yet another mystery plane thread
 

from the Frontiers of Flight Museum website:

http://flightmuseum.com/mysteryplane.htm

Ikarus 451

http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contri...vidic/4623.jpg
Museum of Yugoslav Aviation, Surcin Airport, Belgrade

Two inverted Walter six-cylinder engines of 158 bhp, 22 ft wingspan, maximum speed 182 knots, ceiling 15,570 ft.

Blimey! I do hope that's prone pilot, or he must be bl:eek::eek:dy uncomfortable!

Comments from the author of the above photo:

That's an excellent position in some circumstances but not, in my experience , for flying an aeroplane.

I seem to remember that this position though not very comfy is great for high G maneuvres. There was a German testbed plane during WWII that was used to research the possible combat effectiveness of these sort of planes, puling up to 15g didnt seem to be a problem.

One German aircraft was actually a glider that carried a cannon to use against allied bombers.
British contributions were the prone pilot Meteor and the Reid and Sigrist Desford(which looked similar to the aircraft pictured, but had a 'normal' cockpit as well)

...and round-the-world Voyager


(sort of)

When I was doing my PPL at Carlisle in 1964, the Desford mentioned by Chevvron paid a visit. Several of us were given a ride in the 'prone' cockpit. A strange experience, especially on landing. I've managed to find some photos prior to the 'prone' conversion, but none after.

Airclues

The Prone Pilot Desford was known as the Bobsleigh - then restored to the UK register as the Desford Trainer. When Captain Airclues had his go it was operated by Kemp's Aerial Surveys, and survives today at East Fortune. Looked better in its original form I think.

There's a pic of it on this fascinating page, but be warned it contains a lot of historic - and not so historic - pics from Coventry - worth a peruse if you have Broadband:

http://www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/id39.htm

The Prone Pilot Meteor still exists in a museum as well I believe?

The prone pilot Meteor is in the excellent museum at Cosford