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Showing content with the highest reputation since 24/04/25 in Aircraft
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The Falconar SAL Mustang, also called the 2/3 Mustang and the SAL P-51D Mustang is a Canadian amateur-built aircraft, originally produced by Falconar Avia and introduced in 1969. The aircraft is a 2⁄3 scale replica of the North American P-51 Mustang and is supplied as a kit or as plans for amateur construction. Since the winding up of business by Falconar Avia in 2019, the plans are now sold by Manna Aviation. In 1963 Falconar partnered with designer Marcel Jurca to produce the Jurca Gnatsum. By 1967, Falconar recommended a large number of changes to the design, which resulted in Jurca leaving the project. The modified aircraft was developed as the SAL Mustang and first flown in 1971 after significant cost overruns. Falconar Aircraft Ltd was sold to George F. Chivers and other investors, and operated as Sturgeon Air Ltd (SAL) with Falconar as an employee until 1973.[4] The SAL Mustang features a cantilever low-wing, a single-seat, or optionally a two-seats-in-tandem, enclosed cockpit under a bubble canopy, retractable conventional landing gear, including a manually retractable tailwheel and a single engine in tractor configuration. The aircraft is made from wood covered with fibreglass cloth and doped aircraft fabric. Some parts, like the belly air scoop are made from fibreglass. Its 24.8 ft (7.6 m) span wing has an area of 110 sq ft (10 m2) and mounts flaps that may be electrically or manually operated. The cockpit is 24 in (61 cm) wide and the bubble canopy is jettisonable. The aircraft's recommended engine power range is 200 to 350 hp (149 to 261 kW). Engines that have been used include the 200 hp (149 kW) Lycoming IO-360 horizontally opposed engine, the 200 hp (149 kW) Ranger L-440 inverted inline, the 180 to 235 hp (134 to 175 kW) Avia M 337 inverted inline, 230 hp (172 kW) Continental O-470 horizontally opposed, the 200 hp (149 kW) Ford 230 cu in (3.77 L) V6 automotive conversion, as well as other automotive V-6 or V-8 powerplants. Construction time from the supplied kit is estimated as 2500 hours. The paper plans supplied total an area of 450 sq ft (42 m2), weigh 13 lb (5.9 kg) and include a construction manual. An alternative set of plans allows constructing a tandem two-seat version. The plans are very detailed and complete and one builder rated them as "the best I have seen on any homebuilt airplane". The prototype was introduced at the 1971 EAA airshow painted in the same gold and red colors as the Canadian Golden Hawks airshow team. In July 2012 the manufacturer indicated that 18 examples had been completed and flown in the 43 years that the plans and kits had been available.1 point
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The Kamov Ka-26 (NATO reporting name Hoodlum) is a Soviet light utility helicopter with co-axial rotors. It looks like it has twin turbine engines in nacelles on each side of the body, but they are radial engines with turbofans for cooling. The Ka-26 entered production in 1969 and 816 were built. A variant with a single turboshaft engine is the Ka-126. A twin-turboshaft–powered version is the Ka-226. (All the Ka-26/126/128/226 variants are code-named by NATO as "Hoodlum"). The fuselage of the Ka-26 consists of a fixed, bubble-shaped cockpit containing the pilot and co-pilot, plus a removable, variable box available in medevac, passenger-carrying and crop duster versions. The helicopter can fly with or without the box attached for flexibility. It is powered by two 325 hp (239 kW) Vedeneyev M-14V-26 radial engines mounted in outboard nacelles. The Ka-26 is small enough to land on a large truck bed. The reciprocating engines are more responsive than turboshaft engines, but require more maintenance. It runs mostly at 95% power in crop dusting with usually excess payload, leaving little reserve power for emergencies. Due to frequent overloads, the interconnect shaft joining the two engines is prone to breakage and requires frequent inspection. The standard instrumentation of the Ka-26, like larger naval Kamovs, may be overkill for civilian or crop dusting use. The 18-dials cockpit panel masks a part of the right-downwards view, needed to avoid telephone and power lines at low altitudes. The instrument panel may be simplified to retain the six main dials. As there is a low rotor clearance at the aircraft front, it is approached from the rear when the rotors are turning. Due to the limitations of the Ka-26, USSR and Romania agreed under the Comecon trade to build a single-turboshaft engine version, the Kamov Ka-126, with better aerodynamics and range. The Ka-26 is eminently useful for civil agricultural use, especially crop dusting. The coaxial main rotor configuration, which makes the Ka-26 small and agile, also results in a delicate airflow pattern under the helicopter, providing a thorough, yet mild distribution of chemicals onto plants. The Ka-26 is often used to spray grape farms in Hungary, where conventional "main rotor and tail rotor" layout helicopters would damage or up-root the vine-stocks with their powerful airflow. Hungarian Kamov operators claim that coaxial rotors of the Ka-26 creates an airflow which allows well-atomized pesticides to linger longer in the air, causing more of the residue to settle underneath, rather than on top of, the leaves. This results in a more efficient distribution of pesticides, as most pests and parasites do not live on the top side of foliage. Additionally, the coaxial vortex system is symmetrical, allowing the distribution of the pesticide to be more uniform, without the side currents induced by the tail rotor, making it easier to avoid contaminating adjacent non-crop areas. In some Warsaw Pact armies, the Ka-26 was used only in the light paratroop or airborne role, but not the civilian agricultural role[citation needed]. In the military role, its slow (150 km/h) cruise speed compared with the Mi-2 (220 km/h) limits effective general-purpose military use, although its shorter length (7.75 m) compared with the Mil Mi-2 (11.9 m) and smaller rotor diameter (13 m vs. 14.6 m) are advantageous for military operations in an urban area. Its operational range is also greater than the Mil-2. On 30 June 2020, Moldovan police and prosecutors closed down an illegal factory producing unlicensed copies of the Ka-26. The factory had a production line with ten air frames in various stages of completion that were intended for sale to clients in former Soviet countries. Variants Ka-26 Hoodlum-A One- or two-crew utility light helicopter, powered by two 325-hp (239-kW) VMK (Vedeneyev) M-14V-26 radial engines. 850 built. Ka-26SS NOTAR technology testbed for the Ka-118 fitted with tail jet beams. Ka-126 Hoodlum-B One- or two-crew utility light helicopter, powered by one 720-shp (537-kW) OMKB "Mars" (Glushenkov) TVD-100 turboshaft engine. First flown in 1986, built and developed by Industria Aeronautică Română in Romania. 2 prototypes and 15 series helicopter built. V-60 A prototype light armed escort helicopter based on the Ka-126. Ka-128 One prototype, powered by a 722-shp (538-kW) Turbomeca Arriel 1D1 turboshaft engine. Kamov Ka-226 Six- or seven-seat utility helicopter, powered by two 450-shp (335-kW) Rolls-Royce (Allison) 250-C20R/2 turboshaft engines.1 point