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Little known / experimental aircraft

taxi1 said:
Lower parts count, cheaper to buy by order(s) of magnitude, cheaper to operate by order(s) of magnitude, longer endurance (8 hrs), greater range, probably lots quieter for ISR portion of mission, super cool amphib variant can land on water.

Sales pitch-y web page

802u.com

Aircraft Overview | Air Tractor® AT-802U

Built for Strength To accomplish missions in austere environments, begin with an airframe and engine that are proven to perform in harsh, specialized applications. The Air Tractor AT-802 multi-mission aircraft draws upon a 50-year heritage of rugged, simple and reliable airplanes. Today...
802u.com 802u.com
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Don't forget, dispatch reliability. You helo bubbas know I am right. Helicopters are maintenance whores. How many helo's are required to generate the sortie rate of a 4 ship ATO, especially in an austere FOB, vs ship board. When push comes to shove, you can fly those ATs with bailing wire and speed tape repairs. Not so any helicopter I know.

The Forest Service used to use AH-1s in the lead fire attack role. They don't use helos for that mission any more. Why is that? Cost and reliability.

I am still not 100% on board this program, but the debate is worthwhile.
 
wink said:
Don't forget, dispatch reliability. You helo bubbas know I am right. Helicopters are maintenance whores. How many helo's are required to generate the sortie rate of a 4 ship ATO, especially in an austere FOB, vs ship board. When push comes to shove, you can fly those ATs with bailing wire and speed tape repairs. Not so any helicopter I know.

The Forest Service used to use AH-1s in the lead fire attack role. They don't use helos for that mission any more. Why is that? Cost and reliability.

I am still not 100% on board this program, but the debate is worthwhile.
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Again, a much bigger deal for allies and security assistance.

There is a good place for this type of aircraft—with poorer allies. Possibly with AFSOC. Definitely NOT the USN and USMC.

We need more advanced aircraft, not fewer. To the extent we get expendable hardware, it’s going to be unmanned.
 
sevenhelmet said:
Did they run out of fuel or engine oil first?
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Good question- and it made me think of Howard Hughes’s Spruce Goose. If you ever get the chance, you really need to go to McMinnville Oregon and tour it. First rate aviation museum.

The Spruce Goose had a wingspan of 320 feet and its tail flew 60 feet above the water. Each of the flying boat’s eight Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major 28-cylinder engines produced 3,000 horsepower and sucked down 100 gallons of fuel per hour. The powerplants each bathed in 32 gallons of oil flowing through four banks of seven cylinders; the engines had two spark plugs per cylinder for a total of 448 spark plugs. A separate 189-gallon oil reservoir is on the flight deck.

www.aopa.org

Inside the Spruce Goose

www.aopa.org

1671035105721.jpeg
Looking down the Spruce Goose’s wing. The round shape to the left is the oil tank. At its thickest, the wing is 11 feet high, making it easy for a person to walk down the wing to tend to an engine in flight. [Courtesy: Meg Godlewski]

www.flyingmag.com

Inside the 'Spruce Goose'

Howard Hughes' Flying Boat, the largest seaplane in the world, is on display at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.
www.flyingmag.com www.flyingmag.com
 
The B-29 "Doc" has an oil reservoir tank as well- the engines use multiple quarts of oil per hour, I forget how many exactly, but it's enough that they are sometimes more oil limited than fuel limited.
 
I wonder if a battery-powered rim drive propulsor/fan (bleeding edge stuff) wouldn't make that a smart design. It ought to be quiet.
 
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