Kelly Johnson

[Colonel]

Back on topic (?) ....

The T-33 was not easy to start on internal batteries, and
was much easier with external power.  However, you needed
special external power (with soft start) which gently fed the
current otherwise you could easily break the quill shaft of the starter.

[url=https://pilotjohn.com/soft-start-aircra ... wer-units/]https://pilotjohn.com/soft-start-aircra ... wer-units/[/url]

This was such a problem, my father took to carrying around
a 9/16th socket and extension and quill shaft and would replace
it on the ramp as necessary.

Needless to say, this caused consternation in the RCAF because
pilots weren't actually allowed to do anything.  He had to carry
around some silly card - I've got a scan of it here, somewhere.

I was surprised to learn that decades later, it was normal for
T-33 pilots to carry around a quill shaft and socket, or so a
retired Lt-General friend told me.

Back to the T-33.  With modern lithium batteries, you could
probably rig up a decent internal start and get rid of the
need for external power under most circumstances.

But I'm just an electrical engineer, so what would I know
about inrush current?

[Slick Goodlin]

[quote author=Shiny link=topic=7376.msg20234#msg20234 date=1509384105]
Top honors of course has to go to Bill Lear. Design airplanes [i]and[/i] invent the 8-track player?
[/quote]
My understanding is that Bill Lear was more an investor than a designer, much like Bill Piper was an oil man and not the designer of the Cub.  Still, both must have provided the guidance on what it was they were after.


Another interesting technical director was Ted Merkle who was responsible for engine development on the SLAM, the most weapon-y weapon designed.  I'm sure I'll butcher this by paraphrasing but ultimately his attitude was that if you can't explain how something works with a piece of chalk and talking off the top of your head, you have no business teaching it.

[David MacRay]

Ah 8-tracks, the best is when it has to switch tracks during 2112 the song.

[Four Bars]

My favourite Kely Johnson tale is how he hated having to hob knob with sales prospects on the golf course, as Lockheed insisted he do. Apparently, he would use a single iron for the whole course and run between holes, all to get it over with and get back to The Skunk Works.
Part of his genius was his ability to press or adapt  existing components to work in new designs, that's how he could crank out protoypes so quickly.

[Target]

When I finished flying the T-33 in 1993 we had upgraded batteries, and VOR.
In the militaries wisdom they did an upgrade of the avionics then scraped the fleet. ( Much the same as the F-5)
Great plane lots of fun and enough legs to cross the country in 3 hops.
Can't imagine paying for fuel.
There flying one in CYKG, and you can pay for a ride.
No I'm not flying it and don't know who the operator is.

[Rosco P Coltrane]

[quote author=Chuck Ellsworth link=topic=7376.msg20214#msg20214 date=1509319310]
While I am here why in the fuck does everything I post not work and someone has to fix it?


It is driving me crazy and soon I will be posting like the Colonel.  :) :)
[/quote]


I don't know the cause but it's not just your account. It seems to happen when copying things or trying to shorten a quote. [font=Verdana]I have even had to fix posts by Scud himself. Also at least once on this account during posting, I had to post it with the bad tags and then fix it. There was no way to see the tags or remove them until after the post was submitted.[/font]

[Slick Goodlin]

Perhaps the forum software has a minimum text size that an admin can set.

[Flierwayne]

The high time T33 pilot in the RCAF is Turbo Tarling.7700 hours and still
flying at age of 77.
From internet...

Tarling doesn’t worry about the fuel when he fires up the Hammonds’ Silver Star for flights at air shows. He doesn’t get paid, but gets to keep flying a plane he adores. He’s flown some 7,700 hours in Silver Stars, out of a total flying time just short of 13,000 hours.

Tarling, 77, won’t say what his real first name is. He earned the nickname “Turbo” as an air cadet in 1954, and stuck through his Canadian air force career. He retired in 1982, with 11,645 flying hours in 50 types of aircraft, from Sabre and Voodoo fighters to helicopters.

[John Swallow]

IIRC, it was "Bill" Tarling.