johnfelstead

I dont know, give a young lad an F1 car and the birds are all over him. Lifes just not fair

Jenson Button was fortunate to escape unhurt when his Williams-BMW was involved in a collision with a bird. The 20-year-old was travelling at 160mph when the bird flew across his path. The bird was killed after smashing into the air-box on the FW22, narrowly missing Button's head during the test session at Kyalami.

Akira

Was the bird a Lesser Spotted Jensen Interceptor! LOL

Ok guys i'll BUTTON it.

[This message has been edited by Akira (edited 17-02-2000).]

SDB

hehe.. could have been really nasty..

I once had a 'bird strike' on a bike. I was only doing about 60 thank god, but this bird (brown one??) started flying over the road and it was all too late. The bird clouted me straight on the left hand.. oh god, the pain.. I remember seeing a flash of red (no ****) in my eyes as the bird hit.

I have never seen so many feathers in my life!

I had to pull over and ended up using my right hand to reach over and pull the clutch!!

What a mess!

130MPH!!! phew!

DavidRB

Birds? These modern GP drivers are wimps! Anyone remember Stefan Johannsson in the Marlboro Mclaren at Austria (I think it was '87)? He was out in a practice session and hit a <I>deer</I> at over 160 mph.

He came off with a fairly nasty wrench to his shoulder, the deer just disintegrated...

spence

Simon, Bit like Clolin Edwards at the WSB in Philip Island the year before last. 150 odd and very nearly took the front of the bike apart. Bike or car or plane... it's gonna hurt kids... it's a jungle out the there...

Oz

Birds? Deer? Pah! For wimps!.....

Anyone remember a few years back when Tommi Makinnen hit a cow while travelling at 130mph - bounced the car off the road and sent it rolling down a 60ft bank? And he walked out of it if I remember correctly....

Can't remember where it was....maybe Greece. I'm sure there's someone here who can remember all the details!

Devils Advocate

Now if you seriously want to talk of F1 drivers and birds, then how about Dannii Minogue !!! Yummy !

johnfelstead

i think it was testing in greece in 98.

Had a chicken go through my radiator head first on a road rally.
went in so far the fan chopped its head off.

left it there for the rest of the rally so it wouldnt lose any water.

The faces on the time control marshals as they saw this escort flying towards them with a chickens **** sticking out the front grill was a classic

Robbie

160mph? Is that all - wimps bird strike - I have had bird strikes at over 420kts(over 480mph) - now those tend to have life changing after effects

BladeRnnr

wouldn't mind testing danni minogue in greece!!

SDB

Is that grease?

john.. ROFL!!!!

johnfelstead

i know a bloke at british aerospace that fires birds out of an air cannon at aircraft parts to simulate bird strikes.

He also has to clean the mess up afterwards.

Top job, not

Squizz

Duncan Hamilton, Jaguar C-Type, Mulsanne Straight, 140mph+, 1953(?)

Took a bird-strike through his little perspex screen and it hit him in the face, breaking his nose...

He drove on...

...And they won!

Cool.

Robbie

To follow up my earlier post then and the last post .....our bird strike was at around 420kts coming off the North Yorks moors at give or take a few feet 250'- went straight through the armoured plexiglass into the pilots face - he survived bird didn't we landed and lived.....not as rewarding as winning Le Mans maybe but at least i am alive to bore you with the story

johnfelstead

robbie, ex navigator RAF tornado perhaps?

Nightmare

cool...

but Im afriad that birds, deer and cows are all for wimps!!

In Canada...Elk was standing on transcontinental Railtrack and hit by a 200ton Express doing 70mph.. Loco engine written off, train derailed...Elk still made the side of the track before dying.....

Now that is HARD!!!

Oge

I think Makinens cow incident was in Argentina, and if I remember correctly he was in the lead, so he was quite pissed off...

BarryK

Isn't the bit about firing fowl from a gun to test windscreens a bit of a shaggy dog story along the lines of " and the report came back from the crash test lab, "next time defrost the chicken before firing at windscreen"".

SDB

I love this thread!!!

The firing chickens thing is dead straight..

The cow thing.. did you see the in-car footage.. I mean, poor cow, and I love animals but I'll never forget the imagery of the cow turning to look at the camera with a sad expression on it's face as if to say, "well thats just perfect isn't it.."

LOL

poor old thing!



Simon

Robbie

OK completely off topic and non Scooby related....but Phantom admittedly low agility below about 300 kts....however you must consider what the platform was designed to do. It was designed as a missile platform for use with Sparrow and AIM9's(sidewinders) Guns at this time were no longer thought to be a necessity, however when the UK bought them they decided this was an over sight and that is why the Cannon was fitted beneath the belly. Lightening yes - great point defence fighter - ie get airborne and high very quickly to intercept massed hordes of Soviet Bombers. Poor radar, poor range - needed a top off at top of climb - only a max of four weapons on pylons. If put into a rate one turn with full a/b it would run out of fuel before it had finished the turn. Tornado a mix and match aircraft whose engines were designed for optimum performance at low level and also for economy so it could sit out over the Faroes/Iceland Gap area for long periods - then engage at range and run away. Neither the Phantom of Tornado F3 were designed as fighters - they were interceptors so getting dirty in tail chase dog fights were not part of eithers design ethos. Lightening had great grunt - but it would not be my first choice of aircraft to have to leave in a hurry - high chance that you would lose your legs at the knees, simlar problems for the back seater in Bucaneers. So my choice of plaything? Prolly either Su35 - great range, weapons, agility, suvivability or F15C. Historic then Mosquito - any of the later variants - an aircraft that broke the world air speed record whilst still in prototype and also made from wood.

[This message has been edited by Robbie (edited 18-02-2000).]

johnfelstead

My favourite aircraft of all time is the Harrier, its a young boy thing, loved it to bits.

Never forget seeing an SU27 do a stall turn, absolutely amazing for a jet fighter and for awesome spectable a vulcan on full chat climbing vertical, what a noise

Robbie

Tornado's are for girls as well!!!! Crap engines no real power! I used to reside in the back seat of F-4's until I had a slight accident when biggles ran into another F-4 - it was estimated we had a closure speed of around 1000kts.

johnfelstead

F4 Phantoms handle like a whale, got there **** kicked in Vietnam, was designed as a missile carrier, not a proper fighter.

If you wanna talk quick acceleration and velocity give me a general electric Lightning anyday, now there was a quick interceptor.

Designed to intercept missiles before SAM's were invented.

[This message has been edited by johnfelstead (edited 18-02-2000).]

yunus

pah! what you need is a giant grey Kangaroo to slam your car off the road while driving in Australian outback!

Now that you total any car!

AlexM

Hi,

I think you've OD'd on the the Discovery channel John!.

I guess I have too because the lightening was designed to interdict high level strategic bombers and supporting fighters, not missles, so there!.

The downside of it's high performance was that it had no endurance and a range of only about 300 miles.

Cheers,

Alex

johnfelstead

stand corrected on the missile stuff.

Discovery channel, afraid not. I used to use the old lighning jet exhaust's for football practice when they were being decomisioned.

Alex, when they were interdicting, did they use shorthand or a tape recorder

NickM

I lived in Biggin Hill as a kid and remember seeing the Vulcan at the air display. The pilots had a sense of humour flying low through the valley on full power thereby setting off every car alarm in the entire town!!!!

MarkCSC

This is really of topic now but....

The two coolest planes I have seen

1) Blackbird SR1 taking off. They just go vertical as soon as they are off the ground.

2)Stealth bomber - looks like a bloody UFO, weird!!

Scooby

It wasn't General Electric but English Electric who built the Lightning!

What a beast, but so little combat time!

English Electric also made domestic appliances, my mothers fridge is still going strong !!

Anorak definately on now !
The Blackbird was the SR71 not the SR1



[This message has been edited by Scooby (edited 18-02-2000).]

johnfelstead

i thought it was, i actually put english electric first, then changed it to general, hence the edit. What a plonker