A few airshow-ish questions...

[Guest]

Okay, I was at an airshow yesterday, and noticed a few strange things...1) There was a Hawker Hunter F.58A there. It came past the crowd in a very fast dive on full power, and as it went past (when I was sat in the car, quite a distance away from the crowd line) I heard a very loud sound like a rifle being fired four times, and felt the car vibrate slightly. I know that hunters can reach supersonic speeds in a shallow dive, and it seemed to be going quite a bit faster than a Jaguar which the commentator said was coming past "just under the speed of sound", so I was wondering if the sound was a sonic boom. But surely the plane wouldn't be permitted to fly supersonic at an airshow, and there wouldn't have been four seperate sounds?2) After the airshow had ended, there was a stream of small Cessnas and Pipers departing. I looked up towards where the planes were climbing out, and did a double-take as I saw what appeared to be a glider climbing out, unasissted. I then noticed that this particular 'glider' had a propellor on the nose, but it was proportioned just like a glider. What kind of plane would this be?3) Just after number 2) above, I looked up and there was a plane departing, quite far away so I couldn't see it too well. It looked Skylane-sized, but it seemed to have two sets of wings, one in front of the other. Was this just my imagination?vvv The rather colourful Hunter in question vvv

[Tabs 2,790]

1. I know Mach 1+ at an airshow isn't allowed but I do know there have been plenty of incidents where it accidentally happened... You may have very well witnessed one of these incidents!2. Yes there are Gliders with small engines in the nose - the props fold back into the body to reduce drag when turned off. I'm not sure on the exact make and model of these however.3. Could it have been something like a Beech Starship? That has canards in the front...

[Guest]

I guess it could have been something like a Starship... it was really too far away to make anything out except it's general shape, so I suppose I could have misjudged the size.

[Guest]

Well, I bet no. 2 was a Stemme S10, a quite expensive motorglidermanufactured in Strausberg EDAY east of Berlin, Germany.The pilots sit side-by-side with the engine in their back. A longshaft leads to the nose driving a foldable propeller. The glide ratiois a remarkable 50:1Check their site and compare the pics: http://www.stemme.comAnsgarEDDB

[Guest]

What about Piaggio Avanti?AnsgarEDDB

[KevinAu 441]

1. Airflow across the top of an aircraft's wing is accelerated relative to an aircraft's actual speed. Therefore, at transonic speeds, though the aircraft may be below Mach 1, localized airflow across portions of the wing can exceed Mach 1.2. This glider is a motor-glider. A glider with an engine, such as those manufactured by Grob. They can feature retractable propeller blades.3. A cessna sized plane with a little wing in front sounds like a homebuilt such as the Vari-Eze and Long-Eze's. They feature canards in front of the main wing.

[Guest]

Having looked at pictures of Vari-Eze's, they look a lot like the plane that I saw.