red750

5 hours ago, facthunter said:

Let's be organised and have a permanent "Coming Events of Interest" thread.  Nev

Yes, I agree that the weather was a problem. I was affected by the heat at Avalon Air Show in 2017 and had to be given a lift to the gate on one of those golf buggies. Nearing 80, I don't handle the heat too well. Thanks for the offer Dave, I'm not sure that I would have been able to go as it turned out. However, the hot weather would not have been known two or three months ago when I would have expected an announcement in the Events section. 

There are some fantastic photos on Facebook like these ones, just two of eighty by this photographer, Mark Walker..Link here.

My point is, due to the readership, this forum should have been the first stop.

1 hour ago, turboplanner said:

.....and the signs on EastLink pointing at 40,000 vehicles a day.

....and if you never need to travel on Eastlink?

I was unaware that this year's Tyabb Air Show was taking place last weekend. The first I knew of it was when some great photos started popping up on Facebook. However, due to the heat (about 38 deg), I probably would not have gone, but I would have expected it to be publicised here.

The Fokker XA-7 was a prototype attack aircraft ordered in December 1929, and first flown in January 1931 by Fokker and then General Aviation Corporation after it bought Fokker-America in 1930, and entered in a competition held by the United States Army. However, the Curtiss A-8 won the competition, and A-7 development was not continued.

The XA-7 was a two-seat low-wing all-metal monoplane design. It featured a thick cantilever wing, tunnel radiator and two closely spaced open cockpits.

Despite some innovative features, the XA-7 did not proceed past flight test status. After testing, the sole prototype was scrapped.

The Junkers Ju 390 was a German long-range derivative of the Junkers Ju 290 aircraft, intended to be used as a heavy transport aircraft, maritime patrol aircraft and long-range bomber. It was one of the aircraft designs submitted for the abortive Amerikabomber project, along with the Messerschmitt Me 264, the Focke-Wulf Ta 400 and the Heinkel He 277.

Two prototypes were created by attaching an extra pair of inner-wing segments onto the wings of Ju 290 airframes and adding new sections to lengthen the fuselages. Only prototype 1 flew.

The Lockheed Model 34 Big Dipper was an American two-seat monoplane, designed and built by Lockheed at Burbank for research into the company's potential entry into the civil lightplane and military light utility aircraft market. Only one was built, and following its loss in an accident the program was abandoned. The single engine Big Dipper looks remarkably like the two-engined five seat Douglas Cloudster above. 

Developed by John Thorp and based on his work on Lockheed's Little Dipper lightplane project, the Lockheed Model 34, named "Big Dipper", was intended as a prototype for a lightplane to sell on the postwar market - Lockheed hoping to sell the aircraft at a price of $1500 - and as a potential 'flying jeep' for the United States Army. It was a low-wing cantilever monoplane with a fixed tricycle landing gear and a conventional empennage; the cabin was enclosed, seating two in side-by-side positions. Unusually the Continental C100 piston engine was fitted in the center fuselage behind the cabin, driving a two-bladed pusher propeller mounted at the rear of the aircraft.

Big Dipper.

Little Dipper

The Douglas Cloudster II was an American prototype five-seat light aircraft of the late 1940s. It was of unusual layout, with two buried piston engines driving a single pusher propeller. Only a single example was built, which flew only twice, as it proved too expensive to be commercially viable.

During the early 1940s, Douglas Aircraft Company developed a configuration for high-performance twin-engined aircraft, in which the engines were buried in the fuselage, driving propellers mounted behind a conventional tailplane, in order to reduce drag by eliminating drag inducing objects such as engines from the wing. This layout was first demonstrated in the Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster bomber, which first flew in 1944, showing a 30% reduction in drag compared with a conventional twin-engined layout, while eliminating handling problems due to asymmetric thrust when flying on one engine.

The Cloudster II was a low-winged monoplane with a retractable nosewheel undercarriage. The pilot and four passengers sat in an enclosed cabin well ahead of the unswept, laminar flow wing. Two air-cooled piston engines were buried in the rear fuselage, driving a single eight foot diameter twin-bladed propeller, mounted behind the empennage via driveshafts taken from P-39 fighters. Two air intakes forward of the wing directed cooling air to the engines, which then exhausted beneath the fuselage.

State border
The state border between Tasmania and Victoria lies in the Hogan Group and passes over land on the North East Islet, thus giving a land border between the two states. Before Victoria became a colony, it was agreed that New South Wales would have the sovereignty of all the land to Bass Strait, and Tasmania would have Bass Strait, except for waters near the coast. The original intention was that these Bass Strait Islands would be part of Tasmania, but the surveyed position for Wilson's Promontory was slightly off, and the border placed too far south at 39°12' S. Once this was discovered the Islet was renamed to Boundary Islet. The land border is 85 metres (279 ft) long.

The SNCASO SO.8000 Narval (English: Narwhal) was a French carrier-based strike fighter designed by Sud-Ouest in the late 1940s. The French Navy (Marine nationale) ordered two prototypes in 1946 and they made their maiden flights three years later. They were plagued by aerodynamic problems and unreliability issues with their piston engines. The aircraft proved to be slow, lacking in lateral and longitudinal stability and unsuitable for carrier operations; it did not enter production.

The French Navy ordered two prototype SO.8000 strike fighters on 31 May 1946 to equip its aircraft carriers. If the prototypes were successful, it planned to order five pre-production models and sixty-five production aircraft. Designer Jean Dupuy developed a twin-boom pusher configuration design with a crescent wing and tricycle landing gear. The horizontal stabilizer was connected at the tops of the vertical stabilizers at the ends of the booms to avoid turbulence from the contra-rotating propeller. The pilot was provided with an ejection seat and the aircraft was intended to be fitted with six 20-millimeter (0.8 in) MG 151 autocannon in the nose and to be able to carry 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb) of ordnance under the wings. In the end, only the two prototypes were built.

The Fokker F.XX was a 1930s Dutch three-engined airliner designed and built by Fokker. It was the first Fokker design to use an elliptical-section fuselage instead of the traditional square fuselage and the first Fokker aircraft with retractable landing gear.

The F.XX was a high-wing thick-section cantilever monoplane with a retractable tailwheel landing gear. It was powered by three Wright Cyclone radial engines, one in the nose and one under each wing on struts. The main landing gear retracted into the engine nacelles. The F.XX registered PH-AIZ and named Zilvermeeuw (en: Silver Gull) first flew in 1933. It was delivered to KLM for services from Amsterdam to London and Berlin. Although the F.XX was a more advanced design both in aerodynamics and looks than earlier Fokkers, the arrival of the twin-engined low-wing Douglas DC-2 and DC-3 soon rendered it obsolete. Only one aircraft was built, and after service with KLM was sold to French airline Air Tropique; the plane got a camouflage paint scheme and was registered F-APEZ. Air Tropique had ties with the Spanish Republican government, that used the plane to operate a liaison service between Madrid and Paris. In 1937 it went to LAPE in Spain, and was registered EC-45-E. The plane crashed in Spain February 15, 1938 near Barcelona at Prat de Llobregat Airport.

Licence production in the UK as the Airspeed AS.21 was not proceeded with.

According to this mornings news, the unit generating power for the instrument panel failed and all instruments went blank. Backup power from the engines was activated within a couple of minutes. They interviewed an ex-airline pilot  who said it does happen occasionally. He couldn't believe so many people didn't have their seatbelts fastened. Just reporting what was said on the TV.

The Couzinet 10 Arc-en-Ciel ('Rainbow') was built as a first example of the three-engined, aerodynamically refined, cantilever low wing monoplane designer René Couzinet thought offered the safest long range passenger transport, for example on the South Atlantic route. Only one was completed, though other, similar aircraft of different sizes and powers followed.

The Couzinet 10 was the first of his designs to be built, though it was the result of his design study number 27. It led to the smaller Couzinet 20 and 30 series and the larger Couzinet 40 and 70.

The one-piece wing of the Couzinet 10 was 900 mm (35.4 in) thick at the root, a thickness to chord ratio of 18%, and thinned continuously out to the tip. In plan each wing was trapezoidal, though long tips produced an approximately elliptical form. Long, narrow-chord ailerons filled most of the straight part of the trailing edges. It was entirely wooden, built around two box spars and plywood covered.

The Arc-en-Ciel was powered by three 170 kW (230 hp) Hispano-Suiza 8Ac water-cooled upright V8 engines. One was in the nose and the other two ahead of the wing leading edge, all within cowlings that followed the V8's cylinder heads and cooled with Lamblin radiators. Seven wing fuel tanks held a total of 6,200 L (1,400 imp gal; 1,600 US gal).[3] The thickness of the wing at its root allowed crew to reach the engines in flight via a corridor 700 mm (27.6 in) high.

A United Airlines flight from Sydney to LA was forced to return to Sydney. The B777 had a 'maintenance problem', so apparently that lets Boeing off the hook.

https://au.yahoo.com/news/dozens-injured-technical-event-sydney-071029076.html

Another one that's been around a long time.

The Andiel Typhoon TD1 is a homebuilt, two place low wing recreation aircraft designed and built in Australia by Willy Andiel. 

It first flew in April 2003 powered by a 100hp VW RG TT 2000 engine and features an all-flying tailplane. The vision was to make plans available to kit builders, however this did not eventuate and it was withdrawn from use in 2011.

This one-off aircraft was donated to HARS Parkes and recovered from Cowra. The engineering team has been working to restore it to display condition.

Indonesia opens inquiry after pilots fell asleep on flight carrying 153 people.

Pilot and co-pilot unresponsive for nearly 30 minutes, prompting review of country’s night flight operation.

Read more here.

Aviation Safety Network report.

The Pander S-4 Postjager was a 1930s Dutch three-engined mailplane designed and built by Pander & Son. Only one was built which was destroyed during the MacRobertson Air Race.

The S-4 was designed as a fast mailplane for the service between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. It was a three-seat low-wing monoplane powered by three 420 hp (313 kW) Wright Whirlwind radial engines. It had a conventional retractable landing gear with a tailwheel. The S-4, registered PH-OST, first flew on 6 October 1933.

In December 1933 it flew a mail flight to Batavia. In 1934 the S-4 was entered into the MacRobertson Air Race between London and Melbourne. It left Mildenhall in England on 20 October 1934 and after 36 hours arrived at Allahabad, India. The aircraft was delayed when the landing gear was badly damaged on arrival at Allahabad. It was ready to leave on 26 October but while taxiing for departure it hit a motor car and burst into flames and was destroyed; the crew jumped out and escaped injury.