Computer Videos

Convair XFY-1 Pogo flown by Dave Herbert shows it's downfall

Back


Amazingly, Aerofly took an experimental aircraft (that was scrapped) and made it for the Aerofly Pro Deluxe RC simulator, so we could find out how hard the plane was to fly in real life! That's commendable. On April 29, 1954, James F. "Skeets" Coleman, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Marine Reserve and a Convair engineering test pilot, made the first tethered flight in the Pogo. Mr. Coleman was one of the few real pilots. Some irrate viewer scolded and insulted me by saying there was another pilot, Chuck Meyers and told me I was out of line with my video, cause I left his name out!! I meant not to dis-credit anybody, but merely point out Coleman's technique for flying this plane for the video. My info came from the following website. It is the Smithsonian Institute's Museum's Website! http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/convair_pogo.htm This is a credible site, and they also have a Pogo there. Another is in San Diego Aerospace Museum, which I have many pictures of. I never saw Meyer's name on the site, so how would I know who else flew it? Why would I even care because the names of other pilots mean nothing for this video anyway. Here is how Lt. Col.Coleman he did it. He approached the field low with the engine set at flight-idle. At mid-field, he popped the control stick back into his stomach and pitched the airplane's nose straight up. The speed fell sharply but just as he reached the peak of his climb, The pilots applied power and stopped the Pogo in mid-air. With practice, they could stop the climb in a hover, reduce power and "back" down to a nice landing, but sustained hover was marginal. Nose heavy, Counter-Rotating propellers (with NO CYCLIC pitch), and a "slow to respond" Turbo Jet engine, made landings too difficult for pilots, so the project was scrapped by the Navy. Many new technological advances were made while proving flight to hover, but the machine was simply too difficult. Today, we have MODEL airplanes that can hover easily. Of course they don't land on their rudders, but the motors respond instantly and the CG is moved way aft for 3 dimensional stunt flying. This is the most difficult airplane I have ever tried to land. I would enjoy seeing some of your videos of Aerofly's XFY-1 flying too. The point of the video is to show that no matter how unusual the airplanes, Aerofly (Ikarus Germany, USA) has them and must be commended for the time it took to accurately present these kinds of unusual machines. Thanks for watching.

Category: Autos
Uploaded: September 16th, 2007 @ 7:33 pm
Author: NightFlyyer

Length: 04:55
Rating: Whole StarWhole StarWhole StarWhole StarHalf Star
Views: 16,543

Tags: airplane convair crash dave herbert hover jet navy pogo xfy-1

Related Video Links:


» View Video Comments For Convair XFY-1 Pogo flown by Dave Herbert shows it's downfall
» View NightFlyyer's Other Uploaded Videos

Video Thumbnails:


Thumbnail #1 Video Thumbnail #1:
Thumbnail #2 Video Thumbnail #2:
Thumbnail #3 Video Thumbnail #3:


Video Embedding Code:


Video Url:


Embed Code:

* Embed this video on your website, social bookmark, myspace, or blog.