RE: Any military modeller outthere?

if your really up for it there is always mail order, there are larfge modelling concerns on the net that will happily ship across the world. any acryllic(water based) paints that you can get would be useful, although matching them to the real things could be interesting!! I think the way to go is bulk buy and ship from abroad, america or australia for example, you can also get foreign shipping for the modelling magazines out there, there are three that i would recommend to anyone interested in aircraft(mainly military). i’ll get hte details and any email addresses if your interested. maybe you know some other modellers who would be happy to club together and get things in from abroad- that would cut the shipping cost down, i’ll try and find somewhere for you.

i have been modelling since i was seven too i think!) and i’m now 20. i really only model aircraft, of all types from first world war( those lozenge camouflages are soo cool!) to present day aircraft, mainly in 1/48 your f18d should come out well if its the italeri one. there are lots of aftermarket accessories that can help with detailing, eduards photo-etched frets are very good and well recommended( ffor the extrememyl lazy out there, they are now doing already painted sets such as seat straps and cockpit interiors!1 and can be exceptionally cheap! I like an adequate amount of detail on my aircraft, so i’ll usually shell out for a resin cockpit or seat, if its neded instead of making the kit as is, if its lacking in the interior department.

i can only think of one bad thing about modelling- painting white on any other colour(come to think of it white too!).

unless of course you spray your nice new bright white cooker with enamel testarossa red, and dont realise until you’ve finished the job and its gone hard…………….

or shaking the tin of paint with the top not quite secure, and spattering it all over the kitchen tiles, and the kettle(it never did come off the kettle)…………..

coanda

RE: Mid-air refueling

this has been done on commercial flights, albeit postal flights. It was done in the thirties with the sea empress seaplane i believe, it had a parasite aircraft which would deliver mail along the way, and to places unreachable by the ‘mother aircraft’ the sea empress was the forerunner of the WW2 sunderland. the parasite aircraft was twin engined, and i remember it being called mercury- it was written on the nose of the aircraft- appropriate dont you think?? any way flight refuelling limited was started up and they tested the idea on these aircraft, it worked pretty well as I recall.

there is no major problem with doing this now, we’ve seen pics of KC10’s refuelling each other, so why not a320’s, the weight gain in extra pipingwouild be a mininmal fraction, and the technology is mature. a GPS guidance system coupled with a very short range laser, or millimetre radar would do for distances within that capable of the GPS With these systems the safety factor could stay almost the same, and would hardly add to the crews management task, as it has become. The sensitivity of the controls would be the limiting factor for this operation, but a flying boom type operation could cure that. refueling at altitude, with the exception of aircraft generated turbulence, and cloud generated turbulence would be a relatively calm affair, there would be no need for a race track pattern if the airliner is on a straight leg for four hours, you may aswell plug in there and then.

of course when do you pick up your cargo and passengers?? this would only be worth it if you are traversing a major part of the world. the reduction in fuel load if in flight refuelling was available wouldnt really matter because you still have to house a certain number of people in a fuselage and to a large extent this dictates the size of the aircraft- so your wings arent going to be that much smaller, your fuselage certainly isnt, what would you do?? probably just change the aerofoil to give u an acceptable lift co efficient……………nice thought tho.

coanda

RE: Pseudonyms

coanda= ‘other’ form of flight. taking a back seat supporting role in the theory of flight the coanda effect has been overshadowed by bernoulli and his more popular equations, I like it because its unique- it must be because people are always asking me what it is, on the net, so now you know! if you see a coanda around, like x-plane.org, or lycos uk chat, its likely to be me

RE: What a shot!

you’ll notice that this situation is anticipated and an orange pad is bolted to the under surface, which is what is creating the sparks- not the airframe thank goodness!!! the aircraft is fitted with this to test the optimum flare angle for landing- to help save on damage and thus delays in trials, the pad is fitted.

coanda

RE: Caption competition

“……….four star please mate…….yes, fill the oil too thanx”

coanda

RE: Request

over in the uk you can buy books secifically from differnt areas regarding disused airfields, I’m sure that if your interested I could dig out some retailer that’ll send them to oz-if your THAT interested.

RE: Security at CDG

pressurised containers can explode if the pressure drops significantly- but hardly ever combustively- explosions are classified as very sudden changes in pressure, and are not always associated with combustion, more like combustion is a secondary effect of an explosion. if you’ve ever put an aerosol can on a fire you notice that it exploded with a large bang, which dissipates most of the energy, and then the contents of the can burnt, in the flames of the fire, very very quickly. if you were to just lower the outside pressure sufficiently to critically fail the can, ie, thin walled pressure vessel, it would just crack, and leak the contents, at worst making your clothes smell of your fave BO buster for months to come. which is why you can carry them in the seating area and not in the hold.

of course the oxygen content in the air could make the gases instantly flammable upon contact………….

coanda