Plane / Planes / Aircraft / Aeroplane / Airplane appreciation

I thought the reference to canards was in jest and a reference to an only fools and horses episode?

I'm going with Robert Mitchum.

AIUI (and happy to be corrected) the main difference between the Typhoon and Rafale is the spacing of the foreplanes from the wing. In the Typhoon, the distance is greater and they are used primarily to exploit that extra turning moment around the wing and control the pitch of the aircraft. The Rafale’s foreplanes are closer to the wing and are smaller. They are ‘aerodynamically coupled’ with the wing, meaning they are used more to modify the airflow over the wing, assisting with lift and stability, e.g. at higher angles of attack - ideal for a carrier-borne aircraft.

I don’t think the terms ‘canard’, ‘foreplanes’ etc. are particularly well defined. Canard generally describes a configuration where some kind of winglet/foreplane/vane/control surface is placed ahead of the wing. Whether it’s a winglet, foreplane or vane is probably down to whatever the manufacturer wants to describe it as.

I don’t think the terms ‘canard’, ‘foreplanes’ etc. are particularly well defined.

Very much this. My response to gbj's original comment was tongue in cheek, knowing some people will argue they're not strictly canards on the Eurofighter. I'd always called them that myself before being made aware of the supposed difference.

That’s a crude example. Actual lift is generated by increasing the speed of the airflow over the upper surface in relation to the lower surface, usually by increasing the chord so that the distance travelled by the airflow over the upper surface is greater than the lower surface, which increases the speed of the upper airflow, thus deceasing the pressure a la Bernoulli’s Principle, and off you go.

Anyway, a canard is a lifting surface.

Slappage...

.... And then there's compression lift :)

A bit niche that, in that it’s produced by the aircraft itself as a by-product at supersonic speeds, so it rides its own shock wave. The Coanda effect is another one that’s not strictly lift but can be useful in aviation.

In all cases, the force on the body is created by a pressure differential across the body, whether it's a stalled barn door, a wing with fully attached flow, a lifting body sat on a shock wave or a blown surface in the case of Coandă . At the molecular level, they are all out-of-balance reactions to gas molecules bouncing off the body surfaces.

You can angle your hand out of a speeding car window at 16° and note the upward force, though you’d be pushing it to call that actual lift in the technical sense. That’s what got me into aerodynamics, oddly enough. My final paper at uni was on the supercritical wing design, and some years later the A380 came along with the most elegant supercritical wing ever, it’s a thing of beauty.*

*Boeing did too, but they’re dicks so they can fuck off.

My employers blame the miscalculated Coanda effect for the airflow shittery in my surgery, apparently the airflow should stick to the ceiling to the edges and not just fall to the floor in the middle.

Dyson and his hairdryer stuff has a lot to answer for lol

I should be but need to work out how to get my cable through my roof and into our under eaves shortage while all our tech lives. Ideally without having to pay roofers but I've got a few other jobs for them so might end up doing that. Progress has been temporarily slowed by what turned out to be a fairy major spinal operation but it's on my list.

I have tested it by running the cable through the window of one of our skylights and I'm getting up to about 200nm. Newcastle in the north and Paris in the south which isn't bad I reckon considering my chimney breast is 18m above sea level. High planes > low planes, as you'd expect.

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I love Thetford and have been there for the day a few times since Covid but have never seen a single plane which seems mad given how close Mildenhall and Lakenheath are.

I'm no good at ID'ing fighters but the yanks definitely still have F15s at Mildenheath which they regularly take out to play over Norfolk.

You're less likely to see Eurofighters round there because while I'm sure they're allowed (it being Britain and all) I get the sense the RAF don't want to get in the way of the USAF plus the local Eurofighters are based in Lincolnshire.

I love Thetford and have been there for the day a few times since Covid but have never seen a single plane which seems mad given how close Mildenhall and Lakenheath are.

If you were in the town itself, given its proximity to the bases, there’s a good chance they’ve been told to avoid overflying the built-up area on pain of a standing up interview with the boss. Nobody likes dealing with noise complaints.

Anyway, a canard is a lifting surface.

I thought it was a duck.

Also, if you lot are going to put spoilers in the thread you should check first really.

Ah no we go to the forest. Not complaining as it was lovely.

Last (civilian) flight out of Kabul 😬
https://samchui.com/2021/08/18/make-.../#.YR1hkcpKhZe

I'm not crwzy, just overtired haha!
I've seen some planes and choppers whilst driving to/from the Norfolk coast around Thetford so was hoping for some action, plus the huge slide at high lodge(?) was the main attraction for my no-fear 2yo but unfortunately it was closed.
Between his hyperactivity, the clingyness of the 10yo and my ASD 12 year old trying to organise every queue of children waiting to go on the play equipment I'm amazed I got to look up at all.

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Sorry I got confused by the photo talk said didn't realise you'd separately seen three of them - I stand corrected!

Nah, my post was a mess and I didn't properly look at the photo I uploaded ha!

I remember this advert (probably off a VHS seeing as it's 1986) and being really excited about seeing a Gripen parked up at either North Weald or Duxford airshow and being pretty happy with the likeness when the Eurofighter was announced. Would have preferred an updated F14 copy at the time though, obvs.

https://youtu.be/424cOtairYQ

White plane with red tail just did an unusual manoeuvre over London, looked like it was taking off northward from LHR, circled east then south above downtown, then west above Brixton back towards LGR. Sun was in the way so couldn’t tell if it was descending. Wonder if they had an aborted landing.

Wasn’t Swiss LX317 to Geneva, wasn’t G-VAHH. Doesn’t seem to have been the Air Malta flight 🤔

Mad super cell? over London... (just drove back from LHR to Surrey)

Just off the Northumberland coast last month

This fella’s been having some fun over south London today, he’s been circling around Crystal Palace for a good 15 minutes, and been doing similar in other areas in the past three hours. Seems to have come from the Peterborough area.

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Sally B, a Flying Fortress, just flew low over our house less than an hour ago. I think on its way to an air show in Abingdon. Noisy bugger.