marshallarts

Reminds me of the ill-fated Lear Fan. Similar story, although I think it was a turbo-prop from the start.

For anyone interested, you can text the numeral "3" to 3498 and you will get back a text telling you whether your phone will be OK post 3G. Not sure how reliable it is, I think it's a Telstra thing.

The only surprise to me is that they have lasted this long. Beats me how they make ANY sales at the prices I've seen.

And I also note that the aircraft is now for sale on planesales.com.au

Just been hearing on the radio that the record attempt happened yesterday, and was successful - he made 145 takeoff/landing cycles during daylight. I didn't hear how much was actually raised for the RFDS, but good for him.

O Ooooh such cynicism. You must be nearly as old as me! 😄

Very like VH-ZND, the 787 Dreamliner with the "Yam Dreaming" decoration. That one retains the red tail, but the red fits in with the painting anyway, as the green does with this one. I like them both a lot. VH-ZND pic

Whenever I see a discussion like this, I am prompted to wonder (again) what the missing ingredient is. Example: Pilatus is a Swiss company, producing some of the world's finest aircraft of their type, like the PC-12 turboprop and the PC-24 jet, both used extensively by our very own RFDS. Heaven knows how many hundreds of millions the RFDS must have paid to Pilatus over the years. And it's not just the RFDS - Pilatus sells aircraft all over the world. Switzerland is a very small country - population only about a third of ours, tiny area, and probably far from ideal flying conditions compared to ours. If Pilatus can do that in Switzerland, why can't someone in Oz be producing top-level aircraft of some sort? What is the missing factor?

I've was told some years back by an ex-A380 captain that the ejection seats have all sorts of (very expensive) implications for private use of these things. I think he said it was best to have them removed, but I imagine even that would be eye-watering in the dollars department. I'm sure they would gobble up a LOT of jet fuel too, but that's partly offset by how quickly you get to your destination! It would be a huge buzz to fly one, or even IN one.

Very entertaining thead! Only just came across it, and a few things definitely caught my eye. That OMA SUD aircraft has a fuselage that is eerily similar in shape to the Flaris light jet which has been under development for the last few years. And the Lear Fan - I remember buying a magazine way back in the 1980s which had an article about that sad tale. I recall a story that the project had missed a deadline that was the last day of a calendar year, so to try and help out, the potential customer declared that the following day was the 32nd of December! But sadly it wasn't enough to save the project. Not unlike the Beech Starship I guess - both somewhat ahead of their time. At least Beech did build a few of the Starships - I think 1 or 2 are still flying. Sorry if this has all been mentioned already, I haven't been through the whole thread.

Good luck with it, it would be good to see something like this happen in Oz. Immediately made me think of the DarkAero 1 - I'm sure you've seen that one.

Hi Natalia. The first step here in Australia used to be a thing called a Trial Instructional Flight, or TIF. It was just a short (20-30 min) flight in a small plane, and you got to put your hands on the controls and even manipulate them (very gingerly). That was my first step anyway, but that was in about 1980, so things could be different now. And because I went ahead and signed up for training, my TIF even went into my log book as my first-ever 0.6 hours of flight! Don't know if it would still work that way, and the USA would probably be different from here anyway. I've been out of flying for quite a few decades, but I'd be a bit surprised if TIFs were not still offered at most flight training organisations. Good luck with it. Cheers, Steve.

One of the great experiences of my life was owning and flying a 1967 Debonair, back in the early 1990s. I concur with all comments about it being a delight to fly, very comfortable and roomy, and it could carry almost anything you could get through the luggage door. It was like sitting back and driving a big old Cadillac around, fabulous. And with those big fat wings it almost landed itself. I was not aware of the aileron/rudder connection, but I certainly made quite a few crosswind landings with no feeling of being interfered with. It did seem to require very little rudder in most turns, so maybe that was the reason. Two of the highlights of those times were getting my Night VFR rating in her, and making our biggest-ever trip, from Perth to Broome and back in 1992 - pretty heady stuff for a low-time pilot, with no autopilot or even GPS in those olden days. Great memories.

Yes. For anyone interested in this sort of history I recommend a book called "All the Shah's Men" by Stephen Kinzer. It's the story of the ill-fated US intervention in Iran to depose President Mossadegh in 1953 and re-install the Shah. The background to this was the British takeover of the Iranian oil industry early in the 20th century, from which enormous profits were made for many decades, almost none of which went to Iran. When Mossadegh was elected with a plan to nationalise their oil industry (i.e. take it back, heaven forbid), the Brits were ready to send in the warships! The US president of the time managed to convince them that wasn't a good idea, instead attempting a clandestine coup by political manipulation. A very sorry saga indeed, with both the US and the Brits involved. They did depose Mossadegh and put the Shah's dictatorship in place, but it was a catastrophe for Iran and undoubtedly a contributor to a lot of the middle east instability since then. Pretty much every time the US has intervened in some foreign regime the result has been disastrous, often the exact opposite of what they intended. I wonder why they never learn.

Great to see that DAF Daffodil - my first car had an engine very similar to that. It was a Toyota 700, and the engine was like half a VW engine - 2 cylinders, air cooled, horizontally-opposed and 697cc. I can see by searching that it was called the Publica in some countries. Mine had 4-on-the-column manual gears, 2 doors, and not much else! It would do 52mph flat out, and sipped fuel at about the same number of mpgs if I remember rightly. This was around 1968-69. Because the spark plugs more or less poked out into the front wheel arches, it had a habit of stopping when I went through a puddle or in rainy weather. Fun days! The amazing thing was that Toyota actually produced a "hot" sports version of it - the Toyota 800 Sports. That was a targa-roof 2-seater which looked a bit like a baby 2000GT, a "proper" sportscar that came along a few years later.