Sun Jan 25, 2009 9:59 pm
Spartan Zeus!
Eric D- are you sure it wouldn't be that Curtiss Jeep???
kevin
Eric D- are you sure it wouldn't be that Curtiss Jeep???
kevin
Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:01 pm
Which way is this going? I still like the fantasy posts.
My REALITY is to stay with a flying museum and work on other people's aircraft that I get to crew on.
My FANTASY would be a large lakefront property somewhere with a big flying boat ramp, plenty of hangar space and open invites to the others who just mentioned flying boats. And it would have a runway big enough for you Liberator and Stirling jockeys to visit.
Brandon, the Hughes S-43 is for sale at a ludicruos price! Gag me with a tire iron! Hangar talk down the coast is that the heirs of the last owner (who dont know squat about a/c values) want $2 mil for it. PBY-5A SuperCat N287 was sold this year after being offered for several years at $495k and that was a nice boat.
Floats up!
My REALITY is to stay with a flying museum and work on other people's aircraft that I get to crew on.
My FANTASY would be a large lakefront property somewhere with a big flying boat ramp, plenty of hangar space and open invites to the others who just mentioned flying boats. And it would have a runway big enough for you Liberator and Stirling jockeys to visit.
Brandon, the Hughes S-43 is for sale at a ludicruos price! Gag me with a tire iron! Hangar talk down the coast is that the heirs of the last owner (who dont know squat about a/c values) want $2 mil for it. PBY-5A SuperCat N287 was sold this year after being offered for several years at $495k and that was a nice boat.
Floats up!
Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:15 pm
Tulsaboy wrote:
I almost put it in parenthesis, but I decided to try and follow the thread guidelines.
One of these days I will build a Mauler and AT-9. We probably have another 24-36 months of economic downturn before we level off and I can seriously pursue this again.
Eric D- are you sure it wouldn't be that Curtiss Jeep???
I almost put it in parenthesis, but I decided to try and follow the thread guidelines.
One of these days I will build a Mauler and AT-9. We probably have another 24-36 months of economic downturn before we level off and I can seriously pursue this again.
Re: What warbird would you build?
Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:39 pm
John Dupre wrote:My first choice would be the Fokker D.XXI single seat fighter used by the Finns and Dutch early in WW2. It has a steel tube fuselage, wooden wings and fixed gear. It was powered by either the Bristol Mercury or the Pratt and Whitney R-1535.
I've always liked the D.XXI also, enough to check around and find out that there are drawings existing, but not sure if you could get your hands on them.
How about a Fiat G.50 or Macchi MC.200?
-
Mon Jan 26, 2009 12:30 am
I wouldn't do any particular aircraft, but I would like to see somebody reverse- engineer the Napier Sabre engine with modern materials in an effort to make maintenance simpler. They would be supplied to the various Hawker Tempest owners of the world so we could see a flying Tempest.
I would probably also expand at some point to include various rare German and Japanese aircraft engines, working from original blueprints but substituting modern materials in an effort to improve safety and reliability. All money issues aside, I'm curious as to whether it would be possible to do these things from an engineering standpoint. Imagine what airframes could take to the skies again with a fresh supply of new engines and parts...
I would probably also expand at some point to include various rare German and Japanese aircraft engines, working from original blueprints but substituting modern materials in an effort to improve safety and reliability. All money issues aside, I'm curious as to whether it would be possible to do these things from an engineering standpoint. Imagine what airframes could take to the skies again with a fresh supply of new engines and parts...
Mon Jan 26, 2009 12:55 am
kalamazookid wrote:I wouldn't do any particular aircraft, but I would like to see somebody reverse- engineer the Napier Sabre engine with modern materials in an effort to make maintenance simpler. They would be supplied to the various Hawker Tempest owners of the world so we could see a flying Tempest.
I would probably also expand at some point to include various rare German and Japanese aircraft engines, working from original blueprints but substituting modern materials in an effort to improve safety and reliability. All money issues aside, I'm curious as to whether it would be possible to do these things from an engineering standpoint. Imagine what airframes could take to the skies again with a fresh supply of new engines and parts...
I have thought about this one too. Would be nice to see new Daimler-Benz DB 605, and 601. How about one of those new Sabre engines for a new build Typhoon?
Mon Jan 26, 2009 1:02 am
A Nippon plane like a Tony, or a ki-43 or something like that.
Mon Jan 26, 2009 1:15 am
All the more reason to produce a set production of New Build DB Engines! 
What warbird would you build
Mon Jan 26, 2009 5:22 am
I went to this old guys place and he had a set of plans for a 1917 Roland Fighter. I fell in love with the plans just for the detail that the researcher went to. You can build the plane from these plans.
Ive got access to two Gyspsy Queen engines but havent decided whether I want to commit to this project. I was going to invert the motor as an original Mercedes would be unobtainable. I have looked hard at this motor and thought you could use the crankcase and put water cooled cylinders on it and make it look like the Merc.
The aircarft sort of looks like an Albatross but has a clinker planked fuselage.
I heard a rumour that there is a guy in Queensland Australia that want to Repo Merlins.
Ive got access to two Gyspsy Queen engines but havent decided whether I want to commit to this project. I was going to invert the motor as an original Mercedes would be unobtainable. I have looked hard at this motor and thought you could use the crankcase and put water cooled cylinders on it and make it look like the Merc.
The aircarft sort of looks like an Albatross but has a clinker planked fuselage.
I heard a rumour that there is a guy in Queensland Australia that want to Repo Merlins.
Mon Jan 26, 2009 1:13 pm
Oh, after the Hornet and Kingfisher were done, I'd build a P-6E and then an XP-40Q.
Rich
PS- Maybe a scaled-down XB-70 then.
Rich
PS- Maybe a scaled-down XB-70 then.
Mon Jan 26, 2009 1:36 pm
My sentimental favorite would be the TBD Devastator -- an aircraft that should exist somewhere in the world for us to reflect on.
Another impractical one would be the Mitsubishi G4M "Betty"
Another impractical one would be the Mitsubishi G4M "Betty"
Mon Jan 26, 2009 2:09 pm
EDowning wrote:Tulsaboy wrote:Eric D- are you sure it wouldn't be that Curtiss Jeep???
I almost put it in parenthesis, but I decided to try and follow the thread guidelines.
One of these days I will build a Mauler and AT-9. We probably have another 24-36 months of economic downturn before we level off and I can seriously pursue this again.
How many Mauler airframes exist? I remember seeing the one at Pensacola sitting outside in the '70s.
Rich
Mon Jan 26, 2009 8:43 pm
Rich--
Two Maulers were recovered from a range (Aberdeen??) in the late 60s/early 70s; one went to NMNA and the other ended up with the CAF who briefly had it flying as "Able Mable". I've seen pix of the CAF one in its more recent project-airframe state, with substantial parts of a second AM-1 in the background (in the markings of one of the NAR units, I think). So there would seem to be two and a half Maulers extant...at least.
What to build? Pure fantasy for the likes of me, but I'd think something with known fine flying characteristics. Two extinct (except for wreckage) Japanese types spring to mind: the Mitsubishi A5M (looks like the results of an affaire-du-coeur between a D3A and a P-26), and the Nakajima Ki27 (which is to a Ki43 more or less what an NA64 Yale is to a T-6)...
Bluer-sky still, a DH Hornet or a Typhoon would be nice. (No need to build Napier Sabres anew for a Tempest though; the R3350 mod for the Fury should be adaptable to a Tempest II...)
It isn't a Warbird (though the RCAF did have a few of them)...but genuinely doable should be a revival of the neat little Reid Rambler bipe with its Fiat-esque Warren truss wing cellule. That, actually, would be my choice, since it's not only practical, it's Canadian...
S.
Two Maulers were recovered from a range (Aberdeen??) in the late 60s/early 70s; one went to NMNA and the other ended up with the CAF who briefly had it flying as "Able Mable". I've seen pix of the CAF one in its more recent project-airframe state, with substantial parts of a second AM-1 in the background (in the markings of one of the NAR units, I think). So there would seem to be two and a half Maulers extant...at least.
What to build? Pure fantasy for the likes of me, but I'd think something with known fine flying characteristics. Two extinct (except for wreckage) Japanese types spring to mind: the Mitsubishi A5M (looks like the results of an affaire-du-coeur between a D3A and a P-26), and the Nakajima Ki27 (which is to a Ki43 more or less what an NA64 Yale is to a T-6)...
Bluer-sky still, a DH Hornet or a Typhoon would be nice. (No need to build Napier Sabres anew for a Tempest though; the R3350 mod for the Fury should be adaptable to a Tempest II...)
It isn't a Warbird (though the RCAF did have a few of them)...but genuinely doable should be a revival of the neat little Reid Rambler bipe with its Fiat-esque Warren truss wing cellule. That, actually, would be my choice, since it's not only practical, it's Canadian...
S.
Mon Jan 26, 2009 8:57 pm
Forgot an idea...in the same mold as the Me262 Project (which used NAS Willow Grove's original 262 as a pattern)...a short series of flyable Brewster 239/339/F2A Buffalos (patterned on the recovered Finnish B239). I think the Finns would be delighted to have a flying example of that type; and the USMC museum has been after one forever...