Saturday Silliness
on 02/10/2007 at 06:05 AM
That was very cool. Thanks skipper!
I knew a man in Australia some years ago who had modeled an F-14 tomcat. It had two of those kind of engines turning shrouded fans. It was about 10 feet long, have no idea how much it weighed. When flying it was capable of about 150 mph. I guess now you can get small jets for your model aircraft. That F14 would be scary with a pair of those…
Yes, you can get jets nowadays. I remember posting here about a year ago, some group of guys in Britain built a working RC model of a B-52 with eight jet engines (just like the real thing). It was about 40 ft. long and had a wingspan of 50-60 feet. HUGE motha! It actually flew though. Whining jet engines lifted it off the ground and they flew it around for quite a while. I also recall reading shortly thereafter that they had crashed it and totalled it. The video is probably still out there on YouTube somewhere. If you use the SEARCH thingie in the right sidebar here you can probably find my post on it.
I found it!
http://www.barking-moonbat.com/index.php/weblog/comments/mini_buff/
First, I’ll bet there are some elderly Japanese who’d shudder to see this, it’s so realistic.
Second, I have worked (as a video guy) in the very hangers in Renton, Wa where those bad boyz were made.
Third, I doubt the actual B-29 could do a lot of those tricks. That said, tho,
Finally, I read about a P-51 pilot whose flight was returning to, I think, Tinian Island, after a raid on the Japanese mainland. He got a call to check out a B-29 with unknown difficulties. The flight was low on fuel so he took only hs wingman to go rendezvous and see what was up. They flew up on the right side of the aircraft and things looked pretty normal. They flew down, under and around to the left side and, holy crap, the entire right side of the flight deck and a big section of the forward fuselage were gone!
The copilot was slumped in his seat unconscious and another crewman had braved the wind and danger to crawl up and make a mayday call. The guy’s eyes were saucers, but they established radio contact and brought the plane back relatively safely.
As we say here in Jet City, if it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going!
Boeing does make a fine airplane. I wouldn’t be surprised if some B-29 pilots made some maneuvers that would have made the design team shudder if they knew about it.
And you are right, Rick, that aircraft is so realistic that it is difficult to tell it is a model until you have a reference point to gauge size against. The only real giveaway at times is the model engines don’t sing bass like the real ones do.
Superb Skipper the best thing I have seen in ages. Wonder what Chuck would make of it!
02/11/2007 at 09:12 AM
