Just out of curiosity - Airplane Guys

VFT site today
11Nov02-SpruceGoose.jpg
 
Wow! The Hughes "Hercules"! Way ahead of its time, and a concept the military brass couldn't comprehend. Imagine if they had given him the aluminum? :umm:
 
I got to see the Hercules in 1983 at Long Beach Ca. Most impressive for sure!:thumbsup: There was a neat little exhibit there that showed films about "the man" himself and some interesting history of the Hughes Tool Corp etc. The Queen Mary was nearby. Very impressive also.
 
Oshkosh... 2005 (6?) Bob was speaking at a seminar. He went on for two and a half hrs and nobody so much as twitched. We were a captivated. I got to shake his hand after. I was too awestruck to even think about a selfie... :rolleyes:

Bob at Oshkosh.JPG
 
Wasn't it Mr. Hoover who also flew a Rockwell Commander (a small twin engined civilian passenger aircraft) like it was a Pitts Special - including inverted passes over the runway - deadstick (i.e. engines OFF).....?

He was absolutely incredible - and it all looked so easy.
 
One of my favorite bits of humor/advice from Bob.... "Fly the airplane as far into the crash as possible."
Here's his last airshow flight in 99. Rockwell Commander deadstick all the way to the stands.

 
Wasn't it Mr. Hoover who also flew a Rockwell Commander (a small twin engined civilian passenger aircraft) like it was a Pitts Special - including inverted passes over the runway - deadstick (i.e. engines OFF).....?

He was absolutely incredible - and it all looked so easy.

Yes! I witnessed that live on more than one occasion!
 
I've seen that plane here. It looks and flies great. Read an article or 2 on that airframe too.
 
Many years ago I was at an airshow up in Tebo's town and had a chance to see a Harrier Jump Jet in action. They flew it in and a few demonstration maneuvers but did not land. I think they were worried about causing a problem on the grass runway, still very impressive for the time!

Not sure if they still do the tours but also years ago had the chance to take a tour of the Silver Springs, MD The Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility, think they have moved most of it to another location. That was in someways more interesting than the actual Air and Space Museum. Got to see the planes as they were being worked on and even talk a little with the guys doing the work. Only thing that kind of disappointed me was to learn that after doing all the work rebuilding the planes they never ran or flew them. Guy said if they even started the engines they would have to strip them back down to every nut and bolt and clean them all over.
 
Many years ago I was at an airshow up in Tebo's town and had a chance to see a Harrier Jump Jet in action. They flew it in and a few demonstration maneuvers but did not land. I think they were worried about causing a problem on the grass runway, still very impressive for the time!
Not sure if they still do the tours but also years ago had the chance to take a tour of the Silver Springs, MD The Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility, think they have moved most of it to another location. That was in someways more interesting than the actual Air and Space Museum. Got to see the planes as they were being worked on and even talk a little with the guys doing the work. Only thing that kind of disappointed me was to learn that after doing all the work rebuilding the planes they never ran or flew them. Guy said if they even started the engines they would have to strip them back down to every nut and bolt and clean them all over.
Hi Ken,
I've bragged before on building the Harrier's Pegasus vectored thrust engine, back in the day.
Neatest Harrier trick I've ever seen is 3 of them at an airshow do a vertical take off, fly at ~20'
altitude to the perimeter fence, go to hover, turn and then bow to the crowd.
And "museum quality". Means you daren't ever use the thing again.
 
Hi Ken,
I've bragged before on building the Harrier's Pegasus vectored thrust engine, back in the day.
Neatest Harrier trick I've ever seen is 3 of them at an airshow do a vertical take off, fly at ~20'
altitude to the perimeter fence, go to hover, turn and then bow to the crowd.
And "museum quality". Means you daren't ever use the thing again.
Just looking at that Harrier not much more than couple hundred yards away floating there and moving sideways and then turning to say the west and proceed to transition from hover to flight mode was some thing. Watching them do something like that on TV does not do it justice!

Next best air show demo I got a good view of was, I believe it might have been four or six ,F-15s(or some other fighters) . They were coming home from joint maneuvers with Canadian Air Force in Nova Scotia to Rome NY. They came down the runway single file and right in front of the crowd made a sharp 90º straight up and out of sight one after another.
 
The Hawker (I guess it’s BAC now) Harrier is one amazing machine. The three things that always got me are:

1 - there are two spools in the engine - spinning in opposite directions to eliminate any reaction torque.

2 - the “cold” end thrust from the intake fan exits through the front pair of nozzles and it exactly balances the thrust from the “hot” end (ie. from the turbine) which exits from the two rear nozzles.

3 - the nozzles are driven by a system of chains - I’m told they’re about the same size as on our XS650s.

There was a lot of pretty fancy math and modelling done to make that work properly and it was all done in the 1960s - likely with a slide rule (at least the initial work).
 
The Hawker (I guess it’s BAC now) Harrier is one amazing machine. The three things that always got me are:

1 - there are two spools in the engine - spinning in opposite directions to eliminate any reaction torque.

2 - the “cold” end thrust from the intake fan exits through the front pair of nozzles and it exactly balances the thrust from the “hot” end (ie. from the turbine) which exits from the two rear nozzles.

3 - the nozzles are driven by a system of chains - I’m told they’re about the same size as on our XS650s.

There was a lot of pretty fancy math and modelling done to make that work properly and it was all done in the 1960s - likely with a slide rule (at least the initial work).
 
Hi Pete,
OK, these are 50+ year old memories, but:-
1)The (Bristol developed) twin-spool turbines were more to let the high pressure and low pressure turbines to run at different speeds than to counteract torque.
2) Yeah! That's one of the clever bits.
3) Memory sez they looked to be a 600 series chain. Rumour sez the chain was supposed to be a quickie fix until they thought of a better way.
We did so have a calculating machine. A mechanical device that was bigger'n'a breadbox. Calculated to ~20 places.
Us apprentices would set it up to calculate a recurring decimal and it'd go apeshit going 666666666 then we'd run off before we got caught.
"Will you stupid little bastards stop doing that????"
 
Back
Top