Seen on the street in Kyiv.

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck, A/K/A Dolt-45,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset., A/K/A P01135809

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

Starting up and flying a Yak-15:

10 comments:

CenterPuke88 said...

So, if I'm seeing correctly at 26:30, that's a hand control for the brakes? The rudder control is a teeter-totter style, and thus doesn't seem to have a provision for toe brakes. Just a reminder of how long those early jets took to prep and takeoff, which certainly didn't help their range and flying time before overhauling that engine. Facinating video, Comrade...yet another suck on productivity!

Comrade Misfit said...

According to Wikipedia, the engine was a copy of the Jumo 004. You can see the pull-handle for the two-stroke starting motor in the engine's nose cap.

CenterPuke88 said...

Made me look, yep, upgraded 004B's in the Yaks. The German 004's had a TBO between 10 and 50 hours, mainly because they used coated mild steel for turbine blades. I suspect the upgrade was use of the materials the Germans were short on, but still a very short lived engine. The APU explains the prestart noises now.

Deadstick said...

eb: I love that starting system. Seeing a guy walk up and just yank it like a lawnmower is deliciously funky.

cp88: Yeah, once Germany was cut off from the cobalt in Central Africa, they were SOL for high-temp turbine blades. Molybdenum was a problem too.

Old NFO said...

Interesting 'hand brake' there. Also interesting use of the stick to force the tail up, then he appears to raise the gear handle before it actually lifted off! :-)

CenterPuke88 said...

You've got (Russian?) spam...

Deadstick said...

Wonder why they stayed with the tailwheel config. The Germans tried that with the Me-262 but had to switch to trike because the exhaust was tearing up pavement.

Comrade Misfit said...

The tailwheel was because they did as little as possible in converting a piston-engined Yak to a jet. Russian are very big on the notion that perfection is the enemy of good enough.

The MiG-9, of similar vintage, was a trike, but it had persistent problems with the engines flaming out when they fired the guns. Still, both airplanes got the Red Air Force flying jet fighters and their pilots gaining experience with jet engines before the far superior MiG-15 was introduced.

Will said...

Deadstick:

The ME-262 had to switch to trike gear because it would not lift off wit the tail on the ground. They had to tap the brakes to get it up on the mains, as the elevators did not have enough authority to lift the tail at those speeds. Not having any propwash over the tail surfaces was the culprit, apparently.

Deadstick said...

Ah so, thanks.