Euro Lotto Win - Project Un-Cancelled

[Scotty2]

Just bought my ticket for tonight and was thinking what I could do with a decent wad of cash. What flying "project cancelled" or other technology would you like to try and resurect?

For me:
1) Fairey Rotodyne.
Who owns the patents/plans/IP (intellectual property)? I'd love to see a version that could be used for offshore rig transport as well as city hopping. If I had one built to the original specs, would it be allowed to fly?

2) Zeppelin.
Re-creation of the great airships such as the Graf Zeppelin II. In fact two. One called "Hugo Eckner," the other called "Barnes Wallis."

3) Harrier II.
Something our new Aircraft Carier fleet might need.

What would you bring back?

[bluey1905]

Hawker Typhoon, I would love to see one of these flying again.
After all the coke and hookers, obviously.

[glazbagun]

The TSR-2 ... though might need a couple of euro-millions wins for that now.

[DrDeAtH]

Vulcan bomber... Just with updated flight controls, engines and avionics

[Steve_W]

I'd buy one of the last Spitfire FR24s from a museum and have it restored to airworthy status.

I'd also put money towards any Beaufighter project to get one flying in the UK.

Depending on how much I won, some would go to the guys building up a Westland Whirlwind too

[anonymous-user]

I'm pretty sure that any of those^^^ projects is going to take more than a Lottery win to fund to completion!

[Simpo Two]

I'm not sure Barnes Wallis would want a Zeppelin named after him. (Though you might argue that a Wellington is a very small Zeppelin with big engines )

Safe option: Saturn V should spend it nicely for you.

Improper non-PC outraged option: Graf Zeppelin (the aircraft carrier)

[davepoth]

The Spruce Goose. Just to see if it really would fly.

[Eric Mc]

Saturn V for me. The greatest machine ever built by man and oh so useful if we'd only had the foresight to use it properly.

[Simpo Two]

davepoth said:

The Spruce Goose. Just to see if it really would fly.

It did, just. But not enough power IIRC.

[Simpo Two]

Eric Mc said:

Saturn V for me. The greatest machine ever built by man and oh so useful if we'd only had the foresight to use it properly.

If the pace had continued, man on Mars by 1980?

[Eric Mc]

Maybe by 1985.

And a large space station orbiting the earth. Two or three Saturn V launches could have put all of the ISS into space.

[Steve_W]

Max_Torque said:

I'm pretty sure that any of those^^^ projects is going to take more than a Lottery win to fund to completion!

Oh, I don't know; isn't the biggest Euro win something like £160 million? Reckon I might get an airworthy Spitfire for that

[ccr32]

Eric Mc said:

Maybe by 1985.

And a large space station orbiting the earth. Two or three Saturn V launches could have put all of the ISS into space.

Wow - that really does say it all. What on (off?) earth happened...

[ccr32]

A Spit restored to full flying order would be my choice.

[Simpo Two]

ccr32 said:

Wow - that really does say it all. What on (off?) earth happened...

Lack of willpower/political disinterest/public disinterest/the cost. Every project has to make either commerical or political sense; if neither is fulfilled, nothing happens (apart from privateers of course).

[Eric Mc]

Simpo Two said:

ccr32 said:

Wow - that really does say it all. What on (off?) earth happened...

Lack of willpower/political disinterest/public disinterest/the cost. Every project has to make either commerical or political sense; if neither is fulfilled, nothing happens (apart from privateers of course).

Pretty much.

What a lot of people don't realise is that production of Saturn V components had been cancelled as far back as 1968. So, even before Apollo 8 flew to the moon, NASA realised it was only going to get 15 actual Saturn Vs. In the event, two were never flown (which is why there are two genuine Saturn Vs on display at the Kennedy and Johnson Space Centres to this day).

The Saturn V could not continue if NASA also wanted a reusable Shuttle. So once the Shuttle programme got the formal go ahead in 1972, any hope of production of a rocket like a Saturn V was finished. The ironic thing is that, even though the Shuttle was supposedly reusable, it still cost almost as much to launch one as a Saturn V - and it only carried a fraction of payload into orbit compared to the Saturn V.

The new SLS booster will be what we should have had 40 years ago.

[Simpo Two]

Eric Mc said:

The ironic thing is that, even though the Shuttle was supposedly reusable, it still cost almost as much to launch one as a Saturn V - and it only carried a fraction of payload into orbit compared to the Saturn V.

And killed quite a lot of astronauts.

[Eric Mc]

That it did - as well as at least two technicians and a number of workers at the solid fuel factory.

It was a fragile, tricky beast.

[marksx]

What is an old warbird worth? Something like a spit or a P51.

Edit - looks like XH558 soaked about 10m in funding to the first display, and costs 2m a year to operate. So, if the powers that be would let you do it, a good 100m+ euro win would let you fly whatever you faniced.

Edited by marksx on Saturday 15th August 18:22

Edited by marksx on Sunday 16th August 08:07