Donington noise levels

I remember camping there for either the Transatlantic Races or Monsters
of Rock - I unremember which. Anyway, I can recall dreaming several
different dreams but each one had bits where aircraft were taking off,
so it even gets you when you're asleep.

And no, it was definitely nothing to do with my snoring, OK?

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Sprucegoose.jpg

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Ace

I went to see that. It's under a big dome in LA. It's mildly
entertaining to stand and watch people's faces as the first catch sight
of it on entry. The "Fuuuuuuuuuck!" expressions are quite amusing.

it is a *very* big aeroplane.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - "He's hopeless, but he's honest"

I have already made the greatest contribution to the fight against climate
change that I can make: I have decided not to breed. Now quit bugging me and
go and talk to the Catholics.

 

Only eight engines, only flew once, for a mile, in ground effect.

The Do X had 12 engines, and flew in Europe, Africa, North and South
America, 18 years before the H-4's derisory puddle-jump. And there were
more than just the one built.

 

Ahh, that's not clear from the piccie. Although yes, if you look for
it you can see double propellors per nacelle, so I guess double
engines could also be inferred.

Ugly bastard though, innit?

But all that's got ****-all to do with numbers of engines.

 

Given that Hughes was a very experienced pilot and resisted the
opportunity to take it up higher, I suspect he felt it was a pig.

Terrible cost per passenger mile, iirc.

 

Push-me-pull-you formation, popular befor the war but seldom seen since
except in things like the Skymaster.

It's a ship with wings.

http://www.aviationandmarineusa.com/900_cvrs/04282008/900/DLHD3075-12-1-P.jpg

Rubbish. Eight engines: Long Island Sound. Twelve engines: oceans and
continents.

 

They moved it some years ago. Can't remember where to.

 

I thought the Do-X needed ground effect if it had anywhere near a full
load. Max ceiling was something like 1200 feet, ISTR. One prob was that
the Berlin Wall of engines rather robbed the wings of lift.

 

Possibly. But that was the first flight of the prototype. A competent test
pilot would say, "This is wrong, that's wrong, there's a bit of flutter and
yaw etc." and the the engineers would look at the data and develop it and
sort it out. A nutter who owned the company would say, "No, it's crap. Put
it in the shed and never mention it to me again." I suspect he realised
that the world had already moved on from the era of flying boats, well
before it was finished, but the publicity drove him to finish it and show
that it could, indeed, fly.

None of the Do X fleet crashed and killed their passengers, unlike
Zeppelins, Concordes, space shuttles etc.

 

That's true enough. Same could be said of the old Handley-Page HP42
dinosaurs.

I remember reading that one of them was engaged in a race against
France's Blue Train. That the issue was ever in doubt speaks volumes for
the HP42's cruising speed. Or lack of.

Oh, and the Graf Zeppelin airship never lost a life. Shame about the
Hindenburg, thobut.

 

They managed 2000' with the Curtiss engines, but the thing was burning 400
gallons per hour. For the crossing to Brazil, they left half the crew
behind and chugged along at 20' for the first part of the journey from Cape
Verde.

With the old Siemens-built Jupiter radials, they once lifted 10 crew, 150
passengers and 9 stowaways off Lake Constance, under ideal conditions.

 

The HP42 was said to be "as safe as the Rock of Gibraltar, if not quite as
fast."

A bite! Excellent.

 

<wavy mists of imperfectly recalled History Channel>
Iirc, he funded it himself, but there was something in the Govt contract
that if it actually flew, his costs would be paid up to that point.
Immediately thereafter it was a white elephant.

 

Bugger

 

Weren't 'built-in headwinds' mentioned by someone as well?

 

Indeed. I learnt that one the hard way.

 

Yep. All those wires and struts and things.