Aircraft & Aviation

[stig]

Ed, I know all about former British tecnical and industrial superiority.

I owned a 1938 Danish buildt Nimbus Motorcycle.

Every damned screw and bolt in that thing had a Whitworth taper

( hope I spelled that right)

 

[NeTree]

I believe "Nimbus" was also a Rolls-Royce turbofan engine, too.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Wonder what happened to the work ethic? Was it Brittish Leyland where they caught the night shift in their pajamas?

 

[Thor's Hammer]

My father in law worked at British Leyland in the 70's. While he was on night shift, there was a company inspection - 70% of the workforce were caught sneaking back into the plant from the pub.

 

[stehansen]

I am a Harrier fan also.

 

[NeTree]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCSAXixGeSo

<iframe width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2pweY5y5eRI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[MasterBlaster]

I used to work on the Roof, it was AWESOME! If only I'd have had a camera...

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Fabulous plane. Especially the USMC version with Vulcan Cannon.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I remember seeing my very first one take off. I was in the Philippines and working on the flight line. As I was eating my box lunch one day, outta the corner of my eye I noticed this big assed aircraft firing up and then it went straight up! I'd never seen such a thing! It was pretty cool!

 

[sotc]

<iframe width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zYLOF8B6zis" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[MasterBlaster]

 

[Al Smith]

We used to play war games with the long range patrol aircraft,namely P3 Orions .These things were designed to hunt out submarines .

Once in the north Atlantic while operating at perescope depth and running the deck lights under water so they could find us I had a pilot on the radio .I was on the attack scope trying to find him myself .Damned if he wasn't flying in the "trough " between two waves running only two of the 4 engines . About 40 feet above the water but it looked like 10 .Hell it was like 20 foot waves .

 

[Thor's Hammer]

'Pipe smoking tea drinking British genius'

 

[NeTree]

I got a laugh out of that too, Ed.

 

[18 stoner]

As it happens we were in the presence of a RAF one only on tuesday.

Took me all my time to get Abigail away from it, even though she didnt really realise how special this thing really was;



.
As for the second beast, now thatwas very special too!

 

[18 stoner]

In side the Conc;




Not sure how this pic got on here, appologies but cant seem to delete it! Hey ho!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Man, I'd loved to have flown on that mighty fine aircraft! Excellent!

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Any of you aircraft guys ever see one of these? If you dont recognize it, try to guess the age.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Looks from the 60s....

 

[18 stoner]

No idea what that is Ed but it looks fast due to its narrow wings.

I'd also so say 60's, perhaps 62 or 63?

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Its the TSR-2, at the time it would have been the most advanced bomber in the world. Its basically a mini concorde bomber - same olympus engines, same ridiculous speed. It was never put into production, as the stupid government decided we should buy F111's instead :roll:

 

[18 stoner]

I take it that would be the later 60's the Ed, perhaps even 1970?

And here is one of the said engines, sure gives scale;

 

[18 stoner]

No prizes for guessing this one I suppose?



The Vulcan is one of my favourite bombers, possibly as its the most significant shaped plane I remember seeing in the air when I was a kid.

The thing that amazed me when we saw this one last week was its size. Unfortunately, there is little in the photo to give any scale but it was breath-takingly huge.

The big shame about this one was its deteriorating state with being out in the elements.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

The TSR2 was developed in the 1950's. Can you believe that? At one time, Britain was the centre of the aviation universe. And yes, I love the Vulcan. A former cold war soviet General visited Farnborough in the 90's, and said that the only thing the Russians were scared of that NATO had was the Vulcan. He said the Vulcan could drop a bomb on Moscow and they'd never even hear it coming. ICBM's of course made planes like that obsolete. (unless you want to bomb Argentinian held airfields in the Falklands)

 

[stig]

That is because you live where you do.
I saw plenty of aircraft that shape, because the Danish/Swedish/Norvegian airforces flew the SAAB P-35 Draken