I was lucky enough as a young child to see one of these working a high country farm - it was operating off a sloped runway and I was convinced it was going to crash as it landed uphill, then convinced it was going to crash after it took off after reloading due to how slowly it climbed - I can't find a definitive number, but I vaguely recall it had a take off speed that lurked around 50kt...
On the subject of top-dressers... ...I was privileged to see a turboprop equipped Fletcher FU-24 in action a couple of weeks ago, those pilots are very darn good at flying very low in hill country. Very loud and notable engine sound.
You got to love that even its name is utilitarian.
This is such a cool story. Airplanes seem such a complex, standardized, full of red tape and elitist thing that such stories of hackers starting to pull random beams together and you get a thing that flies are pretty inspiring... And yet it also sound quite well thought. As usual, there is more than meets the eye
> Airplanes seem such a complex, standardized, full of red tape and elitist thing that such stories of hackers starting to pull random beams together and you get a thing that flies are pretty inspiring...
As a kid, I was introduced to the concept of ultralight[0] aircraft when me and a couple of friends stumbled upon a wreck of one in a field. Our parents realized it had to have come from the local place a few miles away. If your aircraft qualifies as ultralight, you do not need a license to fly it. A family friend of my parents had one that he'd roll out to the street, attach the wings, and take off, and then land back on the street, remove the wings, and roll it back into his garage.
These things were essentially go-karts with wings.
The fairy gannet looks like two smaller airplanes clipping into each other. It looks like an AI from ten years ago generated an image of an airplane. It looks like they hired engineers who got their degrees in Kerbal Space Program and then paid them by the hour. "Even if it's broke, it doesn't have enough features yet."
It was designed to carry to operate from very rough "airstrips" which is a very optimistic term for "a paddock that the farmer hopefully mowed recently and if you're lucky, they also removed most of the bigger stones".
I also imagine in the postwar WW2 antipodes, steel was a lot easier and cheaper to access, as well as work.
Steel alloys have better fatigue properties than aluminum. Many of us in aerospace would happily use a corrosion-resistant steel if not for the weight.
I was lucky enough as a young child to see one of these working a high country farm - it was operating off a sloped runway and I was convinced it was going to crash as it landed uphill, then convinced it was going to crash after it took off after reloading due to how slowly it climbed - I can't find a definitive number, but I vaguely recall it had a take off speed that lurked around 50kt...
On the subject of top-dressers... ...I was privileged to see a turboprop equipped Fletcher FU-24 in action a couple of weeks ago, those pilots are very darn good at flying very low in hill country. Very loud and notable engine sound.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher_FU-24
> airtruk
You got to love that even its name is utilitarian.
This is such a cool story. Airplanes seem such a complex, standardized, full of red tape and elitist thing that such stories of hackers starting to pull random beams together and you get a thing that flies are pretty inspiring... And yet it also sound quite well thought. As usual, there is more than meets the eye
> Airplanes seem such a complex, standardized, full of red tape and elitist thing that such stories of hackers starting to pull random beams together and you get a thing that flies are pretty inspiring...
As a kid, I was introduced to the concept of ultralight[0] aircraft when me and a couple of friends stumbled upon a wreck of one in a field. Our parents realized it had to have come from the local place a few miles away. If your aircraft qualifies as ultralight, you do not need a license to fly it. A family friend of my parents had one that he'd roll out to the street, attach the wings, and take off, and then land back on the street, remove the wings, and roll it back into his garage.
These things were essentially go-karts with wings.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultralight_aviation
(2021)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL_M-15_Belphegor
The M-15 is still uglier. Also intended as a cropduster, though unlike the AirTruk it was really bad at that job in every way.
here is a great video documentary on the m-15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlyO9cJ8hiQ (Alexander the ok: PZL Mielec M-15: One of the Aircraft of All Time)
I'll raise you the Blackburn B-54 [0] and the Fairey Gannet [1].
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackburn_B-54
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Gannet
The fairy gannet looks like two smaller airplanes clipping into each other. It looks like an AI from ten years ago generated an image of an airplane. It looks like they hired engineers who got their degrees in Kerbal Space Program and then paid them by the hour. "Even if it's broke, it doesn't have enough features yet."
The Belphegor is still uglier though.
Now that I googled more pictures of it, I agree, the one in Wikipedia is obviously it's most flattering angle, looks almost... Rutanesque.
This photo though, I see what you mean.
https://old.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/z3envi/the_pzl_m1...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Gannet_AEW.3
The AEW version looks ok
Yeah they improved it on the AEW, looks far less bubonic.
That image made me smile. Yeah, it would be bad at being a plane with poles attached to it like that. I'll see myself out now
Steve Death does sound like a Mad Max name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transavia_PL-12_Airtruk
aussie plane makes me think of the aussie flyer in the road warrior. (not even the same, but spiritually)
This is mentioned in the article:
> But the airplane never became popular—although it became briefly famous when a heavily made-up example starred in 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
I was referring to the copter pilot in the road warrior, same scrappy tininess.
beyond thunderdome was the next in the series.
Did anyone else think the first photo was AI-generated at first, due to how unusual it looked?
"He started with a large, steel, barrel-shaped tank and began adding."
I thought everybody used aluminum?
It was designed to carry to operate from very rough "airstrips" which is a very optimistic term for "a paddock that the farmer hopefully mowed recently and if you're lucky, they also removed most of the bigger stones".
I also imagine in the postwar WW2 antipodes, steel was a lot easier and cheaper to access, as well as work.
That was a prototype.
Update: I guess the final design also used steel.
> The pilot is above both the engine and the load, and is surrounded by a steel tube truss for maximum safety.
Steel alloys have better fatigue properties than aluminum. Many of us in aerospace would happily use a corrosion-resistant steel if not for the weight.
It looks kinda cute if you ask me
I actually think the Super Guppy[0] is the ugliest, hotly contested by the Optica[1]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Spacelines_Super_Guppy
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgley_Optica
The Guppy is very ugly, but I think the Optica is quite nice — the large duct is a bit ugly, but the rest of it has good lines
…can I still get one?