unconventional float planes or flying boats

[Captain Canada]

That XPB3-Y1 is awesome ! Just imagine !

[Weaver]

And at the other end of the size scale, the wonderfully '30s-barmy Seagull:



LOADS more info and a paper model to buy at Fiddler's Green:

http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/models/Aircraft/Sea-Gull-Flying-Boat.html

[Captain Canada]

Wow that's awesome Weaver !

Did you ever finish that Connie Francis McColm ? There was only one pic on FB.

[McColm]

There is a few more, the Connie Francis has rear guns,front upper and lower machine gun turret fitted.Under going filler and sanding.Adding access ladders, still need to fit the propellers.

[jcf]

The One-bladed Autogyro was a proposal based on the Model 31, the single Model 31 built
was later modified to a patrol bomber configuration and procured by the USN under the
designation XP4Y-1. The PB3Y-1 was a different project.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_Model_31

[Captain Canada]

I was just looking at it again....I thought when you said single bladed rotor you meant like a Huey ! I wonder how much counter weight would be in the 'ball' end ? Just seems wonky now !

[The Rat]

I was just looking at it again....I thought when you said single bladed rotor you meant like a Huey ! I wonder how much counter weight would be in the 'ball' end ? Just seems wonky now !

Can't speak for rotors, but I've heard that a single-blade propellor, with a counterweight, is the most aerodynamically efficient type.

[PR19_Kit]

I was just looking at it again....I thought when you said single bladed rotor you meant like a Huey ! I wonder how much counter weight would be in the 'ball' end ? Just seems wonky now !

Can't speak for rotors, but I've heard that a single-blade propellor, with a counterweight, is the most aerodynamically efficient type.

Back in the late 50s. some control-line speed models had single bladed counterweighted props, maybe for that very reason. They looked VERY odd when sitting there on their take-off dollies with the engine stopped but of course you didn't notice it when they were running.

[The Rat]

Back in the late 50s. some control-line speed models had single bladed counterweighted props, maybe for that very reason. They looked VERY odd when sitting there on their take-off dollies with the engine stopped but of course you didn't notice it when they were running.

I've seen some on those tiny little rubber powered models, the ones that are covered with microfilm and fit in the palm of your hand.

[Faust]

I've always thought the big Tupolevs lent themselves to being "floatified", what with the long fairings for the undercarriage sticking out the back of the wings.

Just think of a Tu-16 with long floats tucking up under the wings into, or even becoming, those long fairings! How cool would that look?

[McColm]

In the real world experiments have been carried out with air cushion landing systems instead of using the undercarriage provided.
I've come up with my version and added it to a 1/72 C-130. You may know it by the name " Mad Hatter". Using parts from the Airfix 1/144 Hoverspeed Hovercraft kit. The skirt/cushion is inflated and an added bonus acts as a counter weight. So there is no tail sitting. I had to use some filler/putty for the gaps. The previous owner has left the seam joining the two fuselage halves showing. Might cheat and add something over the top to conceal it. Using red paint on the wingtips, rudder and tail planes, and cockpit area to create a Polar AEW aircraft for landing/take off on ice. I will kitbash a pair of auxiliary jet pods from the Frog B-47E kit. If I can clean up the cockpit glazing or replace it with a spare. I'll try not to break off the aerials.

[Diamondback]

I'll throw in an oddball... a stealth flying-boat a prof and I designed in my college days.

415' OAL, 400' span once airborne and wingtips rotated down into Subsonic Cruise position, SIXTEEN of the largest, most powerful jet engines ever built for a total of two million pounds static thrust running as high-bypass turbofans.

Yes, that Saturn V is to-scale...


Head-on subsonic:


Side:


Intakes are dorsal for the eight main engines, shown as solid because I haven't mastered the art of modeling meshes yet.

[McColm]

Being trying to create something along the same lines with a B-58 and F-117 but on a much smaller scale. Thanks for the concept.

[Diamondback]

The concept was something like "XB-70 meets A-12 Avenger II meets F-117, all hopped up on an insane dose of anabolic steroids." Scary part? The concept calls for packing 12-16 X-47s as embarked parasites, plus two big 16"/50 naval rifles. At supersonic speeds it would ride on a compression wave a la XB-70, but with two centerbodies helping up the compression factor along with force-feeding more air into the bottom eight engines. (1-8, the inboards, are for normal flight; 9-16, the underwing nacelles, are for high-speed or vertical-lift at Reduced Gross Weight--forward lift-fan ducts are shown closed.)

Yes, you read that right, we're talking BATTLESHIP GUNS on an aircraft... there's a reason my prof's brother-in-law who was an active one-star at the time called the thing a "Doomsday Plane." You CAN have it all, but the cost is so insane it will bankrupt your country for generations... and that's by design to ensure this monster CAN never be built.

[Joe C-P]

um. wow.