Worst Idea In Military Aviation
- Thread starter oldironside
- Start date
Wow! This thread really seems to have struck a chord.
As far as the Defiant goes, I agree with Ian Hathaway. The designers gave the customer exactly what he wanted and when used in its correct role it was actually pretty good.
There was, however, one major design flaw. The concept of the gunner's escape hatch was obviously dashed off very late on the last Friday afternoon before the designer's summer holiday.
Look at the size of that hatch! Richard Hammond would have trouble getting through there in a hurry, never mind a normal sized guy. This led to the adoption of a weird parachute that the gunner wore wrapped around himself and usually didn't work.
The tailsitter designs are crazy and obviously militarily useless, but the VJ101 tried to sneak it impracticality under the radar by looking pretty cool.
Essentially you've got two lift engines in the fuselage and another two tiltable jets on each wing tip. This gave the pilot six sets of engine controls and six sets of instruments in an already overcrowded cockpit. If any one of the six engines failed or lost power when hovering, you lost the aircraft. It may be doeable now with digital engine controls, but then the pilot's workload (and stress level) must have been astronomical!
Not sure what this is, but it reminds me of this. The Blohm and Voss Bv40 was an unpowered bomber destroyer with two 30mm cannon. Fancy going through a B-17 bomber stream in that?
... and then landing on a skid?
As far as the Defiant goes, I agree with Ian Hathaway. The designers gave the customer exactly what he wanted and when used in its correct role it was actually pretty good.
There was, however, one major design flaw. The concept of the gunner's escape hatch was obviously dashed off very late on the last Friday afternoon before the designer's summer holiday.
Look at the size of that hatch! Richard Hammond would have trouble getting through there in a hurry, never mind a normal sized guy. This led to the adoption of a weird parachute that the gunner wore wrapped around himself and usually didn't work.
The tailsitter designs are crazy and obviously militarily useless, but the VJ101 tried to sneak it impracticality under the radar by looking pretty cool.
Essentially you've got two lift engines in the fuselage and another two tiltable jets on each wing tip. This gave the pilot six sets of engine controls and six sets of instruments in an already overcrowded cockpit. If any one of the six engines failed or lost power when hovering, you lost the aircraft. It may be doeable now with digital engine controls, but then the pilot's workload (and stress level) must have been astronomical!
Not sure what this is, but it reminds me of this. The Blohm and Voss Bv40 was an unpowered bomber destroyer with two 30mm cannon. Fancy going through a B-17 bomber stream in that?
... and then landing on a skid?
The Lockheed F-104 G
G for Germany
in 1958, Lockheed offer the F-104, a fairweather fighter, to The Luftwaffe under Franz Joseph Strauß
Who needs a Combat Aircraft for bombing, straffing, assault and battery, interception, ground support, reconnaissance and tactical nuclear bombing.
The Luftwaffe lost about 300 of there F-104G in accidents during its operating career, killing 116 Pilots...
but there were more insane ideas for F-104G
Zero ground Launch F-104G ZELL
Luftwaffe study possibility to catapult the F-104G into air
one Project was use of steam-powered catapult of Aircraft carrier, yes Germany had LANDBASED steam-powered catapult for F-104G modified for USNAVY aircraft standard...
the other was more insane the use of big solid rocket that blasted off with F-104G while it engine startup...
German Navy version F-104Z
they wanted long range sea patrol reconnaissance bombing, straffing, assault Combat Aircraft
Idea was to build a Twin fuselage F-104 ! z for Zwilling (Twin)
what would look something like this
deathscompanion1
Banned
Its been pointed out before that other airforces managed more or less within a reasonable accident rate for that generation of jet aircraft. The Luftwaffe just got talked into using it for roles it was never meant to be used for whilst also having an airforce unused to jet aircraft.
The Lockheed F-104 G
G for Germany
in 1958, Lockheed offer the F-104, a fairweather fighter, to The Luftwaffe under Franz Joseph Strauß
Who needs a Combat Aircraft for bombing, straffing, assault and battery, interception, ground support, reconnaissance and tactical nuclear bombing.
The Luftwaffe lost about 300 of there F-104G in accidents during its operating career, killing 116 Pilots...
but there were more insane ideas for F-104G
Zero ground Launch F-104G ZELL
Luftwaffe study possibility to catapult the F-104G into air
one Project was use of steam-powered catapult of Aircraft carrier, yes Germany had LANDBASED steam-powered catapult for F-104G modified for USNAVY aircraft standard...
the other was more insane the use of big solid rocket that blasted off with F-104G while it engine startup...
German Navy version F-104Z
they wanted long range sea patrol reconnaissance bombing, straffing, assault Combat Aircraft
Idea was to build a Twin fuselage F-104 ! z for Zwilling (Twin)
what would look something like this
And yet all of the older Luftwaffe crew chiefs who actually worked on it I've spoken to claim the pilots loved it.
Cryhavoc101
Donor
I was of the understanding that one of the issues was that the LW had not operated an aircraft with performance like the Lockheed F104 and that coupled with its less forgiving flight envelope (relative to the aircraft it replaced) caused an initial surge in losses but its losses over life time was not significantly different to other similiar aircraft as I understand it.
Something similar happened in the WWII IJAAF. The Ki-44, with its relatively high wing loading and requisite high landing speeds, gained an early reputation as something of a widow-maker. There were a lot of landing accidents in the early days of use. However, while the pilots who switched over to this aircraft from the Ki-27 or Ki-43 often had higher-than-usual accident rates, interestingly the accident rates for this type were no higher than other planes if the pilot went directly from trainers to the Ki-44. If your pilots are very used to certain flight characteristics in their aircraft, and you give them something quite different, the accident rate can tick up for a while.
Hammond is a normal sized guy (well, 5'7"), it's just that his co-hosts are taller (May is 6', Clarkson 6'5").
Among the crazies surely has to be the F-82:
As probably should be the SR.A/1:
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Saphroneth
Banned
Not only is that not aviation, it's not true either. Germany invaded Russia from August 1914 to late 1917 - and forced a governmental collapse and surrender.
Driftless
Donor
Hammond is a normal sized guy (well, 5'7"), it's just that his co-hosts are taller (May is 6', Clarkson 6'5").
Among the crazies surely has to be the F-82:
I was watching "How to Train Your Dragon" with one of my daughters over the weekend, so this image popped into my mind on seeing the Twin Mustang:
Hammond is a normal sized guy (well, 5'7"), it's just that his co-hosts are taller (May is 6', Clarkson 6'5").
Among the crazies surely has to be the F-82:
Except that the F82 was actually reasonably successful, used in Korea as a replacement for the P-61 Black Widow in the all-weather interceptor role.
German Navy version F-104Z
they wanted long range sea patrol reconnaissance bombing, straffing, assault Combat Aircraft
Idea was to build a Twin fuselage F-104 ! z for Zwilling (Twin)
what would look something like this
Ah! My eyes! Ze goggles! Zey do nothing! Seriously, that thing looks like an invitation to a crash.
Dad gummit, I didn't read the 'aviation' part in there. I thought this was for bad military ideas in general.
Fffffffffffffffffff.
I should go to bed.
Saphroneth
Banned
Here's a combination of ideas...
1) BVR-only missiles.
2) Restrictive engagement rules.
3) No cannon.
1) BVR-only missiles.
2) Restrictive engagement rules.
3) No cannon.
You could start your own thread for that. I don't own the idea of the "worst possible" thread.
Saphroneth
Banned
Speaking of which...
(It was a bugger getting a picture of both with just the one tail fin! I know it's a trick of the light in the second one, too...)
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