OT The Vulcan Bomber

The fundamental problem with the Liberty Ships was that the steel used went brittle in the sub-zero temperatures of the North Atlantic in the winter. As they were all welded, for speed of construction and crack went right through the ship - many sank for, at the time, unexplained reasons. Operate them in warmer waters and I'm sure they were fine.

they fixed the problem in due course

...and following that line of logic could easily lead to the conclusion that cryptography and communications are more important, even, than the Navy.

I'm not sure how much that says about the quality of the ships, tbh. Just that they still _existed_ at the end of the war, when there was one hell of a need for ships.

orn

In June 1966, a complete Olympus 593 engine and variable geometry exhaust a ssembly was first run at Melun-Villaroche, Île-de-France, France. At Bris tol, flight tests began using a RAF Avro Vulcan bomber with the engine and its nacelle attached below the bomb-bay. Due to the Vulcan's aerodynamic li mitations, the tests were limited to a speed of Mach 0.98 (1,200 km/h). Dur ing these tests, the 593 achieved 35,190 lbf (157 kN) thrust, which exceede d the requirements of the engine.[5]

could be true

Jim K

Rather unfortunate spelling mistake there!

Syke

yes, by changing the type of steel used.

Sometimes the RAF practice dogfights next to Filey Brig. That's a worthwhile free show.

I didn't. But that's because I had no idea that that they had been on. Thanks for the link.

And it would be true. However you probably need both.

Blast radius a few miles.. EMP a few hundreds/thousands miles.

I was told by someone at BZN that BAe put one on the back of a VC10 borrowed from the RAF on one side in place of the two Conways. Bent the fuselage, which was then FUBAR. My informant also told me about the time when a VC10 was defuelled in the wrong order - wing tanks first, leaving the tailplane taks full. Gravity acted - as it usually does, the A/C fell backwards leaving the nose sticking out above the mist at BZN.

Regards No Name

It's a eurofighter these days - but yep, same thing. Display then final run ending with a straight up until it's vanished.

Everyone left with ringing ears and surrounded by car alarms :-)

With the F1 cars this year it's probably the most impressive noise - they just sound wrong now :-(

Darren

Just spotted this

How many tickets?

Oh crap ;-)

In message , Chris J Dixon writes

Back in the late 70s, I visited Binbrook, and was able to watch a couple of Lightnings take off at dusk. Got them rolling down the runway, then hit the after burners, two big balls of flame travelling away from me at great speed. Fantastic sight.

Adrian

Adrian scribbled...

And 2 of them still exist.

"The 130 seats, which come with the restrictions that buyers must weigh no more than 14 stone,

ah......

Jim K

I used to spend some time at RAF St.Athan ... where they used to service The Harrier. After service they would do full power engine test, then transition from Hover to full power fwd vector ............... amazing to see a Jet hover and the power from the Harrier Rolls Royce Pegasus engine was incredible ...

We have have a bi-annual air show in the bay, I take my boat out .. and sit back and watch the Battle of Britain memorial flight directly overhead at extreme Low-Level .... those 4 Merlin engines making amazing drone. Escorted by a Hurricane & Spitfire .... great spectacle.

Last year display include a full demo of the Eurofighter "The Typhoon" ... when that flew at Low level and then put in a full 90 degree vertical climb with afterburners on .... the sound was like no plane I have ever heard before .... must be such a buz to fly it. However no real market out there .. even countries that had initially wanted high numbers have cancelled orders.

Britain announcing it has insufficient spares to keep its fleet in the air, and will have to canabalize craft until at least 2015 can't be helping sales.

Local paper in Wales carried this "cockpit view" test flight ........ worth the watch if you haven't seen it.