Hey OzMatt
I’m glad to have helped make your trip pleasant.
It was a pleasure meeting you and I hope we can do it again…like a trip to Oz to back-seat the Wirraway…. 😉
TNZ
PS Have you tested the new Helmet ?
The D-Day Museum, a new modern museum in central New Orleans.
The Spitfire is suspended.
Mark
This and the Avenger are reproductions, not real ones (thank goodness).
TNZ
hmm,….that ain’t great
Apparently it has an Avenger too.
TNZ
He’s as subtle as a sledgehammer, our Phil is….. 😉
tnz
Great pic, Ronnie, but sad tale…..
TNZ
yes, thats about right.
taken from http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/baugher_other/wyvrn-01.html
The available engines for the Wyvern were the Rolls-Royce Clyde and the Armstrong Siddeley Python. The Clyde was a twin-spool engine, with one spool driving a centrifugal compressor and the other the propeller and an axial compressor. The Clyde delivered at least 4030 hp, with a potential for much more. The Clyde was used for prototype VP120. The radiator and underwing oil coolers were removed, a smaller tail was fitted, and a six-bladed contraprop installed. The engine had twin exhausts, one on each side of the fuselage, over the wing. It first flew on 18 January 1945, and showed to be excellent. Production had to be canceled however, simply because Rolls-Royce refused to build the Clyde engine in series! Rolls-Royce was committing itself fully to jet engines.
The Python was an older design and lower-powered (3760 hp), with a reverse-flow, 14-stage axial compressor. The first Python-engined Wyvern TF.2 was VP109 and flew on 22 March 1949, with an eight-bladed Rotol propeller, but otherwise similar to VP120. Oil coolers were placed in the extended wing roots. It was followed by a second prototype and a few T.3 two-seat trainers. Experiences with the engine were far from satisfactory, unreliability and a slow reaction speed making the aircraft unpopular. If it had been available, Westland would probably have liked to return to the Eagle engine; but that was not possible, and twenty Python-engined TF.2s were built. Carrier trials began on 21 June 1950
TNZ
The problem with the Wyvern is it had a second-choice turboprop which was tempermental.
Used to flame-out on Cat-take offs !!!! 😮
Now that wouldn’t really make your day…….
Apart from that I reckon it was an awesome looking beast and apparently it could out manouevre a Seafire.
TNZ
I did a little research and came up with the fact that it had vicious torque-swing, and had a long nose which made it difficult for the pilot to see on landing. Also it was too bulky apparently.
Guess that’s why Wyverns and later Seafires had contra-rotating props.
Cheers
Chris
What was so bad about the Firebrand?
It’s not that bad a looking aircraft anyway.
Also, what was the Wyvern like in comparison ?
Cheers
TNZ
The Porter fuselage was actually dragged into the wooden mock-up of the C-123. It was run on rails laid down on the floor of the fuselage.
T J
Ah okay thanks for that.
I did read that the C-123 bellying was actually pulled along by cable.
Was that a real one or a mock up as well ?
The whole scene(s) do look quite convincing, IMHO.
Info on the Porter
The PC-6 is famous in the aviation world for its Short Take-off and Landing (STOL) performance on almost any type of terrain – it can take-off within a distance of 195 m and land within a distance of 130 m while carrying a payload of 1,500 kg. Thanks to its STOL performance, the PC-6 holds the world record for highest landing by a fixed wing aircraft, at 5750m, on the Dhaulagiri glacier in Nepal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/)
TNZ
Guess the design would have been influenced.
The Storchs have pretty good stol capability too.
Be great to see a fly-off between the two of them, that’s for sure !!
TNZ
Nah,…they’re Pilatus Porters. Absolutley amazing STOL capability.
Mount Cook Airlines here in NZ used to have them for ski-planes…and they put on a show once at one of the Wanaka air-shows.
In a gentle headwind they can nearly hover !!!
TNZ
Oh what a sound that must have been !!
Great stuff !!
TNZ
Way cool movie,..apparently they really did destroy that Porter into the “C-123 fuselage”….