🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <20070714.1954.70706125snz$@i-m-t.demon.co.uk>
           v$af$ppint@i-m-t.demon.co.uk "ppint. at IMT" writes:

> - hi; in dipspc article, <20070713.1551.7055snz@flashy.nut>,
>            sum1@flashy.nut "Ian" volunteered:
> >           pete@nospam.demon.co.uk wrote:
> >>                 [i, too, contributed:]
> >>>
> >>>     - an interesting principle, the - or at least an - exact
> >>>     inverse of the principle used to make first evaluations
> >>>     of the designs of such aeroplanes, as the vickers-super-
> >>>     marine spitfire and the de haviland mosquito: that their
> >>>     lines were so beautiful, they *had* to be right...
> >>
> >And the late lamented Concorde, don't you think?
> 
>         - indeed; there seemed to this ppint. to be quite a bit
>         of the form of barnes wallis' proposed supersonic air-
>         liner for (iirc) vickers in the lines of the concord[e].

Really?  Like Ian I had no idea that Barnes Wallis was ever 
involved/interested in supersonic flight..

> >>Indeed so and I'm sure few would disagree.  I would even include
> >>the DH Comet (the air racer, not the airliner) in that list.
> 
>         - the pointy-nosed D.H.88 had, aside of the engine nacelles
>         and undercarriage (when down), lines that flowed beautifully
>         smoothly - but i don't actually remember now reading what
>         she was like to fly. is there any account of her handling
>         in a uk-published book, that you could recommend?

Im sure there must be; best bet to try would probably be the 
Shuttleworth Collection bookshop.  However I did find this 
(apparently US) page on the www:

 <http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/feature/comet/comet.htm>

[hope I type that properly].  ISTR from the distant past that the 
DH88 was a handful at low speed, prone to tip stalling and 
generally very unforgiving.  But hey, it was designed to win 
races -- and not have its beautiful aerodynamics spoilt by 
"safety features" like washout or being stable ;-)

> >>But at the other end of the beauty stakes we have helicopters (or
[..]
>         - hmmmm... i don't believe *any* helicopter has been said
>         to "fly beautifully". and, given the way the helicopter
>         design plummets out of the sky when rotor power is lost
>         (pure helicopter design, that is), i think it fits the

Actually I believe that a helicopter will "glide" under pure 
autorotation if power is lost.  The only drawback is that one 
needs lots of height and or speed to enter this state.  Though 
perhaps with a glide ratio of maybe 3 or 4 to 1, plummet is a 
rather more apt description!

>         unencumbered "beautiful lines - beautiful flyer" rule,
>         rather than contradicts it.
>         [the cierva autogyro, and the sixties/seventies barnes
>         autogiro are an entirely different kettle of flying fish.]
> >>
> >>>>but maybe if we keep this thread going long enough...
> >>>
> >>>     - extending the length of this thread in tempora, i can
> >>>     cope with; in quality (or width), however...
> >>
> >>Well, we were up to 570 chars or so before this reply so it's
> >>getting closer -- quality or not.  And with some judiciously
> >>enhanced message-IDs (see this one) we could get there quicker.
> >>
> >Always willing to help out.  Unlessit involves parting with money,
> >of course....

Thanks for the help.  However I have to confess that I've been 
messing around in demon.test and can now proudly confirm that the 
new code works as expected.  Sadly however, in the course of this 
testing I found an unrelated "feature" with long message-IDs and 
variously sized fixed-length buffers :-( so spent a lot of 
yesterday removing all those and replacing them with dynamically 
allocated ones.  Still a small display problem, but the articles 
themselves seem uncorrupted; more work to do there...

[..]
>         - the happy^W contented satisfaction of a puddleglum?

??  I see Ian has asked too.

Cheers,
Pete
-- 
   "We have not inherited the earth from our ancestors,
    we have borrowed it from our descendants."