What about the T38

I belong to another forum called RCGroups. There is a guy who built an Electric Ducted Fan T38.....144" long. It was beautiful....Till he screwed it into the ground. It was made from blue foam covered in fiberglass. Go to RCGroups, EDF Forum, Scratchbuilt sub-forum. Check it out.

Geffen

 

There are actually 2 guys on RCG who recently maidened their giant scale electric ducted fan T-38s.
Both had unhappy landings
Supposedly the first one had a "low voltage cutoff" (which I don't understand - surely they were running separate battery packs for servos, maybe he overestimated the motors' efficiency and just ran out of juice for the fans?) and the second had speed controller on one of the motors crap out mid-flight. The second one didn't look like it had much power with 2 engines going...
Shame, they spent a hell of a lot of time building and finishing them but at least both will be rebuilt and flying again.
It seemed to me like their maidens were pretty ambitious. Relatively low-level barrel rolls on the first flight?? Ballsy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pdHCGUxS9mA
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We planned most efficient altitude for the distance we were going....most profiles had us shooting approaches or beating up the pattern wherever we went, so climbing to mid 40s for a 300 NM jaunt didn't usually make sense.

Blue Skies!

Hannibal

 

I just wanted to say thank you for the gift of the word douchoisie. )

 

Interesting. Edwards AFB Test Pilot School markings on the two models.

The T-38 would be a very expensive toy. Not sure if they can use start cartridges or not. Could solve the starting air requirement. The cartridges are very easy to use. Did them myself many times on F-111s. Sometimes for practice and sometimes out of necessity. Like just about all jet aircraft with two or more engines, once one is started, you can cross-bleed the other(s).

 

I think the best T series aircraft for the civilian market would be the T-33. Not quite as fast but very maneuverable and would not require as much airspace to have some fun in, the T-38 takes 10000' to do a loop! The 38 was a blast to fly, I once did 22 aileron rolls in a row.

 

I honestly, really have to thank my 20 year old ASU student, son, Eric for that one...he came up with it a month before I left for Afghanistan while we were "play" insulting one another. We've never heard it before and I've been applying it liberally ever since...please feel free to use ad lib! There are many in this class of people who deserve to be acknowledged and now have a named place in our societal strata!

Blue Skies!

Hannibal

 

Will- It was 50,000' for maximum altitude by AF regs. Higher and you needed a pressure suit. F-22As have some sort of waiver with the partial pressure suits they wear. Of course, that suit/chest pressure device is one of the causes of the hypoxia problem.

You flew Alphajets with the RAF and not Hawks? Always wanted a ride in a Hawk, or T-38 for that matter, 2000+ hours of fighter time as a WSO with time in F-111s, F/RF-4s, F-16s, F-15s, but never had a ride in a jet trainer.

 

Rob- T-29 (Convair twin R2800 prop trash hauler) to F-111D. Quite a jump. Never flew in a USAF jet trainer at all.

 

Rob- Affirmative, the F-111D had the most advanced avionics suite in the world in 1974. Dual TV displays, digital doppler processing for air to air and air to ground modes, high resolution ground map, plus INS and doppler for nav with moving map display, terrain following radar, and dual digital computers, one for nav and one for weapons delivery (a whole 16K each and huge). Was a pain to keep it all working in the early 70s.

 

Taz:

I flew with the Fast Jet Test Squadron out of MOD Boscombe Down. Yes, I flew The Hawk T Mk1a primarily but the squadron had at least one of everything...Jag, Harrier, Alpha Jet, Tornado (F and GR models), and a Harvard! So, being the "Yank" F-16 guy, I got to play against all of these at Air-to-Air on a regular basis. My assertions that the Alpha would take a Talon any day stems form my many Hawk vs. Alpha fights...the Alpha (almost) always wins...and I know a Hawk will smoke a Talon every time. So...

Funny you mention Raptor hypoxia issue. As an M.D. and F-16 pilot, my job with the RAF was flight test for aircrew systems...regulators, masks, G-suits, helmets, displays, watches, clipboards, t-shirts, pens, you name it...if a fighter pilot either touched it, looked at it, or interacted with it in any way, I tested it. At the time I was there a huge part of our budget was flight test for Typhoon and JCA (we know it as JSF/F-35) life support systems, including all oxygen delivery systems. Our test schedules were incredibly thorough...nauseatingly so at times. Raptor stuff never came our way! Sad.

Blue Skies!

Hannibal

 

Will- Sounds like a lot of fun. Both the Hawk and the Alphajet had way lower wing loading than the T-38, so I can see where they would easily outfight one.

Boscombe Down was the RAF's Edwards AFB and Nellis AFB combined and did all the DT&E (EAFB) as well as OT&E (NAFB). I was in a test squadron for F-111s for three years, attached to NAFB, but our stuff was all OT&E, mostly weapons and OFPs. Still lots of fun playing with all the new weapons. I owned the life support shop for a while, but the only testing we did on that kind of gear was for NVGs, which were superfluous on an F-111F.

 

Interesting... I hadn't heard that before. A few years back I was at an event with an F-22 pilot speaking about the various attributes of the aircraft. A BG asked him about something about flying cross country and he made a remark that it was quite easy as you could just get above Class A and go direct.

 

I love NVGs and can't imagine them ever being superfluous, at least in a single seat fighter. They're a total game-changer, along with a targeting pod and GPS/Laser-guided weapons.

Seems you had a great career too. I'm glad to hear it!

Blue Skies!

Hannibal

 

Will- These were first generation NVGs tested in 1985. Very clunky and made it very difficult to use the weapons controls, PAVE TACK pod, and ground attack radar. The F-111F worked fine at night without NVGs. The later, much improved NVG versions would have been handy for the AC during low level, night toss maneuvers for LGBs, but not for the WSO, with his head in a scope hood. No HUD in the F-111F either, and the one in the F-111D was not suitable for maneuvering, but mostly used for weapons delivery.

 

there was a pepsi ad in the orginal top gun vhs tape,it had a t38/f5 in it,the story i heard it was owned by a civilan that bought it at a military auction as scrap and somehow it wasent cut-up,it drove off the runway and bent-up the nose gear,,the buyer owned an airport in california ,,it was in road and track or car and driver in the late 80's early 90's too