Iconic British Aircraft

[red750]

I copied this photo from the British Heritage Aircraft Facebook page. I was going to post it to the Media section, but there are still problems with that section of the site.

 

The FB poster could not give details of where or when the photo was taken, or who took it.

 

[Marty_d]

They wouldn't have much range of speed to do that.  Guessing the Lightning isn't great at slow speed!

 

Pity they couldn't have put a Mozzie in there too.

[red750]

The posters comment was that the Hurricane and Spit were going flat chat, while the Lightning was almost stalling.

[Old Koreelah]

The Hawker Hunter is the most elegant of them.

[Student Pilot]

The only one that looks to be struggling is the Javelin, nose up.

[facthunter]

Delta wings have a lot of attitude change at low speeds.. They'd all be OK at around 250Knots plus a bit, wouldn't they?   You'd have more trouble with a thruster and a Jabiru. formating. Nev

[johnm]

i tried looking for performance specs for some of these planes - stall speeds seldom mentioned (if at all)

 

my guess is:

 

- lowest stall speed - Hurricane - 80 knots

- fastest stall speed - Electric Lightning - 155 knots

 

Any one wants to argue ? .................................... winner takes all (plus the light green 2 tone '55 vauxhall velox (with 5 new ! retreads))

 

[Old Koreelah]

Another story oft told and totally off topic about one of those jets.

 

In the last few weeks of the war an RAAF pilot landed his Meteor at a Luftwaffe base. He correctly guessed that the other team had had the fight beaten out of them. He reported being cordially received by the base Komandant, who complimented the workmanship of his gleaming jet fighter. He was shown over a Me-262 and even allowed to taxi one around. Pilots rather than enemies.

[facthunter]

It's 3 tone. The driver's door doesn't match. Lot better car than the comparable Holden of the time. Cost more too. Nev

[Student Pilot]

Now Nev, you're just trying to provoke 😁

[kgwilson]

Our neighbours had one as a family car in the late 50s. It was the flashest car in the neighbourhood at the time. I thought it was pretty cool.

[skippydiesel]

On 29/03/2023 at 8:19 PM, Marty_d said:

They wouldn't have much range of speed to do that.  Guessing the Lightning isn't great at slow speed!

 

Pity they couldn't have put a Mozzie in there too.

True! and although a different category - some(Iconic) civilian types would be nice.

[red750]

[kasper]

3 hours ago, red750 said:

To see in the flesh the size of the TSR-2 is amazing.  I've see both the complete airframe at Cosford and the partial at Duxford and in both cases its gob smacking just how BIG they are. 

[red750]

[red750]

[Old Koreelah]

A vanished species!

[facthunter]

They "wooden" last long. Maybe Varnish wood have helped to stop them vanishing.. An all  metal version was made. Hornet?

[old man emu]

Any wooden airframe manufacture before the 1950s which included gluing wood together has to be suspect, simply because of the degrading of the glue itself. Casein glue is made from milk proteins. It was used to make strong and robust joints in early aviation, and was ubiquitous in the form of "white glue"  but fell out of favor due to its susceptibility to attack by bacteria. That is why a lot of Tiger Moths have had to be rebuilt. It was why the Avro Anson was grounded in the 1950s. (Non-competitive, operational performance may also have played a part). 

 

Resorcinol glue, also known as resorcinol-formaldehyde, is an adhesive combination of resin and hardener that withstands long-term water immersion and has high resistance to ultraviolet light. The adhesive, introduced in 1943, has been popular in aircraft and boat construction. Wooden airplane components have long been glued with resorcinol formulations. Uncured resorcinol has a relatively short shelf life of about two to three years, depending on storage temperature. Its use has declined since the 1990s due to the ease of use and versatility of epoxy glues and fillers. Unlike epoxy, it does not have gap filling properties, requiring joints to be close fitting and clamped under pressure to achieve good results. Also it is a two-part formulation that requires accurate measurement of components. Resorcinol was named a substance of very high concern under European Union REACH in 2022 because of its endocrine disrupting properties.

 

Consider the wide variety of woodworking adhesives you can now find easily at hardware stores, or with a bit of searching for more unique types. Here's a description of the various types of glues that can be used in woodworking. Each has different properties, so the choice is a bit of a horses for courses one.

[facthunter]

The DH 82 A had a steel tube fuselage and solid timber spars. They've never had much of a problem until a few very neglected ones had wing attach fittings failures. I had a rear cockpit dash panel fall out of it's mounts and I believe they  added a leather supporting  strap to cover that.  Nev

[facthunter]

There's also a fuselage modification for "Flick" rolls.  Nev.

[skippydiesel]

On 12/04/2023 at 12:42 PM, facthunter said:

They "wooden" last long. Maybe Varnish wood have helped to stop them vanishing.. An all  metal version was made. Hornet?

Pedantic point;

 

The Hornet certainly had it genesis in the Mosquito but was not a "metal version" of the Mosquito.

 

For my money (if I actually had any) the Hornet is the best looking twin piston engine fighter of all time (and likely had the best all round performance)

[Garfly]

 

Then there were the also-rans, like the Miles M35

 

 

 

 

 

 

[planedriver]

On 31/03/2023 at 1:39 PM, johnm said:

 

 

Any one wants to argue ? .................................... winner takes all (plus the light green 2 tone '55 vauxhall velox (with 5 new ! retreads))

 

My first car was a 1953 Velox rego SPK268 with bench seats.

I was only young then, and it could tell a tale or two. 

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by planedriver

[Old Koreelah]

Ahh, bench seats!