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One from the "Holy Crap!" Department...
- Thread starter FlyinSpy
- Start date
Best description ever!
Why are the Brits such fans of putting engines right in the wing roots? Vulcans, nimrods, Victors, Valiants...all have intakes and engines that run right thru the wing at the root. Any particular reason for this from the coke-bottle lens crowd?
squarebullet said:My bad. I could understand if someone accidentally pressed the 'Fire' button on a carrier but this video what shot on land so I was confused.
Over in the UK, the CAA has made it very difficult to keep ex-military airplanes airworthy, so there is a mini-enthusiast movement that keeps jet warbirds taxi-worthy instead.
It's a relatively regular event to have airplanes like this get fired up and taxied around at airshows, including taking the runway for runups and aborted takeoffs.
Don't know exactly what or why this one got airborne, but that sets up the background of why the airplane would be there with two non-pilots at the controls.
The RAF had several as tankers during ODS and the first time we pulled up to one Oscar ask, what the hell is it? Told him and he said it looked like Jules Verne designed it.
Still a pretty accurate observation.
Regardless of how it looked, it was fast. During a NATO exercise in the North Atlantic back in the '79-'80 timeframe, the "powers that be" tried using KA-6 and A-7 tankers as "jeepney" tankers. KC-135's and Victor tankers were set at various stations out of harms way and the A-7's and KA-6's would tank off of the big guys, then dash out to the CAP stations and give the gas to the F-14's, then run back, get more gas, and do the same again. I was in my trusty A-7 configured tanker trying to rendezvous with a Victor at 20,000' doing 350 kias. Had to ask them to slow down cause I couldn't catch them. Admittedly, the A-7 with a drop tank and a buddy store ain't that fast. If I remember right, tanking airspeed was around 230-250 kias. They apologized and said they were just "cruising".
The Crab
Member
As a Brit I lurk a lot more than I post here but this thread caught my eye, I was at Bruntingthorpe that day in May with my brother who is still in the RAF, we go every so often to see the old heavy metal get fired up. As he works on the Tornado it does him good to see a proper aircraft now and then I feel. I spent most of my RAF career in Ops roles supporting the Nimrod and the Phantom.
It was blowing a really strong crosswind that day and as the jet powered up it went past us heading right to left, we got a fairly good look at the liftoff. There were more than a few comments of "Errrr .. Hang On !!" (or words to that effect) once it became apparent it was obviously going to keep going but once airborne the power came off sharpish and the pilot did a good job getting it back down safely, although we reckoned his backside must have eaten the seat cushion in the process. My brother said it should really count as one take off and three landings going by the bounces. I was expecting a wing to fall off as that jet last flew in 91 or 92. It looks more dramatic on the video than from where we were sitting actually although the one thing my brother commented on was that the aircraft had take off flap selected. Not sure why that would be selected for a fast taxi run.
At the time of the run the privatly owned Vulcan XH558 was grounded and the cash needed to get her back airborne was not flowing in too quickly, with the Victor logging a few seconds airborne the conspiracy theory going round was that if the tin triangle didnt get airborne again the Victor could claim the title of the last V bomber to fly. My brother told me later that when the Vulcan was eventually cleared to fly again it was towed out for its test flight to be faced with the Victor sitting behind a banner saying "Anything you can do ... "
Great Site BTW.
It was blowing a really strong crosswind that day and as the jet powered up it went past us heading right to left, we got a fairly good look at the liftoff. There were more than a few comments of "Errrr .. Hang On !!" (or words to that effect) once it became apparent it was obviously going to keep going but once airborne the power came off sharpish and the pilot did a good job getting it back down safely, although we reckoned his backside must have eaten the seat cushion in the process. My brother said it should really count as one take off and three landings going by the bounces. I was expecting a wing to fall off as that jet last flew in 91 or 92. It looks more dramatic on the video than from where we were sitting actually although the one thing my brother commented on was that the aircraft had take off flap selected. Not sure why that would be selected for a fast taxi run.
At the time of the run the privatly owned Vulcan XH558 was grounded and the cash needed to get her back airborne was not flowing in too quickly, with the Victor logging a few seconds airborne the conspiracy theory going round was that if the tin triangle didnt get airborne again the Victor could claim the title of the last V bomber to fly. My brother told me later that when the Vulcan was eventually cleared to fly again it was towed out for its test flight to be faced with the Victor sitting behind a banner saying "Anything you can do ... "
Great Site BTW.