Originally Posted by
Tankertrashnav
Whatever happened to that Optica thingy? Saw one in the air once near Brum, think the local plod were trialling it at the time. Cheaper to operate than your average chopper I'd have thought?
A quick search (yes, it still works
) gives
this post on the 16th August, explaining the demise of the Optica:
Mimma, Actually it was the "Edgely Optica", the reverse of what you called it. I flew in it several times when we were trialing it and the only good thing I can say about it was that it gave a superb view.
But it was single engined, so could not be used for Police work in the UK. It wasn't very fast, we lost several speeding cars that got away from us when we were struggling with a head wind. It couldnt fly very slow either.I recall that it was fairly critical on C of G. The Pilot would adjust the amount of metal weights that he carried in the tail according to the weight of the single observer.
It could never carry all the Police Role equipement that Police a/c are expected to carry today.
In other words no use at all as a Police Aircraft but probably OK for Pipeline and powerline inspections.
I recall one very strange aspect of flying in the optica. The cabin was very low slung at the front of the machine. As a result the seats themselves were only about .7 of a metre above the runway so at take off, and even more at landing, you were almost expecting a burning sensation in your rear end as it scraped along the ground! The view forward was outstanding, the prop of course was behind you in its strange cowl. The engine noise was odd too, more of a loud buzz than anything else.
Altogether a weird machine but one with a very limited aplication. And because of those many restricting limitations, one that was never really going to succeed.
whitehead06