Aircraft Trivia Quiz

The Spitfire - designed by Mitchell, used the basic axiom of the S.6, developed into the Spiteful (laminar-flow wings) thence the Seafang (Spiteful navalised, with contra-rotating props).  One could argue it also developed into the Attacker, as it was originally known as the Jet Spiteful, but, as the connection to the Spiteful was the wings & undercarriage, which were the unrelated bits to the Spitfire, I'm guessing that's not directly connected.

You're in the correct neighborhood, but the Spit is not it. This one is not so flashy or elegant as the Spit, and has a longer pedigree from the designer.

Going to take another SWAG, DeHavilland Tiger Moth?

DH Vampire.

Hawker Typhoon?

Bondo has it, the DeHaviland Vampire. The second jet fighter to enter operation service with the RAF, but the first single engined jet fighter to do so. It came from a long line of the Dehaviland stable dating back to WWI. It shared with its most famous predecesor the Mosquito partial wooden construction. It's two descendants would be the Venom and Vixen. Among many first for this arcraft would be the first carrier landing and take off of a pure jet aircraft, the first RAF aircraft witha  top speed of over 500 mph, and the first jet to fly across the Atlantic ocean.

Over to you Bondo.

The Sea Vixen had a crew of two. Besides the pilot, what was the second position called, why, and why would no sane person want the job. I mean, hat's off to those who did, but

Or, what feature of the original gun equipped Sea Vixens was the last of it's kind in RAF/FAA history. A trait it shared with most of it's ancestors.

BTW the Vampire is a dear subject. I remember reading where when the engine had a wet start and stalled, the ground crew would sit on the tail to tip it back and run the stuff out the jet pipe.

One of the better ghost stories written is "The Shepherd" by Frederick Forsythe, there's a wiki page that I strongly recommend you DON'T read until you read the story. It's a short little one, and involves our little jet as a central character.

The second crew member is the 'Observer'.  He would sit in the coal-hole, with a tiny window.  However, escaping in an emergency was rather difficult, via a small hatch.  There's a Sea Vixen a few mins from me, and I've often remarked on who would sit in that tiny space.

bondoman

Or, what feature of the original gun equipped Sea Vixens was the last of it's kind in RAF/FAA history. A trait it shared with most of it's ancestors.

During testing, due to recoil of it's Aden cannons, it was found that gun mounts were failing. Wooden reinforcement was added to prevent this - making the Sea Vixen that last British combat aircraft to use wood in it's construction.

Re the Coal Hole (so called due to the tiny amount of light in the area), later models were fitted with a frangible perspex panel in place of the tiny window, so that in the event of the "canopy" failing to jettison, the Observer could smash the panel & bail. As far as I know the panel was to small to allow the average suited Observer to get out in time & I believe that at least one Observer was killed as his aircraft went down, while he was stuck in the "escape" panel frame. 

Osher got off the deck first, but Bobbie Burns the second with the advanced knowledge.

My claymore is handed to Osher. Oh this is fun you see, I have to go buy the 1/32 Sea Vix by Matchbox tomorrow, I lost a bet in a card game and it's mine for $ 39,00.

OK, here's one: this Polish company built a unique jet aircraft for the Russians.  They were supposed to build 3,000, but after 175 were told to stop, as the aircraft, was, in essence, a failure.  This aircraft is unique in 2 ways, for a jet:

1. It's configuration (no other jet has this wing layout)

2. It's purpose (there any many aircraft of this type in the world, but only one jet)

I'll give more clues if needed, but, this might be enough?

The Worlds only jet biplane, the PZL M15, which was designed as an agricultural / crop spraying aircraft but proved to be uneconomical in it's role?

Agricultural is an understatement;

Spot on!  The world's only jet bi-plane, the world's only jet crop sprayer.

Cheers,

OK, name two aircraft that were fitted with Blue Circle avionics, & what their purpose was?

Buccaneer and Tornado? It was concrete ballast to maintain CG?

Bang on simpilot.

As the Foxhunter radar suffered development problems, some of the Tornado ADV / F2 were delivered with concrete ballast in place of the radar set. In keeping with the "rainbow codes" used & with the Sea Harrier being fitted with the Blue Vixen, the ballast in the Tornado became known as the "Blue Circle radar set". For those not familiar with the Blue Circle brand, it is a well known British one;

What was the signifience the code name Blue Circle?

Owen

 EDIT: never mind

LOL didn't expect that to be it!! Blue Circle concrete is world wide I believe, it's here in Oz and also in US.

Ok, for the next one:

What was a unique feature of the R-3350 used on the DC-7?

Umhh, turbo-compound system, except that's not completely unique, so I'm probably wrong.

It had three power recovery turbines (PRT's) which took power from the exhaust gases and put it back into the crankshaft.

Mike

The engines were held in extended nacelles in the DC-7B to allow more fuel to be carried to extend the range of the aircraft?

Milairjunkie

...some of the Tornado ADV / F2 were delivered with concrete ballast in place of the radar set.

LOL, LOL, LOL. Man, I knew there were initial problems with the Tornado ADV radar but I didn't know about the concrete avionics.

I wonder how it responded to ECM and chaff.

SteelSnail

I wonder how it responded to ECM and chaff.

The Blue Circle Radar, although not that effective was reputed by the pilots to give more consistent results than the early Foxhunter!!

At least is isn't as bad as the whole concept of using a disconnected cannon as ballast for a connected cannon like in another certain RAF bird I can think of.  

Bill and Mike you are both correct!!! Bill you were in there first and Mike had the specifics I was looking for so I'll let you two decide who is up next. Well done guys!!!

Yes, the power recovery turbines used the exhaust gas velocity not pressure to transmit power through fluid couplings(sort of like a torque converter) directly back to the crankshaft adding about 600hp with no increase in fuel sonsumption.

Mike go for it!

When I went to Embry Riddle our Jet Lab instructor said the 3350 was the only junk motor (his term for any piston engine) worth a damn, and that was because of the use of exhaust to gain power.

Ok lets try this. What was the largest radial engine developed? And there were three features that were peculiar for a radial engine, what were they?

Mike

Would that be the Lycoming XR-7755? It's peculiarities are sohc (single overhead cam), liquid cooled, and being able to change cam position for takeoff and cruise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycoming_R-7755

There is a bigger engine but it was built for ships.

Sim that is it and you got two of the three and there is no sense in dragging it out. The other item I was looking for was the fact that the banks were not twisted as air cooled radials are. Your up on plate, what you got?

Mike

This should be a fairly quick one, especially for those Fw-190 afficianados.

On said plane, what was the cooling fan on the radial engined ones connected to? The propshaft or the crankshaft?

IF I remember straight, the cooling fan was connected to the prop-shaft. Didn't it spin at the same rate as the prop? I'm no 190 expert, I think I read it in a model magazine somewhere...