The Mystery Aeroplane Quiz With No Pictures

[Bus429]

Look at the previous clues....

I stopped it going quiet...
...and I only cost 5 pence (I've given it away!!!!)

[BEagle]

You are Mrs Shilling's famous orifice! Put there to stop Merlin carburettors rich-cutting when chasing the dastardly bunting Boche with their injected DBs!

(For younger readers, 5p = 1/-)

[BEagle]

Oi!!

Etiquette requires that the previous puzzle is completed first, then the person who solves it may either pose another puzzle or throw it open to the floor...

But WTF. Were you British?

[Airbedane]

Well done L&S, you've certainly struck gold with this one!

Single engine?

[Airbedane]

Jet..................?

[Airbedane]

Zo....new page, a review is required:


- There were 5 of me, but only 4 flew. I started with a bang and stopped with a hook. I retired in 1952, aged 7.

- British, single piston.


Hmmmmmmmmmm..........................Blackburn?

[Airbedane]

Hawker....................................?

[BEagle]

You were the Fairey Spearfish!

And here's some info for those who've never heard of you: http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/Ai.../Spearfish.htm

[Airbedane]

Rats again, and I was just begining to enjoy myself.

Veron did a free-flight rubber powered scale model of the Spearfish of about 24" span. I've got a plan somewhere. It flew quite well too, if the example made by a colleague a few years ago was anything to go by.

OK Beags, what's next?

[BEagle]

I thought that the bang was the pneumatic catapult....

OK - Here's another:

In the 50s we both had five times as many engines as pilots! And one of us was 10 times the size of the other....

[Airbedane]

Short SC1........?

(Quick edit - I missed the '10 times as big as the other' bit!)

[BEagle]

Note that there were 2 of us......different types, that is!

But yes, there were 2 SC1s - so you're partly right!

[Airbedane]

10 times as big - you've got me there, BEags?

Didn't Shorts build a smaller scale version of one of their bombers at some time?

Lets go for basics again:..American?

[BEagle]

Shorts built a baby Stirling once - the half scale S31/M4 in 1938 powered by 4 Pobjoy engines - have a look here: http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Etropics/proto.htm

And yes, my second was Amuuuuuurican!

[Airbedane]

Four Pobjoys - that must have sounded interesting..............

So was your first British?

[BEagle]

Yes - you got it first time - 'twas the SC1 with 5xRB108s and 1 pilot.

But there was another, ten times bigger aeroplane with the same 5:1 ratio.....

[Airbedane]

The Do31 fits - 10 engines, two pilot's, and it's a lot larger than the SC1, but it was German, not American.

PS - are we talking V/STOL here?

[BEagle]

Short SC1: 1 pilot and 5 engines. 23ft wingspan. British.

Convair B-36: 2 pilots and 10 engines. 230 ft wingspan. American.

Quite correct, Speechless Two! Sorry, Airbedane, but I don't think that the Do-X was still airworthy in the '50s!

Now there was a Bristish ac 10 times the size of the SC1 in the 1950s, but it only had a mere 8 engines.....

[Aerohack]

The Do 31 (which was what Airbedane actually cited) wasn't — yet — airworthy in the 1950s, either. I think it flew 1967-ish. Remember seeing it at the '69 Paris Air Show. Also remember as a kid seeing a Spearfish at either Gosport or Lee-on-Solent — and I had that Veron model, Airbedane, but never built it. Wish I had one now!

[BEagle]

They would indeed!

I remember that Paris Air Show. The 10-engined Do-31 was unbelievably noisy, the Russian Mi-12 Homer was unbelievable. Both Concordes apperaed together for the first time, the B747 was astonishing - and Bob Hoover's Shrike Commander display was truly outstanding!

I was wrong - the Do-X had 12 engines. All 3 retired a mere 70 years ago!