Just out of curiosity - Airplane Guys

[Grimly]

Some smoke, mirrors and healthy dose of bullshit, but I'd always hoped the next breakthrough in propulsion would be from a bloke in a shed.

https://thedebrief.org/nasa-veteran...duced-enough-thrust-to-defeat-earths-gravity/

 

[Grimly]

Never forget this one, either.
The RAF don't have enough planes to risk one these days.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Hunter_Tower_Bridge_incident

 

[MaxPete]

Ahhhh.....the pugnacious and thoroughly frightening Hawker Typhoon. Definitely, not for the faint of heart.

Think of it as the "Stormy Daniels" version of the Hawker Hurricane...

There is a guy in BC who is building a full-size Typhoon in metal - from the original drawings from scratch...to be powered by an original Napier Sabre engine. Here is a linky to his YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/typhoonlegacycoltd

It really is a heck of a project - check it out!

 

[Raymond]

Ahhhh.....the pugnacious and thoroughly frightening Hawker Typhoon. Definitely, not for the faint of heart.

Think of it as the "Stormy Daniels" version of the Hawker Hurricane...

Top Trump in the ground attack rôle?

 

[MaxPete]

Top Trump in the ground attack rôle?

Oh yes - this machine is not for under-endowed tangerine-tinged whinging pussies.

• https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUMF30Tig93RKvazF2lM7ofP2alYlIb_B&si=AKNLWd1Nfuqxn9YK

Totally aside from the massive size and ferocious appearance of the aircraft, the Napier Sabre that powered it was a he!! of an engine:

• 2238 cu.in. (37 litres - or 35% bigger than an R-R Merlin or an Allison)
• 24 cylinders - H configuration (two banks of horizontally opposed 12-cylinder blocks, each with a crankshaft that were geared together)
• small bore and stroke (5" x 5" or 127mm x 127 mm) which allowed for high RPM running - compared to a Merlin bore and stroke: 5.4" x 6"
• reciprocating sleeve valves (not poppet valves like "regular" engines) - and these sleeves were definitely a very tough metallurgical challenge
• 37-3800 RPM vs. 2650-3000 for an R-R Merlin (I guess the noise produced by these things was absolutely deafening)
• Tremendous specific output (HP/ litre) - the Sabre Mk. I made 2050 HP but in the final variant, the Sabre Mk. VII engine, they were getting 3500 HP (about the same as a P&W Wasp Major but it had twice the displacement - 71 litres versus 37 litres on the Sabre)

Here is a video of the Sabre running:

I'm sure there were some young men named Juergen and Karl-Heinz who were on the receiving end of a visit from a Typhoon back in the day, and they will never forget it.

 

[Raymond]

(it was a Stormy Daniels joke. I'll just get me coat . . .)

 

[Jim]

 

[Vincenthdfan]

View attachment 324126

That had to make that pilot a little weak in the knees when he got back in chocks and took a look at that!

 

[Raymond]

The Jug gained a helluva reputation for the punishment it would absorb and still get you home. But WOW!

 

[Jim]

The Jug gained a helluva reputation for the punishment it would absorb and still get you home. But WOW!

I can't find the pic now, but there was a Jug that flew down into the Rhine (Ruhr maybe?) River Valley where the Germans had strung steel cables across to prevent strafing and bomb runs by the Allies. One wing caught a cable... pulled the wood poles out of the banks and flew back to England with these 1ft diameter poles dangling behind it. Not many airplanes could have pulled that off.

 

[Vincenthdfan]

"could have pulled that off.".

I see what you did there....