For the benefit of the Wing Commander, somebody really should include ” Get in and sit down” into the pre-flight checks.

You do realise that she is Ginger Baker’s daughter, don’t you?

Yeah, and he once ran a band called “Ginger Baker’s Air Force” as well. Never got the Album cover though.

Yes the geodetci construction was ported over from airships for which it was emininently suitable, especially the sort of size airships they were building back then.

I think that it was probably overtaken by other developments after the war, the need for pressurisation, developments in metallurgy and also other fixing methods such as redux bonding. If you can make something work by a simpler cheaper, lightere method, then that is the route that will be chosen.

Ingenious thoguh they were, it strikes me that a lot of Barnes Wallis’ inventions dont seem to have longevity, geodectic construction, bouncing bombs and even variable geometry (swinging) wings all seeming to have had their time. Compare this to Whittle’s jet engine or some of the aerodynamics developed by the likes of Prandtl.

100%. I note you are an engineer and as such I’m sure you appreciate better than I do the link between the available technology at the time and the perfect solution. Perhaps this puts Barnes Wallis in context on reflection.
Regarding Whittle, one has to admire his pragmatism in using a centrifugal compressor ,which was arguably the most practicable engineering solution at the time. The initial German axial compressors certainly ran into huge structural and fatigue problems whilst being a better theoretical approach. However where are we now?
Technology has moved on- as it always does ,changing the balance of options available to the designer and engineer and often allowing initially rejected options to be re-examined. For example, we look at engineering morphing structures to give us aerodynamic flexibility. I reckon Wallis reincarnated would have leapt on this one!

]I seek any info on aircraft that was being designed by Ernst Heinkel AFTER the WW2[/I]
Constructed is a different story.

IInpact, if I remember correctly, only did three kits (1/48 again) Flycatcher, Bulldog and Siskin(?).
Roger Smith.

They also did a Fury and a Gladiator -don’t think they ever did a Siskin, more’s the pity .
Then there was a their 1/48 range of pre WW1 models ,Boxkite, Deperdussin, Antoinette, Bleriot, Avro Biplane & Triplane. A Valkyrie and Bristol Prier were promised but i don’t think they appeared. Did them all as a teenager instead of studying ; they were fully rigged -the Boxkite was fun in that respect.

But then why the need to do the same in 1908- almost four years later? The European competition was by then long flying off unassisted with wheeled undercarriages , which is the most demanding phase regarding power over weight in a normal flight profile. These facts would not have been appreciated by the popular press at the time. In addition, the Wrights flew at very low level indeed and seemed reluctant to demonstrate altitude performance.
In accepting their undoubted contribution, one has to put it in the perspective of the big picture which clearly shows a dead-end approach in many ways when compared to developments in Europe, perhaps underlined by the total absence of any really significant American contribution to aviation until well after the First World War. What happened then is common cause (despite their not actually attaining an independent Air Force until 1947).

Sorry who in the right mind thinks a Vulcan would actually increase or attract crowds like that.

If you did a poll in any average high street in the UK tomorrow, do you honestly think Mr & Mrs Average would
(a) give a monkeys about the Vulcan;
(b) actually know what one is; and
(c) it would actually sway them when it came to attending an airshow or not.

What complete and utter bs.

Years ago I was sitting with the FAA historic flight at, I think, Biggin.The Sea Fury and Swordfish were in attendance. In the words of CPO Ron Gourlay at the time:
“That mate, is a Spitfire and that one over there is a Tiger Moth, according to the average Dad in the crowd.”
Nothing changes.

(I’m trying to find the full names and history of the pilots -N.Stack and S.L.Turner[/QUOTE]
Probably Neville Stack. His son T.N. Stack (Tom Neville Stack) rose to Air Rank in the R.A.F.
He is actually referred to in the Putnam Airspeed book in the entry on the Viceroy ( Capt. T. Neville Stack) and in a lot of contemporary acounts. (E.g. Penrose’s British Aviation – Widening Horizons)