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JDK
1st Feb 2004, 22:07
OK, I’m sure everyone can remember that Germany was first into the air with the He178 in 1939, and Britain second with the Gloster E28/39, while the Americans made it third with the Bell XP-59.

But, how many more first national jets can you name? (Points for type, date, location, nation, and any extra ‘odd facts’ as well as a pic!) It’s a bit of fun, so here’s a few teasers to get it going.

1. Which country’s first jet was named ‘Spark’?

2. Which country’s first jet competed in the Lockheed Aerobatic Trophy?

3. Which country had two jets ready at the same time, so the first flight was followed by a second type hours later?

4. Which country’s first jet was intended to be an unmanned target?

5. How many ‘first jets’ are preserved and where? (Open Q this one!)

What was the last (to date) nation’s ‘first jet’ flight?

It’s an open thread (let’s see how much data can be snowballed onto it!) but for the record a first jet (to me!) is a new design flown as that country’s first indigenous machine – designer, engine and help can (and often were) foreign. By all means add first jet airliners, first rockets etc...

Enjoy!

Cheers
J

Boss Raptor
1st Feb 2004, 22:20
Q4 - Oz - Jindevik

JDK
1st Feb 2004, 22:21
Fast.

But for you million points, date please!

Boss Raptor
1st Feb 2004, 22:49
Oct 31st 1950, Woomera :ok:

Aerohack
1st Feb 2004, 23:00
2. Fokker S-14 'K-1' flown by Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands' personal pilot Gerben Sonderman in the 1955 Lockheed Aerobatic Trophy 19-20 August. (Nostalgic chorus of 'Ah, the Lockheed!'). Sonderman suffered an engine failure while inverted during his opening day's sequence, deadsticked the S-14 and was eliminated by the judges. Frenchman Alain Hisler placed second that year in the Sipa Minijet, between fellow countrymen winner (the great) Leon Biancotto and d'Huc Dressler, both Stampe-mounted.

3. Soviet Union. MiG I-200 (prototype MiG-9) and Yak-15. Both ready to fly at Chkalovskaya Flight Test Centre on 24 April 1946, to be flown respectively by 'Lesha' Grinchik and Mikhail Ivanov. Tossed coin for first to fly, Grinchik won, Ivanov followed.

JDK: can I add one? Which jet-engined aircraft made the first arrested landing on a carrier's deck? I had cause to check this just this past week, and found that the answer wasn't what I'd expected.

BEagle
1st Feb 2004, 23:04
1. Poland. PZL 'Iskra'.
2. Holland.
3. Soviet Union
4. Australia
5. Several!

Ryan XFR-1 Fireball. But the first pure jet was the DH Vampire on HMS Ocean.

JDK
2nd Feb 2004, 00:55
Good stuff.

Boss raptor is winnging the speed prize, while Aerohack wins the freight pr 'detailled answers' prize.

Beagle gets the clevercloggs award for failling to provide details!:p

More please!

If you answer one, you can ask one - how's that?

Aerohack
2nd Feb 2004, 02:17
Outstanding, BEagle. Until a nagging doubt prompted me to double check a few days ago, my money was on 'Winkle' Brown in the Vampire.

bolmas
2nd Feb 2004, 02:46
an OPEL SANDER RAK flew under rocket power in 1929, reaching 95mph in the process. it must have been interesting as it was a wood and canvas machine more like a training glider with twin booms

Aerohack
2nd Feb 2004, 03:51
So how many all-wood jets can we name (Vampires/Venoms with their wooden fuselage pods excluded)? I can think of maybe half-a-dozen.

.

JDK
2nd Feb 2004, 03:52
Hey, this could be fun!
Aerohack - I think it's that "Probably the best lager in the World" moment - the first 'pure' jet to land on a carrier.... Isn't that LZ551/G preserved at the magnificent Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton?

The Opel Rak - Indeed. Also had advertising on the side - early 'product placement'(?) There was a replica in the rafters at La Ferte Alais. I'll see if I can find a photy.

We seem to be missing some important countries here - first 'not really a jet but looks like one'? with garlic?

And talking of Garlic - France... What was unusual about their efforts?

Keep 'em coming...

Cheers
James K

BEagle
2nd Feb 2004, 04:59
JDK: Caproni-Campini CC2?

Bella macchina!!

What was strange about the early French jets? Dunno - except that the Triton SO 6000 (first French jet ac) was developed whilst France was still occupied. Also think it first flew with a German Junkers Jumo engine, but I'm not sure.

seacue
2nd Feb 2004, 05:30
What country's first [operational?] jet was created by replacing the German piston engine with a British jet engine?

Aerohack
2nd Feb 2004, 05:36
JDK: Yes, it's the 'pure jet' that's important here; the Fireball was a hybrid piston/jet, but was nonetheless the first aircraft fitted with a jet engine to trap aboard a carrier.

Thinking of swapping props for jets, which two commonplace business turboprops have also flown — with minimal modification — as jets? One should be easy, the other slightly more obscure.

sycamore
2nd Feb 2004, 05:40
SAAB J-21R, replaced the DB605( licence-built) with a D-H Goblin.:ok:


Aerohack- King Air 200 , replaced PT6`S with JT15`s to become FanJet 400, but didn`t enter production...

Rockwell Jet Commander?

BEagle
2nd Feb 2004, 05:52
Apart from the P1127, Kestrel and Harrier, which other British jet aircraft was flown with vectored thrust?

Aerohack
2nd Feb 2004, 05:56
syc: Quick work, and that was the difficult one! They called it PD290 initially. Last I heard it was sitting engineless at Boulder, Colorado, but that was a long time ago. The other was much nearer home (assuming you're in Europe).

sycamore
2nd Feb 2004, 06:19
Aerohack- ..we crossed, I re -edited my previous reply..

BEagle.. Hunting HP 126, and I am sure the 4 downward-facing jets on the Shorts SC1 had an element of f/a trim.....I`ll ask a friend who flew it.... 5 minute sortie length around Bedford...

spekesoftly
2nd Feb 2004, 06:19
Beags, Buccaneer? (boundary layer control).

BEagle
2nd Feb 2004, 06:35
Hmm - OK, half a point for the Hunting H. 126. Not really 'vectored thrust', more jet-flap. Nozzles were fixed, but most of the BS Orpheus' oomph was exhausted through the trailing edge flap slit.

Buccaneer - nope. Just a bit of blow (rather a lot actually) over the flaps, ailerons and tailplane flap.

Yes, SC1 could tilt its 4 RB 108s through 35 deg fore and aft to assist with decels and translation, so I'll have to give you that.

But which other British jet aircraft (not a P1127 derivative) - without separate lift engines - was flown with thrust vectoring fitted to the main propulsion system?

spekesoftly
2nd Feb 2004, 06:57
What about the experimental Meteor F4 that was fitted with two RR Nene engines and thrust deflectors?

sycamore
2nd Feb 2004, 07:15
BEags, Flying Bedstead?.... otherwise,,,,,something tells me there may have been a modified Meteor or Seahawk which had vectoring nozzles ...?

Archimedes
2nd Feb 2004, 07:52
You're not thinking of the Vulcan with the Pegasus rig slung beneath it are you, BEagle?? (He says vaguely recalling a picture of this and wondering whether he's made it all up).

Edited to add: not made up, but have doubts as to whether it flew.

So as a second guess, how about the Supermarine 517 (hinged rear fuselage and jet pipe)?

Web-Footed Flyer
2nd Feb 2004, 10:29
Maybe out of contest (willfully intended) with the first post on this subject but here is the first north american jetliner.

Desingned, built and flown a good while before the 707.

http://www.avroland.ca/al-c102.shtml

W-FF

Trop haut, trop bas, trop tard!

BEagle
2nd Feb 2004, 12:56
spekesoftly has the answer! RA490, a Meteor F4, was indeed fitted with twin Nene engines with exhaust defectors. The jet efflux could either be directed rearwards or at a fixed downward angle. The nacelles were extended forward, ballast was fitted in the rear of the aeroplane and additional end plate vertical fins added to the tailplane. It could actually be flown with deflected thrust operating at speeds down to 70 KIAS. Though what would have happened if an engine had failed at such a low speed on the approach, I'd hate to imagine as I don't think that it had a bang seat! Certainly not a zero-zero seat.

When did all this happen? Exactly 50 years ago...

I used to explore the old tunnels over which the ac would be positioned for ground tests at Merryfield when I was a youngster. Probably vanished for ever now..

Was there a Vulcan with a Pegasus underneath? I know there was the well-known underslung Olympus research ac for the TSR2 programme, but a Pegasus....??

OK - I'll give you the Supermarine 517. But I think that the rear fuselage jet pipe 'vectoring' was only a corollary of the tailplane incidence setting, rather than a deliberate research device?

treadigraph
2nd Feb 2004, 14:56
Aerohack, unless I've missed it, don't think anyone answered your "much nearer to home" - like Sycamore, I'm also thinking Aero Commander, but modified in France with a pair of engines (Turbomecas?) suspended under the wings. Can't remember what they did with the gear though... Can't think of any others...

Woomera
2nd Feb 2004, 15:12
Thinking of swapping props for jets, which two commonplace business turboprops have also flown — with minimal modification — as jets?

Turbo Commander = Jet Commander (didn't that become the Westwind?)

Embraer EMB120 = Embraer 145

I thought the Beech 400 was a development of the Mitsubishi Diamond, not the King Air 200?

Dale Harris
2nd Feb 2004, 15:22
Correct with the mitsubishi woomera

treadigraph
2nd Feb 2004, 15:48
Aero Commander built the 1121 Jet Commander (Ted Smith mid-winged design) which was a purpose built jet, later sold to IAI and became the Westwind. So far as I know it's a distinct design though perhaps there is commonality with the earlier piston/turbine Commanders...

The French re-engined Commander 680 (I think I saw one a Gatwick once) was a testbed, and there may have been two...

Beech did purchase the Mitsubishi Diamond programme and built it as the Beechjet 400 (or Beech 400 Beechjet?), but this was distinct to the re-engined King Air 200 which came much earlier.

Treadders

Aerohack
2nd Feb 2004, 16:05
Woomera/Treadders: No, not the Jet Commander, which was an entirely new design. But yes, Aero Commander it was: two Turbo Commanders, a 680V and 680W IIRC, modified with a pair of underslung Turbomeca Astafans. One at least, and maybe both, were modded by Miles Aircraft at Ford before serving Turbomeca as tesbeds and later runabouts.

Beech's PD290/'Fanjet 400' was unrelated to the Diamond/Beechjet/Hawker 400XP. It was a Super King Air 200 (actually the very first 200) with a pair of JT-15D-4s mounted in overwing nacelles. It flew less than 100 hours in 1975-1977 before Beech abandoned the idea.

BEagle
2nd Feb 2004, 16:54
Everyone knows that the Percival Provost evolved into the Jet Provost, but can you name another Brit civil aeroplane which started its life under piston engine power and later became a jet?

While your mulling over that, name 3 Brit piston airliners with jet-engined versions or developments? Pure-jet, not turbo-prop!

treadigraph
2nd Feb 2004, 17:24
BEagle, you must be referring to the Mile Sparrowhawk G-ADNL which became the Miles Sparrowjet and was eventually lost in a fire at ... memory fade... but there are some remnants which will re-emerge with Fred Dunkerly's son Alan?

Avro Ashton, which I imagine was developed from the Tudor...?

sycamore
2nd Feb 2004, 18:06
BEags--- Nene-Viking.

And while we`re busy, what British design started with Turboprops, but went back to big piston power for a customer?

JDK
2nd Feb 2004, 18:11
Good stuff chaps,

First jets please for:
Spain? & Designer?
Italy (pure, not compound)?
India & Pakistan?
Belgium?

shack
2nd Feb 2004, 18:17
__________________________________________________

spekesoftly has the answer! RA490, a Meteor F4, was indeed fitted with twin Nene engines with exhaust defectors. The jet efflux could either be directed rearwards or at a fixed downward angle. The nacelles were extended forward, ballast was fitted in the rear of the aeroplane and additional end plate vertical fins added to the tailplane. It could actually be flown with deflected thrust operating at speeds down to 70 KIAS. Though what would have happened if an engine had failed at such a low speed on the approach, I'd hate to imagine as I don't think that it had a bang seat! Certainly not a zero-zero seat.

When did all this happen? Exactly 50 years ago...
_________________________________________________

Sorry BEagle your date is a little out. I was a QFI at Merryfield 50 years ago and the only Meteors were the few Mk 7s we had left. It must have been either before mid 1952 or after 1954 when the AFS closed and we were all posted away.

(Once a trapper always a perdantic git!!!)

BEagle
2nd Feb 2004, 18:48
Shack,
Re: RA490, the only piccies I've seen certainly look like Merryfield and those tunnels (north side of RW27, just about abeam the GCA site on the area just north of the Westlands hangar) were certainly there! The ac was converted in 1952 and went to Farnborough in August 1954. It wasn't operated by the RAF, but by Westlands. But as you were there at the time and reckon you never saw it, perhaps the tunnels were never used? My late father knew about the project, so perhaps it only made a fleeting visit to Merryfield?

treadigraph,

Yes, 10 out of 10. Sadly the only Sparrowjet was destroyed in a hangar fire at RAF Upavon in July 1964.

Avro Ashton, yes again (1948). Based upon the still borne Tudor Mk 9.

sycamore,

Yes, Nene Viking (1948). The ac which started with turboprops but was fitted with big pistons for a large customer was the Argus - a Canadian derivation of the Bristol Brittania. It had 4 Wright R-3350s instead of 4 BS Proteuses (Protei?)

..and the 3rd one, chaps?

JDK,

Spain - Hispano HA200 Saetta designed by Willi Messerscmidt?
Italy - Fiat G80
India- Was there an indigenous design before the Ajeet?
Pakistan - Supermarine Attacker (they must have had good salesmen!)
Belgium- Nil points, je regret!

treadigraph
2nd Feb 2004, 19:47
Belgium - how about the Promavia Jet Squalus (but designed by Italian Maestro, Stelio Frati)

I'm racking my brains here (they have to be stored somehow) but I can't think of that third piston to jet UK airliner...

sycamore
2nd Feb 2004, 22:19
India---17 June 1961 Hindustan HF-24 Marut Mk 1

Egypt-- ?

BEagle
2nd Feb 2004, 22:37
Oops - forgot the Marut!

Egypt - Helouan HA-300 (7 March 1964).

Now give me 2 connections between these two ac!

sycamore
2nd Feb 2004, 23:09
BEags, Avro Lancastrian, for R-R, De-H,Bristol, and Armlong-Woolworth, as engine test-beds.

Willi Messerschmitt, and Kurt Tank. Designers:ok:

B-S Orpheus 703 powerplant

BEagle
2nd Feb 2004, 23:24
Correct about Willi and Kurt! I'll accept the BS Orpheus but really the connection was that the Helouan E-300 turbojet for the HA-300 was first to be tested in a Marut test-bed.

Sorry, pure jet airliners only. So I'll have to rule out the Lancastrian. Keep trying;)

Archimedes
2nd Feb 2004, 23:26
BEagle,

There was a Vulcan with a 'Pegasus' beneath.

I was thinking of the BS100 engine testbed (so derivative rather than Pegasus), which would've had such a configuration had the P1154 not been cancelled.

Once this happened, the Vulcan testbed was, naturally enough, not required. XA896, I think it was (or 698).

BEagle
2nd Feb 2004, 23:42
How right you are!

"Rolls-Royce were allocated £9 million of development work on the BS.100, including conversion of the Vulcan B.1A test-bed, XA896"


:ok:

sycamore
2nd Feb 2004, 23:50
I GIVE UP!!!, but still fishing-- must have been a Hermes?

However; which British pax a/c had a proposed derivative using a rocket in the event of an engine-failure, to provide the necessary thrust on t/o?

Which pax/freighter was a victim of it`s name?

treadigraph
2nd Feb 2004, 23:53
Sycamore - Vanguard? No, can't be...

JDK
3rd Feb 2004, 00:04
First German postwar design please?

What about the firsr Czeck machine; oh, their own design, please, not a German they had hanging around...

South America seems to be missing here - any offers?

Cheers
James
(Feeding fish to the sharks... ;) )

BEagle
3rd Feb 2004, 01:25
OK chaps - time to let you off the hook:

The 3 airliners I was after were:

1948 Avro Ashton (based on the Avro Tudor Mk 9)
1948 Vickers Nene Viking

and, (roll of drums):

1950 Vickers Type 663 Tay Viscount (G-AHRG or VX217)

Pax/freighter victim of its own name? The awfully ugly Aviation Traders 'Accountant'!

treadigraph
3rd Feb 2004, 01:37
Aw BEags, wasn't the Tay Viscount modified from a turboprop not a piston! Yer led us up the garden parf mate!

BEagle
3rd Feb 2004, 01:58
Oops - terribly sorry everyone. I should have said Brit 'propeller driven' airliners......

sycamore
3rd Feb 2004, 03:11
I thought you might be making a play on types ,ie DH Comet.


OK... First European single-seat, single-engined swept wing fighter to enter to enter Service ?( not a Messerschmitt).

First European jet to exceed M 1 without reheat, in level flight ?

First German jet --- Do 31/231, 2 Pegasus, plus 8 R-R RB162`s in Feb 1967
First Czech, Aero L29 Delfin in April 1959

First Argentinian FMA I Ae 27 Pulqui, Aug.1947
First Japanese Fuji TF1 Jan 1958 B-S Orpheus

What was the first Swiss jet, and what is it`s legacy to one of todays hottest private/corporate jets ??:bored:

treadigraph
3rd Feb 2004, 04:16
First Swiss jet was named something like the FFA P-1600, the wings of which were incorporated into the Lear Jet!

BEagle
3rd Feb 2004, 04:38
First post-war German jet aircraft wasn't the Do31, it was the Hansa Jet (HFB320) which first flew on 21 Apr 1964. There's one in the Airbus Deutschland complex at Finkenwerder, Hamburg.

First European single-seat swept wing fighter to enter service? Saab J-29 'Tunnan' or 'Flying barrel'.

First European fighter capable of exceeding Mach 1 in level flight without afterburner? Either the Super Mystere or the Saab J-35 Draken.

spekesoftly
3rd Feb 2004, 05:33
The design of the first Learjet (Model 23) was based on the known structural integrity of the AFA P-16 Swiss strike-fighter. (But treadders got there first!)

sycamore
3rd Feb 2004, 05:49
I stand corrected BEags on the Hansajet..

Well done Treadders and Speke....now what about this one with the rocket to get you out of trouble ? hint... a look at another thread on the forum might point you in the right direction... or not !!

BEagle
3rd Feb 2004, 06:09
Booster rocket on an airliner? Well, 2 actually. The idea was to fit 2 x DH Sprite rocket motor on early (1949) Comet 1 ac. The 5000 lbst Sprite motors were to be fitted between each pair of DH Ghost engines.

Fortunately the Avon proved a somewhat safer, if less spectacular alternative!

treadigraph
3rd Feb 2004, 06:10
I knew P-1600 didn't sound quite right - wasn't that a Volvo car? Or something...

OK:

Two 1950s British designed and built from scratch light jets - one a private venture trainer, the other a racer. One only of each...

spekesoftly
3rd Feb 2004, 06:12
A number of experimental test flights were made using Comet GALVG, fitted with two 5000lb thrust Sprite rocket motors, between 1951 and 1952, including demonstration RATOs at the SBAC show at Farnborough in September 1952.

Edit:- (Ah!, beaten again, this time by BEags) ;)


There was certainly a Volvo P-1800, didn't 'The Saint' (Roger Moore) drive a white one?

BEagle
3rd Feb 2004, 06:32
Yes, Roger Moore did indeed drive a white Volvo P1800S in the TV series "The Saint". There were at least 4 cars used, but Roger used one of them, NUV 647E, as his own personal vehicle.

This was the saloon version, not the later P1800ES estate version(which looked jolly smart in metallic blue with a black leather interior! Always fancied one of those)!

sycamore
3rd Feb 2004, 06:40
First European jet to exceed M1 in level flight, without re-heat was the Nord 1402/1405 Gerfaut......

The Sprites on the Comet were there to boost the T/O if hot/high, so , close, but no banana.......however, it was the Tri....... !

By Miles, and Miles, the Sparrowjet and Student:ok:

spekesoftly
3rd Feb 2004, 07:26
I can just picture the scene at Hatfield .....


"Look chaps, the Trident EFATO performance really isn't up to spec, but we've got a spare pair of Sprite rocket motors left over from the Comet programme .........."

Which mark of Trident ? Surely not the 3B? A Six engined Trident!!!! :p

Or as JC would have said "Oh Crikey!"

treadigraph
3rd Feb 2004, 15:26
Well done Sycamore, the Student is one... but, as mentioned earlier, the Sparrowjet was a highly modified Sparrowhawk. The aeroplane I'm thinking of was an absolute one off, and sadly not terribly successful. I think it still exists somewhere...

But its airfield of birth has much in common with Miles!

I wondered about the Trident, whether a Sprite up the booster might have been envisaged?

BEagle
3rd Feb 2004, 15:57
A Sprite up the booster? Sounds painful...:eek:

The other jet - I can only think of the Short Sherpa experimental dsign. But not an air racer.

sycamore
3rd Feb 2004, 16:02
Lateral thinking chaps !!!
Not the Trident, it was of course the Tri....... Mk 111-4 ..:ok:

spekesoftly
3rd Feb 2004, 18:35
There is a BN Trislander Mk 111-3, so a proposed Mk 111-4 with additional rocket motors? :ooh:

Loki
4th Feb 2004, 01:42
Early jets which were originally piston engined.

Can`t find the right book which I may still have lying about somewhere , but I`m sure there was at least one Soviet fighter (Lavochkin?) which had a jet stuffed in/under the nose....early post war. Not sure if it went into production, I think us giving them a few freebies sent their designs off in a different direction.

sycamore
4th Feb 2004, 03:31
NOW HEAR THIS !!
Correction to the first Swiss Jet---- E.K.W , the Swiss Federal factory designed a STOL jet fighter -bomber, with 4 SM-1 engines, named the N-20 Aiguillon which was taxiied and hopped, in April 1952, but never actually "flew". It looks very similar to a small Vulcan, and a 60% scale( N-20), the EKW Arbalete, powered by 4 T`meca Pimene engines flew 91 times, before the N-20 was dropped in 1953 in favour of the more conventional FFA P-16 which flew in 1955.

Apologies, but it`s a little bit of history; be interesting if anyone out there gnomes any more.

Rocket boosted Trislander!! I think they were just going to shovel-up all the coal-dust and chuck it into the Elsan with a firework... wot, no Elsan??

Just found a few on Jugoslavia; S-451 Zolja,built 1953, with 2 Palas jets; S-441MM Matica 2001, with 2 Marbore jets (2 seater), and the J-451MM Strsljen 21001 single seater. They look remarkably like small Meteors,tandem and single-seat, with tailplanes half-way up the fins.

The SOKO Galeb didn`t fly until 1961...

JDK
4th Feb 2004, 05:24
Good call Loki,
You are thinking of the Yak. Take one Yak 9 (nice fighter, best of W.W.II in some eyes) add BMW under nose, voila, short cut. They built a few too!

Sycamore - max points on the theme of the original question (Although we are enjoying all the byways aren't we chaps...;)) You may now collect your 'Mornington Cresent' station badge.

Any other contenders?
Cheers
James K

treadigraph
4th Feb 2004, 06:20
Nice try BEags, but not close (but a nice aeroplane as well...)

I'm thinking of a private venture - almost homebuilt perhaps - jet. Clue: think of a well known name associated with the Throttle Benders Club and another (I think I'm right on this one) with the Air Registration Board... That will give yuou 95% of the name... Aerohack will know what I'm talking about...

PS - 'Ere - whowasit? Was I right about Belgium's first jet being the Squalus (1980ish), or did they produce anything before that?

sycamore
4th Feb 2004, 06:39
JDK. Yak-3 actually ....!!:ok:

JDK
4th Feb 2004, 16:24
Drat, corrected.
So what was the Yak 3 AFTER it had a German jet stuffed up its nose?
Cheers
James K

Silas Blattner
4th Feb 2004, 19:41
Mr Treadigraph, are you thinking of the Summers-Kendal something imaginative like SK1 ?. Can't check this as the Blattner Library is in storage at present.

Silas.

treadigraph
4th Feb 2004, 19:54
Spot on Silas (or close enough!) The Somers-Kendall SK-1 was a pretty butterfly-tailed two seat jet - here's a link to a photo, courtesy of the G-INFO site.

http://www.caa.co.uk/srg/aircraft_register/ginfo/photo.asp?regmark=G-AOBG&imgnumber=001&imgtype=jpg

Well known racing Pilot Nat Somers and Hugh Kendal (I have it in mind that he was with the ARB as a test pilot, but did he also fly for Miles?) were behind it.

I have an idea it still exists, although de-registered...

JDK
4th Feb 2004, 20:17
72 posts of jet obscurity.

Superb.

Keep it going folks, and we'll cruise past that Mmmmmiles thread before we know it :p

First New Zealand jet?

Cheers

James

sycamore
5th Feb 2004, 03:22
Treadders; S-K-1 G-AOBG, last known according to my book either at or near Denham

JDK... Yak-15, then -17

The first Oz jet to be flown was the G.A.F. Pika, and later the Jindivik.

JDK
5th Feb 2004, 05:27
Now, Sycamore,
Wales is not England. New Zealand is not Australia. Question stands.

You have an Aussie here...:p

Woomera
5th Feb 2004, 08:20
JDK. Can't tell you the first Kiwi jet, but the A4's (now stored for sale) have to be the last before the RNZAF was effectively disbanded....!!! :\

henry crun
5th Feb 2004, 09:26
JDK. The first jet aircraft to fly in NZ was a Meteor 111, NZ 6001, in about 1946/47.

It flew demonstration flights for a while but that was all.
The Vampire was the first jet aircraft to enter RNZAF service in 1951.

JDK
5th Feb 2004, 16:21
Thank you Woomera & Henry,
For enumerating the point that (as an Aussie) I'd just like to point out that the Kiwis have yet to fly their own jet design. Ah, well, the 20th C beckons them no doubt.;)
Cheers
James K

treadigraph
5th Feb 2004, 19:17
Off-topic, but have there been many indigenous NZ designs? Apart from Pearse...

Off hand, I can only think of the Fletcher ag planes (designed by John Thorpe?) but I am sure there must be more.