To not be left behind Bell also joined the atomic fever of the 1950s. In their case with this humongous nuclear-powered helicopter. Not much info about their tandem rotor design apart of these numbers: a fuselage of around 300 ft long, 200 mph of max speed and a massive weight of 500,000 pounds.
This artwork is the only available. Curiously its two-deck fuselage is festooned with windows. I couldn’t see where the nuclear reactor(s) and cumbersome shielding should have been placed.
Fine Luft Hansa Ro VIII Roland cutaway in a pasture.
Designed by the Japanese Army’s Tokorozawa Aviation School department of research in the early 1920s, this experimental single-seat was the first fighter conceived and built in Japan. Clearly influenced by the French SPAD XIII, the Koshiki-2 was powered by the Salmson 9Z engine that the Japanese Army knew so well for their use in their 2 A2s. First flown in 1922 the prototype displayed a fairly decent performance, but also some horizontal stability troubles at low speed. The latter was the cause of its early demise. A second prototype soon followed, but the problems remained so no further production was undertaken.
After the end of WW2 air freight increased on a mind-blowing scale. Special cargo companies were created and the traditional airlines, like Air France, began making profits from the holds of their planes, and also started all-cargo flights.
Superbe 1949 artwork by Atelier Perceval.
The Su-5 was conceived for the same purpose of the I-250. Both employed basically the same mixed engine configuration, but the Su-5 was sure more conventional-looking. In fact, it shared more than a certain “air de famille” with Sukhoi’s previous products. First flown just before the end of WW2, the sole prototype undertook a brief test program which ended when its Klimov VK 107 engine expired with no replacement available. It was slower than the I-250 and the latter was the one chosen for production.
Chubby, yet somehow handsome. The jet exhaust looks curiously modern.
F.3s of the 56 (F) Sqn during an Armament Practice Camp deployment to RAF Akrotiri (Cyprus), 1963. On the foreground their main weapon, the Firestreak infrared missile, being prepared.
Informally attired and with a sunny disposition, kinda like that.
First flown in 1934, this single-seat biplane designed by Hans Erfahrt was the sole aircraft produced by the Kiel Flugzeugbau. Its main feature was a weird-looking cantilever biplane configuration; curiously its tail surfaces had struts. The one prototype built, powered by a 82hp Hirth HM 60 engine, didn’t prove to be particularly good during testing. It ended its short flying days at a flight school at Zorau and was soon forgotten.
Feria time here in Sevilla. Among the many private casetas, this one with this DC-3 artwork from an Iberia’s current and retired employees association. By the way, “TransportÃn” in Castilian, apart from been used as a diminutive of transport, it’s also the name of the flight attendants’ jump seat. Double meaning, maybe?
If being a biplane design in 1938 was not bad enough, the Albacore also had the dubious honour of sharing its entire operational life with the aircraft it was intended to replace. Mind you, compared to the spartan “Stringbag” the Albacore was a more advanced and even luxurious aircraft, specially in relation with the crew’s working space. It was also less reliable -at first- and not as manoeuvrable when it counted: during the torpedo launch. They nevertheless worked quite well in first-line service, specially in the Mediterranean, from 1940 to 1943. The “take it, or leave it” Barracuda replaced them.
A pair of utterly dedicated HMS Victorious flight deck handlers grab the wings of an Albacore after landing in extreme wind conditions, somewhere between Iceland and Scapa Flow, Nov. 1941.
Photo: IWM.
Second in line of Martin’s nuclear tactical cruise missile after their Matador, the Mace was in essence an autonomous guidance update of the first.
Twelve years old Scott Poole not taking seriously the poor old Mace A placed at the Belleview Park Playground, Englewood, 1967. Some resting place indeed.
Aviation Rapture 