Panther & LCM, red : hybrid aircraft/animals e.a.

[zenrat]

Carrot canons?

Not really.  We wanted to get rid of them as their warrens destabilised the embankments.

[jcf]

Carrot canons?

Not really.  We wanted to get rid of them as their warrens destabilised the embankments.

Poisoned carrots. 

[ericr]

reciprocity being of significant importance, in general and here in particular :

[Tophe]

Weird!
but what-if the Earth planet looses its atmosphere? No need of aerodynamics anymore, this plane would be perfect! Uh, why wings and propellers then? For beauty!

[ericr]

 

propellers are moved by the steam engine, of course 

[Dizzyfugu]

Weird, but cool. Now spray it in copper and sell it for a fortune to some steampunk nerds... 

[zenrat]

Brilliant Eric.  I want to build one myself.  Either a Battle of Britain class or a class 55 Deltic for the fuselage.
An A4 Pacific would look good with Victor wings.

[Rheged]

That's magnificent, Ericr!!   I would prefer not to be the fireman on the Lancaster BR41, especially on take off with a full load.

A flying B of B class or Deltic would be interesting, but how about a streamlined airborne Stanier Pacific?   I suppose it would have to be named "City of Lincoln"

[NARSES2]

Weird certainly, but what's even weirder is that it works 

Brilliant Eric 

[steelpillow]

I have seen many reports of the Lancaster conversion referred to as the Avro Lancastrian. I never realised it was a mis-spelling of "Lancastrain". 

[PR19_Kit]

That's magnificent, Ericr!!   I would prefer not to be the fireman on the Lancaster BR41, especially on take off with a full load.

EXACTLY my thoughts on seeing it for the first time. Visions of the poor bloke shovelling like crazy while the 'pilot' (engine driver...) was calling for more boiler pressure.

Did the Merlins run on steam though, and if so, why does it need a funnel in the conventional place?

[ericr]

 

[steelpillow]

Visions of the poor bloke shovelling like crazy while the 'pilot' (engine driver...) was calling for more boiler pressure.

Did the Merlins run on steam though, and if so, why does it need a funnel in the conventional place?

Air entered the Merlin intakes and passed through the supercharger compressor in the usual way. But this last was mounted backwards and its outlet ducted off to blow over the coal bed, greatly increasing heat and hence steam output. A novel feature of the coal grate was its mounting on a circulating conveyor chain, which took new coal forwards and further increased boiler effectiveness. The two-stage boiler has been described as a "semi-flash" system and got so hot in places, it was made of the same alloy used for the Whittle jet engine flame cans. The funnel served the furnace, auxiliary generator and the various steam distribution and safety valves in much the conventional way. The bulk of the superheated, high-pressure steam was fed back across to the Merlin's intake manifold and thence the cylinders, to be expelled through standard augmentor exhausts in the usual way. The camshaft was modified because the cylinders were of course now running a two-stroke cycle, and this doubled the power output of each Merlin.

The Lancastrain was loaded a tad tail-heavy for takeoff, so tail-end-Charlie (aka rear gunner) had a crawlway under the coal bunker and stayed forward of it in the main cab for takeoff. He helped the fireman maintain a good head of steam during takeoff and climbout; once a modest weight of coal had been shovelled through and the CG shifted forward that bit, he crawled back to his gun. He was always pretty knackered by the time he got there, so everybody always prayed they would not be bounced by enemy fighters until he had recovered his breath. Whenever possible the pilot would await his "Charlie Oscar Kilo" (Charlie OK) call on the intercom before entering enemy airspace.

Hope this answers your questions. Note that the machine shown above was the first prototype (hence bright yellow), which was rushed into flight testing with the original camshaft and three-bladed props. The production variants had five-bladers or 2x3 contra-props.

On seeing a reconnaissance photo of the prototype Lancastrain undergoing boiler maintenance, Alexander Lippisch, designer of the Me 163 Komet rocket fighter, adopted the Rolls-Royce coal burner for his P.13 supersonic delta-winged fighter project. To keep everything compact and fit within the wing, he replaced the conveyor chain with a slowly-rotating circular grate. But, as is well known, his DM.10 aerodynamic test glider was not completed by the end of the war  and the Americans took it back to the US for a test and development programme.

It is not known whether the Americans took Lippisch's rotating coal burner too, but I can reveal that in the UK his innovation remained top secret, which is why its use in the Bristol Brabazon - twin circular grates providing flash steam for each contra-prop installation - has never been admitted.

[PR19_Kit]

Such an erudite explanation of a very difficult process is worthy of great praise.

Thanks VERY much, and I understand the principle much better now. 

[Rheged]

The Lippisch coal fired aircraft WAS further developed, but  for some reason this work has never received any publicity. See the  Avro Abergavenny data here:-

https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=43352.msg757316#msg757316