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NIKE 55's G46 BUILD...

20 Aug 2012, 9:31pm
Nike55 - Great news. :cool:

I'm sure things will start to pick up quickly now.

Cheers, Paul. :)
21 Aug 2012, 7:05am
Great news indeed, now come on, let's see a finished G46! :becky:
21 Aug 2012, 8:34am
I get mine soon too!

How did you get your body home?

Will it fit on the back of a pick up truck?
21 Aug 2012, 9:47am
So how are you going to mount the body onto your scooter donors? by some form of home made frame and then linking the scooters together for dual engine power?


This is a G46 build so it "could" happen! :)
22 Aug 2012, 9:19pm
Anything could happen - but I will have to ask Lancelot to do a couple of bits on the body before I arrange transport for the beast.

(Thinks: 'Now need to clear shed of two dead Land Rovers...')

Scooter? I've got Blackbird* in bits so could always fit the engine from that (or two).

(*Honda not Lockheed).
23 Aug 2012, 7:52am
Nike55 wrote:
Anything could happen - but I will have to ask Lancelot to do a couple of bits on the body before I arrange transport for the beast.

(Thinks: 'Now need to clear shed of two dead Land Rovers...')

Scooter? I've got Blackbird* in bits so could always fit the engine from that (or two).

(*Honda not Lockheed).


Hmm, SR71 powered Sammio, now there's an ambitious concept, and you could strap half a dozen Raytheon AIM9 motors to the sides for a bit of extra oomph away from the traffic lights.
23 Aug 2012, 5:42pm
aaaahh RATO.....
24 Aug 2012, 6:08am
JATO is an acronym for jet-fuel assisted take off. It is a system for helping overloaded aircraft into the air by providing additional thrust in the form of small rockets.

The term is used interchangeably with the (more specific) term RATO, for Rocket-Assisted Take Off (or, in RAF parlance, RATOG for Rocket-Assisted Take Off Gear).

JATO is an acronym for jet-fuel assisted take off. It is a system for helping overloaded aircraft into the air by providing additional thrust in the form of small rockets.

The term is used interchangeably with the (more specific) term RATO, for Rocket-Assisted Take Off (or, in RAF parlance, RATOG for Rocket-Assisted Take Off Gear).

i liked your rats though!
24 Aug 2012, 7:21am
Ahh, makes sense now. Google didn't throw that up and none of the RAF aircraft I worked on ever had rocket assistance for take off, although the Tornados could have done with it to get them off the ground during the day in the middle east. :angel:
24 Aug 2012, 10:46am
Mister Towed wrote:
Ahh, makes sense now. Google didn't throw that up and none of the RAF aircraft I worked on ever had rocket assistance for take off, although the Tornados could have done with it to get them off the ground during the day in the middle east. :angel:


Yip, it was the same for us in the Nimrod - even with 13,000 yard runway at sealevel in Iraq using power against brakes, we had to go with significantly less than max fuel just to make it off the ground....still it meant the sorties were shorter.

I remember one of my old engineers telling us about the JATO on the 8 sqn Shakletons - "4 turning, 2 burning" must have made the take off roll....interesting
24 Aug 2012, 11:02am
BazMason wrote:
Yip, it was the same for us in the Nimrod - even with 13,000 yard runway at sealevel in Iraq using power against brakes, we had to go with significantly less than max fuel just to make it off the ground....still it meant the sorties were shorter.

I remember one of my old engineers telling us about the JATO on the 8 sqn Shakletons - "4 turning, 2 burning" must have made the take off roll....interesting


I was on the Jag OCU at Lossiemouth from '82 to '86 working from the 'pan next to 8 Squadron's Shacks. Their ground crew tee shirts had the slogan 'eight screws are better than two blow jobs' if I recall. I enjoyed my time at Lossie even though it was a long way from anywhere else - I once drove for seventeen hours solid in the winter to get home to Essex to see my parents. I had a slightly different hairstyle then too :mullet: Happy days...
24 Aug 2012, 9:52pm
BazMason wrote:
I remember one of my old engineers telling us about the JATO on the 8 sqn Shakletons - "4 turning, 2 burning" must have made the take off roll....interesting


Ah.......nostalgia!

The '20,000 Rivets Flying in Close Formation', (AKA Avro Shackleton) had four Rolls Royce V12 Griffon engines (most RR piston engines were named after birds of prey - Kestrel, Vulture, Eagle, Merlin (No - not the wizard!), producing 1,960 hp (2,345 hp with water-methanol injection) and on the MR3 version two 2,700lb thrust Armstrong Siddeley Viper engines buried in the nacelles.

The Shackleton, when so configured, could fly on the two Vipers only. Its party piece at a Farnborough air show (or two) was to take off and fly a circuit returning with one engine feathered, then another circuit when a second engine was feathered, and so on until after the last circuit when the the aircraft returned over the airfield with all engines feathered, flying only on the Vipers. Much consternation at first from lovingly gullible crowd - probably only spoiled by a knowing 10 year old.

Jet Assisted Take Off is one thing but the solid fuel propellant Rocket Assisted Take Off is something else. Especially when it concerns a 'Zero Launch Length' F104 Starfighter! :angel:

http://www.militaryimages.net/photopost/data/521/f104_starfighter.jpg
24 Aug 2012, 10:25pm
Ah yes, the flying coffin. The original design for the F104 included a downward firing ejection seat. Really useful given that most crashes happen on the runway. :angel:
25 Aug 2012, 12:01am
Yes, but only on the early USAF versions - (less grunt needed to drop pilot to safety and no tail strike to worry about) - great idea at 60k feet, but was quickly changed after a mishap or two at low level.

There was an issue with the German Air Force losing a lot of aircraft due to their poor training strategy, but generally the 'Widowmaker' safety record was no worse than many other 'hot ships' of the time...

(The Danes didn't loose one operationally apparently, due to ensuring their pilots logged 500 hours in the F5 before transitioning onto the F104)
25 Aug 2012, 8:48am
Yes, I remember the Luftwaffe losing a lot of Starfighters. Perhaps they found a way round the tuv test which making them inherently unsafe was. :eusa_silenced:
25 Aug 2012, 9:54am
Must have been overspray on the static vents....
25 Aug 2012, 10:25am
NIKE ....I started to trimming away extra bits and making your framework yesterday.....finish frame and start fitting body Tuesday onwards....
25 Aug 2012, 10:34am
lancelot link wrote:
NIKE ....I started to trimming away extra bits and making your framework yesterday.....finish frame and start fitting body Tuesday onwards....


Many thanks lancelot link.

Would like to discuss the possibility of adding some extras that we talked about previously. Is it best to 'PM'?
25 Aug 2012, 10:53pm
..talking of ex-F104 Starfighter pilots...

Thanks Neil (Armstrong) and god speed.
26 Aug 2012, 5:41am
Driving back from a late callout last night heard it on the radio looked out and the moon had a thin cloud veil, respect!