The Night Mail

[Winslow Boy]

2 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

This was on the Breakfast Show this morning.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-59531846

 

The girlfriend only found out because she went to the mill to surprise him.

[Happy Hippo]

45 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

The girlfriend only found out because she went to the mill to surprise him.

I'm a wine merchant too.

 

I whine because I haven't got enough pannier tanks or mineral wagons.

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I'm a wine merchant too.

 

I whine because I haven't got enough pannier tanks or mineral wagons.

 

Sham pain.

[jamie92208]

4 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Sham pain.

I used to tell No2 son not to whinge otherwise I'd put him in the cellar, which we didn't have, with th other fine wines.

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

58 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Sham pain.

'Call me Bubbles Darling!' 

 

[Winslow Boy]

16 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

'Call me Bubbles Darling!' 

 

 

That's fine for you to say Mr Darling I can't possibly comment.

Edited December 7, 2021 by Winslow Boy

[Compound2632]

I'm sure you all know the old joke: "Why did the barmaid whine and sham pain?"...

 

It's mild humour.

[simontaylor484]

Doesnt the U2/Tr1 need a chase car hpong down the runway after it due to the landing gear arrangement where the under wing legs detatch on take off?

[Happy Hippo]

11 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Doesnt the U2/Tr1 need a chase car hpong down the runway after it due to the landing gear arrangement where the under wing legs detatch on take off?

I suspect the runway would be kept clear until the aircraft has safely departed and then the bits that fell off could be recovered.

 

I believe a chase car is deployed during the landing with a second pilot in the car calling the last few feet of altitude, so the aircraft can be stalled onto the runway from about 2 feet off the ground. It's very technical and DH would be able to describe all the ins and outs far better than I ever could.

 

[Tony_S]

18 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I suspect the runway would be kept clear until the aircraft has safely departed and then the bits that fell off could be recovered.

 

I believe a chase car is deployed during the landing with a second pilot in the car calling the last few feet of altitude, so the aircraft can be stalled onto the runway from about 2 feet off the ground. It's very technical and DH would be able to describe all the ins and outs far better than I ever could.

 

Sounds like a Thunderbirds episode. 

[Happy Hippo]

18 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Sounds like a Thunderbirds episode. 

Sadly the only U2 I saw on the ground in Cyprus was the the one that crashed at Akrotiri.  In fact it was 44 years ago today!

 

The U2 stalled just after take off and hit the  station met office. The pilot and five others on the ground were killed or later died of their injuries. 

[rockershovel]

Scary things, those high altitude spy planes. I remember seeing them occasionally when driving to London early in the morning. They would swoop out of the sky, at great speed but without a sound crossing the A1 at very low altitude.

[polybear]

 

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

The U2 stalled just after take off and hit the  station met office. The pilot and five others on the ground were killed or later died of their injuries. 

 

Apparently the difference between the cruising speed and the stall speed is only 13 Knots - so very easy to get it wrong....

[Happy Hippo]

Just now, polybear said:

 

 

Apparently the difference between the cruising speed and the stall speed is only 13 Knots - so very easy to get it wrong....

At about 65000 feet!  According to Wikepedia they would cruise at about 5 knots above the stall speed, but the VNE was around 15 knots higher, so it was definitely a case of keeping your wits about you when you are at 'coffin corner'.

 

Not wishing to put a damper on things but the next time you are in an airliner, just remember the same sort of thing is happening, there is not a vast difference in speed between falling out of the sky or going too fast and tearing your wings or tail off.  Again our resident IP can give chapter and verse. (Which would relieve us of another of his fanatical rants about the alleged superiority of Midland Railway luggage trolleys over GWR pannier tanks.)

[polybear]

10 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

At about 65000 feet!  According to Wikepedia they would cruise at about 5 knots above the stall speed, but the VNE was around 15 knots higher, so it was definitely a case of keeping your wits about you when you are at 'coffin corner'.

 

Not wishing to put a damper on things but the next time you are in an airliner, just remember the same sort of thing is happening, there is not a vast difference in speed between falling out of the sky .......

 

Bear was involved with propeller strain gauge trials on the BAe 748 ATP Airliner - part of which was going over the Irish Sea and doing silly things like stalling the aircraft.  All good fun....

(I wonder if any are still flying?)

[Happy Hippo]

11 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Bear was involved with propeller strain gauge trials on the BAe 748 ATP Airliner - part of which was going over the Irish Sea and doing silly things like stalling the aircraft.  All good fun....

(I wonder if any are still flying?)

Not after you've strained them.

[PhilJ W]

I read somewhere that the English Electric Lightning theoretically should not be able to fly. A certain RAF engineer will tell you otherwise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden's_Lightning_flight

 

[polybear]

15 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I read somewhere that the English Electric Lightning theoretically should not be able to fly. A certain RAF engineer will tell you otherwise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden's_Lightning_flight

 

 

Stuff a big enough engine behind a house brick and it'll fly -  Saturn 5 rockets are proof of that.....

[Happy Hippo]

25 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I read somewhere that the English Electric Lightning theoretically should not be able to fly. A certain RAF engineer will tell you otherwise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden's_Lightning_flight

 

Back to the U2, the first air to air interception of such at 65000 feet was conducted by an EE Lightning.

 

I'd suggest the pilot of the U2 fouled his breeches when the Lightning rolled in alongside, as no conventional manned aircraft was supposed to get up that high.

[PhilJ W]

Didn't the Russians make a Lightning clone?

 

[polybear]

42 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Didn't the Russians make a Lightning clone?

 

 

They did a Concorde - sort of.  It wasn't very good.....

[Tony_S]

13 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

They did a Concorde - sort of.  It wasn't very good.....

From Wikipedia. 
 

Quote

Passengers seated next to each other could have a conversation only with difficulty, and those seated two seats apart could not hear each other even when screaming…

 

[PhilJ W]

13 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

They did a Concorde - sort of.  It wasn't very good.....

The Concordski, it was rumoured that a Russian spy was discovered in the Concorde drawing office and instead of booting him out they fed him false data which resulted in the crash at the Paris air show.

 

4 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Passengers seated next to each other could have a conversation only with difficulty, and those seated two seats apart could not hear each other even when screaming…

Was that just before it crashed?

[polybear]

19 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

The Concordski, it was rumoured that a Russian spy was discovered in the Concorde drawing office and instead of booting him out they fed him false data which resulted in the crash at the Paris air show.

 

 

I wonder how those who gave the order to feed false information felt after this:

 

The left wing came away first, and then the aircraft disintegrated and crashed, destroying 15 houses and killing all six people on board the Tu-144 and eight more on the ground. Three children were among those killed, and 60 people received severe injuries.

[pH]

44 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

The Concordski, it was rumoured that a Russian spy was discovered in the Concorde drawing office and instead of booting him out they fed him false data …

I heard a somewhat similar story about ships. In the 1930s, Japanese shipping companies would ask Clydeside yards to tender for contracts to build ships for them, the tenders to include detailed plans. No contracts would result, but a couple of years later ships built to those plans would be launched from Japanese yards.

 

The Clyde yards realized what was happening and so, when the next call for tenders arrived, agreed that only a single yard would tender. A couple of years later, a ship slid down the ways in a Japanese yard, capsized and sank.

 

(I don’t know if this is true or not - I’ve never found any definite evidence.)