They’re often certified in the experimental category which means anything goes to a certain extent. The regulators don’t really care too much until you decide you want to carry fare paying passengers.
Some old aircraft such as the DC3 have been on the civil register for a long time but military aircraft that have never been on the civil register can be difficult to register as anything other than experimental, even modern ones.
The rules can be sidestepped to some extent if the aircraft has dual controls in which case you can take a “student” up for some “instruction”. Also some countries have relaxed rules for adventure flights so long as the passenger is informed of the risks.
Those are gun blisters, the original design had flat hatches but that made aiming the waist guns difficult.
I have always wanted a Sopwith Camel, but based on my experiences in Rise of Flight, a WW1 flight sim, it would probably kill me. Any mishandling of the plane, such as left turns or take offs, throws the Camel into a vicious unrecoverable spin.
I saw a Camel in the Imperial War Museum in London. The first thing that struck me was how tiny it was.
And yes, from what I have read, they were mongrels to fly. In a book I read (forget which one) it said that half the casualties in the RFC during the Great War were as a result of training accidents.
When my husband was in the Air Force, there was a rash of flight line workers taking airplane parts home with them. My husband did it too. I asked him what in the world he was doing, and he said that he had always wanted an airplane, that’s why he joined the AF, and he was gonna build his own.
Fortunately, the base commander declared an amnesty program to allow every to bring back the parts, no questions asked, and Bill (and most people) brought back the parts. I, for one, was glad, I was tired of tripping over those parts. I’m a packrat, but I DO use most of the stuff that I squirrel away.
I’ve always thought the PBY looked a little ungainly. I’d take a Grumman Goose in a heartbeat, though.
You have excellent taste, that’s one of my favorites. There’s one in the National Air & Space Museum in D.C.
Interesting. Judging by the intakes and exhaust, it looks like the engine is amidships. Nothing in front of you to soak up the energy in a crash, and I’ve heard it’s a stone-faced bitch to balance a long drive shaft like that so it doesn’t shake your fillings out.
