Are planes all a bit boring looking now ?

[Eric Mc]

I remember watching that black Typhoon swooping in over my house during a Farnborough air show. It looked really menacing.

[Europa1]

RoverP6B said:

That's a bit more like it. It's still fugly, though. Bring back the Lightning, I say...

I grew up near RAF Coltishall and can remember the Lightnings. Awesome things: two bloody great engines strapped together with a chair bolted to the front. Their takeoff procedure was awesome: engage afterburner, belt down runway, liftoff at normal angle, retract undercarriage, point nose at sky...

[V8 Fettler]

The Lightning represented a huge leap forward in performance over the Hunter. It is possible that RAF pilots could have flown front line piston-engined fighters in their younger years and finished their careers in Lightnings, a period when the pace of change of technology was high.

[Eric Mc]

I read one autobiography of an RAF pilot who joined a fighter squadron flying Hawker Fury biplanes and at the end of his career was flying Phantoms.

[Captain Benzo]

I was thinking, now shoot me down if i'm talking mince.

is it possible to take a classic design and have somebody make a bespoke aircraft ( I understand it would be cripplingly expensive) but something like a B24 liberator but with modern stuff as a high class luxury airliner?

Could it be done?, How much? and why arent people doing it?

Benzo

[JuniorD]

Eric Mc said:

I read one autobiography of an RAF pilot who joined a fighter squadron flying Hawker Fury biplanes and at the end of his career was flying Phantoms.

I'd like to read this. Can you remember the Author / Title please Eric?

[Eric Mc]

This is it - a great read.

[Eric Mc]

Captain Benzo said:

I was thinking, now shoot me down if i'm talking mince.

is it possible to take a classic design and have somebody make a bespoke aircraft ( I understand it would be cripplingly expensive) but something like a B24 liberator but with modern stuff as a high class luxury airliner?

Could it be done?, How much? and why arent people doing it?

Benzo

Full size replicas of older aircraft have been made many times - but admittedly nothing as big and hefty as a Liberator. The World War 1 aircraft built by Peter Jackson's company come to mind as does then batch of new build Messerschmitt 262s. The problem is engines. In order for the true character of the original to be retained, you really do need to have original type engines, or an engine very close in performance and characteristics to the original.

[anonymous-user]

Lack of different manufacturers and astronomical development costs haven't helped.

There's still hope of some blended wing body airliners on the horizon to make things more interesting.