Late to the party but that Mercur from certain angles looks as much like an A320 is does a 737. I’d put down money that the engineer who designed the vertical stab did the same for Airbus and the A300 a decade later.
Im trying to visualise the moment where, just after someone said ‘why not build a 2 fuselage twin prop for displays’, someone else then upped the ante with ‘yeah, and lets strap a JET underneath it, too.’ I imagine there must have been a lot of empty pint glasses on the table.
We’re gonna need a bigger napkin to sketch this out…
I have only one question:
Why???
That’s the question I image a lot of people asked. The designer/builder must have answered: Why not! And a lot of people looked at the designer/builder with a befuddled expression, turned and walked away from the insanity
Crazy thing is…I think the plane has a greater than 1:1 thrust ratio…
EAA’s Sport Aviation had an article about it. It’s quite cool actually. As to why?
Money!
You guys do realize that this is the most lucrative spectator entertainment genre on Earth that doesn’t involve a ball, right?
So Airbus has dropped the monster A380? That’s a huge loss for Airbus (pun intended). It is an engineering marvel but it couldn’t find a market.
Yeah, the writing has been on the wall for a while now. I’m slightly surprised it didn’t happen sooner.
Or, more likely they’ve used the same NACA profile
But yes, you might be right that they are closely related. I personally lave the 707 stab.
Another fun bit of flying with these guys. It’s gotta suck to have a mechanical issue in some of those backcountry sites though! That gyro stabilized camera the guy has in the Kit Fox is sweet…
Is that a pulse engine?
I don’t know…
Obviously I was referring to the shape of the stabilizer, not the airfoil. Nothing in the photos gives any hint to the airfoil profile view which, on a vertical stab, should be symmetrical anyway. :
Aha good point! You’ve got me there!
I don’t think so. The tube at the back does look a bit like the ones on the WW2 V1 bombs, but the sound of the jet is very even. The sound of the V1 pulse jets were quite distinctive. I presume the point of the tube is to prevent the jet wash from disturbing the air over the rear control surfaces.
Maybe