What's the most amazing flying machine you've seen in person?

[Plthijnx]

when i was flying yesterday i saw "the guppy" landing at ellington field. that was pretty cool!

[Mike]

We had a Bearcat, a B25, and two Super Connies in CMA which were also very impressive. Watching the Constellation start up was an adventure in itself.
Another one I've seen and really liked is the B-17 !!! What a machine!!
(the B-17 strips aren't invented either! )

[Roland]

I found to observe a Kaman K-Max flying logs out of steep woods amazing.

But the most amazing aircraft I have seen in action was a C 130 Hercules doing a flight display at an air-show. The showed STOL abilities, flyby with rear ramp down and the two outboard engines off and on a steep the approach you could see through the whole plane …

[fireflyr]

Speaking of K-Max, I have a question for you fling-wing jocks,   Do the Kaman fly much different than standard helicopter?   In the absense of a tail rotor, what are the rudder pedals connected to?

[Have Blue]

I got to watch a V-22 take off after a friend's flight lesson at our local feild. (KBED)  Seeing it made it so much more real...
At an airshow, I saw an F-86, a (very cool) captured MiG-15, a C-5 and JATO C-130, and F-14 on ramp(that thing was so cool-and big!), I was climbing inside the intake of an F-15 before the pilot yelled at me , and an E-2.  That was a fun airshow...  There was an SR-22 at humble little Minuteman Airfield.  That was very cool.

[Mike]

Speaking of K-Max, I have a question for you fling-wing jocks,   Do the Kaman fly much different than standard helicopter?   In the absense of a tail rotor, what are the rudder pedals connected to?

The pedals tie in the main rotor-heads somehow. Again Roland would know more about this than I do because he's a Kamax mechanic. They tilt against eachother and that gives you a rotation around the nose somehow. But a pilot doesn't need to learn new controls from scratch. They still look the same on the inside. There are some diffences I heard pilots say. You just want to let the tail swing in the wind if you can, because if you try to keep your nose at a certain heading at all cost in a hover you run into somthing called cross-controlling or so where the two rotors will actually start touching.
The Kamax school is pretty expensive I heard. I am sure there are all kinds of little quorkes with it that "normal" helicopters don't have....

They look cool when you look down at them, huh? I am sure you see that, flying airattack and all....

[fireflyr]

The most amazing part of watching a KMax is the startup---I mean, when you watch the rotors begin to intermesh you swear there is no way the darn thing is going be able to keep from self destructing!

They had some smaller ones (I think--not sure)  in Vietnam but I never saw one close up until 2 years ago when I worked them on a fire in Williams Arizona.  Blew me away when I found out they are classified as Type 1 helitankers---they seem so small compared to a Crane, but I believe they carry an 800 gallon bucket.

Got a couple of question for 'Have Blue'--what's an SR-22, why were you climbing into an intake, and what did the F-15 jock say (if it's printable)? 

[Frank N. O.]

Wow you guys have really seen many great planes 

I'd like to know how how small Have Blue is to be able to climb inside an F-15 intake, and btw an SR-22 is a Cirrus model if I remember correctly.

Frank

[Roland]

To the K-Max:

The K-Max flies slightly different compared to a “conventional” helicopter, but this is the same with tandem rotor helos like the Chinook. The reasons for this are the TWO main rotors.

On the K-Max the pedals are connected to the rudder on the tail-boom. This is effective in forward flight only.

The pedals are further connected to the both intermeshing main rotor systems via a quite complex mixing unit within the flight control system. Only so much here: the input on the pedals let tilt the two rotor systems back and forward differently so the systems create different directions of thrust = turn. It also rises and lowers the angle of attack of both rotor systems to create different torque = turn.

Cool, huh? Took me two weeks at the training department at Kaman to understand this.

[fireflyr]

Wow you guys have really seen many great planes 

I'd like to know how how small Have Blue is to be able to climb inside an F-15 intake, and btw an SR-22 is a Cirrus model if I remember correctly.

Frank

OHMYGOSH, I really am getting forgetful!!!!!     A Cirrus SR-22.    When I saw all the neat military stuff Have Blue was talking about, my pea brain was thinking an SR-22 was a earlier version of an SR-71 or something-----HAHAHAHAHA------Well DUH! 
I can embarass myself quit well, no help needed. 

[Gulfstream Driver]

A-12 was the predecessor to the SR-71.   

Is there an advantage to the K-max over a conventional helicopter?  Just from the looks of it, and the description of the rudder system in hovering flight, it seems really complicated.  KISS principle may have broken down.

[Ted_Stryker]

A-12 was the predecessor to the SR-71.

Is there an advantage to the K-max over a conventional helicopter? Just from the looks of it, and the description of the rudder system in hovering flight, it seems really complicated. KISS principle may have broken down.

Hmm... the A-12, I believe, was the predecessor to the B-2.  The U-2 spyplane was the SR-71's official predecessor (which was originally named the RS-71 until a dignitary reversed the letters during the rollout ceremony).

[Sleek-Jet]

A-12 was the predecessor to the SR-71.

Is there an advantage to the K-max over a conventional helicopter? Just from the looks of it, and the description of the rudder system in hovering flight, it seems really complicated. KISS principle may have broken down.

Hmm... the A-12, I believe, was the predecessor to the B-2.  The U-2 spyplane was the SR-71's official predecessor (which was originally named the RS-71 until a dignitary reversed the letters during the rollout ceremony).

Uh no.... the A-12 was built for the CIA, and is a predecessor to the SR-71.  The A-12 was a single seat with a large camera mounted behind the pilot (like the U2), where the Electronics officer sits in the SR-71. 

Check out www.habu.org for alot of history and pics. 

[Ted_Stryker]

A-12 was the predecessor to the SR-71.

Is there an advantage to the K-max over a conventional helicopter? Just from the looks of it, and the description of the rudder system in hovering flight, it seems really complicated. KISS principle may have broken down.

Hmm... the A-12, I believe, was the predecessor to the B-2.  The U-2 spyplane was the SR-71's official predecessor (which was originally named the RS-71 until a dignitary reversed the letters during the rollout ceremony).

Uh no.... the A-12 was built for the CIA, and is a predecessor to the SR-71.  The A-12 was a single seat with a large camera mounted behind the pilot (like the U2), where the Electronics officer sits in the SR-71. 

Check out www.habu.org for alot of history and pics. 

Ah, ok.  We are BOTH right on this one.  A-12 was the internal Lockheed designation for the RS-71 (aka SR-71) prototype, but the plane was never called that in service.  Nice link for the SR-71, by the way.  Also, you may not be aware of this, but the CIA versions of the SR-71 had the red striping on it.

What I was thinking about, and this is probably due to my working at McDonnell Douglas, now called The Boeing Company, in the Integrated Defense Systems group, was the A-12 Avenger program which was cancelled.  It is indeed the B-2 predecessor, and was based on a stealth version of the original "Flying Wing" which had both prop and jet versions long before there was technology to make it a viable aircraft.

For information on the A-12 Avenger, here is a link...

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/a-12.htm

[Gulfstream Driver]

Another good source for SR-71 info and stories is the book Sled Driver.  I forget the author now, but he was an SR-71 pilot.  I did a report on the SR-71 for Advanced Aerodynamics, and that book was my main source.  Really fascinating stuff.