Post amazingly cool pictures of aircraft (Volume 2)

[Eric Mc]

Concorde didn't have flaps so needed to have a very steep angle of attack at low speed. That's why it had a droop nose as well.

[Steve_D]

Eric Mc said:

Concorde didn't have flaps so needed to have a very steep angle of attack at low speed. That's why it had a droop nose as well.

And in that pic it was not in the droop position so there would have been little useful forward vision. I expect P2 was just keeping formation with the Spit and hoping he was looking where they were going.

Steve

[Eric Mc]

Steve_D said:

Eric Mc said:

Concorde didn't have flaps so needed to have a very steep angle of attack at low speed. That's why it had a droop nose as well.

And in that pic it was not in the droop position so there would have been little useful forward vision. I expect P2 was just keeping formation with the Spit and hoping he was looking where they were going.

Steve

It wasn't coming in to land so no need to look forward and down.

The nose had two "down" positions - shallow for take off and more acute for landing. It looks to me in that picture that the nose is slightly drooped as it would be for take off.

[CanAm]

Eric Mc said:

It wasn't coming in to land so no need to look forward and down.

The nose had two "down" positions - shallow for take off and more acute for landing. It looks to me in that picture that the nose is slightly drooped as it would be for take off.

If you squint a bit you can see that the windscreen fairing is retracted, ie nose drooped.

[xeny]

Eric Mc said:

You can see how different they look from each other -

I know enough to know the deeper cowling in front of the supercharger air inlet on the Merlin engined PR Spitfire houses an enlarged oil tank.

The nose on the Griffon PR variant looks more conventional - where's the oil tank in that installation?

[Eric Mc]

xeny said:

I know enough to know the deeper cowling in front of the supercharger air inlet on the Merlin engined PR Spitfire houses an enlarged oil tank.

The nose on the Griffon PR variant looks more conventional - where's the oil tank in that installation?

Not sure. The Griffon is a longer engine (it has a 37 litre displacement as opposed to the Merlin's 27 litre). It's therefore quite a bit longer with a larger frontal area. It also features two pronounced cowling bulges over the cylinders.

[FourWheelDrift]

On the Griffon behind the engine in front of the cockpit with a fuel tank.

covered


uncovered

[greghm]

Here is a cool Gif of of the aforementioned Precious Metal's Griffon engine tapped to a double propeller:

https://imgur.com/gallery/sepr4s4

[FourWheelDrift]

After a 10 year restoration the original Memphis Belle has gone on display looking just as it was did after touching down after it's 25th mission and finishing it's tour of duty. It has all the different splashes of odd paint used to patch up flak damage from previous missions all painstakingly copied across from the photos and propaganda colour film taken at the time to boost morale back home in the USA.








Ps. Hot Stuff, a B-24 Liberator was the first to complete 25 missions (over 3 months before the Belle) but the cameras and film crew followed Memphis Belle. Hot Stuff crashed in Iceland in 1943,

[QuantumTokoloshi]

greghm said:

Here is a cool Gif of of the aforementioned Precious Metal's Griffon engine tapped to a double propeller:

https://imgur.com/gallery/sepr4s4

An awesome little video, can almost feel the air frame tremble as that motor gets going.

[Rogue86]

Eric Mc said:

I reckon the "slowcoach" of the formation is probably the camera ship - which, knowing the year, is most likely to be something like a Handley Page Hastings.

Bit of a presumption that to be fair mate, we always grabbed the most 'convenient' camera-ship to use, which was often whatever the Squadron had going spare. I've shot from the Dakota, Lancaster, Hawk, Typhoon and Sea-King. There would be a Tornado on that list too but it broke on the day. Only the Civvies tend to use something 'sensible'.

[Eric Mc]

Rogue86 said:

Eric Mc said:

I reckon the "slowcoach" of the formation is probably the camera ship - which, knowing the year, is most likely to be something like a Handley Page Hastings.

Bit of a presumption that to be fair mate, we always grabbed the most 'convenient' camera-ship to use, which was often whatever the Squadron had going spare. I've shot from the Dakota, Lancaster, Hawk, Typhoon and Sea-King. There would be a Tornado on that list too but it broke on the day. Only the Civvies tend to use something 'sensible'.

What would you think was used in 1960?

I do know Hastings were often used for such purposes in that era. They sometimes used the Beverly too.

[Rogue86]

Eric Mc said:

What would you think was used in 1960?

I do know Hastings were often used for such purposes in that era. They sometimes used the Beverly too.

Without knowing too much about the background of the shot (whether it's Crown/civvie) it's difficult to say. From a common-sense point of view it could have been Hastings like you say, but the reality is it could have been almost anything in-service at that time. RAF Photo ops will utilise whatever is available to them, whether it's sensible (easy to shoot from) or not (fast jet).

Edit - Theres a weird sort of reflection at the top of the image, wingtip of a Javelin maybe?

Edited by Rogue86 on Friday 25th May 11:19

[MartG]

Rogue86 said:

Edit - Theres a weird sort of reflection at the top of the image, wingtip of a Javelin maybe?

Just looks like a smudge on the photo to me

[Rogue86]

MartG said:

Just looks like a smudge on the photo to me

Potentially it is - those smears/scratches top-left are the kinds of marks you commonly find on a canopy, the reflection has some sort of definition but could just as easily be a reflection of the photographers clothing. I imagine Javelins were in plentiful supply at that time, though.

[Elroy Blue]

A Javelin could just engage reheat in order to fly as slow as the Hurricane. Very useful characteristic when taking photographs

[LiamB]

Sorry for the boring picture and post compared to everything else in here I didn't know where else to post and it doesn't warrant a thread, but I've just had a 'private air show' from this group here which is 3 tri planes and a bi plane and another group of two bigger biplanes with a single winged prop aeroplane which I won't even attempt to name

They keep on doing loops of the house which is in the middle of no where by Silverstone. I only went outside because I thought a plane landed in a bloody field because of the noise!

Any idea who these delinquents are? It's made my week

[Eric Mc]

Looks like the First World War display team. The aircraft are all replicas and cover a number of different types used in WW1.

[LiamB]

Eric Mc said:

Looks like the First World War display team. The aircraft are all replicas and cover a number of different types used in WW1.

It was indeed! Just looked at their website and they were performing for Stowe School, but they seemed to do more loops around my house than Stowe.. thanks for the info

[Ayahuasca]

OK the photo is not great, but the aircraft is very cool. Anybody hazard a guess as to what she is? Eric, I am looking at you.