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...cos the last one I could find was five years ago and is closed, but this article popped up on one of my Flipboard feeds, and I thought it might be appreciated. Last time one of these flew was thirty years ago, this one took ten years and 200,000 man-hours to restore, and its up for sale...
Love the fact the landing gear is operated ‘Up’ by the left seat and ‘down’ by the right seat!
The right seat is the prime pilot seat. I’m pretty certain that has all the flight controls available. The left hand seat has what is needed to land the plane if the right hand side is shot up.
On some variants the LH seat had no flying controls, Just the navigation pack.
Far more interesting to me, is the fact it was being used in service until 1953 and that due to an engine change to Packards the official trainers with Merlins were faster than the combat planes.
Also the plane had contra rotating props. The prototype had the prop tips next to each other in the centre of the plane heading up. It simply wouldn’t take off. They reversed the prop rotation - not an easy task as it involved an extra gear for the gearbox on one engine - and then it worked.
Over 270 built.
Uttterly bonkers plane.
However, if I had £12m+ to burn, I'm going Harrier.
You could buy the Mustang and simply fly it. It is WW2 tech with new avionics.
Best of luck trying that the the Harrier.
Eddiebaby, the primary seat is the LH one, the RH was the one the video was shot from....with no pilot. And the production F82’s had Allison V1710 engines.
this came up on my utube feed yesterday.... a single engined prop plane carrying a similar bomb load to a b17!
Eddiebaby, the primary seat is the LH one, the RH was the one the video was shot from….with no pilot. And the production F82’s had Allison V1710 engines.
I slump corrected. I'd stand, but that isn't corrected. Must buy new mattress.
You're right, its started with the Packard built Merlins and then shifted to Allisons.
And right again, the LH seat was the primary one.D'Oh! Should check and not rely on memory.
One point raised in the feature was the range of the plane; designed to escort B-29’s, with a range of 2000 miles, which is pretty extraordinary. Also, as mentioned, the contra-rotating props initially stopped the plane from taking off, which I can imagine caused a fair amount of head-scratching!
The P-38 was an amazing aircraft, and quite beautiful, but nothing had the range of the F-82, afaik.
Reading the advertising blurb on the Harrier...
There are many possible uses for this package including: Airshows, Training, Flight experiences, Military contract work, Advertising and promotional work
Military contract work! Kind of glad that you wouldn't be able to buy that if you lived in the civilized world.
On a slightly different tack, but still involving venerable aircraft, DC-3’s are being upgraded with a whole new range of equipment and engines, possibly good for at least another half-century!
https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/the-future-is-bright-for-the-dc-3/?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email