Whiffs found surfing

[Dizzyfugu]

I stumbled upon the pic while googling for Kfir info in general. And it looked somewhat familiar... 

I also had recently a video at YouTube deleted, because another picture of mine had been used illegally as a thumbnail.

[Scotaidh]

A long time ago - don't remember when or where, of course - I found this:



I thought I had more pictures of it, but I cannot find them ... 

[TheChronicOne]

Sweet!!

[Dizzyfugu]

That' looking pretty cool, and very Late-Seventies. Like something from a James Bond movie from that era, with Roger Moore at the controls.

[Cobra]

that is Super Cool has a Gerry Anderson Feel to it. Dan

[Captain Canada]

Yes it sure looks like an X-wing canopy

[Weaver]

Posted on Twitter by @GLC09BK88PGot7U here https://twitter.com/GLC09BK88PGot7U/status/1229325225566695424?s=20

Unfortunately this is account is all in Japanese(?), so I'm afraid I can't give you any more details:

[zenrat]

Noice.  Makes me think of The Army Surplus Special in Wacky Races.

[comrade harps]

I stumbled upon the pic while googling for Kfir info in general. And it looked somewhat familiar... 

I also had recently a video at YouTube deleted, because another picture of mine had been used illegally as a thumbnail.

Dizzy's whifs show up all the time during Google image searches; it's like something out of dystopian scifi with the historical timeline being tampered with by Big Brother or time travelers.

[Captain Canada]

Now that is neat ! Lots of interesting bits, and very well done ! Nice find.

[Weaver]

Racers by Alex Jay Brady, posted on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/AlexJayBrady/status/1231664128508514306?s=20

Idea seems to be that they're held up by anti-grav, but propelled and steered using jet engines and aerodynamic means. They look buildable to me, using aircraft bits and lots of putty, and possibly scaleorama for the upside-down cockpit (1/72nd pilot in a 1/48th F-16 canopy?)

[PR19_Kit]

Why is he upside down though? 

[Weaver]

Why is he upside down though? 

The pilot's not upside-down, he's prone in a ventral cockpit. I suppose the idea is that these things fly very low, so that having a good view of the surface is more important than having a good view of the sky.

I've always kinda liked the idea of an aircraft with a ventral cockpit, with a perfect view for landing/observation: kind of like a high-tech hang-glider layout.

[TheChronicOne]

All I can think about when I see prone pilot aircraft is how uncomfortable it would become. I know because I've tried it on things as comfortable as my bed (doing things like trying to pretend like I'm 12 years old again playing video games or watching TV) and if even that doesn't work then I can't imagine this would be better considering the magnitudes extra load of having to actually fly, etc. Anyway.... even before I hit my 30's, laying prone for more than about 20 minutes becomes exceedingly uncomfortable unless you just completely relax at which point you're basically in a sleep mode. Holding your head up to look forward and using your arms is a huge pain in the arse and fatigue sets in quickly.

[Weaver]

It looks from the pics as if the pilot is suspended from the ceiling of the cockpit in some sort of harness. I wonder if that would relieve some of the well-established problems with prone-pilots by removing pressure on the chest? Hang-glider pilots seem to manage okay with a similar setup, though obviously they don't pull G to any significant extent.

Note that my general point about ventral cockpits doesn't neccessarily mean prone cockpits: you can be hanging out of the bottom of the plane in a 'glass bubble' or sitting in the bottom half of the nose instead of the top half, and still be in a comfy chair.