🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <20070720.1923.70706172snz$@i-m-t.demon.co.uk>
           v$af$ppint@i-m-t.demon.co.uk "ppint. at IMT" writes:

>    - hi; in dipspc article, <20070719.1144.7114snz@flashy.nut>,
>   sum1@flashy.nut "Ian" responded in depth, and upon many topics:
> >
> >Er,  are we still on duty extending this now very offtopic thread to
> >allow the mechanic to tinker with his software?
> 
>         - well, no-one's objected to it...

Well, we're up to 925 characters now so it seems a pity to stop 
now...

>                                      - so far...  ([2,3])

I suspect that as we are the only three reading the thread, and 
that nobody else seems to be discussing anything else, we might 
just get away with it ;-)

>         - but please feel free to snip parts that i have not, where
>         you feel the context is no longer required;

Will try; it's getting close to 400 lines now, and not many of 
them are about Windows mailers mangling addresses...

> >I'll chance it anyway.....
> >                            ppint wrote:
> >>                 - hi; sum1@flashy.nut "Ian" responded:
> >> [re perfection of beauty in an aircraft's design does, or does not
> >>>>    of the form of barnes wallis' proposed supersonic air-
> >>>>    liner for (iirc) vickers in the lines of the concord[e].
> >>>>
> >>>Barnes Wallis designed a supersonic airliner, did he?  I never knew
> >>      - iirc (and i may not) it was the last project he worked
> >>      on for vickers, before he retired. i don't now remember

[snip]
> >It wouldn't have been the first  "airbus' airliner, would it?
> 
>         - no, no; it was *way* before that - before even the round
>         of amalgamations of different aircraft-producing companies
>         that led to the formation of the british aircraft corpor-
>         ation & hawker's (hawker-siddely's?) as the two main uk
>         aerocompanies got under way. it must have been in a/the
>         biography of barnes wallis that i read about it - or else,
>         an account of the history of vickers' aviation interests.
> 
> >I worked briefly (nights) in the early Sixties at the factory in
> >south Manchester where the Vulcan V-bomber was being built, and
> >alongside its production line, they were also building an airbus.
> >I paid more attention to the Vulcan so don't remember much about
> >the other aircraft.
> 
>         - hmmm?  the airbus project was simultanous with - even
>         the end of - the building of the avro vulcan?  i'm not
>         gainsaying you - but call me "provisionally astounded."

That would have been A.V.Roe -- can't think of any airliners at 
the time that they were involved with, but it would certainly 
have been well before the Airbus-as-we-know-it-today era.  So 
saying, Concorde was basically a Vulcan with a rather different 
payload ;-)  Same powerplants and configuration and a varying 
sweep on the wing leading edge, both of which were developed and 
improved for Concorde.

[snip]
> >>>I spoke with a guy in a village pub once who trained pilots to fly
> >>>the RAF Vulcan Bomber at a nearby airfield, Scampton, and when I
> >>>remarked that it looked very cumbersome and heavy and must be a pig
> >>>to fly, he  said, no it's a marvelously good aircraft and a delight
> >>>to fly. So, in that case at least, appearances were deceptive.
> >>      - and in that respect :-), yes: have you never seen a pilot
> >>      doing aerobatics in a Vulcan?  [a]
> >>             [a] - it's ever-so-slightly awe-inspiring...
> >
> >The ones taking off from Scampton always flew a straightforward, sober
> >course. Of course, if these were training flights, they wouldn't be
> >likely to throw the thing about I supppose. And equally unlikely if they
> >were routine flights practising for the real thing.
> 
>         - *nods*  - recklessly endangering her maj's property would
>         not've been very kindly regarded by their squadron leader,
>         group captain - or the air ministry.
> 
> >On one occasion, I was cycling back from another town, and paused just
> >past  the airfield for a smoke, and a Vulcan took off and passed almost
> >overhead at a veery low altitude: I literally dropped my cigarette and
> >clapped my hands over my ears- the noise level was just terrifying. The

Just so; I still vaguely recall a "Vulcan squadron scamble" at a 
Farnborough Airshow way back -- I must have been 5 or 6 -- and 
the noise was truly deafening.

And, though I hate to admit it, the noise from those Olympus 593s 
in Concorde was really responsible for its downfall.  I do 
sympathise with those who live(d) under its flightpath around 
London[1], but the twice-daily arrival and departures were always 
something special -- the whole airport would stop, watch and 
admire for a minute or two *every day*, the magic was enduring.

[1] What am I saying!  *I* live under the flightpath, albeit at 
Reading, at which distance it was still rather more audible than 
everything else.  Noisy, yes, but I do miss the daily sight...

Anyway, we seem to be drifting off into nostalgia, militaria and 
[auto]biographia so I'll duck out for a post or two until we hit 
the magic 1000-character long References...

Pete

[rest snipped, not through irrelevance but to minimise my phone 
bill!]

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