Post amazingly cool pictures of aircraft (Volume 3)

[louiechevy]

Probably not a cool picture of an airplane but I'm in it! The idiot stood behind the starboard tail boom of the blue optica against the trailing edge of the wing is a depressingly young me!


Not only did I get to have my first ever flight in the yellow prototype in the background the chief test pilot knowing I had just joined the company flying club let me take the controls!

[generationx]

Ayahuasca said:

MartG said:

'Just Jane' undergoing maintenance

Very nicely done.

Really nice feature on the Airfix website about this restoration

[RizzoTheRat]

louiechevy said:

Probably not a cool picture of an airplane but I'm in it! The idiot stood behind the starboard tail boom of the blue optica against the trailing edge of the wing is a depressingly young me!


Not only did I get to have my first ever flight in the yellow prototype in the background the chief test pilot knowing I had just joined the company flying club let me take the controls!

Always seemed like a decent idea to to me. Good visibility and low loiter speed ought to have been useful for a lot of jobs, but very few made disappeared pretty quickly.

[irocfan]

RizzoTheRat said:

louiechevy said:

Probably not a cool picture of an airplane but I'm in it! The idiot stood behind the starboard tail boom of the blue optica against the trailing edge of the wing is a depressingly young me!


Not only did I get to have my first ever flight in the yellow prototype in the background the chief test pilot knowing I had just joined the company flying club let me take the controls!

Always seemed like a decent idea to to me. Good visibility and low loiter speed ought to have been useful for a lot of jobs, but very few made disappeared pretty quickly.

wasn't that in a film called Slipstream?

[Eric Mc]

RizzoTheRat said:

Always seemed like a decent idea to to me. Good visibility and low loiter speed ought to have been useful for a lot of jobs, but very few made disappeared pretty quickly.

The plane was relaunched not so long ago and was at a fairly recent Farnborough Air Show. I chatted to the new owners.

Personally, I think the moment for the Optica has passed as much cheaper drones can do the work it was designed to do.

[Ayahuasca]

louiechevy said:

Probably not a cool picture of an airplane but I'm in it! The idiot stood behind the starboard tail boom of the blue optica against the trailing edge of the wing is a depressingly young me!


Not only did I get to have my first ever flight in the yellow prototype in the background the chief test pilot knowing I had just joined the company flying club let me take the controls!

Port tail boom?

[Eric Mc]

I was going to say the same.

Standing at the rear of an aircraft, or a ship, and looking towards the front, port is on the left and starboard is on the right.

[NM62]

Eric Mc said:

I was going to say the same.

Standing at the rear of an aircraft, or a ship, and looking towards the front, port is on the left and starboard is on the right.

I was told that was how the term POSH was derived, based on where the rich folk had their cabins on ships Port Outbound Starboard Homebound, don't know how true it is.

Always loved the Optica.

[Ayahuasca]

Saw an Optica at Farnborough years ago. What a fascinating modern age it was going to be.

[louiechevy]

Ayahuasca said:

louiechevy said:

Probably not a cool picture of an airplane but I'm in it! The idiot stood behind the starboard tail boom of the blue optica against the trailing edge of the wing is a depressingly young me!


Not only did I get to have my first ever flight in the yellow prototype in the background the chief test pilot knowing I had just joined the company flying club let me take the controls!

Port tail boom?

That will teach me to post after a drink! I've got to agree with Eric as well I can't see the point of buying an Optica now with much cheaper drones available. Although I would love to see some back in the air again I remember one day at old Sarum airfield when we had four or five in the air together!

Edited by louiechevy on Saturday 20th February 12:29

[FestivAli]

KloppsBarmyArmy said:

The Fighter Pilot Podcast did a really great interview with a Kiowa crewman. Worth a listen.

[MartG]

Hurricane proposed variants

[RizzoTheRat]

Jettisonable auxiliary wing to assist with short takeoffs, that must have been interesting

[Lily the Pink]

RizzoTheRat said:

Jettisonable auxiliary wing to assist with short takeoffs, that must have been interesting

Particularly as it is presumably the top one which is jettisoned !

[MartG]

RizzoTheRat said:

Jettisonable auxiliary wing to assist with short takeoffs, that must have been interesting

I think it also held a load of fuel, so probably wouldn't be discarded until the aircraft was at altitude, at which point I guess it would be simple to roll inverted and let it drop off

[db]

MartG said:

RizzoTheRat said:

Jettisonable auxiliary wing to assist with short takeoffs, that must have been interesting

I think it also held a load of fuel, so probably wouldn't be discarded until the aircraft was at altitude, at which point I guess it would be simple to roll inverted and let it drop off

Or fly straight and level and allow the lift a wing generates to lift it off the aircraft?

[MartG]

db said:

MartG said:

RizzoTheRat said:

Jettisonable auxiliary wing to assist with short takeoffs, that must have been interesting

I think it also held a load of fuel, so probably wouldn't be discarded until the aircraft was at altitude, at which point I guess it would be simple to roll inverted and let it drop off

Or fly straight and level and allow the lift a wing generates to lift it off the aircraft?

Risk of it falling back and hitting the tail ?

[db]

MartG said:

db said:

MartG said:

RizzoTheRat said:

Jettisonable auxiliary wing to assist with short takeoffs, that must have been interesting

I think it also held a load of fuel, so probably wouldn't be discarded until the aircraft was at altitude, at which point I guess it would be simple to roll inverted and let it drop off

Or fly straight and level and allow the lift a wing generates to lift it off the aircraft?

Risk of it falling back and hitting the tail ?

The tail is still there when inverted. The wing produces lift, even inverted. The wing would be forced up, and onto, the inverted aircraft.

[louiechevy]

Here's an article about the twin wing hurricane

http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tab...

[RizzoTheRat]

louiechevy said:

Here's an article about the twin wing hurricane

http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tab...

Interesting. I love that the top speed of the test aircraft in biplane configuration was slower than it's stall speed in monowing configuration, that must have added some extra excitement to the separation.