The Ongoing Mystery Aircraft Thread Part Deux.

[Moses03]

Sorry been away today with the family. Thought this one would have lasted about 10 min.

You might be closer than you think Ralf...

[lefty]

I've been away too, and curling last night. No takers, then, for Moses' Sikorsky XSS-2 ???

Actually, I know that one is right, so in accordance with custom, will press on with something completely different, as Monty Python used to say

[SabreAce]

McDonnell 220?

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Why the question mark, SabreAce?!?

[lefty]

Well actually,Ralf, SabreAce is right to add the question mark, because it isn't a McDonnell 220 !

This is the same aircraft, but in its previous incarnation as the McDonnell 119, a proposed USAF utility/training aircraft. It was converted as a commercial airliner and renamed the 220. So I suppose the only real difference would be the provision of a drinks trolley, but then again maybe the USAF have those too...........

The original reg, if I hadn't photoshopped it out, was N119, changed to N220, and subsequently it was sold off and became N4AZ. (the livery is different too) Anyone know if it is still around ?

to SabreAce for his 99% correct answer !

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Live & learn. A nice-looking aircraft, but presumably too small to be a successful commercial one. Got that picture from the Airlines.net website & I think they said that it was no longer in existence.

I'm afraid SabreAce will be now and we'll have to wait a few hours for his next mystery! Mid-day here, so I guess it'll be morning on the US East Coast...

[SabreAce]

Well, I'd need to get a little bit of sleep to keep up with Lefty, now...

Came across a bit of interesting reading about the 220 here:

http://www.anav8r.com/page03.htm

As of 1982, she was in private hands. A quick check on Airliners.net shows the most recent photo was at El Paso, Texas, in March of 2002, where she supposedly still sits, along with some F-106 fuselages.

Now then, onward with the mysteries.

[Ralf Roggeveen]

C'est le Wibault-Penhoet 282-T-12, n'est-ce pas?

[SabreAce]

I think we can go ahead and call that a correct for Ralf

The info I've got lists that as a Wibault-Penhoet 283, with the main visual difference between it and the 282 (at least in the 1 picture of each I've got) being that the 282 didn't have the massive fairings on the main wheels. I can't say for certain if that's a legitimate difference, or if the 282 in the other image has just had them removed/never put on. The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft (ed. David Donald) only lists an increase in fuel supply as the change between 282 and 283 models.

Over to you.

[lefty]

Different props, but it is hard to tell unless you have the rest of that reg ! My guess is the 283.

Come on Ralf, something tasty from Sherwood, please. (I seem to remember Friar Tuck loved venison pasties - one of those will do)

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Seem to remember that you also got excited when I went to Melton Mowbray, home of the succulent pork pie, in the summer...

Anyway, here's a (non-food-related) aircraft I came across recently & thought might get you chaps scratching your heads:

[lefty]

Gosh ! A single-engined two=seat biplane ! Not many of those around,then............

[Moses03]

My instinct was French...Leopoldoff L-3?

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Gosh ! A single-engined two=seat biplane ! Not many of those around,then............

No need to be sarcastic just because you didn't get your venison (or know the aeroplane), Mike!

Moses, however, gets the :icon37:! Leopoldoff L.3 Colibri - and there are a few still flying.

[Moses03]

Thanks for the suds Ralf.

Moving right along, any takers on this twin?