--- On Thu, 7/21/11, Onno Meyer <[email protected]> wrote: > Brandon replied to me: > > I'm assuming you're mainly thinking of the Soviet > flying sub project from > > WWII, a twin-engined torpedo bomber. There was also a > oneman American > > attempt in the early 1860's which did work (in a > fashion; on it's only test run, > > it flew a few feet above the ground and dove a few > feet below the surface) > > I was actually thinking of Sky Captain and the World of > Tomorrow.
Ah, his modified P-40 and the Manta fighters are a rather different kettle of fish ;) > But if we're talking about the same Soviet project, wasn't > it > three-engined? Yeah, my bad. The Russian project was tri-motor. > > G:WWII (and this might also have been from one of the > two Vehicle > > Expansions) had a rule that a seaplane only had to > reach a speed of 61 or 71% of > > stall to get airborne (if taking off from water), > > If such a rule was in the Expansions, I'd expect it on > VXii30, > but I couldn't find it there. The rule on p.W149 reads: "The aircraft's gSpeed must be 71% of stall speed (or wSpeed 61%) or it won't take off." > > although this still > > required a 5-15 mph headwind in most cases. > > That's historical, I think. Although this was not always a problem, especially in the Pacific. > And Rupert wrote: > > Which is odd, because one reason they were popular was > because it was > > easier to put adequate streamlining on them than one > an aeroplane with > > conventional landing gear (and retractable gear was > heavy and complex). > > in Vehicles, stall speed is all or nothing. If you get that > > fast, you take off. > > For real world seaplanes, moving at a few dozen mph > produces > some lift, especially considering the ground effect, which > > gets the plane partly out of the water and reduces the > hydrodynamic drag, which increases speed, which gives more > > lift, etc. This appears to be what the rule on p.W149 represents. Brandon _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
