Aircraft Trivia Quiz

Curtiss Wright Junior with it not so reliable Szekely engine;

Well done, navypitsnipe!  Over to you!

Brian 

This aircraft originated during 1943;  in May of 1944, a contract for three prototypes was awarded.  The first prototype was powered by two turbojets, the exhausts were angled five degrees outward from the fuselage so that the eflux cleared the aircraft's empennage. Two further prototypes were built, fitted with more powerful engines. Crew consisted of one pilot seated on an ejection seat in a pressurized cockpit. It first took to the air for the first time in July 1947. The aircraft were flown and tested for several years. Performance and handling were generally adequate, but by this time the Second World War had ended and the requirement for this aircraft had disappeared. It was briefly reconsidered during the Korean War, but the last aircraft still flying (the first prototype) was finally retired in June 1951, the second and third prototypes having been lost in crashes.

Name that plane!

Brian 

Brian, on to you.

The story goes that the Skyray's radar display was not easily seen in flight as the stick would obscure the view & it seems that a member of Navy ground crew used two mirrors to make a lash up periscope. Seems the lash up worked well enough for a proper periscope to be made & put into service.

The F4D Skyray?

Brian 

No.

Did the Demon or Tiger have any resemblance to a Demon or a Tiger? This A/C name is connected to its shape, in specific in plan view, in which it resembles an creature (a real one, not mythical).

A-10 Warthog?

I know that one of the first things the Israelis did to the Phantom, when they first received them, was to, within a fortnight, design, and install, a rear-view mirror.  USAF had felt that because it flies so fast pilots didn't need one, but the Israelis understood pilot psychology better...

Probably wrong branch of service, P-61 Black Widow?

No takers?

This A/C was named after the creature it resembled.

U.S.

Which nationality was this A/C, Milair?

Tom  T

Sorry for the delay.

Which (rather attractive IMO) A/C had a sailor commandeering his wifes make-up mirrors to lash up a work around for an ergonomic problem? 

This lash-up was eventually used as the basis for an official "sort".

Indubitably, it's project Mustard, which is acknowledged as the genus of the general idea of the Shuttle (external fuel tank, recoverable boosters, etc)

Over to you!

MUSTARD;

Multi Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device, from 1964.

Phil_H wrote:

If I recall correctly, the US shuttle program pre-dates HOTOL.

Mmmmhhh, I found some more info and I think you are right:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HOTOL

Borg R3-MC0 wrote:

I think the Brits had a project called HOTOL. I do not know what it was but I will look it up. So hotol is my anwser for now.

If I recall correctly, the US shuttle program pre-dates HOTOL.

I didn't find anything British in my search, all 10min of it. I know I probably haven't dug deep enough but did find this.

Rocket-plane concept
The concept of a reusable plane-like spacecraft, was proposed in 1933, when German rocket scientist Dr. Eugen Sänger published a book called 'Raketenflugtechnik' (The Technology of Rocket Flight). Sänger used a combination of rocket and aircraft technology to develop his "Silverbird" concept, a suborbital bomber aircraft, a hypersonic "winged vehicle propelled by a rocket engine..."

Space shuttle background
When the Apollo manned missions ended in 1972, President Nixon gave the go-ahead for the next stage of NASA's long-term, manned exploration of space. Numerous projects were underway and the goal of developing a reusable spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from orbital space stations, deploying and repairing satellites and potentially carrying pieces of Moon or Mars vehicles in low-Earth orbit was overwhelmingly expensive.

Yet over the following nine years, the Shuttle Transportation System emerged and successfully fulfilled its mission objectives.

The shuttle was designed to routinely and safely launch into orbit as a rocket and then return to Earth as a glider. The project demonstrated the safe re-launch and return of the shuttle orbiter and crew. The combined performance of the orbiter, solid rocket boosters and external tank were completely successful.

Early life
The early Space Shuttle design was based on five years of research and development of the delta wing X-20A Dyna-Soar rocket-plane.

osher wrote:

Smer?

 Aurora is a legendary model company (specially their monster kits) but I do not think they ever did reissues of other companies.

SMER was the one I was looking for. They are still in business and models are just a small part of it: http://www.smer.cz/en