aircraft, in February 1941 the Authority approved the development bureau to have it built at the newly formed Pilatus Aircraft company. In 1938 the Federal Air Authority was looking for an aircraft able to land at minial airfields in mountain valleys. In fact the aircraft was desired to define the criteria such possible future airfields would have to meet. So this was not to be the aircraft for such air transport itself but a mean to find possible airfield locations. The previous project of a four-seater STOL experimental aircraft under the designation Studienbüro für Spezialflugzeuge SB-1 was not implemented, so it was followed by the SB-2, which at some moments was also discussed for commercial use. Work on the SB-2 Pelican, a special “slow-flying” aircraft, commenced in the winter of 1941. Good short takeoff and landing credentials, plus steep climbing capabilities, were essential attributes of the aircraft flown in the narrow Alpine valleys at that time. The aircraft was designed to carry five people, the double controls could be reduced to one if flown with only one pilot. The configuration of the SB-2 was slightly unusual, in that it was provided with tricycle undercarriage (an uncommon feature at the time), and a wing that had a slight forward sweep. As it turned out, the type was never actually tested in its originally intended role. Only twice the aircraft was used later by the company it was sold to, Alpar, to land in a narrow mountain valley. Only the one unit was built.
red750 Posted July 1 Author Posted July 1 The Starck AS-37 is a two-seat biplane with unconventional wing and propulsion layouts. It was designed in France in the 1970s; though three were built and more than twenty sets of plans sold for home building, no AS-37s are active in 2012. The AS-37 is conventionally constructed from wood, with a spruce structure covered with acajou plywood. The small gap, high stagger wing arrangement first proposed by Nenadovitch is the aircraft's most unusual feature, though one that its designer André Starck had used in two of his earlier aircraft, the AS-20 from 1942 and the AS-27 from the early 1970s. The wings have low aspect ratios; the upper one is mounted on the fuselage a little above mid-position and the lower at the bottom of the fuselage, making the gap unusually small. The stagger is sufficient to place the upper trailing edge a little ahead of the lower leading edge. Together, the two wings were intended to have some of the desirable characteristics of a single, slotted wing. The AS-37 has wings of unequal span and chord, the lower one smaller, joined not by conventional interplane struts but by wing tip "curtains". These aerodynamic surfaces, as broad in chord as the lower wings, lean outwards at 45° with ailerons attached to their trailing edges. As well as stiffening the wing structure, these curtains were said to improve lateral control and stall behaviour. The earlier AS-27 was powered by a conventionally nose-mounted engine but, though the AS-37 is also single engined, it originally had two propellers in pusher configuration, one on each upper wing. The propellers turned in the narrow gap between the two wings, with the intention that the propeller slipstream should enhance the slot effect of the wing pair. The propellers were timing belt driven, with a gear reduction of 2:1, by a 49 kW (65 hp) Citroën GS 1220 engine placed near mid-fuselage, behind the cabin. The fuselage of the AS-37 is deep and flat sided. The constant chord tailplane, placed on top of the fuselage, and the fin, which has a straight, swept leading edge, both carry balanced control surfaces. The cabin is forward of the upper wing, enclosed by a single curvature canopy which follows the straight sloping nose. Dual controls are provided for the side-by-side seating. The AS-37 had a fixed tricycle undercarriage with the mainwheels on side V-struts and half-axles and the wheels have disc brakes. The Starck-Nickel SN.01 variant had tractor propellers. For more details, click here. Original design The Starck-Nickel SN.01 variant
red750 Posted July 2 Author Posted July 2 From Flying magazine, Nov 2021.. After years of exploring the dream of a jet-powered Aerostar, Aerostar Aircraft of Boise, Idaho, is test-flying a Pratt & Whitney re-engined airplane. Company president Jim Christy flew the twinjet to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for AirVenture in July. The airplane, which has very little time on it, is still a work in progress, though the most critical part, the engines and their mounts, are fully engineered. Christy said that even though he has been limited to 28,000 feet in the non-RVSM-approved airplane, the performance he has been seeing — 380 knots true at high fuel burns — will translate into better than 400 knots at 35,000 feet (the expected ceiling) with the miserly fuel flows more closely associated with the P&W 615 engines (the same engines as on the Cessna Citation Mustang). With the Aerostar’s nice cabin and great flying manners, the combination could be a winner, Christy said. RARE BIRD ALERT🚩 The twinjet Aerostar came by Sandpoint today, and I... WWW.FACEBOOK.COM RARE BIRD ALERT🚩 The twinjet Aerostar came by Sandpoint today, and I had to get a shot of the takeoff run. This aircraft is an active testbed for jet conversions owned by Aerostar Aircraft Corp, the...
BrendAn Posted July 2 Posted July 2 5 hours ago, red750 said: From Flying magazine, Nov 2021.. After years of exploring the dream of a jet-powered Aerostar, Aerostar Aircraft of Boise, Idaho, is test-flying a Pratt & Whitney re-engined airplane. Company president Jim Christy flew the twinjet to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for AirVenture in July. The airplane, which has very little time on it, is still a work in progress, though the most critical part, the engines and their mounts, are fully engineered. Christy said that even though he has been limited to 28,000 feet in the non-RVSM-approved airplane, the performance he has been seeing — 380 knots true at high fuel burns — will translate into better than 400 knots at 35,000 feet (the expected ceiling) with the miserly fuel flows more closely associated with the P&W 615 engines (the same engines as on the Cessna Citation Mustang). With the Aerostar’s nice cabin and great flying manners, the combination could be a winner, Christy said. RARE BIRD ALERT🚩 The twinjet Aerostar came by Sandpoint today, and I... WWW.FACEBOOK.COM RARE BIRD ALERT🚩 The twinjet Aerostar came by Sandpoint today, and I had to get a shot of the takeoff run. This aircraft is an active testbed for jet conversions owned by Aerostar Aircraft Corp, the... the aerostar had a vne of 244knts. what do they have to do to the airframe to get 400knts without structural damage. 1
Red Posted July 2 Posted July 2 8 hours ago, BrendAn said: the aerostar had a vne of 244knts. what do they have to do to the airframe to get 400knts without structural damage. Vne will be an given at indicated airspeed?, 244 knots indicated is over 400knots TAS at 35000' 2
BrendAn Posted July 3 Posted July 3 10 hours ago, Red said: Vne will be an given at indicated airspeed?, 244 knots indicated is over 400knots TAS at 35000' thanks red, so the higher you go the higher the vne goes as the air gets thinner,
skippydiesel Posted July 3 Posted July 3 9 minutes ago, BrendAn said: thanks red, so the higher you go the higher the vne goes as the air gets thinner, I always thought, with increasing altitude, for the same indicated speed, true airspeed goes up. So if Vne is 244 knots, indicated, that remains as the aircrafts safe limit, even if true is a lot higher - something to do the flutter. 1
Marty_d Posted July 3 Posted July 3 (edited) Is True airspeed indicated on any instruments or just calculated / shown on GPS? (Not that it's going to make much difference in a 701 😆) Edited July 3 by Marty_d 2
BrendAn Posted July 3 Posted July 3 16 minutes ago, skippydiesel said: I always thought, with increasing altitude, for the same indicated speed, true airspeed goes up. So if Vne is 244 knots, indicated, that remains as the aircrafts safe limit, even if true is a lot higher - something to do the flutter. Basic VNE is an indicated airspeed but flutter is affected by TAS. The velocity of air thats actually going over the control surfaces. As you go higher generally the TAS needs to be reduced with an increase in altitude for stability. While you might have the same impact velocity (IAS) youll have less stabilizing static pressure on the sides of the aircraft. Thus a reduction in IAS to keep the aircraft in safe margins. For some aircraft it's not a set VNE TAS either. For instance, in the B407 VNE is 140 KIAS all the way up to 4,000 ft at 0 degrees. Then IAS needs to be reduced with a corresponding TAS. Also for some aircraft like business jets or helicopters you have Mach limiting TAS as you get into colder air at higher altitudes. found this snippet 1 1
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