Aviation Geeks unite?! Anybody else care about planes here?

And dangerous to those who flew it.

Germany would have been better served by going with the English Electric Lightning but that company didn’t resort to bribes.

 

While in Dutch service it was one of the safer jet fighters we've ever had, even safer than the F-16, the Germans had no experience at all with an aircraft like that, they just didn't know how to handle it.
And Spain never lost one so it seems.

 

The X-62
https://www.edwards.af.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/2002817054/

A real Transformer

https://newatlas.com/aircraft/pterodynamics-transwing-evtol/

An interesting quote from the Secret Projects Forum:

We're seeing an explosion of morphologies not seen since the Cambrian....Most will be dead ends, but the vagaries of circumstance make it impossible to predict which will prosper. The self-described 'lapsed marine biologist' Peter Watts has described Darwinian selection as 'survival of the least inadequate'. I might amend that to say it's survival of the cheapest without obvious crippling flaws. In English, that means that the eventually favoured morphology may not be optimum under any single criterion, but adequate in all necessary aspects and economical to build with good capital and an effective distribution network behind it. In plain English, 'who the f*ck knows, but I suppose we can make some informed guesses'.

I was editing a paper on industrial history a while back and the author traced the use of new lighting technologies from industrial to popular domestic uses. First, fluorescent and later LED lighting found its major market in industrial uses - factories and so on - and then after developments in economies of scale and user-friendliness (e.g., the perceived 'cold' colour temperature was a hurdle to early consumers), then it spread to other markets. I suspect that while rich early adopters might want their toys, to provide an economically viable launching pad, one or more of these ventures will need to establish itself in a peculiar but lucrative niche and then spread to others. Which, I don't know, but maybe it is drug smuggling That does seem to be a cauldron of innovation, as WH Sutton points out on his blog, Covert Shores, where 'narcosubs' regularly feature.

As I like to say, reality is the best simulator.
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/vtol-on-demand-mobility.28597/page-15#post-474400

https://wonderfulengineering.com/wa...warrior-drone-that-can-take-out-fighter-jets/
https://wonderfulengineering.com/a-...ritains-sixth-generation-tempest-fighter-jet/

Other days
https://neverwasmag.com/2021/07/the-art-of-frank-tinsley/

Electric planes
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/487866572118283496/
https://wonderfulengineering.com/th...d-plane-that-could-stay-airborne-for-90-days/
https://wonderfulengineering.com/th...rt-nationwide-delivery-of-goods-using-drones/

Flying car...again
https://interestingengineering.com/a-supercar-designer-is-building-a-250-mph-flying-hypercar
https://wonderfulengineering.com/this-single-seating-personal-evtol-could-soon-go-on-sale-in-japan/


SST
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=47240

 

I think Transwing as a Hybrid Prop Aircraft platform has a bright future ahead.

 

More on the Hermeus project's Quarterhorse passenger aircraft
https://interestingengineering.com/...op-the-fastest-reusable-aircraft-in-the-world
It will be capable of flying at a staggering Mach 5 speeds

Soon
https://interestingengineering.com/nasas-quiet-supersonic-x-59-jet-approaches-first-flight

 

Think the only really viable option for the supersonic flight over populated areas if they are extreme altitude.

 

A BOAC VC10, boarding two doors at Heathrow, in the 1965 movie Darling.


BOAC 707 on the other side.


Julie Christie posing in front of the Speedbird.

 

I always thought that they were really nice looking planes. Always liked them

 

The FLASH FALCON

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/...ls-designs-Flash-Falcon-supersonic-plane.html
https://www.behance.net/gallery/28335399/FF-Flash-Falcon-Electric-Supersonic-Jet

Dawn in the sky
https://www.space.com/dawn-aerospace-space-plane-first-test-flights-video

A nice book on "real" flying saucers
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/flying-saucer-technology.21094/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingless_Electromagnetic_Air_Vehicle

Airwolf kit
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=47098

SCI AM crapping on hypersonics
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-physics-and-hype-of-hypersonic-weapons/

Air Taxi
https://www.space.com/nasa-testing-electric-air-taxi
https://www.space.com/netflix-spacex-inspiration4-private-spaceflight-documentary-trailer

Small Flying Fort and more:
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=47221
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=47211

New X-plane book coming!
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=54468.0
https://www.space.com/nasa-quiet-supersonic-plane-x-59-assembly-video
https://www.amazon.com/Stealth-Secret-Contest-Invisible-Aircraft/dp/0190677449

Control panel
https://www.space.com/apollo-command-module-control-panel-replica-kickstarter

 

nice fly-along video with Dewey Davenport in an antique Aeronca Champ

 

The Flash Falcon I don't think so....... Looks like the ship from Mass Effect

 

This craft was a SSTO spacecraft
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/martin-denvers-aldebaran.10078/#post-482106

The thermoplane
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/aviastar-thermoplane-program.6672/
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forums/spf-top-rated.67/

Hypersonics through 3D printing
https://phys.org/news/2021-09-next-gen-3d-catalysts-propel-hypersonic.html

Maybe Icarus had a chance after all.
https://phys.org/news/2021-09-icarus-high-wax.html

 

Maybe this will lead to a culture change at Boeing so that management start listening to the engineers again.

Company investors are now suing the board of directors over the 737-max crashes on the ground the board knew of the issues and failed to take action.

A case of the former CEO getting a $60mil golden parachute was tossed.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58483150

 

There needs to be new laws against "Golden Parachutes".

 

Not likely in this life sigh

 

I seem to remember a hypersonic plane called “Paradoxical” from imaginactive- and ioaircraft is another outfit if memory serves.

 

a freight airline is endorsing the message and named one of it's aircraft "Not Without my Mask" and had one painted on the nose.

https://cptdb.ca/uploads/monthly_20...F(3).jpg.ab747bce430917bba4318b09d1b3200d.jpg

 

That is very cool

 

Inspired by the work of Thor Heyerdahl, researchers in 1975 tried to prove the possibility that the designers of the Nazca lines might have been able to build their own hot air balloons using native textile and boat building technology, which would have allowed them to actually see the Nazca lines and plan them out.

Whether that actually happened or not, the balloon Condor I did fly.

 

That's pretty neat