What replica would you build?
 

Okay, lets put to one side the replica vs copy pedantic argument for the holiday season.

Lets sit back and indulge ourselves in a fantasy build-something-that's-no-longer-in-existence daydream :ok:

Now some rules:-

1) Funds are limited so no 12 engined flying boats
2) Permit to fly
3) Modern engines permitted
4) Modern materials permitted - I'm not into bamboo bombers
5) No one-off widow makers - we'll all want a go.

I'll throw a 6 to start.

The Hilson Praga. Hillson Praga, G-AEUT

Over to you - what would you like to see resurrected ?

Sir George Cayley

This won't take long:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Hawk_USAF.jpg

Since I got in a few licks on this sole remaining P-6E example 45 years ago, it's without question the ship I'd go for.
Maybe scale it down to 88% to use a more practical engine, not the 600 hp Curtiss V-12 of the original.

Westland Whirlwind - loved that 'plane since I made an Airfix model of it when I was about 10; it looks right - pity the engines were not developed further to make the reliable but the war demanded otherwise.

Heinkel 162. With a modern engine, it should be safe option. Eric Brown the Royal Navy test pilot who flew nearly all the captured German types at the end of WW2 reckoned it was the nicest handling aircraft he had ever flown.

SR-71
(Hey I really like them!)

Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation CA-15

Re-read SGC's rules. I don't think you would get a Permit to Fly for that and then there's obtaining the JP-7 fuel and the dedicated fleet of KC-135 tankers to go with it. :)

For me, after many flights of fantasy, it always comes back to the Avro 504. The aircraft that both my grandfathers learned to fly in the RNAS during WWI.

In keeping with the rules, I'll forgo the "common" 504K and build the now extinct 504J. It was in a J that my maternal grandfather had a flight that is recorded in his log book as "forced landing", but his photo album showed a sad-looking aircraft in a ditch by a hedge, labelled "My Crash".

The label was to distinguish it from many other crashed Avros and Maurice Farmans labelled with the pilot's name and all too often "(killed)".

Nearly half his class from RNC Woolwich were killed during training.

The subject of very slow flight has always interested me, so my replica will be the Handley Page Gugnunc. http://www.liming.org/ch801/slatplane01.jpg

Team Merlin - Projects - Imperial 42 - Page 1

Would have been nice, but has gone very quiet.

Dave

Saunders Roe Princess... nah, kidding!

There's something very appealing about the inter-war silver doped RAF biplanes and the continued re-emergence of Hawker aircraft of that era (I think a Fury might be close to airworthy) is a wonder. So something to complement them...

Depending on the availability of a suitable engine (I want a reproduction, not a replica), I'd go for something like a Siskin, Gamecock or Bulldog.

If a really big lottery win comes in, I'll be knocking on Skysport's door!

Supermarine Spiteful.

Perhaps somebody can find some Attacker wings somewhere.


Short Stirling.

Even static only would be good.

Bristol Beaufighter !!

DH Mosquito

Great suggestions guys - keep 'em coming. :D

Saw the Gugnunc at Wroughton many years ago; wonder if it's still around? The word gugnunc was part of a children's secret password in the inter war years but I can't remember the response.

Some suggestions need pictures - the Spiteful and the Streak for instance.

Sir George Cayley

For Comper Streak comper streak | comper | gipsy major | 1934 | 0377 | Flight Archive

For Spiteful there are many around, e.g. Supermarine Spiteful - fighter

Oh I think the BBMF deserves a Defiant, a Shorts Stirling, a Halifax and Wellington.

Mosquito & Beaufighter - actually would have been my second & third choices.


Not that I'm stuck in WII GB aircraft much.

dH Hornet. Another one 'Winkle' Brown had a liking for.

Shagbat.

I honestly think the last thing anyone needs to be reminded of was the quintessentially useless Defiant though.

It wasn't useless. It had a good record over Dunkirk but it was found out. The theory of having a gun turret fighter was wrong once it was 'found out'. But it did some work as a night fighter - I think it is on record as having more kills than the P-61 Blackwidow dedicated night fighter (but I have not researched that claim; yet).
Potentially it might have had use in the BoB if it had been employed to await bombers returning from their missons but with little escorting fighter cover left if any.
And it was a death trap for gunners unfortunately if shot down.

A Horsa

Then use it as the means of a national spot landing competition (where you stop not where you touch) from 2000ft in the overhead.