For the aviation fans

[Bateleur1]

The yanks stole it from Germany after the war to study it

I saw a national geographic program on it, the Germans built it to try avoid the British radar using plywood over the metal structures

 

Basically what you are saying is the Germans built a stealth bomber a couple of decades before the yanks

[SwissVan]

Basically what you are saying is the Germans built a stealth bomber a couple of decades before the yanks

 

Jawohl

[Spokey]

Basically what you are saying is the Germans built a stealth bomber a couple of decades before the yanks

Remember too, how advanced the Germans were with rockets, another interesting topic.

[Bateleur1]

Remember too, how advanced the Germans were with rockets, another interesting topic.

 

There were some very impressive inventions that luckily either did not go into full production or only got used in the war too late.  Otherwise we all would have spoken German today 

[Lotus]

Interesting to see how many tourists are still stuck in Cape Town.

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/watch-exclusive-look-inside-cape-town-stadium-where-6-000-tourists-are-preparing-to-fly-home-20200409

 

Looks like the charter flights are coming in to fetch them now. With luck they'll be home for Easter.

 

[SwissVan]

There were some very impressive inventions that luckily either did not go into full production or only got used in the war too late.  Otherwise we all would have spoken German today 

....and made our new lives easier

[SwissVan]

Interesting to see how many tourists are still stuck in Cape Town.

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/watch-exclusive-look-inside-cape-town-stadium-where-6-000-tourists-are-preparing-to-fly-home-20200409

 

Looks like the charter flights are coming in to fetch them now. With luck they'll be home for Easter.

With so few flights I noticed for the first time those high altitude balloons (large yellow dots) floating above Africa... much higher than aircraft traffic.

There is one in your screen shot off the coast of Namibia... it must have got a bit lost

 

apparently they provide Internet WiFi services

[DawieO]

With so few flights I noticed for the first time those high altitude balloons (large yellow dots) floating above Africa... much higher than aircraft traffic.

There is one in your screen shot off the coast of Namibia... it must have got a bit lost

apparently they provide Internet WiFi services

Project Loon. A GoogleX project.

[Bonus]

That aircraft if I recall belonged/s s to Phoebus Apollo based at Rand

They had a huge fleet of old aeroplanes used for various "contract" jobs in Africa, including the radial engine 747 pictured below

 

At one stage the owner of PA actualy owned Rand Airport after the joburg municipality sold it in the 1990's

 

Seems I took a couple of pics of it when I was there in 2008..... I'd forgotten.

[SwissVan]

Seems I took a couple of pics of it when I was there in 2008..... I'd forgotten.

That’s a DC4 of which they had a quite few, a bit different to the 747 look alike.

 

I think they bought those DC4’s from the SAAF at some stage. The SAAF used to have a lot and maintained them at Fields Aviation Rand airport, including the Dakotas and Harvard’s. There were quite a few British and Portuguese expats working there in those days. Phoebus took over the fields aviation business after all the SAAF contracts dried up. There were many rumors that the owner of PA was involved in gun running and cigarette smuggling in Africa with those aircraft.

[kosmonooit]

Remember too, how advanced the Germans were with rockets, another interesting topic.

The German Rocket men ... that is one of the biggest tech stories of the 20th C. Basically most of them  engineered their way over to the US after the war and finally got to the moon, which was their original intention back the the vaderland.

 

Others that did not manage to escape the Russians went on to help them with their rocket projects (not by choice)

 

One man was key:

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by kosmonooit

[kosmonooit]

Wazzit?

 

Wazzit..JPG

The days before digital fly by wire, the concept only really because feasible with digital controls to stabilise the inherently unstable flying wing with no vertical stab., if I am not mistaken. There was a few other flying wing projects around that time, none were really successful.

 

 

Until the B2

 

[kosmonooit]

The same man who put the idea to Pres Kennedy that they could get to the moon by the end of the 60's

 

[Bonus]

The German Rocket men ... that is one of the biggest tech stories of the 20th C. Basically most of them  engineered their way over to the US after the war and finally got to the moon, which was their original intention back the the vaderland.

 

Others that did not manage to escape the Russians went on to help them with their rocket projects (not by choice)

 

One man was key:

 

 

 

Watched a documentary th other day about the "space race" and they said exactly the same thing. Lots of German scientists workng on the early rocket projects in the US after the war.

[kosmonooit]

He was a brilliant engineer and a great team leader - but an opportunist with few scruples. I guess one has to be to realise such ambitions.

[Bateleur1]

Interesting to see how many tourists are still stuck in Cape Town.

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/watch-exclusive-look-inside-cape-town-stadium-where-6-000-tourists-are-preparing-to-fly-home-20200409

 

Looks like the charter flights are coming in to fetch them now. With luck they'll be home for Easter.

 

Just Germans alone were roughly 12 000.  There were beginning of the week 14 000 Germans in NZ.  Every day Lufthansa sends a B747-8 and a A380 to NZ, refeulling in Bangkok.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Bateleur1