The Really Bad Idea GB

[Weaver]

If you happen to have some bits from the old 1/24th Airfix Stuka in your stash, why not add the bomb, the dive brakes and the siren to a 1/72nd Vulcan, thereby making the world's first, last and hopefully only nuclear-armed dive-bomber....

[rallymodeller]

What about an entire generation of aircraft that are designed and sent to production around an engine that only exists as a paper project? The Westinghouse J-40 was such a crap design that it killed or seriously maimed several US Navy designs, the FD-3 Demon for example. The J40 only ever produced, what, 60% of its target thrust? And with a mean time between catastrophic failures of about six minutes...

[chrisonord]

How about an INTER CONTINENTAL NUCLEAR BALLISTIC..............train???
The train would be used to counter threats from Russia, Iran China etc.
Launched from Crewe Strategic command, and sent off along  the west coast mainline through London and onto the chunnel, no one will know what it is where it is or anything because we all know how useless train services and timetables are.
Just make sure you don't user a Virgin train though as it will only go as far as the chunnel entrance.    

[Weaver]

DBLBM: the Diving Bell Launched Ballistic Missile.

Much cheaper than a full-on submarine, and it could still be hiding anywhere in the world's oceans, as long as that hiding place is directly underneath where it starts from......



Dirigible Nuclear Bomber.

Drop the nuke and then wind the wick right up to it's full 70kts in order to escape.....


Dual Aspect Stealth Aircraft.

The flat underside of the F-117 is designed to deflect radar signals from ground-based radars away from the receiver. The DASA was designed to work against airborne lookdown-shootdown radars as well, so it had a flat topside as well as underside. The concept failed because insufficent anorexic super-models could be persuaded to change careers to pilot it.......

[Weaver]

Sorry for the mental image, but I've just got to get this off my chest:

Blackburn Beverly Interceptor.

Olympus in cargo bay with intake and exhaust in the lower part of the nose/tail doors,

Rocket booster in the tail boom,

REALLY big radar in the upper part of the nose fairing,

Three Firestreaks in staggered echelon on each side of the fuselage, which are curiously remeniscent of the pottery ducks flying up Hilda Ogden's wall......

[PR19_Kit]

Blackburn Beverly Interceptor.

ROTFL! 

What a fantastic idea, you can almost see the 'lines of whizz' from the tips of the fins as it climbs at around 10000 fpm to operational height...... 

[Weaver]

Actually, I was imagining the accident report:

.....The additional power systems appeared to be functioning perfectly with no problems, right upto the moment where all telemetry and communications from the aircraft suddenly ceased, approximately 1.7 seconds after rocket motor ignition......

[pyro-manic]

Blackburn Beverly Interceptor.

ROTFL! 

What a fantastic idea, you can almost see the 'lines of whizz' from the tips of the fins as it climbs at around 10000 fpm to operational height...... 

Hahah, going vertical at the end of the runway.

[Mossie]

And then horizontal, the old girl didn't need much encouragement to flip on her back in the first place!

[lancer]

And then horizontal, the old girl didn't need much encouragement to flip on her back in the first place!

I've known a few old girls like that in my time..


Yeah, I know Shut the door on my way out!!

[PR19_Kit]

And then horizontal, the old girl didn't need much encouragement to flip on her back in the first place!

I can tell you never flew in one......... 

Anything more than a 5 deg angle, either upwards or downwards, was difficult in a Bev. Not to mention ruddy frightening! 

[Mossie]

And then horizontal, the old girl didn't need much encouragement to flip on her back in the first place!

I've known a few old girls like that in my time..


Yeah, I know Shut the door on my way out!!

Wish I could say the same, you need to introduce me.... 

And then horizontal, the old girl didn't need much encouragement to flip on her back in the first place!

I can tell you never flew in one......... 

Anything more than a 5 deg angle, either upwards or downwards, was difficult in a Bev. Not to mention ruddy frightening! 

Well, I've only managed to stand in one, but that was quite an experience itself.  Especially looking down through the paratroop hatch, not a chance you'd get me jumping out of there!  Good place to put that rocket motor.....

[PR19_Kit]

Well, I've only managed to stand in one, but that was quite an experience itself.  Especially looking down through the paratroop hatch, not a chance you'd get me jumping out of there!  Good place to put that rocket motor.....

The Paras loved jumping out of Bevs, the hatch was so big there was no chance that they'd bang themselves on the way out while carrying a load of stuff, there was no engine wake as the main fuselage was in the way, and there was zero chance of hitting the tail as they were well below it anyway.

Watching a stick of them drop from the main cargo bay was amazing (the main bay doors were left behind if they were dropping heavy stuff, so the 'rear door' was a 10 ft x 10 ft hole!) You could see when the drop master opened the hatch, as a black hole appeared in the bottom of the boom, then all of a sudden the stick streamed out of it, one after the other. Memory says they dropped from the left and right sides of the hatch alternately, but it was a long time ago.

As you say, looking down from the hatch on the ground was a sobering experience (not that I'd ever touched alcohol at my age then of course, oh dear me no.........  ) and there were a number of instances where some poor groundies fell through the hatch and were killed or severely injured, especially early or late in the day when it was difficult to see the light coming trhough the hatch from outside. The Paull Bev has the guard rails fitted which were designed to stop such accidents when 47 Sqdn was working up on the Bev in the 50s.

[I can see this bit of the thread being moved elsewhere...........  ]

[Weaver]

Fairey Battle, with a tandem engine arrangement like the Bolkhovitinov Spartak.  Crap single engine aircraft converted to a crapper two engine aircraft.

Holy thread revival!

Re-reading this just gave me an idea: since the Battle set such a good example of economy in light bombing, why not emulate it with a single-engined Blenheim? 

[James]

How about a Tiger Moth Zwilling with two 40mms slung under the centre wing?....