I want my flying car, dammit! They been promising it to me since I was a kid.
I find it hard to believe that somewhere, probably in Russia, there isn’t another AR-234.
Viking Air says it will be restarting production of the Buffalo. (The Buffalo was de Haviland’s replacement/upgrade for the Caribou. Viking Air now has the production rights.)
You mean an Ercoupe? The earlier models qualify as Light Sport Aircraft, and you don’t need a medical certificate to fly those. A Sport Pilot license has fewer requirements than a Private, too.
I built a 1/72nd scale Me-262 when I was a kid and always loved that plane. Just a few weeks ago I had the chance to see one up close and personal, at the Natl. Museum of the USAF in Dayton - well worth a visit, for that and many other cool aircraft: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=509
But you can’t buy one there. Sorry.
Here you go. Just buy it. 
I wonder if they will let me take it out and “wash” it? Ya know being a good citizen, doing my patriotic duty, yadda yadda yadda.
Shoot I wasn’t supposed to say yadda
Capt
Remember to edit this before you hit subm
and with good reason. The British and the Germans developed both the centrifugal and axial flow jet engine but the Brits chose the centrifugal design because it was more reliable. the axial flow engine was a grenade waiting for the pin to be pulled. Metallurgy just wasn’t there yet for the stresses of an axial flow jet engine.
The centrifugal engine didn’t spool up very quickly so landing a plane with one required the pilot to keep it spooled up for a go-around which in turn required a lot of flaps to slow it down. I think the flaps on the Vampire would extend 90 degrees.
I was thinking something along the lines of an OV-1 or an A-10 but a Caribou would fit in there somewhere. I want something big that can swoop down with a bit of attitude.
I always wondered what WW-II would have been like if we flew nothing but A-10’s. theoretically it was possible to build it. It had twice the payload of a B-17 and could have been it’s own fighter escort.
I’ll take a Grumman Albatross, a custom “winnebago” interior, and enjoy exploring 70% of the Earth’s surface. Should take me a bit, I may never leave the South Pacific.
Nice plane, found 17 for sale with a quick google. Looks like 300k puts you in one. Some nice corporate campers too including the orig “Billabong” plane.
Capt
Early axial engines were pretty slow, too, with all the rotating mass of the disks needed to hold the blades in place. A B-47 was normally landed with near full power on, and a drag chute deployed to cause the descent (the tower would be asked to clear a “jet penetration” ). For a go-around, the pilot would jettison the chute and not have to sweat out the power-up. The second approach would be a little dicier, of course.
Hmm, if you have disgusting amounts of capital why not have a scratch built Ho-229? Nothing like having the first jet powered flying wing Nazi stealth plane to impress the neighbors…
Me I’d want a Grumman Goose for island hopping or a Beech Staggerwing… pretty pretty pretty.
As a hijack for the obvious pilots that live here, I’d like to suggest a book to read.
The Cannibal Queen by Stephen Coonts.
It’s a non-fiction journal of his cross-country trip in a '42 Stearman one summer.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll leave it in the bathroom for something to read…
I’d like to do the same thing every other year!
That was outstanding, and so are a couple of other books I can recommend about flying across the US just for the adventure of it: Richard Bach’s Biplane, and especially Rinker Buck’s Flight of Passage.
Fixed links: