October 10, 20214 yr I caught this (tiny) virtual plane perched at the topmost rung of the Top Downloads today...(reflecting peer interest...which I value...)... And, below are a few connected (or maybe un-connected) thoughts about this plane/sim...I itemized them for easier reading...on a Sunday...🙂... First of all, I recall this Meyers plane well...from the SIM. Recently, I'd acquired the Milviz (FSX) Porter for myself (see my post about it, if you wish), prompted by the many wonderful posts of the MSFS Porter, and also, partially, because of Tim Conrad's excellent freeware Porter version that had introduced me (well) to that plane, decades ago. This Meyers 200 (the variants are "-A" through "-D"; this here is a "-D"), I noted, was also one of Tim Conrad's freeware I used to fly. Today's upload file is an update (first, after 13 years...?) of Tim's original contribution. Many of us also know well (and would recall fondly) the (look-alike) Beech Bonanza (amazing 17,000 units have been built since 1947, and are still being built to this day). We know that the Bonanza was produced in both distinctive (let's also add "controversial") V-tail and conventional tail configurations. I checked today that out of the total 17,000+, 10,405 are actually the V-tail version. Anyway, the Meyers 200, a remarkable plane of 1950s looks near identical (non-pilot speaking here, of course) to the conventional tail Bonanza. Meyers 200 production was later acquired by Aero Commander, but, here is an interesting observation, "...it soon emerged that the firm could not produce the design economically. Meyers' firm had been virtually hand-building each aircraft and no jigs or tooling for the kind of mass production envisaged by Aero Commander even existed at the time the rights were bought. Having spent US$4 million to produce just US$3 million worth of product, Aero Commander ceased production in 1968...". OK, so, machines cannot always replace humans...... "The Meyers 200D has never had an in-flight structural failure and has never had an FAA mandated Airworthiness Directive (AD) issued against the airframe. The 4130 chrome-moly steel tubular roll cage and understructure act like a race car protective cage during a crash. Several Meyers aircraft have been forced down in the trees and off airport runways with documented instances of the occupants walking away with only minor injuries..."... A testament to this tiny (single-engine high-performance) passenger plane of the 1950s that was flirting near 200 knots cruise speed...! Meyers 200D was featured in the (1987) James Bond film You Only Live Twice (along with that heavily armed autogyro, Little Nellie...). Aero Commander after the failed acquisition of Meyers 200, sold the rights to the Interceptor Corporation, which is now developing a turboprop-powered version of the Meyers 200, called the Interceptor 400. So, the word is that, maybe, thanks to Sean Connery, the Meyers 200 will also live twice...maybe...🙂... Here is another (trivia) connection I noted, today. Per my last (Saab 340) post with Norwegian Air Shuttle, I'd shown a livery with "Tail Fin Hero". BTW, though the hero, of my post (painter Edvard Munch) was Norwegian, the selection of Heroes for the Airline, is not limited to Norwegians e.g. I'd read there, "Roald Dahl" was Norwegian's first British "Tail Fin Hero", and one of my all time favorite authors (been lately catching up (again) with a few of his Boyhood/Childhood novels)....And, the Screenplay Director for "You Only Live Twice"...I noted...happened to be also Roald Dahl...🙂... So, enjoy two pics, below, of this classic (sleek and beautiful) Meyers 200D plane that was ahead of its time, as a highly capable passenger plane, that only human hands (but not Robots) could build...!!
October 10, 20214 yr Nice little one.. cheers 😉 08.2024 new PC is online : ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-F GAMING WIFI Mainboard, AMD Ryzen™ 9 7950X3D Prozessor, G.Skill DIMM 64 GB DDR5-6000 (2x 32 GB) Dual-Kit, MSI GeForce RTX 4090 VENTUS 3X E 24G OC Grafikkarte, 2x WD Black SN850X NVMe SSD 4 TB - Drive C+D, WD Gold Enterprise Class 12 TB for storage HDD, Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1000W PC - Power supply, Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO CPU Aircooler with 7 Heatpipes, Design Meshify 2 White TG Clear Tint Tower-Case, 3x 4K monitors 2x32 Samsung 1x27 LG 3840x2160, Windows11 Prof. 23H2 - now Windows11 Prof. 25H2 Flightsimulator Hardware: Honeycomb Throttle Bravo, Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, Logitech Flight Joke System, XBox Controller, some Thrustmaster stuff, Winwing CDU Panels.
October 10, 20214 yr Great background info as usual...thanks. We stayed at a B&B in Virginia several years ago where the owner and host (a United Airlines pilot, by the way) mentioned over breakfast that he and his wife owned a Meyers 200. I thought at the time that I might have been the only guest they ever had who actually knew exactly what a Meyers 200 was...it being relatively obscure. Personally, I always preferred the lines of its predecessor -- the Meyers 145 -- a taildragger that would show up occasionally at breakfast fly-ins in PA. John
October 11, 20214 yr Author Thanks for the comments, folks...! 4 hours ago, John F said: ...Personally, I always preferred the lines of its predecessor -- the Meyers 145... Looked up images of the -145, John,...yes, it looks/looked beautiful...indeed....!
October 11, 20214 yr 1 hour ago, P_7878 said: Thanks for the comments, folks...! Looked up images of the -145, John,...yes, it looks/looked beautiful...indeed....! Do you have a link by chance , TY .
October 12, 20214 yr Author On 10/10/2021 at 10:11 PM, johnbow72 said: Do you have a link by chance , TY . Hi John: Thanks for your interest and inquiry. You probably mean to see images of the Meyers 145 variant, please let me know otherwise... You can search for these key words: "Meyers MAC-145 images" and "Meyers 200 images" to get a good feel for the difference between the two variants of this plane.... 17 hours ago, Phantom88 said: ***Super Cool GA*** Absolutely correct, Patrick, a Super Cool GA .🙂...for its time or even for now....
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