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John R

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Posts posted by John R

  1. There was a very interesting line-up with a few a/c I had not seen, or heard of, before.

    A variable day weatherwise. It started sunny then became overcast then cleared, a pattern that was repeated all afternoon. It ended up being sufficiently calm to fly 3 of the Edwardians, alas not the Deperdussin or the Bleriot. Unfortunately there was no evening sunshine to show them at their best.

    The Spitfire and Hurricane started being overcast for the flyby as a pair but cleared just in time for the individual displays.

    I decided to start with these so you will not have to scroll down through the mundane stuff to get to them.

     

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    The show started with the Catalina

    p?i=90271f7845332f4272d9453d8fdc5264

     

    The Comet/Mew Gull display suffered from the poor light and the Comet's individual display, disappointingly, had no topsides

    p?i=1fb9c979fe674a8062fca3a0ce725024

     

    An a/c that I never new existed - the Civilian Coupe ( Civilian was the name of the company)

    p?i=6b79f1c8ad5487fd3b501ab78f159b31

     

    The Fauvel AV36 was followed around the sky by its towing a/c. Surreal sight

     

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    The Lunak glider was flown its usual verve. Sorry about the pixellation - it was up high and the small image lost something when hosted

     

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    Desoutter and Moth together

    p?i=e49177bd33c89130a4088d60203d471c

     

    There was rather drab looking Gemini

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    Hawk Speed Six

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    The Sopwith Triplane managed to find a patch of bright sunshine

    p?i=55eb6a4e96e81fb4912f808616668d38

     

    The Edwardians - Avro Triplane and Bristol Boxkite

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    Blackburn Monoplane

    p?i=022803abdf6e4f20b350b1fa10cfad00

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • Like 8
  2. On 8/26/2020 at 8:14 AM, Eric Mc said:

     The X-4 was completely the opposite to the DH108. It exhibited pretty good flying characteristics and both examples survived their test programmes.

    Apparently the DH 108 was pleasant to so long as you stayed away from the extremes of its flight envelope. At the high speed end the X-4 apparently exhibited similar characteristics but as it flew much later than the 108 the pilots would have been aware of what to expect. I don't know if it ever went into the high mach/ high ias region that did for Geoffrey De Havilland but it was sensitive in pitch at high mach numbers.

    John

  3. BM has a 'donate' button in the top right corner.

    2 hours ago, Scimitar said:

    As a matter of interest what does it cost for the current server ?

    That's something I would love to know. Mike would probably say that it is not in the public interest but isn't it funny that phrase is always used to describe something in which the public is very interested.

    We can only hope that our donations are not going to fund that super PC that Mike described earlier😜

    John

  4. 1 hour ago, alt-92 said:

    What exactly is it you want to accomplish?

     

    I was just concerned for the future of BM. It's a great site and I wouldn't want anything to happen to it. There have been requests for donations in the past and I wondered if there were ways of reducing costs. The site continues to grow and I thought that it might be possible to contain it by removing obsolete posts but according to Mike that's not a problem.

    John

  5. I think that thread creep has started. Perhaps we can get back to discussing the original idea.

    From all I have learned from Mike & Co it seems that it is the numbers of users that drives the server requirement and not the amount of content so this thread can probably be closed. Cynic that I am I shall watch and wait for the next update.

     

    Going back to my original post here is an example that I came across last night. I am starting a Pro-Resin Avro 707A and remembered that there was a post from long ago about building one.

    I found it was full of blank Photobucket pictures and the reference to the WIP doe not work

     

    https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/70273-avro-707a-wd280-early/

     

    The WIP at :http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=64440&hl=rpaddy+707

     

    John

     

     

  6. Originally designed as a half scale model of a planned jet airliner it became apparent during the design phase that the layout was unsuitable and but it continued as research a/c for investigating the characteristics of swept wings. Three were built. The first used a Vampire front fuselage and was used for low speed research. It crashed after spinning at low altitude. The second was used for high speed work but crashed whist practising for an attempt on the world speed record. The third, modelled here, had a modified fuselage having a more pointed nose and a lowered, more streamlined, canopy. It first flew in July 1947 and in September 1948 became the first British a/c to exceed the speed of sound, although completely out of control at the time!

    It was passed to the RAE in November 1949 for further research but crashed in September 1950 for reasons unknown but believed to be pilot incapacitation due to lack of oxygen.

    I once heard Eric Brown describe it as the most dangerous aircraft that he had flown.

     

    This resin kit was produced by Planet models and went together fairly easily. There are three basic components, the upper and lower halves of the wing/fuselage and the rudder, all nicely moulded and free from pinholes. The most notable problem being the fit of the upper front fuselage – it doesn’t and requires filler to correct a large gap between the front portions ahead of the canopy. I realised later that I should have spent some time thinning the rear sections of the wing to produce a sharper trailing edge.

    The kit is supplied with two vacform canopies. Unfortunately there is a flaw in that the frame which runs down the centre of the forward section is not quite in the centre. I had to trim the top of the pilot's seat to stop it fouling the canopy.. Not a big deal as it is hardly visible.

    One final problem appeared whilst fitting the u/c. The a/c sits slightly nose up and the model does not. It is partly due to the mainwheels being oversize, compared to Barrie Hygates drawing, and something else which I could not work out. I ended up shortening the legs to get it to look right. In fact the original legs looked far too long to retract into the wells whereas the shorter legs look to be about the right length.

    The finish is Alclad Airframe Aluminium over gloss black enamel followed by a light coat of Alclad Aluminium to reduce the shine.

     

    John

     

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    Whilst putting it in the display cabinet I was reminded that I had seen that wing planform before...

     

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    I had always thought of the 108 as being small but, as a half-scale model of the proposed DH 106 it had a span of 39ft (about 12m)

    Compare it with its American equivalent the Northrop X-4

     

    p?i=bc0bb21938f18080d20c136a49c122b4

    • Like 51
  7. Britmodeller keeps getting bigger and more expensive to run resulting in migrations to new servers and requests for donations. Short of a Covid induced meltdown of the world’s economy this is not going to stop so perhaps it is time to consider doing something about it.

    Is time to think about some pruning? I realise that this might cause howls of dismay as the site is regarded as source of invaluable references but there must be a lot stuff which is no longer relevant. I am referring to posts which have been rendered useless by the Photobucket fiasco and the vast number of posts containing comments of the ‘lovely’or ‘well done’ variety. Perhaps posts which have not been read for a certain number of years could be safely deleted? This might be inconvenient for the odd modeller in the years to come but would stop BM becoming too bloated to survive.

    The above might be considered heresy, selling off the family heirlooms or just the ravings of someone who has spent too much time on his own recently but…

     

    John

    • Like 4
    • Sad 2
  8. Not the most colourful or exciting a/c but nevertheless interesting because it was the first Russian a/c to have swept wings. It first flew in 1947 powered by an RD-10F, a copy of the German Jumo 004 fitted with a Lavochkin developed afterburner.  It was able to reach a speed of Mach 0.92 but was lost when due to structural failure of the wing (it sounded like flutter) when attempting to reach higher speeds. It was designed to have two cannons mounted above the intake but these were not fitted for the early flights.

     

    It went together quite easily like all Prop & Jet kits. The only problems were self-inflicted. I had great trouble getting the anhedral correct and the same on both wings. Normal procedure is to to lay the fuselage halves flat on the bench and slot the wings into them. The wings can then be adjusted to the correct angle and supported before glueing - something that I find vital when using CA. I also line up the fuselages longitudinally so I can check that the anhedral is the same for both wings. This time I was so concerned about getting the right amount of ballast in the nose that I joined up the fuselage halves first. I should also have thinned the fin and rear fuselage so that it matched the rudder before glueing the fuselage halves together.

     

    Finish is Vallejo Sky Grey

     

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    • Like 12
  9. On 8/11/2020 at 8:04 PM, TheyJammedKenny! said:

    Nice!  Sounds like a real bear of a kit, though.

    No. I've known a lot worse. It's fairly typical Modelsvit. Very good in parts and so-so in others and one gets the impression that they have been designed and produced with no attempt to assess and eliminate flaws. There are 'interesting' quirks like the the top fuselage halves have different depth panel lines. The scissors on the front u/c leg have to be assembled from a couple of tiny parts whereas those on the main u/c legs are very nicely moulded as part of the leg. Having said that it is a lot better than the MiG 150 series.

    You also have to take into account that I am nearly 80, the fingers are a lot less nimble than they used to be and patience is in short supply these days.

    John

    • Like 2
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