RR2008HSE wrote:

One of the engineers turns to the others and said, "Well, gentlemen. We may have just built the worlds biggest glider."

They built an awful lot of gliders initially. This was 1970. Almost all the 747's here have no engines.

Click image to enlarge

RR2008HSE wrote:

The first B747 is now on show at the Seattle Museum of Flight

I will drop by next time I'm in the area. I read the autobiography of Joe Sutter who was the engineering director of the 747 programme, and interestingly he's still alive. It was an interesting read - well recommended.

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what a nostalgic pic - some good, now defunct, airlines there...

Had the privilege of a private visit to the Museum of flight thanks to Mr Boeing [delayed inaugural B737-800 delivery] - the elderly gentleman who took us round was extremely knowledgeable concerning the Lockheed M-21 project. We came to the conclusion that he was either a pilot or systems officer on board.

Rolls Royce tests a Trent 1000 with composite fan blades.



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David P.

I see from a much earlier post of yours on another thread that you learned to fly at Shoreham. I learned there also. Got my PPL in 1969 with the (now defunct) Southern Aero Club. John
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John,
Mercury FC for me.

Happy days. When a Tiger Moth was £5.15s an hour. John
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Read an article years and years ago about a guy who fixes Tiger Moths. He had a customer phone him up with magneto problems. He was told to bring it over to have a look at it.

'You don't understand, it's a really big magneto problem'.

'er....just how big?'

'The engine's thrown a rod and it's come through the block and broken the magneto.'

I did fly in ACDC the oldest Tiger still flying. That was back in the 70s. John
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Wow. I've never even been in one. Must be fab.



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In the air it was the most "natural" aircraft I've ever flown in. Can't describe it any better than that.  John
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What was landing a tail dragger like though?

No problem as long as you concentrated hard and used the rudder! Another taildragger I flew was a Jodel DR1051. That was mainly from a private farm strip.

There was a lot of satisfaction in flying/landing one. The guy who checked me out on taildraggers was a BCal pilot who used to check in with the tower at Shoreham each time he passed over the airfield outbound from Gatwick.

Talking about Gatwick, in those days, if you said it was a training flight there were no landing fees. We had to go in there if going over to France (Le Touquet for lunch ) as there was, at that time, no customs at Shoreham. Can't imagine a Cessna 172 being too welcome there now on a "training flight".  John
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No.

I saw a piston single take off from Zurich airport a while back (can't remember the type). There was an Airbus behind him waiting to take off. Of course the piston single needs nothing like the runway of a big jet, so took off after a short run, then continued down the runway at a comparatively agonisingly slow speed.

You could just imagine the Airbus pilot thrumming his fingers in the cockpit waiting for this tiny aircraft to get out of the way.

Swinging the lamps again . On that theme I once flew a 172 into Gatwick landing east to west. I was asked by the tower if I would accept "a tight final". I agreed and as I turned onto final the pilot of a Comet (dates it somewhat!) behind me called "5 mile final shall I continue?". Tower replied, "Continue". He asked three times more with the last one at the inner marker. As I touched down the tower instructed me to "expedite first right"" which I did. The following aircraft wasn't far behind!

The tower was obviously in a better position to assess speeds and timings. John
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The US army is having a competition to select a replacement for the Blackhawk. As well as being able to lift a little more it also needs to be much faster.

This is Boeing's entrant. It has two contra-rotating rotors which means it doesn't need a conventional tail rotor to counteract the torque of a single rotor. For directional control you just make one rotor work a little harder than the other and the torque reaction will point you in the right direction.

As you go faster in a helicopter the blade that's retreating will slow relative to the one advancing. This limits the maximum speed of helicopters as flapping the blade only works so far. The two rotors resolves this retreating blade problem.

The rear rotor is to provide thrust to get the machine to cruise at 290 mph.



This is the Bell entrant, which uses a tilt-rotor. It's pretty complex but goes a bit faster - 320mph.



Think I'd have the Boeing one. If they made a smaller one it would be a good compliment to a Range Rover.

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