Aircraft Appreciation thread #2 - Ugly aircraft!

[Mickey]

84mph @ what average cruising height? 10k ft? That's going to be bloody cold.

From wiki:

Service ceiling: 14,173 ft (4,320 m)

I think it would have had to keep close to it's ceiling to reduce the chances of interception.

So sitting in a bucket half way up Everest - that sounds fucking cold alright!

They mightn't even have had parachutes either, but that's another story ... :hum:

Oxygen? Above 10,000 - 12,000ft hypoxia kicks in.

[klr]

84mph @ what average cruising height? 10k ft? That's going to be bloody cold.

From wiki:

Service ceiling: 14,173 ft (4,320 m)

I think it would have had to keep close to it's ceiling to reduce the chances of interception.

So sitting in a bucket half way up Everest - that sounds fucking cold alright!

They mightn't even have had parachutes either, but that's another story ... :hum:

Oxygen? Above 10,000 - 12,000ft hypoxia kicks in.

Absolutely. There was an excellent BBC Timewatch documentary recently about James McCudden and 'Mick' Mannock, the two leading English aces of WW I. McCudden used his mechanical know-how to extend the ceiling of his fighter (an S.E.5a) by a few thousand feet, which can't have been any good for his concentration or general health.

[AshtonBlack]

Quite possibly.

From A Mil History site:

"Germany was one of the earliest nations involved in the First World War to recognize and address the need by aviators of aircraft and dirigibles for supplemental oxygen. The great Zeppelin dirigibles, by virtue of their ability to fly at higher altitudes, were the first war craft outfitted with aircrew oxygen systems, which were at first of the conventional compressed gas type, contained in iron storage flasks. Soon, however, the heavy storage flasks were replaced by early liquid oxygen generating systems. These systems were devised and produced by the Draeger Company, a company long associated with respiratory and resuscitation equipment for mining use. Other systems were produced by the Ahrend and Heylandt Company. It wasn’t long before some higher flying German bombers and fighters were equipped with these small, lightweight liquid oxygen systems. Oxygen could be breathed from these small ‘personal’ liquid oxygen systems through use of a mouthpiece (frequently called a ‘pipe stem’) that could be held clenched in the mouth of an aviator. The tube providing the oxygen was attached (on the German systems) to a large rebreathing bag positioned nearer the unit than the ‘pipe stem’, so that although the oxygen flow rate was continuous, more of the gas could be saved and reused in the process that would have otherwise been wasted."

My emph.

[Mickey]

The A-10 Thunderbolt. Still find it hard to apply the U word to an aircraft, but it's not pretty.

[leo-rcc]

The A-10 Thunderbolt. Still find it hard to apply the U word to an aircraft, but it's not pretty.

I don't know, the look of raw horsepower with those whopping big engine bays appeals to me. I like the A10 a lot.

[klr]

...
I don't know, the look of raw horsepower with those whopping big engine bays appeals to me. I like the A10 a lot.

Ditto. I wouldn't have so many kits of it if I really thought it was ugly.

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/ ... ng2006.jpg[/imgc]

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft/at ... a10_08.jpg[/imgc]

[Feck]

I think think the A 10 has gone so far past ugly that it has a special beauty all of its own .

[klr]

No, this is ugly - the Mil Mi 24 'Hind':

http://military.discovery.com/technolog ... 25x450.jpg[/imgc]

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Travel/Cz ... oClock.jpg[/imgc]

[Feck]

But it looks like a dragon fly ,it's A10 pretty ?

[klr]

Some people think the Victor is ugly, which just goes to show that there's no accounting for taste.

EDIT: For a different view of the Victor ... http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 264#p57264

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-p ... 360859.jpg[/imgc]

[Chinaski]

I don't know, I find there's a strange type of beautiful elegance about the fact that something so bulky can nevertheless fly and even be dangerous.

[Geoff]

[klr]

Image no show, but judging by the file name this is the monstrosity that Geoff was referring to:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... _03.88.jpg[/imgc]
... yes, you know where you've seen it before. :hum:

[leo-rcc]

It was this one.

airtruk.jpg (9.85 KiB) Viewed 5161 times

[Geoff]

It was this one.

airtruk.jpg

cheers, leo, that's the one!