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Lets just take this to it's natural conclusion and strap a few GE90s to the airframe and mount the Schwerer Gustav railway gun.
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Feb 18, 2020 01:04
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Train plane seems under explored
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Feb 18, 2020 01:05
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"Analysts point to new concerns associated with the impending pilot shortage..."
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Feb 18, 2020 01:09
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I mean at that point it's basically a party bus/ground attack plane
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Feb 18, 2020 02:36
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Ah, the KSP school of aerospace design
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Feb 18, 2020 18:37
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https://theaviationgeekclub.com/that-time-a-usaf-b-52-strategic-bomber-did-a-fly-by-below-the-flight-deck-of-uss-ranger-aircraft-carrier/ Link really says it all Pretty cool read tho
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Mar 3, 2020 07:33
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Jestery posted:Ahahahahahahahahahahaahahaha COBRAAA COBRAAAAA COBRAaAaAaAaA
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Mar 3, 2020 08:10
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Jestery posted:https://theaviationgeekclub.com/that-time-a-usaf-b-52-strategic-bomber-did-a-fly-by-below-the-flight-deck-of-uss-ranger-aircraft-carrier/   
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Mar 4, 2020 00:09
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for those that don't know, the B-52 flies nose down like that it's actually moving straight
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Mar 4, 2020 00:36
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I will explain why this is! There are three factors that influence how much lift an airplane generates: 1) how fast the plane is flying 2) the shape of the wing 3) the angle of attack of the wing. You can create more lift by flying faster, by having a wing shape that makes more lift for a given amount of airspeed, or by tilting the wing upwards relative to the airstream. On most airplanes, all three can be controlled by the pilot -- airspeed obviously, angle of attack by pitching the plane with the elevator, and wing shape by deploying flaps, slats and other high-lift devices. You have probably noticed when flying on an airplane that the pilot pitches the nose up during the takeoff roll. Technically this is not necessary to take off; all you need to get off the ground is for the plane to be generating more lift than its weight. You can achieve that just by having a high-lift wing and a lot of ground speed. However, accelerating to a high speed on the ground is obviously undesirable, as you'd need a very long runway and it's bad for the tires. So pilots rotate the aircraft during takeoff, increasing the wing's angle of attack and adding a bunch of extra lift to get off the ground. Once the plane is in cruise they can point the wing back down to decrease drag. This concept -- that pitching the plane is, for the most part, just changing the amount of lift you have, not "pointing" the plane where you want to go -- is fundamental to understanding flight dynamics. So anyway, that step of increasing the angle of attack during the roll is critical to takeoff performance and safety. Most planes are designed with their main landing gear near the center of gravity, so they can easily pivot on it like a seesaw when the pilot raises the elevator. Simple. But! The B-52 was designed when nuclear bombs were absolutely enormous! This B-41 is 12' x 4'6" and that wasn't even the largest nuclear bomb the US ever fielded, just a common load for the B-52:  This meant that in order to carry a couple of bombs you'd need a big, long, empty bomb bay, and it would have to be in the middle of the airplane for balance. This in turn meant there was no room in the center fuselage for landing gear to retract into. There was also no room in the wings, since they were thin and efficient for long-range cruising. The only place left to put the gear was in front of and behind the bomb bay:  Notice how far back both sets of gear are compared to, say, a modern airliner. That placement of the rear gear way behind the center of gravity, combined with the heavy nuclear bombs in the middle of the plane, meant that the aircraft literally could not rotate on takeoff. In order to get enough airspeed on the elevator to pry the nose up, you'd already have to be going too fast for safety. So what else can you do? Well, what if the wing is already at the correct angle for takeoff when the plane is sitting on the ground? Then you wouldn't have to rotate at all, right? And that's what they did. The B-52's wing is tilted upwards at the appropriate angle of attack for takeoff with both sets of gear on the ground. It just accelerates down the runway and lifts off like it's on a rope, keeping the fuselage level with the ground. Works great. The only disadvantage is that, well, once you're in cruise you don't need that angle of attack any more. You want to tilt the wing back down so it's sleeker and more efficient, only making the lift you need to maintain altitude. When you do that in a B-52, the whole plane ends up with its nose down by the same angle that the wing is tilted up. This does actually increase drag a little bit, because some of the top surface of the fuselage is exposed to the relative wind...but it was calculated that the penalty would be less than any other solution (e.g. landing gear blisters on each side of the fuselage) that still allowed the bomber to carry the desired payload. 
Sagebrush fucked around with this message at 03:54 on Mar 4, 2020 |
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Mar 4, 2020 03:51
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Thank you for that writeup, it's super interesting. They still look goddamn unnerving in flight though
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Mar 4, 2020 03:59
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Here's a related weirdass system, the variable-incidence wing on the F-8 Crusader: Same idea -- what if instead of rotating the plane we rotated the wing? Except this is a fighter jet so we still want it to be sleek and fly straight and everything, but the plane is a lot smaller so let's just put the wing on a hinge and jackscrew and crank it up when needed. Best of both worlds. This time it wasn't about balance, but visibility. For obvious reasons it's particularly important that the pilot of a carrier jet be able to see over the nose, and jacking the wing up would let the pilot maintain the correct angle of attack for the approach while keeping the nose low.
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Mar 4, 2020 04:08
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Sagebrush posted:I will explain why this is! I feel like I just learned more about flight in this post then I knew in all my years. Super cool.
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Mar 4, 2020 05:14
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Sagebrush posted:Here's a related weirdass system, the variable-incidence wing on the F-8 Crusader: Another interesting fact about the F-8. . . occasionally the pilot would forget to lower the wing tips when on the catapult and would take off with only about half the wings providing lift. 
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Mar 4, 2020 05:55
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Gervasius posted:There was 37mm cannon, so close enough, I guess? God I love the Vigilante. "Let's make the world's biggest gatling gun, give it a crazy 3000 RPM fire rate, then give it less than 200 rounds" 
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Mar 4, 2020 05:57
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  Firing an unguided nuke off the wing of a straight wing slow rear end interceptor 
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Mar 4, 2020 06:01
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Top Hats Monthly posted:
 .txt
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Mar 4, 2020 06:04
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Hey guys with Corona going around and me not at work, I need a project, so I知 going start another aircraft history post. Unfortunately, the F-106 post is probably never going to happen as I just don稚 enough about the aircraft to really make something interesting that wouldn稚 just be repeating Wikipedia or something. So I知 going to do an aircraft that I知 intimately acquainted with and write about the B-1. probably a three parter as I値l start with the B-1A, the program cancellation, the rebirth as the B-1B, and finally the rebirth of the B-1B as a conventional air support platform. Give me a couple days to write up the first bit.
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Apr 9, 2020 23:14
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Looking forward to this J C
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Apr 10, 2020 01:51
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Me 262.
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Apr 10, 2020 02:22
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Julius CSAR posted:Hey guys with Corona going around and me not at work, I need a project, so I知 going start another aircraft history post. Thanks for making the effort. I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say we'll all appreciate it. The B-1 is a fascinating aircraft, evolving as it has through so many changing program requirements. It doesn't mean much right now, but I'd like to plug one of my favorite places as a destination for West Coast plane goons once quarantine restrictions are over: https://www.castleairmuseum.org/ The former Castle Air Force Base in Atwater, CA is pretty much in the middle of nowhere as far as California goes, but the open-air plane museum there has almost every other American bomber you can think of and then some. B-17, B-24, B-25, B-29 rescued from China Lake Naval Weapons Station, B-50 that's an upgraded B-29, B-47, B-52 in Operation Arc Light paint scheme, a loving B-36 that happens to be the only surviving RB-36 model.... an Avro Vulcan on loan from the UK... and you can pull into the parking lot and look at an SR-71 without even paying admission. Since I was there last, quite a few years back, they've added a B-58 (!!!), a Douglas executive transport that apparently was most often Air Force Two, and also added F-14, F-15, and F-16 to their pretty comprehensive fighter collection. Their open-cockpit days are quite an experience.
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Apr 10, 2020 03:25
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