Does he offer a dustpan and brush to collect it in as well??

Not quite. The FA.2 still holds some reserves for WVR combat. No pilot really wants to go within visual range, especially not in dogfight range, because you tend to lose oversight here. In combat gainst most aircraft, especially at lower altitudes, the Harrier will be inferior in top speed manouvers but equal for lower speeds. A Harrier FA.2 was designed under the impression of the Falklands, which identified the threats for the Britisch fleet as fighter-bombers and long range bombers. Both would not be in the mood for a clash against the Harrier. Against land-based fighters on air2air missions the Harrier would not be competitive. After all, it is a stop-gap measure for a stop-gap carrier.

Again, not quite. The comment above notes rightly that the FA2 pilots want to play to the aircraft’s strengths. The Blue Vixen is the only targeting radar designed around AMRAAM, consequently it is the most effective for this missile currently in service. The Sea Harrier proved in the Falklands and in numerous exercises against other NATO air forces that in a dogfight it can more than hold its own, even against land based air superiority fighters like the F15 and F16. Other recent articles about the phasing out of the SHAR reflect this and note some of the unique tactics employed by SHAR pilots in combat to considerable effect.

🙂

Fairey Delta 2 (FD2)

The FD2 was the first aircraft to exceed 1,000 mph in level flight.

In the late 1940s Britain was trailing far behind in supersonic aircraft design. To try to rectify matters the Ministry of Supply issued a specification for a supersonic research aircraft to investigate flight and control at transonic and supersonic speeds.
The FD2 was a single-seat, delta-winged aircraft powered by a Rolls-Royce Avon engine with an afterburner. To improve the pilot’s forward view during landing, taxiing and take-off, the cockpit and nose section could be hinged downwards by ten degrees, a feature later used on the Concorde.

There were two FD2 aircraft built. The first FD2 #WG774 was flown on it’s on its maiden flight by Lt Cdr Peter Twiss on 6 Oct 1954. On the 10 Mar 1956 Twiss set a new World Absolute Speed Record of 1820kph (1132mph) between Ford and Chichester in Sussex, UK.

This beat the old record by more than 300mph which was quite an achievement considering the old record had only been set the previous year by an American F100 Super Sabre.

Interesting Fact: The Fairey Marine Motor Cruisers company manufactured boats called the Huntress and the Huntsman 28. These were used in the James Bond movie From Russia with Love. The ‘bad guys’ boat was driven by Peter Twiss, driving one of the other boats was former Fairey Marine sales director Charles Currey.

Huraah… 😉

I met Mr. Twiss at an event at the FAA museum earlier this year, what a fantastic gent. Sounds like flying the FD2 through the course was like trying to thread a needle at near-Mach 2, but Twiss did it and made it sound easy! It’s still the biggest margin the record has been increased by – astonishing given how recently the previous record was set.

Incidentally, though the FD2 was the first aircraft to take the record through 1000mph, the first aircraft to exceed that speed in a straight line was either the Bell X1A or the Douglas Skyrocket, I forget which. I wonder if either of them could have displayed the necessary manouevrability at that speed to have flown the FAI record course though?

by 1948 the XP-86 hadn’t topped Mach 0.937 if it helps

I read somewhere recently that the XP-86 officially went supersonic a little after Yeager did (i.e. days). Can’t remember the source, sorry, so would need checking out. BTW ‘Sound Barrier’ by Neville Duke suggests that R. Beamont was the first Briton to break the sound barrier and did so in the XP-86, but confusingly, the date given for this is after John Derry went supersonic in the DH108.

RIP Scott Crossfield.

And the R101

Nice pics. The top one looks like R100 to me although the one underneath is definitely R100.

I often wonder what it must have been like to see the big ‘tween wars rigid airships flying. Films showing these ocean-liner sized things hanging in the sky looks surreal, stately, unbelieveable. With helium and modern materials I imagine it would be possible to build ‘ships the size and speed of the Hindenburg et al, but I also imagine it would be rather impractical.

The original post suggests ‘aircraft’ rather than ‘type’ – so does this mean the oldest operational airframe? I gather that, although the An-2 is an old design, a large number were built relatively recently. I imagine the same to be true of a large number of MiG copies etc. and other licence built designs. I.e. the ‘upgraded MiG 21s and F5s’ of the original post. I’d be interested to know what the ages of the C-47s still in service were – when were the last ones built?

This raises different questions as well – do you go by the serial of the aircraft? I.e. the Martin-Baker Meteors started out as T Mk. 7s but later had the F Mk. 8 tail and rear fuselage added – quite a large section added later (though still relatively old).

As for his love life: His hangar at SM had a HUGE NZ flag on one wall

Maybe we’ve hit on the reason Nicole walked…