Favorite aircraft

[Bruno Ogorelec]

was the 407 nice and fast?

Yes. It was a European-sized car with an American-sized engine (5.1 liter Chrysler V8) and excellent, competition-honed running gear.

[Mike Kirney]

Bruno, are you referring to the venerable Chrysler 318 (actually 5.2 litres)? Those are great engines. It's ironic that somebody would drop a $200 motor into such an exotic body in the hopes of getting great performance. A lot of people over here like to drop a Chevy 350 (5.7 litre) into their low-end Jaguars for better acceleration and cheaper maintenance.

By the way, the redhead must be slim to make up for the weight of the brass adornments. The walnut could just be veneer over spruce or pine, so my fantasy is still quite feasible.

[yipster]

think i would say a lipisch like the komet 163 or DM1 or one of the first rocketplanes...

http://www.flightjournal.com/articles/me163/me163_6.asp

[steve]

ahhh, the komet. one of the only aircraft more dangerous to it's pilot then to it's enimies. must have been incredably exciting to fly, though.

that reminds me of a rutan long EZ that has been equipped with a rocket engine by a company experimenting with such technology. it aparently has been very successfull and I believe they even mentioned "vertical drag racing....." ;-)

[Hank]

Hello- Yes, Bruno, the thumbnail shot is of the BV 222. That is a gorgeous bit of real estate you posted of somewhere in the Adriatic.
Bristol made some neat cars, I like the 401.
I launched a magazines worth of 7.92x33 through an MP 43 equipped with the 45 degree fixture. You stand as much chance of hitting something you don't want to as anything else. The line of recoil was weird.

Al, the Curtiss folks never did get the center of gravity right on that canard. They used a rotary engine in one of em in an attempt to balance the thing. It sure looks the part, though.

Hank

[steve]

Hello- Yes, Bruno, the thumbnail shot is of the BV 222. That is a gorgeous bit of real estate you posted of somewhere in the Adriatic.
Bristol made some neat cars, I like the 401.
I launched a magazines worth of 7.92x33 through an MP 43 equipped with the 45 degree fixture. You stand as much chance of hitting something you don't want to as anything else. The line of recoil was weird.

Al, the Curtiss folks never did get the center of gravity right on that canard. They used a rotary engine in one of em in an attempt to balance the thing. It sure looks the part, though.

Hank

You fired an STG-44?!?! (MP-44, MP43 whatever) I envy you! let me kiss your feet hehe

[Bruno Ogorelec]

Bruno, are you referring to the venerable Chrysler 318 (actually 5.2 litres)? Those are great engines. It's ironic that somebody would drop a $200 motor into such an exotic body in the hopes of getting great performance. A lot of people over here like to drop a Chevy 350 (5.7 litre) into their low-end Jaguars for better acceleration and cheaper maintenance.

By the way, the redhead must be slim to make up for the weight of the brass adornments. The walnut could just be veneer over spruce or pine, so my fantasy is still quite feasible.

Well, that has been a time-honored method of getting great performance at reasonable cost. From the European perspective, Americans always made great car engines but never made cars handle worth a damn. Huge barges, most of them.

But, a combination of American V8 power and European chassis often made for wonderful machinery. Cobra is probably the most famous, but a similar trick was done by Allard, Bristol, Jensen, Rover and Gordon Keeble in Britain, Facel Vega in France, and Iso, Siata and Bizzarini in Italy. Most of those cars turned out great.

I'd delete the brass option and go for two redheads.

[yipster]

a combination of American V8 power and European chassis often made for wonderful machinery. Cobra is probably the most famous, but a similar trick was done by Allard, Bristol, Jensen, Rover and Gordon Keeble in Britain, Facel Vega in France, and Iso, Siata and Bizzarini in Italy

i was thinking of these cars -allmost bought a jensen once- thanks for mentioning these cars Bruno.
still remember the crysler new yorker, one of the first with a 350 hp block.

visited http://www.xcor.com/ez.html before but didnt realise this EZ rocketplane is the only one privatly owned.

[Bruno Ogorelec]

visited http://www.xcor.com/ez.html before but didnt realise this EZ rocketplane is the only one privatly owned.

They are planning eventually to install a pulse detonation engine on that one, aren't they?

[yipster]

would be great but i only got as far reading its intented for high up in space...
got to learn more about this EZ -but allrite- can i chance my vote for this one? :D

[hinote]

would be great but i only got as far reading its intented for high up in space...
got to learn more about this EZ -but allrite- can i chance my vote for this one? :D

This is one well-worn Long-Eze.

It belongs to Dick Rutan (Burt's brother--the pilot who did the Voyager flight around the world).

As far as I know this airplane was setting distance records back in the '70's.

It's the SAME airplane that had the PDE engine on it last year (based on a Honda Civic engine).

Based out of Mojave, CA, it's in a location that is a real hotbed of activity.

Bill H.
Acoustic Propoulsion Concepts

[steve]

here's the PDE version. Definately not as cool as the rocket version. (BTW did you guys watch the videos on that website? Awesome!)

[Mike Everman]

Yeah, now those guys are having some fun!

[hinote]

Yeah, now those guys are having some fun!

Boy oh boy--I'm not so sure.

They're having to carry a pretty fancy helium purge system to clear out the rocket.

They've successfully demo'ed in-flight restarts, which is a pretty big deal.

But, the complexity required to do this is 'way beyond reason; and besides, what if something fails?

I've seen too many movie clips of rocket-powered experiments spiralling out control--I wouldn't want to be attached to one of them gone awry.

Bill H.
Acoustic Propulsion Concepts

[Stephen H]

i would :D