CoolPix: The Troubled, Early 1950's Vought F7U Cutlass (+ Video)

(click pic for hi-res)  A Vought F7U Cutlass launches from the USS Intrepid in 1954

 I was really fortunate to grow up in the 60's and 70's learning about all kinds of aircraft... from gliders to airliners, from homebuilts to warbirds, from general aviation to modern military. My knowledge is fairly large and far more diverse than your average hardcore avgeek, but one thing I've learned running AirPigz: there is so much I don't know! The late 40's / early 50's Vought F7U Cutlass is a great example. I knew almost nothing about this very unique and interesting aircraft... until this morning.

 This CoolPix gives you a great idea of how this post WWII jet was definitely taking a different view of the future of carrier based aircraft. With no standard horizontal tail, twin vertical fins, and a landing gear designed to set the aircraft on the ground in a very high angle of attack, the Cutlass was a very bold design. And check out that open canopy on takeoff!

 Unfortunately, the engines were unreliable and also didn't provide the thrust needed, which led to a variety of challenges for those who flew the airplane. The safety record of the Cutlass wasn't good. And tho over 300 were built, and it was put into service, it never lived up to the potential that its highly advanced design seemed to suggest.

 I'm already quite fascinated with the Cutlass, so you can expect some detailed info coming in the future on this and several other aircraft that for one reason or another, I never knew much about... there seems to be a lot left to learn!

Spotted For Sale: $18,500 Wittman Tailwind - Speed On The Cheap!

Great looking homebuilt Wittman Tailwind for sale: just 18,500 at barnstormers.com

(click the pic to go to the barnstormers.com listing)

 I've been a fan of the simple-to-build and rather speedy Wittman Tailwind for a really long time. In fact, I've got a set of plans for the modernized, extended wing tip W10 version just waiting for the day when I have lots of time and a little bit of money. It'll likely be a long wait. But wow, if I just had a small stack of cash ($18,500) I could buy this little cutie right here and be flying immediately! I'm amazed at what a little searching will turn up these days if you're looking for a great flying machine priced well under $20K... and this one sure seems to be a dandy.

 While many Tailwinds have either a Lycoming O-320 (150hp) or a Continental O-300 (145hp), this one has a C-85 that's been modified to be more like an O-200 (100hp). While there are obvious trade offs when you don't have the extra ponies up front, this Tailwind most likely has remarkable speed and fuel efficiency. Plus, I think it's just a great looking airplane. What fun it would be to take this on a 1000 mile adventure : )

 If you're looking to learn more about one of the most amazing little homebuilt aircraft ever designed, check out this Tailwind pilot report by Budd Davisson from many years back. It's just all the more evidence that Steve Wittman was an amazing master of the skies!

Clean and simple is what makes the Tailwind such a great flying machine

'Name The Plane' - ID MAKE And MODEL For Free Bacon! (10.27.11)

GAME OVER - correctly ID'd as the NASA AD-1 (oblique wing research aircraft)

 Game Over! I really didn't think there would be a correct answer in less than 30 minutes, but Casey DuBose was the first to offer up an answer and it was correct! The airplane is the NASA AD-1 oblique wing research aircraft from the late 70's. Designed by Burt Rutan and built by Ames Industrial. The airplane was a very inexpensive testbed that provided a significant amount of data on the oblique wing concept.

 I remember seeing it fly up at Oshkosh... not sure which year but probably around 1981 or 1982. The things you see at Oshkosh!

 Congrats to Casey for snagging a bacon sandwich at OSH12 : )

(click pic for hi-res) The late 70's NASA AD-1 in flight with the oblique wing highly pivoted

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 Here's a late-week Name The Plane challenge for all you hardcore avgeeks. All you gotta do is ID both MAKE and MODEL (various answers will be considered correct on this one), and the winner gets a bacon sandwhich prize at OSH12. So, if you've got sharp aircraft ID skills, be the first person to ID both MAKE and MODEL of this aircraft to be the winner!

 Your answers must go in the 'comments' area in this post, and as always, please don't use the shotgun approach to answers - only put up truly educated guesses that you've arrived at via really thinking it thru.

 And I'm not sure if I mentioned this already, but to win, you have to give me both the MAKE and MODEL! Have fun : )

Poll: As 787 Service Begins, Will She Be A Great Success?

(click pic for hi-res)

 The Boeing 787 Dreamliner began service today with its first revenue flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong with Japan's largest airline, ANA. This special charter was more for ceremony... normal scheduled ANA operations begin next Tuesday, November 1.

 Now that the airplane has successfully made it thru FAA certification and service is really beginning, do you think the airplane will be a success? The poll I put up almost 2 years ago had 59% of people believing that the 787 would go forward to be as successful as the 747 - and that was in the midst of some pretty rough times for the program. I wondered what people are thinking today:

Video: U.S. Built 2012 Chevy Sonic Goes Skydiving!

 It's been a good year for aviation oriented commercials (like these two recent ones: British Airways | Nissan) and now Chevy has one out for the new 2012 Chevy Sonic going for a skydive. Sure, we've seen this kind of stuff before, but I really like the artsy love-for-flight feel to this one. Plus, as it turns out, the Sonic is actually a really great subcompact car that the 'experts' are saying can either hold its own or even surpass the itsy bitsy offerings from Ford and Honda. And even more interesting, unlike the Daewoo built Aveo it replaces, the Sonic for the U.S. market is actually built in Michigan. Go 'merica!

1920's Cessna AW - My Kind Of Cessna (With Video)

A 1929 Cessna AW - 110hp 4-place piece of classic antique beauty

 I haven't been emotionally moved by the sight of a single engine Cessna since they moved that little wheel in the back up to the front back in the mid 1950's. And if you go way back to the 1920's, you find the first aircraft that Cessna built in any large numbers (even tho only 83 were built), the Cessna Model A. The AW version was powered by the 110hp Warner, and yet it performed remarkably well even with 4 seats! How can we have had so little progress (or none) in all those years? That's a long discussion - we'll save that for another day.

 Anyway, I've known about the AW for many years. I followed along with the AW restoration that Gar Williams did thru the late 70's, and I've always thought the airplane had a really special charm about it. I was also always intrigued by that unique wing. It's fabric covered, but it doesn't have any struts to control twist. Quite an engineering feat for the late 20's.

 So, I thought I'd put a quick post up about it with the video of the AW that Gar restored when it was recently moved from Illinois to the Eagles Mere Air Museum in Pennsylvania... but when I looked at that classic image above of an AW, it reminded me a little of my fantasy design I call the Dreambird. What really caught my eye was the fact that the pilot's eyes are right at, or even forward of the leading edge of the wing. That was one of the primary things I wanted to accomplish with the Dreambird. And while I envisioned the Dreambird with a 110hp radial engine (Rotec), it's actually just a 2-seater with a really big baggage area. Here's the graphic I drew last year of the Dreambird.

My fantasy design from 2010 called Dreambird

 Check out the video below, and let me know if you think an antique like the AW is more interesting than what Cessna builds these days. I certainly do.

Caption Contest #64 Winner: Hindsight

 It was a close race in the voting, but it turned out that Grant McHerron from Australia (@Falcon124) came out on top this time around. Now he has the perfect reason to make the trip to Oshkosh again in 2012: to fetch up his bacon sandwich winnings! He's also part of the PlaneCrazyDownUnder podcast, so maybe you'll hear some sweet bacon talk there too... unless of course he doesn't like bacon. I remember someone at CampBacon this year at OSH didn't like bacon (#hardtobelieve), but I'm not sure who it was : )

 Anyway, we made it thru another bit of avgeek fun with a crazy pic in the Caption Contest, and we'll probably do it again this next Monday morning - don't miss it!

MythBusters Video Digest Of The Duct Tape Plane (4 Videos)

MythBusters even did an all-duct-tape version of the Belite! (aftershow video screenshot)

 So, did you catch the MythBusters episode last Wednesday (or the re-runs since) that showed their Alaskan duct tape airplane re-creation? If you didn't, I've got good news. Here's 4 short videos (<13 min total) that give you most of the meat from the episode... plus the aftershow (last video) that covers several things not shown in the broadcast.

 They did a pretty good job overall with this aviation myth, tho as usual, they were a little whacked on some things. Mostly I'm just glad it all worked out ok. I didn't doubt the airworthiness of the Super Cub in Alaska, or that the test aircraft would fly, but I was a little concerned about the MB crew doing the assembly on the cute little Belite (provided and flown in the first test by Belite owner James Wiebe), but they must have done ok.

 It was especially cool that they then went all the way with the duct tape idea by replacing ALL of the dacron with duct tape in phase 2 of the show. It added some weight, but it worked just fine! You can see some of that part of the show by watching the aftershow - the last video below.

The myth? Confirmed!

Mesmerizing HD Video Of The 787 Dreamliner In Flight (N787EX)

Click the '4 arrows' icon in the lower right corner of the video to watch it fullscreen HD!

(6 pix and 1 awesome HD video) 

  Wow. Clay Lacy and crew have made an awesome video of an awesome airplane. The 787 Dreamliner really is beautiful to look at when it's in the air... and in my mind, it's on a par with the other most-beautiful-airliner-ever-made, the 747. Be sure to watch this HD video in fullscreen to get the full effect. It really is mesmerizing. It's been a long and difficult wait to get this airplane to the point of delivery, but wow, does it ever seem to be worth it!

 Below is an early version rendering of the 787 that showed how much the wings would be flexed in flight. When I first saw that graphic several years back, I thought: no way are those wings really gonna flex that much in flight. Was I ever wrong. If you look at the rendering and then check out the screenshot from the video right below it, you can see that those wings really do flex that high! Keep in mind that the view from the video is not head-on so you don't have the exact same perspective.

(click pic to enlarge)  Early 787 rendering showing amazing wing flex! (Boeing)

(click pic to enlarge)  Screenshot from the video showing amazing wing flex!

Click to read more ...

Video: Nissan Frontier Pickup Saves A 727 - Unbelievable! (Literally)

 Literally, it's unbelievable, but for some reason it's kind of a 'fun fake'. The CGI 727 seems to be purposely poorly done on the details, I assume to help immediately clarify the whole thing is bogus. Either that or the people who made it just don't know very much about aviation and the 727. That nose shape is waaaayy off, and spoilers deployed before touchdown?!

 Plus, with the mid-size Frontier's payload capacity of 1,500 pounds, it's pretty safe to say that if this was really possible to pull off, both the 727 and the Frontier would be hurting for repairs pretty badly... especially if you note how the elevator moves to a significant nose-down position right after touchdown!

 Oh well, it's a pretty wacked commercial, but I like it : )

Check the elevator deflection in this screenshot from the commercial