They used the DB 601 engine that's why its the same. The German's also allowed the DB engine to be produced under license by Kawasaki for the Ki 61 fighter bit of a mix of an Me109 and a P51. And no Ian it not a typo, but its not the KIAI 61. Good aeroplane, heavily armed, but entered service late in the war.
This one might count as a "Ferrari airplane"! Still living at Fiorano AFAIK. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I always thought they were one of the best looking jet fighters. As I recall, the wings had a habit of breaking off in high-G turns.
Absolutely! Not sure about the red, to be honest, but that's hardly Lockheed's fault. Terrible reputation for killing pilots in several ways (including a mid-air collision with one of the two XB-70 prototypes that destroyed both aircraft), but that's a common theme with a lot of single-minded high performance machines, I suppose. There's a team in the USA attempting a land speed record with what is essentially an F-104 with a permanent set of wheels and the wings chopped off, which seems pretty crazy and unlikely to work (especially post-Thrust SSC), but you've got to admire their adventurous spirit!
I'd want it anyway, but that does make it even better. Starfighter is definitely one of the coolest aircraft ever. I heard the leading edges are so sharp you can cut yourself (probably a myth but I'll go with it anyway). Surely it wouldn't have been much of a dog-fighter with such tiny little wings?
Very similar to the leading and trailing edges of the F-111 stabs, we use to put foam-like cloth protectors on them when they were in the hangars ............. obviously AFTER I washed them
Depends how fast one comes at you, I suppose Don't think so, but it's an interceptor so not really for that - just for taking off, pointing at the nearest inbound bomber and shooting it down when you get there. Spend half an hour getting turned round and pointed back at the runway again, put down, shut down, job's a good'n.
They're shiite !!! There are a thousand aircraft that are better at doing that ....... an F-16 would shoot it down before the Starfighter even saw it, then the 16 would continue on to do the 105s job, the 111s job and come home without a finger being laid on it. The agility and weapons platform that the F16 has makes a lot of aircraft look silly ....... and they are so tiny relatively speaking. I was at Nellis AFB one day and we saw an F15 do a turn over the airfield and an F-16 turned inside it by nearly half the diameter. Mind you , I'd like a ride in a 15 before a 16, the 15 was reputed to be the only aircraft to break the sound barrier vertically and could outrun a Saturn V !!! Also on the 15 cockpit controls there was an OVERSPEED button ..... for outrunning missiles But I was told the engines had to be changed after the overspeed was used
True, but hardly a fair comparison. The F104 was designed in 1952, the F16 more than 20 years later. The amazing thing about that is that ten years after they came up with the P51, they came up with the F104. Things really did move fast back then, and again shows just how glacial aicraft development has become.
Oh, hey, speaking of Saturn Vs, random superawesome moonrocket factette, from "How Apollo Flew To The Moon" by David Woods: Power output of Saturn V first stage = ~60 gigawatts Peak power demand of United Kingdom = ~60 gigawatts
Do yourself a favour and go to Cape Canaveral to the spaceport. The recreation of the moon launch is awesome and when I walked out under the Saturn 5 rocket I burst into tears! Amazing.
That is very definitely on the list! Fingers crossed for Orion/SLS so a Srs Bzns rocket launch can be part of the trip someday
A three-ship of Hawk 127s overflew a few of the war memorials in WA at 1100 this morning: Remembrance Day WA Hawk Flypast - Imgur Happy to see them this year - often they only bring out PC-9s, which are great and all, but pure jet engines, even tiny ones, sound much nicer
BTW here are the Saturn V rockets Kerrari is talking about .... .saw them in 2006 with the handbrake and billy lid at KSC Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Well you're on the right track - what caused the emotion was the thought of how brave those guys were basically strapping themselves on the end of a football field length of flammable liquid! Definately one of my 'best days' ever!
