NigelC wrote:One of the 1-11 drivers at BIA banged out of a Javelin when an engine blew up and the cast-off blades punctured the fuel collector tank. Big Fire!
He had a second Martin-Baker tie for leaving a Meteor (don't know what mark) after an engine problem with that.
Apparently, according to someone else I know that flew Javelins, when you engaged reheat th bl@@dy thing slowed down!
N
Judging by the number of successive marks that were supplied to the RAF, I think it was perceived that Glosters were using the RAF to do their development! Seemingly the reheat problem was caused by the inability to supply both the primary combustors and the thrust augmentation system with sufficient fuel. I was very surprised to read that. Usually the problem with [a badly designed] reheat [nozzle] is that it places a backpressure on the engine which feeds back to the compressor, resulting in the compressor surging, but seemingly that wasn't the issue with the Javelin:
As I understand it the reheat problem only occurred below a certain altitude, above that as the air thinned the fuel pump was able to deliver enough fuel to both parts of the engine for full combustion. Certainly a bit of a fubar in the design stage!
in reply to austerdriver's question, my screenies are of Mr Ito's Javelin, but I completely reworked the flight dynamics as they were not representative of such a heavy plane, although I've actually made it just supersonic in a dive...
I bet you had the Saladin armoured car too. After five minutes, the gun barrels would be at a funny angle, and broke off when you tried to straighten them. From then on, you had to convince yourself it was one of Percy Hobart's 'Funnies'. What a swizz.
