djpacro Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 What with the demise of our car industry, I wonder if we could design and build our own air-force planes. Taking money out of the question, what do you think? The Wamira in the '80s was the last gasp where local industry demonstrated its inability to manage itself and its customer. For Defence, it was just one in a long line of failed projects wasting taxpayers' money....... Carlo K and others can discuss the pros and cons of going with UK, USA, France etc.... Fast forward to today (and recent history). Working on Eurofighter design was one of the most frustrating periods of my life. Just great working on JSF with Northrop Grumman and Lockheed. Similar comments on the civil side comparing recent Airbus design work with B787 locally. How's the A350 going? I see in the news that Boeing Melbourne will be recruiting 160 new jobs. Like everything else, we are part of the global business these days. At the big end we can only be part of it. At the small end (thinking of that other recent discussion on the Boomerang for example .... Jabiru doing it successfully of course) we're competing with low cost manufacturers. It seems to me that low cost designers in some parts of the world still cost a lot more to get the job done right. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rocketdriver Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Methinks it would be like the 2nd world war ..... we could build trainers (Wackett,Wirraway and Winjeel for example) .. and do that well. I think a state of the art fighter or bomber would be a different kettle of fish though. We would need a few years to establish the skills and technologies needed. I think we were on the way at one time (Jindivick, Ikara and the HoverRok for instance) but I'm not sure that parts building for Airbus and Boeing is quite the same thing. It brings us some of the technology I guess, but perhaps not the design skills needed to create masterpieces like the Spitfire, Canberra, Lighting, Mustang, Phantom, Blackbird or Harrier. And then, we have the same problems as the Pomms .... Look at the CT4 saga and pretty much all the rest of our defence procurement from what I can see (from the outside). cheers RD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpacro Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 ..... we could build trainers (Wackett,Wirraway and Winjeel for example) .. and do that well. Wamira nearly got there. Prototype just about finished at a cost far in excess of budget as the tech specs continually got more complex and too many engineers enjoyed the journey rather than finishing the job. A war certainly provides a focus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazza 38 Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 What with the demise of our car industry, I wonder if we could design and build our own air-force planes. Taking money out of the question, what do you think? Our country is to small to develop our own Air force aircraft. Even the USA companies dont and cant risk going it alone these days in developing a weapons system. Eg- Lockeed Martin has alot of partner companies to share the risk of the JSF development. Break even point for the JSF at a guess would be around 500 jets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thirsty Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Consider the CT-Sw and LS? A couple of guys here have them and one of them cruises at over 120K indicated. No wing struts either so fairly clean looks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powerin Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Pipistrel Virus SW? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnarly Gnu Posted February 18, 2012 Author Share Posted February 18, 2012 Thanks folks, I was looking at both websites just a day or so ago. Not sure of local pricing. Anyone here own or flown the SW Virus I wonder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downundertrucker Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Here's a fast long range 2 seater from the UK called an Impulse... http://www.impulse-aircraft.co.uk/impulse%20brochures.htm very cool fast little aeroplane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle Communications Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 That bloody Bruce Simpson ..another one of his videos from Tokaroa...I know him well..from all the model turbine flying I have done at Tokaroa he actually doesn't do a bad job of them he manages to usually get "the shot" when it matters Thats a pretty quick aircraft interesting though the specs for Europe are basically 450kg but 560 for NZ and 295kg empty is pretty good too...think I would be using the Rotax though Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly_tornado Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Didn't impulse go bust? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle Communications Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 The website still works fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corvairkr Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 High wing taildragger, doesn't scream speed to me... Surely you jest ! And the legend himself. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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