The A2A Simulations Community

Just thought you guys would get a kick out of this.

It was under serious consideration as the main British fighter before Hurricane and " the shrew" came along.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5TUpaxw4ME&feature=feedrec_grec_index

apparently it flew: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzeECM7ClDY

(somewhere out there, I'm sure, is the clip of a routine by a comedy duo
from the '60s about Britain's fighting spirit in the early days of the war
when they were rather short of hardware, and they imagine new RAF
pilots being introduced to the development of a steam powered spitfire).

and if this wasn't enough they even developed this beauty !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXQaKDs6OUs&feature=related

Wikipedia notes that the Inflexible wings were 16ft wider than the B29 Superfortress.

But are the wheels big enough?



Considering it was 158W x 76L @ 37k lb, all aluminum,
. . . . . . . . . . . vs 141W x 99L @ 74.5k lb for the B29,
it wasn't that out of line. Where it all falls down, of course, is that the B29 had 4 x 2200Hp Wright Cyclone 3350s = 8800Hp
able to do 357mph with a crew of 11,

while the Inflexible had 3 x 650Hp RR Condor = 1950Hp,
able to manage 109mph with a crew of two.

No ballerina is she. The wings look like aerofoil sail masts .

In the flying boat version it actually carried masts !