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Name this craft and win....nothing!

Hints:

It is neither fixed nor rotory wing, is powered by two "Neme" jet engines from a Gloster Meteor, and it's fuel is carried in an overhead drop tank.

What is it and what's it for?





If that one stumps ya', here's something more conventional...

man,,,,,kinda has that training simulator look to me,,,either that or its a hovercraft

I say one of those russian "Ground Effect" craft.

some sort of hovercraft??

I'd think hovercraft as well....or some kind of cold-war supersecret Zamboni???

Or some vertical lift oddity like the lunar module trainer the US had?

Well, you guys at least ain't cheatin' and lookin' over at Hovercontrol for your answers...
64.34.169.161/cgi-bin/...f=1;t=8512
...where this was finally identified (correctly) as the "SOTJIMAS"
(Single-Seat Opposed Twin Jet Ice Melter and Snowblower)...possibly making the guess of a kind of Zamboni machine pretty close...


Now...about the second, older cockpit pictured?

LMFAO!!!!!!!! Damn......I still say it qualifies as a Zamboni!!!!

To me, a giveaway was the lack of any obvious aircraft or rotary-style controls. Just that one footpedal in the middle of teh floor, and two levers...had a hunch that whatever it was, it was never made to leave the ground!

Now, the second one. Hmmmm.

Boy that sure looks like the cockpit and rear-cockpit area of a WWII bomber. Only problem is the number of panels on the windshield (too many for a B-17, maybe it's a B-24? Lancaster?). And whatever it was used for, it flew long and far enough to need a navigator/radio operator position back there.

Then the other odd thing is it looks like there are THREE tachs and sets of engine gauges as opposed to 2 or 4. That doesn't look quite like a Junkers Ju-52 cockpit, because it would have even more panels on the windscreen I think. Looks far more modern than a Ford Trimotor too.

Also the rudder pedals look odd, like anti-torque pedals on a helo, because I don't see any actual "pedal" which means there are no toe brakes.....unless it's English and the brakes work off a hand lever, Spitfire-style. Lancaster? Or it suggests skids, possibly.

Which means it could be a rotary-wing craft, with a huge windsheild, and some cockpit/airframe taken from some WWII bomber and modified, but if that's true, what's with the WHEEL control and where would the cyclic be?

And what's up with no manufacturer logo on those control wheels? I was hoping to see something helpful like a "Boeing" or "Lockheed" logo....but nothing.....which means that whatever it is, it's so ugly that not even the manufacturer wants to brag about being involved with it....

That's a good 'un!

JG300-Stoopy wrote:

Then the other odd thing is it looks like there are THREE tachs and sets of engine gauges as opposed to 2 or 4. ..... what's with the WHEEL control and where would the cyclic be?

Ãœber-mega clues there, Spudkins....

- JG300-Ascout

Well, you guys at least ain't cheatin' and lookin' over at Hovercontrol for your answers...

Now...about the second, older cockpit pictured?

I did see the answer yesterday at HC and was tempted to pull a fast one

My answer for the Russian Ground Effect craft was for the second one. It has that simplistic industrial Russian look to me, maybe German.

I take it that your "It is neither fixed nor rotory wing" comment was just for the Ice Killer?

I take it that your "It is neither fixed nor rotory wing" comment was just for the Ice Killer?

You'd be correct, Sir! The second one is defininitely an aircraft.
...and some of the comments are gonna' prove frustratingly close to providing the answer....youse guys is gonna' be a-kickin' yerselves.

It is a three-engine, modified Russian copy of a Junkers Ju-52, with the third engine rotated 90 degrees to face upwards and relocated to a mid-fuselage position wherein it drives a traditional main-rotor arrangement to provide vertical lift, with a power take-off provided via belts to an anti-torque rotor in the tail...in other words, something like an autogyro, but with two engines in outboard wing positions and a powered rotary wing as opposed to free-cycling, and viable anti-torque controls (hence the anti-torque pedals).

Igor Sikorsky had been working on the prototype in the early 40's for this but hadn't gotten any farther than rough drafts and a mockup airframe, before being ordered to work on standard aircraft projects due to wartime needs. The project languished at a standstill - the components were moved to a beet cellar and some of the avionics accidentally found their way into postwar exported Borscht, in fact - for well over a decade before being revived as part of the worldwide communist plot to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids by sweeping the 1958 Winter Olymopic Hockey event...a plot which the "Uber Zamboni" in the previous pictures played an absolutely integral role in, by allowing for far greater ice-melting-and-smoothing capabilities in much less time, thereby allowing for more extensive practice sessions and ice-time by the Russian Olympic Hockey Team candidates who were being culled and scouted all over the country...making the Uber Zamboni a much-in-demand secret weapon that was required to be airlifted in and out of small ice rinks all over Mother Russia, a very large country (and hence WHY there is a relatively large crew station in the VTOL Junkers-Copy & Uber Zamboni Support "Mothership", with a radio/navigator station behind the cockpit)...and THIS is exactly what led to the infamous "Zamboni Gap" of the late 50's and early 60's which literally took the whole world to the edge of Hockey brinksmanship.....scary times indeed!

Jeez Stoopy did you have to copy Google word for word.

Although it does appear the first cockpit pic has taken a tab of acid, I did notice next to the seat a lever that resembles a collective..........

Ah HA I say it's a Russian aircraft.............ding, ding, ding, ok Ascout tell Fr8ycat what he's won.................

Have to admit, I could not find 1 pic of a russian or german aircraft with that cockpit window config..........but I got bored real quick tryin.

What's really frightening are the "blackout curtains" for each panel of the windscreen and side windows. This wasn't The Manolo's plane, so those curtains could only mean one thing - crew protection in case a need existed to deploy the....(gasp)....ATOMIC ZAMBONI......which recently-declassified documents in the National Archives prove existed, and was to be used in parts of Russia near the Mongolian Deset, where the broad, flat sandy plains could be fused into a large sheet of glass with ice-like qualities perfect for training a team targeted for Global Hockey Domination.

Lotta dark history sittin' there in that picture......

Oh hey, it's not the plane in the pic, obviously, but while doing some digging I found this old poster and it's too classic!

"Everyone should have a plan!"

- JG300-Stoopy

It is a three-engine, modified Russian copy of a Junkers Ju-52, with the third engine rotated 90 degrees to face upwards and relocated to a mid-fuselage position wherein it drives a traditional main-rotor arrangement to provide vertical lift, with a power take-off provided via belts to an anti-torque rotor in the tail...in other words, something like an autogyro, but with two engines in outboard wing positions and a powered rotary wing as opposed to free-cycling, and viable anti-torque controls (hence the anti-torque pedals).

'Zat was velly clever, Mr. Bond...but alas...it 'vas also wrong.

Dornier Do318....and I woulda got it without the extra photo, I was sniffin' hot on the trail and the tusks had just about dug it up outta the underbrush!

Was in the process of studying the 3-view to verify windshield configuration.........

Actually I have to admit that's a lie. I did guess Do318 first but just changed my answer for the third time between a Do24 and 318. The two are very similar but the 318 has the middle engine raised above wing centerline, whereas the Do24 shows all engines mounted on a common centerline to the leading edge.

That it's a flying boat certainly explains the lack of toe brakes!!! D'oh!!