Aircraft Trivia Quiz

Hawker Siddeley Leftover?

I mean Andover. Woops, silly me lol.

No.    An attempt to move into a different market ended spectacularly and over 20 years later another company proposed to restart production.

Over 20% of production has been lost in accidents.

The originally expected customer wanted the type for a particular purpose but the role was transferred to another service, thus the lack of an order.

Too tough?  This should give it away.  Two of this type were heavily modified by a government agency at opposite ends of a particular decade, the modifications being carried out by the same company

B-57 Canberra.

Developed issues with the tail plane and was subsequently replaced by the F-100. Full retirement was delayed by the Vietnam war.

Nasa currently operates 2 heavily modified variants which have been cycled through Afghanistan several times for electronic communications and monitoring.

'Fraid not - though part of your answer has an indirect connection

The type's name had been used before by the original intended customer's navy, decades before, for a type with a totally different use.

OK so this gets done before the 25th, with the family arriving from Texas tomorrow, and as I'm running out of clues, the type I'm looking for was built by a company founded by a very famous aviation pioneer from another continent.

Sold out to a company from another country, for a relatively short period, and then sold to a company in its homeland which had bought other aerospace companies, the design in question and a number of others, though none were  in production, were sold some years ago by the new owners, with just one transport type from the portfolio retained and still in production.

No-one? There's enough clues here now to get the answer.

Then answer it. Im drawing a blank.

My answer: DHC-5 Buffalo

• “built by a company founded by a very famous aviation pioneer from another continent.” – Sir Geoffrey DeHavilland
• Sold out to a company from another country, for a relatively short period, and then sold to a company in its homeland which had bought other aerospace companies, - DHC > Boeing > Bombardier > Viking Air
• The type's name had been used before by the original intended customer's navy – Brewster Buffalo
• The originally expected customer wanted the type for a particular purpose but the role was transferred to another service, thus the lack of an order. – Designed as a replacement for the DHC-4 Caribou in US Army service, but Army airlift was retasked to the Air Force.

I'm going to be tied up for a few days, so the floor is open, assuming I have the right answer.  

Well done Phil H.  The only bits you missed were the two conversions for NASA and the spectacular crash at Farnborough which ended the types hopes of entering the civil market.

The original task for the Army, by the way, was to transport Pershing missiles for which the Caribou was too small.

Ok. ill spot one.

There was only 1 of this aircraft built. After crashing during a test flight, it was burnt beyond repair. It had a crew of 8 and was a rather unconventional design. Its test flight (Flights?) proved it would be unsuccessful.

Caproni Ca. 60.  It had 3 sets of wings, crashed on first flight, and was destroyed by fire that night.

Yup over to you Roony. Theres some controversy about whether it was the 1st or 2nd flight it crashed on.

Again only one built.  A civilian design for a civilian market, but it ended it's career in the air force.   And retired with airframe fatigue.   It missed being the first of its class into the air by about a month.  Now there are thousands of its class.

Avro C102 Jetliner - missed being first by 13 days

Well done.  I did not get to give the clue that Howard Hughes wanted to buy it and get Convair to manufacture them for TWA.  You're up.

This type was built by just one manufacturer to its own design rather than built under licence as most of its output had been and would be.  The type saw 24 years of service (some would say abuse) including a vital role during a period of major conflict.

This bird had only 3 operators.  It was the last of a line in its country of origin.  Every part was built by its manufacturer, though they had to buy the engine design from a major engine company.

You always pull out the weird ones Phil.

Are any of the aircraft the company made under licence famous?

Quite a number.  But concentrate on the type itself.  There were both land and seaplane models with six variants including the prototype and conversions from earlier versions of the type which, if you find the type's breakdown to production by model, the total listed comes to more than the total number of airframes built.

This type had, in common with some others in the same role, two nicknames relating to the way the majority were painted.

PBY Catalina?

I'll guess the Stearman PT-13 Kaydet.  Painted trainer yellow, they were called the "Yellow Peril" because they washed out so many hopefuls.  I beleive the Navy had the type on pontoons for training as well.  And any training aircraft is abused.

The Catalina as built by more than one manufacturer.  Yellow Perilas one of the names this type shared with the Kaydet

I'll try that again!

The Catalina as built by more than one manufacturer.  Yellow Peril was one of the names this type shared with the Kaydet

Naval Aircraft Factory N3N Canary?

Spot on Scorpio!  Apart from 100 drones the 997 N3N was the only Naval Aircraft Factory's own design to reach series production in its own right.

It was also the last biplane in regular US military service, the last was withdrawn in 1960.

This aircraft was ordered in small quantities, but only 2 were built. They never saw action in their desired theatre of operation.

An unusual design for its type, it had several features that its counterpart in the other theatre of operation didnt have.

The project was scrapped when it was deemed "Not tactically feasible"