Dangerous as hell, its still the coolest plane ever invented

[Taverner]

I hope someday they work the bugs out of the Osprey

[Ikonoklast]

1. Wrong. THIS is the coolest plane ever.

[Taverner]

2. But can it take off vertically?

No - then no cool plane award

[Ikonoklast]

3. Meh. You have established a very low threshhold for 'coolness'.

[Taverner]

4. Sure, if I was fightin' the Germans I'd want one

But if I wanted something that could take off from my driveway, yet fly me to NYC in under 5 hours, the Osprey is your bird

[Ikonoklast]

5. If the transverse drive shafts didn't vibrate their bearing housings to failure first,

you mean.

[Taverner]

6. Well I'm thinking of a scaled down version

Say the iOsprey or the Osprey Civic ;)

But yeah, its a death machine. I wish that would change tho, because its such a cool concept

[Xipe Totec]

9. I like the classics

[Ikonoklast]

13. Another piece of genius by Kelly Johnson

Sr-71 is a surprisingly small plane. The first time I ever saw one live was on static display at Wright-Pat after they set the transcontinental speed record and then flew it to Dayton for restoration.

It was housed in a hangar annex with other unrestored aircraft.

[Xipe Totec]

14. I was privileged to wear the winged star

Kelly Johnson is one of my heroes

[Oeditpus Rex]

18. I saw one at the Castle Air Museum

At first I thought it was a mock-up at about 3/4 scale. Surprisingly small, yup.

[Ptah]

39. When I was stationed at Castle, I worked on these:

[Oeditpus Rex]

40. They've got one of those there, too

As well as this mammajamma:

[conscious evolution]

31. I heard them ask Albuquerque Center

for a altitude/speed check when they made that last flight. When Albuquerque reported back saying "We see you at FL720 speed 2090 knots" that channel erupted with other pilots going "WTF!!"

[Xipe Totec]

35. Request permission to enter air space from above...

- What's your altitude?

That's classified...


:rofl:

[Twillig]

23. No doubt. it's a racer. Here's my amoral favorite

[Xipe Totec]

25. I Love the Valkyrie...

[Xipe Totec]

7. You mean like this?

[flvegan]

19. I knew someone would post the Harrier.

[BrotherBuzz]

11. This flying car can

This wacko Moller dude lives up the road from me and has been playing around with the thing for decades. It really works, sort of, but he FAA requires he keep it tethered to the ground when he test flies it (hence the crane in the video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElS9BKSsezw

http://www.moller.com/

[conscious evolution]

41. I want.

[NYC_SKP]

8. Ditto that. nt

[trof]

15. Don't give me a P-38

the props, they counter-rotate
they're scattered & sittin'
from Burma to Britain
don't give me a P-38
http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/drinkingsongs/mp3s/1960s/1960ca-the-wild-blue-yonder--oscar-brand-(LP)/04-give-me-operations.htm

[Oeditpus Rex]

16. Is that Richard Bong in the B&W pic?

I have Col. J.D. Landers' mount in 1:24 scale; its wingspan is about 19 inches. The next large-scale model I want is a P-38J or L. It was my first "favorite plane" (I was about 5) and at 1:24 its span would be about 26 inches.

[Ikonoklast]

21. Major Richard Bong wearing the Medal Of Honor

Sharp eye.

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

[HEyHEY]

20. I always wondered how much ass you had to kiss to fly be assigned to one of those

back in the day.

[semillama]

36. Best. WWII. Fighter. Ever.

thumbs up!

[Aristus]

10. Nope. The Osprey is a piece of junk. A DEADLY piece of junk that has cost us billions.

I want my money back...

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. So the flight crew is jumping out because it is a dangerous plane?

:P

[Pierre.Suave]

28. NO

those are Marines jumping out of it, good Marines.

Sadly, too many Marines died to get this aircraft to where it is today...

[GOPisEvil]

17. I love that cool is so subjective.

As for me, cool comes down to one of two choices:

Supermarine Spitfire or P-51 Mustang.

[Oeditpus Rex]

22. That would be this one:

And its predecessor:







And their offspring:

[GOPisEvil]

24. Talk about unstable!!

:scared:

I don't think a pilot should get the feeling as though his plane wants to kill him.

However, it was a design WAY too far ahead of its time. That design needed the computing power of today just to be able to fly.

[Oeditpus Rex]

26. Hey, it killed only about 10 people

The YB-29 did that on its second flight. :P



But, yeah — it was ahead of its time, and then, being on the cusp of the Jet Age, suddenly behind it. First, Northrop couldn't work out the gearing problems in the contra-rotating propellors, and when they went to standard propellors it was too slow with that thick cross-section. So they re-fitted it with eight jets, but that doubled the fuel consumption, and the new YB-47 was 100 mph faster with six jets and could be refueled in flight.

It was just the wrong time for it.

[Taverner]

33. Agreed, its not ready for prime time

A bit (in fact a lot) more R&D would do that bad boy some good

But you gotta admit, concept wise its pretty freakin cool

[begin_within]

27. $20,000,000,000.00 and 19 dead Marines. Not cool.

[Pierre.Suave]

29. Not cool at all

I agree.

[Taverner]

34. You are not separating its history with its coolness

The VW Bug is a cool car, even though it was the product of Nazism.

The Osprey is a cool aircraft, but sadly this was put into production with wayyyy too many bugs. If they worked the bugs out BEFORE it killed 10 marines, you'd be in awe at how cool this is.

[Pierre.Suave]

30. Here is my favorite

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiU3VpP2VhU&feature=channel_page

[Redneck Socialist]

43. P-51 Cadillac of the skies!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ouJ_WyS9v8&feature=related

Great scene from a great movie

[Shardik]

32. One of my favorites...

[semillama]

37. I also really like that one

And you kinda have to admit, even though it was a Nazi bird, the Stuka dive bombers were worthy of respect.

[begin_within]

38. Honestly, I think it's a pretty ugly machine.

If it had been designed and built in Germany it would likely look a lot better and it would actually work.

[Redstone]

42. I've seen both the B-36 and the XB-70 at the museum at Wright-Pat. But I still was

most thrilled at being able to finally see a B-58 Hustler. Yowsa!

Redstone