Took this pic a couple of months ago in the UK, and didn't bother to see what it was at the time. Since I got back, everyone I have shown it to has asked me what it is, and.... errrr... I don't know! I'm sure it will be a facepalm moment when someone points it out, but WTF is this? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Lol! If only you'd replied along those lines to the crystal clear picture I posted from last night...
Sh%t,Steve,you'll have to try a little harder than this/that...it's an English Electric Lightning. Some had belly tanks...looks like they're pregnant.
Simon, Simon, Simon, Simon.... No, it's not. That was one of the first things I thought. But it's not. The Lightning (one of my all time favourite aircraft) has two engines, one on top of the other. This is single-engined. (See pic below) I was thinking some kind of later MIG-21 variant, but that is also wrong. I now suspect a French made machine perhaps? The riddle is that it's not as obvious as everyone who has seen this thinks. I should add that I absolutely refuse to "Google" the answer. To me, that is Gen Y style cheating. I'd love to hear from someone who really knows the answer, and why. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Ahh,yes re the engines....should have had a better look but I was doing a Steve Harkness(perhaps that can be a new terminology for having ,at least,one tooo many)
The Su-22 is/was flown by the former big bear, the USSR. Since the break up of the USSR, Russia retired most of their Su-22s. With that being said, they did export a large number of variants. The primary export variant was a downgraded Su-22, and was called the Su-17M4 but was commonly referred to as the Su-22M4 by NATO
I saw one as a gate guardian at a German A/F base outside Dresden 10-12 years ago. The Luftwaffe markings were the giveaway. Anyone seen video of the Corsair at Point Cook yesterday?
Beech 17 - absolutely fabulous, there are a few in Oz. They were the 1930's equivalent of a Lear or Gulfstream - fast, expensive and exotic... I helped restore/rebuild one as a youngster - my job was to build about 50 wing ribs from spruce and plywood, in a jig made from the original drawings. I developed an allergy to recorcinol glue from that. I clearly remember painting the completed ribs with 3 coats of much thinned varnish before they were assembled into the wing. Must have been OK, as it's still flying.. Round engines - the only way to fly....!
Just to set the record straight - I didn't google, but confess to consulting an office (hard copy) of Janes for confirmation - does that count as cheating? Edit: Sorry, in answer to Ians post a page ago... forgot to hit the quote option...
Following on from my post in the Spitfire thread I found this video which bought back a lot of memories of watching the huge exhaust from the afterburners of a night time ..... you really had to be there and see it to appreciate it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob0R23U5Avk&index=3&list=PLD48770C1D81E4B92 Awesome jet and really only designed to carry nuclear weapons with nuclear arm switches on the right side of the cockpit (navigator) with nuclear consent on the left (pilot) Over the ocean they would drop to 50'off the surface of the ocean when they were sneaking up on FFGs and aircraft carriers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIyYK9oz9Go&list=PLD48770C1D81E4B92&index=6 this is a brilliant piece of flying, I use to be part of the team that would rig the BEFAB system (arrestor hooks), which was basically a HUGE brake drum controlled by a computer to retard the aircraft at 1G, I only saw it used once but never got to see this
Lol! Cheat. Well there you go. I was leaning towards some kind of 70s / 80s Dassault aircraft, but really had no idea
Love the Staggerwing. Very cool aircraft. Can anyone think of any other retractable-undercarriage biplanes?
I saw a Polikarpov I-153 [retractable and biplane] do a wheels up landing at Wanaka years ago. Searching for the tape but may have to wait till I get home. Bit more here which may have the forced landing tape.http://www.kiwiaircraftimages.com/i153.html
I decided to trawl through some pics from my visit to the IWM, to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. Turns out I DID actually take a couple that weren't Spitfires.... What's this? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Looks like a Bf108 Taifun. The one in NZ which came from South Africa had audio machine guns which were very loud and sounded like the real thing. That was until the Hurricane did a real live fire [how they got that past H&S]
