I know, One of the first Journals I had come through the letterbox after I joined the Society. Totally changed my view of the aircraft which was mostly based on 'Project Cancelled' and the RAF Yearbook 'Wings clipped and cancelled' article which caused a stink in 1976.
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I know, One of the first Journals I had come through the letterbox after I joined the Society. Totally changed my view of the aircraft which was mostly based on 'Project Cancelled' and the RAF Yearbook 'Wings clipped and cancelled' article which caused a stink in 1976.
It might be available through I-Player, which is how I caught it 40 mins after it started.
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It was brilliant last week, I understood that there were too many companies and the need to reduce but not make them extinct to where we only have BAe and then it's in cahoots with half of Europe. It's quite sad in some respects that we have seen such a demise of what was once a great industry for the UK. Rang my Uncle to tell him last week about it, he had a right ard on when he rang me back telling me some of his old war stories of how it was in his day. I'll be expecting the same tomorrow night, except it'll be round mine with a case of McEwans Export!!! Looking forward to sitting on the sand bag and getting blitzed.
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Bumpity bump. Part 2 on BBC 4 @ 21.00
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I think the general tack was towards the relationships between government, manufacturers and commercial operators; Perhaps internal government procurement holds little of the macabre interest that it does in that triangular dynamic.
I loved it when it was said that the VC10 was only overtaken by Concord in speeding over the Atlantic.
But I was a bit puzzled why the Comet got such a slating. Don't get me wrong, it was terrible, what happened to them and the Comet 4 was brilliant, but they did not mention the story of the windows.
As I recall it, they were originally to be inserted and then glued,. After a longish time, the designer finally agreed that they could be pop-rivetted in place. The rest is history.
Then there's the silence over the jet engine to the USA. . . . .
Ah well, it was a damned good programme.
But I was a bit puzzled why the Comet got such a slating. Don't get me wrong, it was terrible, what happened to them and the Comet 4 was brilliant, but they did not mention the story of the windows.
As I recall it, they were originally to be inserted and then glued,. After a longish time, the designer finally agreed that they could be pop-rivetted in place. The rest is history.
Then there's the silence over the jet engine to the USA. . . . .
Ah well, it was a damned good programme.
propersplitbrainme
Warrant Officer
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The whole structure was quite revolutionary in design featuring thin aluminium panels and a mix of redux bonding and rivetted assembly.
But the kicker was that the designer put in large rectangular(ish) windows to give the passengers a great view out of the aircraft. Unfortunately the cycle of pressurising and depressurising during each flight inflated and deflated the fuselage creating stresses which focussed at the corners of the windows. Eventually cracks appeared which then unzipped along the rivet lines - a catastrophic failure which caused the jet to lose structural integrity and break apart - we learned about the effects of metal fatigue from that. The Comet 4 fixed the problem with smaller oval windows more like the ones we see today.
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Kryten
Warrant Officer
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The Trident....now there was a missed opportunity!
DT_Xtremez_42: How to take a potentially world beating design and emasculate it because the launch customer thought it was too big....I'd love to see Derek Wood's book "Project Cancelled" turned into a documentary - properly made, it could really highlight some of the crass decisions over the years which have virtually destroyed our aircraft industry.
propersplitbrainme
Warrant Officer
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The Trident....now there was a missed opportunity!
The Trident has featured in Classic Britsh Aircraft and Bruce Dickenson Flies Heavy Metal on Discovery. Apparently it was the first aircraft in the world that could do a full auto-land and could do rapid descents by use of thrust reverse in flight, something that caused the air eng problems as he had to constantly monitor the cabin's rate of descent. But it was underpowered and out-performed by the similar Boeing 727.