The Complexity of the Floor of an F1 Car

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Anyone who follows the details of Formula One is familiar with the endless efforts that go into the design of the aerodynamics of the car. Anyone that knows me knows that I love the aero side of things. The designs will be updated throughout a season to try and maximise the downforce on the car whilst minimising the drag penalty from that downforce. Taking a look at a Williams F1 car at Beaulieu gave a bit of a hint of the tiny details that are included in the design. There is a good chance that this car was not even an operational example and the aero features might not be representative of an actual racing set up, but they are a good approximation of what is involved, and the reality is that it is quite amazing.

An Original Lynx is Welcome

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The Westland Lynx was a popular type and it sold well around the world. However, time has moved on and many operators have replaced their examples. The AW159 Wildcat has been the successor in some operators but other types have replaced them for most countries. Having an original Lynx still in use is a nice treat and the German Navy has not yet replaced all of theirs. They brought one to RIAT this year and the smooth lines of the original design are relatively untouched on their versions. They will soon be gone so this was a good opportunity to see one again.

A Day for the Bus Spotters

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The visit to Imber that I recently posted about was facilitated by a fleet of buses. Many of these were quite old. Some were very modern. We had old Routemasters from London, open top double deckers and fully electric buses. For us they were a means to get onto Salisbury Plain, but this was clearly a great day for bus spotters. Now, I have be known to take a passing interest in aircraft and there is nothing wrong with that. Is bus spotting okay? That’s a different thing entirely!!

There was a lot to keep the enthusiasts happy. I have no idea whether any of these buses was more special than the next. They did seem to be maintained in immaculate condition. The ride was definitely not as comfortable as a modern vehicle and the rough roads across the Plain showed that up. It was quite interesting to see a small convoy of buses making there way in to and out of Imber. I did see some guys getting quite animated as they tried to photograph a bus while one of the volunteers was marshalling it into place. I think his need was greater than theirs.

This is Not a Canberra or a Lightning!

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The name English Electric is well known in aviation circles. Before it was subsumed into the British Aircraft Corporation, it had produced the Lightning interceptor and the Canberra bomber. The Lightning might have got more glory, but the Canberra was by far the more successful type with excellent performance. However, there is a lesser-known type that came from the company a long time before.

I first heard of the Wren when I read about it in Roly Beamont’s book. He was the chief test pilot at English Electric, and he described this vintage aircraft with very limited power that the company restored and hopped along the runway at Warton many years before I worked there. The aircraft now lives at Old Warden and it was brought out to fly during the Shuttleworth Festival of Flight. It was towed up to the far end of the field in preparation for its flight. The conditions were smooth, so it was going to be able to perform.

Having read that it was not over-endowed with power and that the Warton tests had involved some basic hops along the runway, this was what I had anticipated would be the case here. However, they were more ambitious. After flying the length of the field, a turn was made for a return run. I have to admit, when I first saw the turn, I did fear that all was not well. The whole flight was at low level, so the turn was also low. The angle made it look like the plane was heading for the trees. However, this was quite normal and in control. Even so, every turn made me tense up slightly. I guess by the end of the flight, I was getting used to it. Even so, it was quite unlike most flying I have watched.

Multiple passes were made during the flight. The light was definitely playing ball along certain parts of the passes so I was able to grab quite a few shots. It’s not the most elegant looking plane and I imagine the view for the pilot is pretty minimal. Even so, as rarities go, it is right up there so to see it fly was a nice result.

Misty Morning in the Neighbourhood

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Barton Meadows is part of my morning routine on many days and this blog pretty often too. One morning I headed across for a walk and there was plenty of low mist hanging in the air. Sections of my loop were shrouded in mist, and I wasn’t going to miss the chance to get some photos. I hope they convey a little of how great it felt when I was there that morning.

50 Years of Popham

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This aviation moment was a bit of a last-minute thing. We don’t live terribly far from Popham’s airfield, and I have driven past it more time than I can recall including when travelling to visit family in Andover before we ended up living in Hampshire. However, I had never actually been to the airfield before. I had seen that they were having a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the first use of the field, but I did have other stuff going on at home. When I had finished that, I knew I needed to get a bike ride in as part of my ongoing (if feeble) preparation for the charity ride I had coming up. I decided to ride up to Popham and back and swing by the fly in.

The weather was really nice and there seemed to be a ton of planes that had made the trip in to join the celebrations. The road into the airfield goes right under the western approach end and I did stop there on my bike for a while to watch the arriving and departing planes. Then I rode into the airfield itself and had a brief wander around. There were plenty of people out walking amongst the parked planes and, if I hadn’t been in cycling shoes and pushing the bike, I would have had a longer time exploring. Instead, it was a brief stopover before continuing my ride. I hope they had a successful day.

Reinforcement Around a Cargo Door

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The Vickers Vanguard might not have had the sales success of its predecessor, the Viscount, but a number of the passenger planes had a long career as a result of conversion to the Merchantman freighter configuration. One of these is on display at the Brooklands Museum. Since the cargo door was not an original design feature, the fuselage needed to be reinforced to accommodate the stress redistribution around the door aperture.

Since this was a retrofit, it was far simpler to have the reinforcement on the outside of the fuselage. Looking closely at the example at the museum, you can see the multiple layers of reinforcement to build up the thickness in the areas with the greatest stress increase. There were about ten layers in total with them tapering out as you got further from the opening. This was all prior to the days of finite element analysis so would have involved a lot of hand calculations!

The Prints Suggest Swans Have Been Here

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Swans are elegant looking birds and what you might not normally notice is just how large their feet are. While walking around the harbour in St Helens, the tide had retreated and there were silt flats exposed. While nothing was around, the swans had clearly been walking through here at some point after the water had receded. Their footprints were awaiting the returning sea to wash them away. I loved the starkness of the shapes.

Tanking Typhoons

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I had the good fortune to be able to spend a day with 101 Sqn of the Royal Air Force when they were undertaking training missions in one of their primary roles of aerial refuelling. Based at RAF Brize Norton, the squadron operates the Airbus Voyager, the A330MRTT aircraft. The aircraft we were in was configured for two-point refuelling while some of the aircraft have a three-point config that allows tanking of heavy aircraft from the higher capacity centreline hose drum unit.

We took off from Brize and headed out over the North Sea. Our initial tracks were off the coast of East Anglia which made for a convenient place to pick up trade from the RAF bases there. The F-35s were deployed from Marham so there was less likelihood of one of those jets showing up, but we did expect Typhoons. It was too long after we were on station before the first customers showed up.

The jets appeared from the port side of the jet and picking them up early allowed you to see them sweeping in astern of the plane before they approached from astern. They would gather off the port wing extending the refuelling probe before being cleared into pre-contact positions on either wing. Then they would pull forward to make contact and take on fuel. Once they were done, they would gather off the starboard wing until the flight had all taken on fuel at which point they would accelerate away to continue with their flight. This departure might just be peeling away but it sometimes included a burst of power and a climb up away from our flight level with the noise even being noticeable inside our insulated cabin.

There are very limited options when it comes to photographing the jets while they are plugged in. The pods are mounted outboard on the wings – I think in the location where the outboard engines would be on an A340 – but the length of the hose means that the drogue is quite a long way aft. This means that only the last few rows of the aircraft – it has a pretty standard seating config throughout most of the fuselage – actually have the ability to see the jets. I had been advised by a friend that the viewing was limited.

I had brought two cameras on the flight. My main camera was fitted with the 100-400 lens and my use for that was on aircraft off to either side. The other body I brought along was an older one I use less frequently these days and that is the M6 with a 55-200 lens. This ended up getting a lot of use. However, neither of them was suitable for use when the jets were refuelling. The angles looking back are tight and the interior panelling around the window apertures limits how you can point backwards. In this case, the phone was by far the best option. The small lens diameter combined with the ability to get it close to the window meant it was the best bet. Even then, it was limited in what it could see.

Later in the mission we headed up towards Scotland to pick up some local trade although, ironically, we ended up with jets from Coningsby which would probably have been fine in our original tracks. Overall, the mission last over 6 hours and we had a variety of periods when we had customers and then periods of waiting. It was definitely an interesting day out and certainly worth seeing. My thanks to the team at Brize for hosting us so well.