Time to jump start...

[jetmex]

this forum again. It's been a while since I've been here and I've noticed that a lot of you spend entirely too much time wading in the Pond. So let's see if anyone is up for some airplane stuff:

1. What airline has / had a logo that was commonly referred to as "the meatball"?

2. Lts. Duane Francies and William Martin are most famous for what WWII act?

3. What is a "buttock line"?

4. Which aircraft manufacturer is famous as the owner of the "red barn"?

5. The E-6 Hermes aircraft is used to perform what function?

6. Which business jet had a nasty habit of tipping onto one wingtip on the ground if there was a fuel imbalance of more than 200 lbs?

7. What is a fairlead?

8. What component on a helicopter allows the rotor blades to change pitch angles?

9. Into which aircraft was the first ejection seat installed?

10. The "RB" in the engine designation RB-211 stands for what?

Bonus -- what was the last RC model airplane that I posted a thread on in this forum?

Good luck! Is Galvin still waiting to gobble up all the slower contestants? ;D

[RetNavySuppo]

Good idea Jaime - a break from the toxicity of the "swamp". At least when the liberals were present, there was some balance. No more.

Anyway, here goes:

1. The "blue meatball" was the logo of Pan Am.

2. The last dogfight against the Luftwaffe (over Berlin).

3. This is a reference line that runs along the length of an aircraft.

4. Boeing.

5. Communicating with submerged missile submarines.

6. ?

7. A device to keep a line or cable out of the way.

8. The "collective".

9. Heinkel He 280

10. It is a Rolls Royce engine but "RB" must be some nickname probably referring to some idiosyncrasy of the engine.

[jetmex]

Hi Bob! Good to see you again. Been entirely too long....

1. You're actually correct, but I had another airline in mind. Can anyone guess what it is?

2. Sort of, but not quite. More details please..... ;D

3. Which reference line?

4. Correct.

5. Correct

6. Keep trying.....

7. Nope.

8. No. I'm looking for the mechanical component, not the control.

9. Correct.

10. Still up for grabs.

As is the bonus...... ;D

[RetNavySuppo]

1. How about the red "meatball" that used to be on the tails of Japan Airlines aircraft?

2. These guys were flying in a Piper L4 over Berlin and encountered a Fieshler Storch and using their hand guns, forced it to land and took the German aircrew prisoner.

3. Longitudinal axis.

6. Still no joy.

7. Actually, my definition is correct. You must be thinking of another application.

8. Mixing Unit.

10. Still no joy.

[Galvin]

OK, it's been chewed on enough for me to try to clean up the leftovers I guess.

1. I believe that Continental’s globe logo on the vertical fin was often referred to as the “meatball” by their employees.

2. Buttock lines originated in shipbuilding and are the lines drawn fore and aft on the plan view that are seen as longitudinal cross sections of the vessel (or aircraft ) when viewed in the side view. They are generally labeled with BL numbers indicating their distance in inches outward from centerline.

6. The Learjet 23, 24, and 25 were prone to tipping over if fueling was not attended to carefully and the tank could hit the ground hard enough to damage or even rupture it.

7. A fairlead is a tube, set of rollers, or even just a leather rub strip intended to keep a control cable from binding with or wearing on a part of the aircraft. It is another nautical term adopted for aircraft use. Fairleads are basically devices intended to keep the control cable headed in the right direction and away from the airframe and other components.

8. I believe you are alluding to the swash plate assembly and its linkages. Some helicopters now mix cyclic and collective and use separate actuators that all act upon the swash plate in their own special ways.

10. When Rolls Royce took over production of jet engines from Rover during WWII they also inherited the designs that Rover had been developing. Rover engines were prefixed with “B” for the location of the shadow factory where they were being developed, an old cotton mill in Barnoldswick.

Rolls Royce felt that there could possibly be some confusion generated with these designations because bomber proposals and preliminary designs in Great Britain were also designated with a “B” prefix. Due to this concern, the designation"R" signifying "Rolls" was added to the Rover designations and the original Rover "B" signifying Barnoldswick was retained. This RB designation scheme continues to this day.

Re the bonus question: It was probably the 70" Zero you have under your bed awaiting movement in the backlog of other stuff you mentioned.

[jetmex]

Hi Dave, good to see you again.

1. Continental is indeed the airline I was thinking of. At one time, the logo was red and really did look like a meatball. I think the official term for it was "contrails".

2. Lts. Francies and Martin shot down a Fieseler Storch with .45 caliber pistols for the last air to air kill of WWII.

3. Bob got this one.

6. Older Learjets were notorious for this. There was a transfer valve along the centerline of the aircraft that would siphon fuel from one side to the other if you added too much fuel to one side. Made fueling a real pain in the empennage...

7. Dave, a fairlead where I came from was a device for passing a cable through a bulkhead (especially firewalls or pressure bulkheads where you couldn't have a large hole) or a solid bracket, but not necessarily for keeping cables clear of structure, because you could do that with a pulley. I can't argue with your answer, though...

8. And the swashplate it is....!

10. RB does stand for Rolls Barnoldswick, where the engines are assembled today.

Bonus - Not the Zero. There is a thread dedicated to this model. Dave has one also.... ;D

So, are more of you guys going to drain the pond and come over here and play once in a while?

[Galvin]

Hi Jaime.

Re the bonus: You must be talking about the KMP Tigercat if it is one I have (had actually, I sold it long ago).

I have been obsessed with drawing the cylinders for an old Wright "F" series Cyclone to go on my kit bashed Curtiss P-6E/Goshawk conversion. No relationship between that 750 HP Antique and the late G series Cyclones other than basic displacement and name. In researching this engine I was amazed at the development of an engine that started out at 400 HP and 1750 CUI into the final versions that were 1820 CUI and essentially 1500 HP.

The key to the steady increase in HP and reliability of an engine designed in the late twenties was apparently the continuing development of casting techniques that allowed incrementally increasing the area in deeper cylinder fins necessary to reject the heat from the higher HP engines. The latest G series (used on the B-17, DC-3, etc.) actually had the fins cut into forged aluminum cylinders with ganged slitting saws and then more fins were glued on on top of those.

There is not much info on the earlier engines but I managed to locate and copy some overhaul manuals for the F series. Between one or two drawings therein that were obviously taken from the original design drawings, some even with dimensions, and the few pictures I have scrounged up from various sources I am finally getting a handle on drawing a fairly accurate 1/5th scale Cyclone radial.

I used to think the old Wylam drawings were pretty accurate until I tried to use them for this project and found that where he wasn't getting his dimensions wrong he was guessing on details he had no info about.

Why so much work just to put a dummy radial on the front of a tarted up ARF? Because the same motor was used on the A-17AF and A-17AFS Staggerwings. I got the notion to build one of these early fixed-gear, longer winged, over-powered Beech products while I was resurrecting the Byron Staggerwing I posted here a while ago. If this dummy engine comes out well I just may do that. The first Staggerwing I redid was sold to a guy who refuses to even think of flying it and it occupies a place on honor on a grand piano in his living room.

Took a break last weekend and sanded down and repainted an Alfa A4-F ducted fan ARF. Came out pretty good and I'll post pictures once I get the radio in it.

BTW: Fairleads are used wherever cables pass through a part of the aircraft whether it be the bulkheads or even the outside skin of the aircraft. A lot of the old Cubs and similar aircraft I flew had leather fairleads where the cables came out through the fabric to meet with their control bellcranks and horns.

[jetmex]

Hey Dave, sounds like you have a whole bench full of projects, so now I don't feel so lonely! ;D

BTW--the answer to the bonus is not the Tigercat....

Where is everyone??

[GySgtUSMC]

Jamie,
BONUS > Was it your Bearcat???

[Galvin]

I'm guessing the ARF 1/6th scale Staggerwing.

[jetmex]

Hey Gunny, you got it. The thread was indeed about the Bearcat.

Good to see all of you, let's keep this going.