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If Lotus made planes?

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:37 am
by skellyjohn
I've been doing a bit of work in Lewis and other Scottish islands this week. I've been flying in some small planes, some of them made by SAAB and it got me thinking; if the planes were made by Lotus - not SAAB - would I still fly in it?
It would obviously leak but I could put up with that. Do planes get HGF?

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:45 am
by Rich H
It would be ace but totally impractical, leak like a sieve and go like stink.

Wouldn't want to be in one for any length of time though!

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:48 am
by jason
Sounds like a nice bit of work - flying around the islands 8) :D

Lotus (or Mr Chapman at least) very nearly did start making ultralight aircraft - shortly before he died.

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:03 pm
by dezzy
A couple of my friends have probably been flying you to those places. Listen out for two female captains - Lucy Morgan and Rebecca Simpson.

I heard a story from them recently about the front wheel falling off one of the planes :shock: . . . thankfully it had already taxi'd to a standstill! Sounds like it must have been made by Lotus! :lol:

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:59 pm
by skellyjohn
Dezzy, those were the ones that took me to Stornoway a couple of weeks ago. They had a copy of Heat magazine in the cockpit. I was tempted to take the magazine off them and tell them to concentrate on the job in hand. If something goes wrong at 15,000 feet, I want them to be on it in a flash, not gossiping about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie!

Some of my best friends are sexists! :)

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 1:07 pm
by GregR
Dezzy, you do know some amount of totty! I hope you're bringing some of it to TT... ;)

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 1:08 pm
by jj
GregR wrote:Dezzy, you do know some amount of totty! I hope you're bringing some of it to TT... ;)
How, what you gonna do with it? :lol:

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 1:09 pm
by GregR
I'll draw you a picture :wink:

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 1:19 pm
by Dominic
shooomer wrote:
dezzy wrote:A couple of my friends have probably been flying you to those places. Listen out for two female captains - Lucy Morgan and Rebecca Simpson.
Image
:withstupid

'A couple' of Dezzy's many lady friends :wink:

Re: If Lotus made planes?

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 2:02 pm
by tenkfeet
skellyjohn wrote:I've been doing a bit of work in Lewis and other Scottish islands this week. I've been flying in some small planes, some of them made by SAAB and it got me thinking; if the planes were made by Lotus - not SAAB - would I still fly in it?
It would obviously leak but I could put up with that. Do planes get HGF?
I worked on the Saabs 340's when they were buisness Air back in 1995. The gas turbine engines the CT7 did suffer from oil leaks from a rear turbine carbon seal ( the exact bit escapes me) and hot section distress. Symptoms of the first were high oil consumption and the second was the exhaust gas temperature at a set power would be too high , cook it and you would warp the head , well the combustion chamber and turbine.

The plane equivalent of Lotus already make planes in the name of British Aerospace. Jetstream 41's are a pig to work on , the engines are constant speed variable noise and the wings (a.k.a. floor pans)corrode as they used the wrong heat treatment on the metal. Parts are hideously expensive or on back order .

Re: If Lotus made planes?

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 2:09 pm
by woody
tenkfeet wrote:
The plane equivalent of Lotus already make planes in the name of British Aerospace. Jetstream 41's are a pig to work on , the engines are constant speed variable noise and the wings (a.k.a. floor pans)corrode as they used the wrong heat treatment on the metal. Parts are hideously expensive or on back order .
And you should meet some of the people that built them :shock: I worked at BAe Prestwick for 10 months a while ago and was treated to a few of the production stories.

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 2:42 pm
by Rich H
The mighty jetstream! Bettered only by the Dominie and it's almighty Viper engines

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 4:47 pm
by dezzy
shooomer wrote:
dezzy wrote:A couple of my friends have probably been flying you to those places. Listen out for two female captains - Lucy Morgan and Rebecca Simpson.
Image
Yet again, I would like to point out that I'm far too much of a gentleman to post such pictures! :wink: :D

GregR, I will be bringing the lady with the instruments between her legs along to TT (ask DDtB . . . he knows all about it!).

D
:D

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 4:49 pm
by GregR
d-i-n-g a l-i-n-g


... hold up, by instruments, do you mean wedding vegetables? :shock:

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 4:57 pm
by Shug
...wind chimes?