Illustrated Encyclopeodia of Aircraft

[Cletus Van Damme]

Always loved the Phantom, ever since my uncle showed me an Airfix model of one he built when I was a little kid. He used to have that and an F111A hanging from his ceiling.

Yes my dad made a Phantom with me when I was a kid, beautiful aircraft. Also made a Saab Viggen which I thought was cool as due to the wing shape and also maybe because it was a Saab and they made cars, although I have never cared for their cars.

 

[Speicher]

When my father died, it was a very long time before we could decide what to do with his car. It was a Kit car, a bit like a Range Rover in shape, but with a very weak passenger compartment. Eventually it was donated to a local air museum, who said they would convert it to a sort of static exhibit, near the runway, as a rescue or fire engine.

 

[Shaun]

I generally use the "one year" rule. If I haven't read it, used it, or referenced it in over a year - then it can either go in the bin, get sold off, or go to someone else in the family or the local charity shop.

I used to be terrible at hoarding paperbacks that I had no intention of ever reading again - but now just have one shelf and when it reaches the left hand side it goes in "The Bag" which is carted off once it has a sufficient volume of books.

It's harder with things that have sentimental value or hark back to a time of a particular interest or passion - my photography stuff lived on happily for years before the wife finally talked me into "letting go!" ...

 

[Black Sheep]

And was the only aircraft to be able to shoot itself down with it's cannons.

how?

 

[green1]

If its got a picture of a Phantom in it then keep. Beautiful aircraft.

It's was also a pig's ear aerodynamically hence the dihedral wing tips, dogsteeth on the wing and the anhedral tailplane.

 

[Archie_tect]

how?

itzer secret.

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

how?

Damage from ejected shell casings and ingesting the smoke from the cannons into the engines.

 

[green1]

And was the only aircraft to be able to shoot itself down with it's cannons.

The A10 could as well if you emptied the cannon in one go.

 

[TVC]

Talking of jets that had a habit of killing their pilots, I still remember seeing one of the last UK displays by a Starfighter. I'm still convinced that the wings were far too small.

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

Talking of jets that had a habit of killing their pilots, I still remember seeing one of the last UK displays by a Starfighter. I'm still convinced that the wings were far too small.

About the late 80's there was a story going around, ( not sure how true it was) of the tri-national conversion Sqdn for Tornados . It had German's , Italian and British pilots and navigators . The early tranche of Tonkas had a "wheels off switch that lit when there was still weight on the wheels, this hadn't been noticed in early flights when they were using the full length of the runway. But on this day they were practising a "nuclear alert and launch" three Tornados would scramble and take off in a delta formation and grab as much sky as they could as early as they could . The Pilots were German , converting from Starfighters, the navigators Italian. As you said the Starfighter has a repuatation of a "widowmaker", or "groundnail" because of it's high landing and take off speed and only just higher stall speed, theGermans have learnt to wack up the wheels as soon as possible, in a desperate bid to gain airspeed. The alert was sounded, they scrambled, 3 aircraft roared down the strip, toasters flaring, and then the wheels off lights must have lit, 3 pilots , as one punched the buttons and £33,000,000 of aircraft roared down the runway amid a shower of sparks at 0 ft , with one of the pilots with an open mike shouting " Scheisse! SCHEISSE!"

 

[TVC]

I've just remembered the old Starfighter joke.

What's the best way to get your own Starfighter?
Buy a field in Germany and wait.

 

[green1]

I've just remembered the old Starfighter joke.

What's the best way to get your own Starfighter?
But a field in Germany and wait.

So wrong but so very true.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

The Starfighter was nicknamed the Widowmaker. Those flimsy looking wings had a habit of coming off if I remember rightly.

I was always a regular at the Finningley airshow. Getting deafened by the Vulcan, loving the noise of the Merlins in the WW2 stuff. Those were the days...

My full set of the Encyclopedia of Aircraft is still stowed in a cupboard at my Mother's. Always wondered what to do with it.
There's a few sets on ebay at the moment ranging from £50 to £180.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Those F104 Starfighters were striking looking aircraft, but with those stubby wings I'm surprised it managed to lift off at all. Its turning circle must have been the radius of Greater London. I seem to remember George W Bush use to fly them when he was an USAF reservist.

 

[green1]

The Starfighter was nicknamed the Widowmaker. Those flimsy looking wings had a habit of coming off if I remember rightly.

They didn't come off, but had a very high wing loading, which meant stall speeds were high and difficult to recover from. As a result a lot inexperienced pilots bought the farm. Downward firing ejector seats in the early ones also meant that if anything went wrong at low altitude you were stuffed.