Post amazingly cool pictures of aircraft (Volume 2)
Discussion
Eric Mc said:
In De Havilland's original concepts for what became the Comet, one version the aircraft had no tailplane. It was because of this proposed design that they built the three DH108 Swallows - all of which crashed.
Are you doubly sure about that? IIRC the Swallow was purely a supersonic research aircraft It was a research aircraft which was designed to test the handling characteristics of a tailless design. The reason why they wanted to test the concept was because they were looking at tailless configurations for their upcoming jet transport/airliner - which became the Comet.
You can see some of the tail less Comet ideas in the drawings I posted up.
Obviously, being a jet design, it had the potential to be supersonic and we all know that it was the first British aircraft to officially break the sound barrier. But that wasn't its prime raison d'etre. In fact, it was not that great a design when it came to transonic flight with some very, very bad handling characteristics. It was just such problems that caused the death of Geoffrey deHavilland Jnr. Eric Brown described it simply as "a killer".
There aircraft were built and one of the three was designed deliberately to be a slow machine so they could investigate the slow speed handling of a tailless design.
You can see some of the tail less Comet ideas in the drawings I posted up.
Obviously, being a jet design, it had the potential to be supersonic and we all know that it was the first British aircraft to officially break the sound barrier. But that wasn't its prime raison d'etre. In fact, it was not that great a design when it came to transonic flight with some very, very bad handling characteristics. It was just such problems that caused the death of Geoffrey deHavilland Jnr. Eric Brown described it simply as "a killer".
There aircraft were built and one of the three was designed deliberately to be a slow machine so they could investigate the slow speed handling of a tailless design.
hidetheelephants said:
perdu said:
I'm not surprised
The vibration of a bang seat going off would have shaken the little wooden fuselage apart
At the risk of a parrot, once you're pulling the big yellow handle do you care if the aircraft falls to bits afterwards?The vibration of a bang seat going off would have shaken the little wooden fuselage apart
I do have this nice blue one
From Norway I understand
That nice Mr Palin left it in the cupboard at Broadcasting House and it's been homeless ever since
ChemicalChaos said:
Are you doubly sure about that? IIRC the Swallow was purely a supersonic research aircraft
There was quite a love afair going on with the tailless delta in the late 1940s (based upon the fact the Germans had got it to work with the Me163 Komet) with a desire for jet transport aircraft of that configuration.Aside from DH producing the DH108 as a stepping stone towards a proposed tailless Comet, Armstrong-Whitworth produced the AW52 as research project for a possible airliner (the proposal was later binned).
Interestingly both suffered problems with unstable fugoid pitch oscillation (probably as a result of elevon flutter). In the case of the AW52, this was the first aircraft in which a bang seat was used in anger - Test Pilot Jo Lancaster DFC ejecting from the first prototype on 30 May 1949.
Edited by Ginetta G15 Girl on Thursday 19th January 18:38
Eric Mc said:
It was a research aircraft which was designed to test the handling characteristics of a tailless design. The reason why they wanted to test the concept was because they were looking at tailless configurations for their upcoming jet transport/airliner - which became the Comet.
You can see some of the tail less Comet ideas in the drawings I posted up.
Obviously, being a jet design, it had the potential to be supersonic and we all know that it was the first British aircraft to officially break the sound barrier. But that wasn't its prime raison d'etre. In fact, it was not that great a design when it came to transonic flight with some very, very bad handling characteristics. It was just such problems that caused the death of Geoffrey deHavilland Jnr. Eric Brown described it simply as "a killer".
There aircraft were built and one of the three was designed deliberately to be a slow machine so they could investigate the slow speed handling of a tailless design.
Interesting, I thought it was just a jet powered copy of the Me163.You can see some of the tail less Comet ideas in the drawings I posted up.
Obviously, being a jet design, it had the potential to be supersonic and we all know that it was the first British aircraft to officially break the sound barrier. But that wasn't its prime raison d'etre. In fact, it was not that great a design when it came to transonic flight with some very, very bad handling characteristics. It was just such problems that caused the death of Geoffrey deHavilland Jnr. Eric Brown described it simply as "a killer".
There aircraft were built and one of the three was designed deliberately to be a slow machine so they could investigate the slow speed handling of a tailless design.
It was certainly inspired to some extent by the 163. However, being British there was a "parts bin" aspect to it with much of its design being made up of Vampire components.
The 163 was quite a good flier - mainly because it was developed from the tailless glider work carried out by Lippisch and the German research group, DFS (nothing to do with cheap furniture).
Brown flew the 163 too and found it very pleasant from a handling point of view.
The 163 was quite a good flier - mainly because it was developed from the tailless glider work carried out by Lippisch and the German research group, DFS (nothing to do with cheap furniture).
Brown flew the 163 too and found it very pleasant from a handling point of view.
MartG said:
Seems a "British-style" engineering solution - nose gear doesn't work properly, so instead of fixing it we'll bring a rest. Surprised how hard he dropped the plane onto it though, I wouldn't have thought that part of the plane was designed to bounce. 
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