Supervixen!

[kitbasher]

One of my whiffing ambitions is to create a tandem Sea Vixen (there can only be one name for it, surely?), so taking one very cheap Novo Sea Vixen and odds and ends from the spares box, here goes:

[Tophe]

tandem wing or tandem seat or else?

[kitbasher]

tandem wing or tandem seat or else?

Tandem seat - meant to make that clear in the original post.

[SPINNERS]

This has got me intrigued! I just can't see why us Brits had an asymetric canopy fixation to spoil the good looks of the Canberra and DH110/Sea Vixen and Tony Butler's BSP books are full of them. Even Wooksta's strapline model at the top of the very screen you are looking at has one.

[pyro-manic]

I dunno, I quite like offset cockpits....

Looking forward to seeing this, nevertheless.

[upnorth]

This has got me intrigued! I just can't see why us Brits had an asymetric canopy fixation to spoil the good looks of the Canberra and DH110/Sea Vixen and Tony Butler's BSP books are full of them. Even Wooksta's strapline model at the top of the very screen you are looking at has one.

It was done to make it distinctly British! Do something in a way nobody else does so it won't be mistaken for something somebody else did!

Same reason the Lightning got engines verticaly aligned rather than horizontally and got fuel tanks put over the wings instead of under. Just to be clearly British.

Just as the Comet got its engines buried in the wing root rather than bolted on under the wings. To be British.

And what other reason would a strategic bomber be designed around a delta wing planform than to define it as British? Absolutely no other reason, it needed no other reason!

[AeroplaneDriver]

I agree with Spinners.  Never understood the offset canopy thing.  Nobody else did it, and it seems like it would limit visibility on one side.  I love the idea of a tanden Sea Vixen. 

[SPINNERS]

Same reason the Lightning got engines verticaly aligned rather than horizontally and got fuel tanks put over the wings instead of under. Just to be clearly British.

Just as the Comet got its engines buried in the wing root rather than bolted on under the wings. To be British.

I thought it was to get the maintenance man hours up into three figures

[upnorth]

Same reason the Lightning got engines verticaly aligned rather than horizontally and got fuel tanks put over the wings instead of under. Just to be clearly British.

Just as the Comet got its engines buried in the wing root rather than bolted on under the wings. To be British.

I thought it was to get the maintenance man hours up into three figures

There's that too, you have to keep the ground crew out of the pub somehow.

[Hobbes]

I agree with Spinners.  Never understood the offset canopy thing.  Nobody else did it, and it seems like it would limit visibility on one side.  I love the idea of a tanden Sea Vixen. 

I suspect it was done to increase visibility. The pilot can look over the navigator's head, instead of having his view obstructed by a guy and his seat.
It would also minimise drag. The navigator doesn't need visibility, so why waste frontal area on him?

[Weaver]

As I understand it, the main reasons for the side-by-side seating were:

a. A general preference for side-by-side crew so that they could communicate without intercoms and both fly the plane from one set of instruments,

b. Reduced drag.

Same reason the Lightning got engines verticaly aligned rather than horizontally and got fuel tanks put over the wings instead of under. Just to be clearly British.

Actually old boy, both The Enemy (i.e. the French) and the Soviet Union played with the idea, sometimes even using British engines (or inferior copies thereof), but one supposes they just wern't British enough to carry it off (sorry, orf.....)

Just as the Comet got its engines buried in the wing root rather than bolted on under the wings. To be British.

Now the same suspects put up a rather better show with this one (Caravelle, Tu-16, Mya-4), which just goes to show that a modest degree of Britishness is something that lesser nations can realistically aspire to, as long as they don't get above themselves.

And what other reason would a strategic bomber be designed around a delta wing planform than to define it as British? Absolutely no other reason, it needed no other reason!

Well the Colonials had a rather poor try with the B-58, but they got it much too small and thin - probably short of aluminium due to all those Coca Cola cans they seem unable to avoid making, the poor things.



(If there's anyone I havn't offended yet, please PM me and I'll do my best to fit you in.... )

[SPINNERS]

I agree with Spinners.  Never understood the offset canopy thing.  Nobody else did it, and it seems like it would limit visibility on one side.  I love the idea of a tanden Sea Vixen. 

The navigator doesn't need visibility...

Never underestimate the value of a second pair of eyes!

[The Rat]

(If there's anyone I havn't offended yet, please PM me and I'll do my best to fit you in.... )

Well there's us Canadians, but we seem to have done a pretty good job of insulting our aircraft industry all by ourselves. 

[ysi_maniac]

  I see this thread is not about the Russ Meyer's film

[AeroplaneDriver]

I agree with Spinners.  Never understood the offset canopy thing.  Nobody else did it, and it seems like it would limit visibility on one side.  I love the idea of a tanden Sea Vixen. 

The navigator doesn't need visibility...

Never underestimate the value of a second pair of eyes!

I know if I were flying in combat I'd rather have my nav behind me surrounded by perspex that burried in a coal-hole...