Planet Satellite.

[wonwinglo]

Four seater built of magnesium alloy,retractable undercarriage fitted with a Gipsy Queen 32 amidships driving a pusher airscrew in the tail,designer was a Mr J.N.D.Heenan,she was built in the Robinson Redwing factory at Croydon,Purley Way,Surrey in 1947,taken to Redhill in 1948 and shown at the S.B.A.C show at Farnborough in September 1948,took up the registration G-ALOI in April 1949,failed to get airborne at Blackbushe despite several long runs down the runway,thus any further attempts to fly her were abandoned.

Sadly dismantled at Redhill and sold as scrap in 1958 and the alloy melted down.

Span 33 feet 6 inches,Length 26 feet 3 inches,Tare weight 1,600 lbs,all up weight 2,905 lbs,max estimated speed 208 mph,cruise estimated at 191 mph.

And so another very advanced design went into the history books.

No known drawings exist.

 

[AirshipsfNflyingboats]

Thanks Barry ....I seem to be having problems - first I cannot find/see my original entry .. at the time I posted a picture which showed as an attachment ok then dissapered...and it hasnt shown up in my gallery..Second at the same time as recieving the notification about the above I was informed of another responce by Bunkerbarge but when I click on the link for that I cannot find it and get an error message.........help this is confusing.

 

[Bunkerbarge]

I think you may have lost a couple of posts in Johns server change over.

Hopefully things will be back to normal now. Try reposting the original with the picture again. I did see it and wrote a quick note but they seem to have got lost.

 

[wonwinglo]

Airshipsnflyingboats,what happened is that it was a tail ender that got deleted in Johns server upgrade,my entry also got lost and this is the second one,just upload the original image again,well worth the effort as this one is mega rare subject matter.

 

[AirshipsfNflyingboats]

Planet Satelite second attempt

I found this old scan and sent it to my mate Eljimbo who is a master of the DIY outrunner contra rotating motors set up....I cannot re scan at the moment the top of the fins are squared off by the way.:artist: any one got more stuff? My original message to Eljimbo went like this:music_whi

jim an error sorry I called it a Miles it isnt I went back to source.. and the caption cut off in the pic says 4 seat mag alloy Planet Satellite..never flew shown in 1948 at Farnborough but was featured in Heavenly body...1983 Oct edition of Aeroplane. The pic you've got was from the Oct 1998 edition. So now we know what we are looking for.

----- Original Message -----

View attachment 13747

 

[tigertc]

Now that would be a challeng. Not only to build something that has never flown, but then to make it fly! Someone must have the drawings. Good luck.

 

[AirshipsfNflyingboats]

Well the message is there and advanced edit says the attached pic is there the problem is I still cannot see it anywhere? Dohhh!

Tigertech hi .....it would be easier to make a model fly than the original as with modern Elec motors and cells the power available would probably work out proportionately far greater - the shapes very slippy and basicly simmillar to the Buggati racer though that was a contra tractor set up......jim has produced one motor for a Reno mustang of 500W-600W power and about 40 inch span.

Making it mm exact would be a challenge but building a working replica should be possible. The small wheels would be a bit of an issue on anything but smooth concrete/tarmac.

 

[Bunkerbarge]

Barry,

A beautifull design but where was the engine?

I can't make out any inlets or exhausts and it won't go very far without either!!

Maybe that's why it never flew, they forgot!!!

 

[wonwinglo]

The very Planet Satellite was built with the engine at the rear ( amidships say Planet in their press release ),the exhaust eflux emitted underneath the fuselage via asbestos cladding to dissipate the heat,over heating was probably a problem as there does not appear to be much in the way of cooling ?

I would like to know the colourscheme of this machine ? something that seems to have been lost in time,you will not find much in the way of any more photographs as she was a little camera shy.

No reason why she could not be made to fly providing that the centre of gravity and weight are kept within limits,too heavy a wing loading and she would be a missile that would fly like a brick ! and certainly a candidate for washout with those thin wings which would need thickening up a bit to be successful.

This is a subject for a simple electric powered sheet design to iron out the bugs before committing to a complex build.

 

[duncan]

Great subject for blue foam ! Guess the engine would be mid-ships but cooling and exhaust must be underneath? Could go same route with electric powered model with long prop-shaft c/f tube maybe. Notice the civvy reg Meteor in top right hand corner. There was an all red one I seem to remember.

 

[AirshipsfNflyingboats]

Help

:sunglasse Im still blind I cannot see or find my picture..........can anyone help me out please.

 

[rjwood_uk]

due to the server move unfornutaly we have lost the first couple of posts (including the one with the picture on) can anyone re-post it (cant remember who started the thread), was it you pogo?

 

[wonwinglo]

***See message #5 the picture is still there no problem,the original message has gone but the picture is the same.

:sunglasse Im still blind I cannot see or find my picture..........can anyone help me out please.

 

[AirshipsfNflyingboats]

due to the server move unfornutaly we have lost the first couple of posts (including the one with the picture on) can anyone re-post it (cant remember who started the thread)' date=' was it you pogo?[/quote']Done that ...I started but he re started following the loss.........this is a different problem everyone else can see it but me from the sound of it:plane:

 

[wonwinglo]

Planet Satellite photograph.

 

[wonwinglo]

Can you see it now ?

 

[AirshipsfNflyingboats]

yes indeed thanks any idea whats happend?...I could see the attachment box but no image inside it on #5

On the same page/scan was a picture of the Supermarine Seagull 381 at the same show for which I now have plans for a 60" span E flight version.

 

[wonwinglo]

Yes #5 shows the picture of the Satellite but no Supermarine Seagull ? built that one myself once for free flight power,a superb flyer until a magnetic tree jumped out of a field and hit it head on..crunch !! a very attractive subject for modelling.

The Meteor in the background by the way mentioned by Duncan is G-AKPK the all red T.7 demonstratot which eventually went to the Royal Netherlands air force.

Keep these interesting types coming and experiment loading the pictures.

 

[duncan]

Big pic reveals tiny slot on top of fuz. Cooling inlet ? Waiting for Seagull pic, got the Satellite pic first time OK.

 

[wonwinglo]

***Well spotted Duncan,I have been thinking a lot about this design,at that time there was not a wide variety of engines suitable for pushers,the inline Gipsy Queen was hardly a good choice of powerplant given the cooling requirements for a very closed in arrangement,I suspect that the downfall would have been over-heating a killer with tractor airscrews let alone something with no slipstream wafting across the pots,re-designed today with a suitable lightweight fan she would work,couple this with a suitable modern powerplant with plenty of power in reserve,the aircraft reminds me of something out of a 'Dan Dare' story,now I really am showing my age.

Big pic reveals tiny slot on top of fuz. Cooling inlet ? Waiting for Seagull pic' date=' got the Satellite pic first time OK.[/quote']