Full size F 15 on piston engines?

I was in Iceland recently. I was on the Pearl (Geothermal hot water storage) and saw taking off from Reykjavic (local) airport what looked like an F 15.
It really looked like an F 15 but sounded as it it were flying with a piston engine. Has anyone a clue what it might have been? Unfortunately my wife had the digital camera at the time so no picture is available.


Although I was at some distance from the airfield there was no way I wouldn't have heard a gas turbine. Other recognition points were the vertical fins, they were triangular, coming to a point. Although I was above the airfield I did not see the planform but as tha aircraft climbed away from me I couldn't see the wing which led me to believe it was a delta or more probably of swept back planform.

Could it have been a canard design? Piaggio has a twin, and there was the Beechcraft "Starship" which has since been withdrawn from the market. These rwo are twin engine pushers, but turbine powered rather than piston. You could have been hearing the prop noise of course.

Single engined canards are all ( so far as I know ) Burt Rutan designs - Vari-Eze, Long-Eze, and so forth. All are pusher designs, piston engined.

If any of these were far enough away and at the right angle they might well have looked a bit l.ike an F-15.

Bill.

I don't believe the Velocity is a Burt Rutan design, though i think it was based upon one.

Thanks William,

My memory of the craft is weakening already. I am only certain of the piston engine, and the triangular fins with sharp point at the top.

I Saw an interesting craft at a Wallis Day meeting on sunday. Wing Commander Ken Wallis at 92 is still flying his own build & design Gyrocopter. He flew it (similar one still existing) in the James Bond Film. He called the giro Little Nellie. He demonstrated the stability by flying past us with arms and legs spread wide. He later said he was demonstrating the inherent stability of the craft.

There were a number of other gyros at Shipden airfield (Farm now) and people from Germany and Holland, maybe other places. One Gyro proved different, it was running a Yamaha 350ccc motorcycle engine and gearbox. Closer inspection showed a Honda M/cycle 90 degree unit driving the rotor. The thing was a Helicopter. The builder was an aeromodeller but also employed in aerospace working on helicopters. The rotor head looked very similar to that on the gyros.

Later by invitation at the Wallis residence we saw his gyros, some 15 ready to fly. Wallis flew over 30 bombing missions over Germany in Lancasters, France for SOE in Lysanders and later attached to US air force, piloted B36? armed with an atom bomb and details of the target during the cold war.

John L.

Hi,
'
I wondered if this is the forum for my meanderings, I decided to supplement my info' on the Wallis.

Wing Commander K H Wallis MBE, DEng (hc), CEng, FRAeS, FSETP, Ph.D (hc), RAF (Ret'd)

Quite a mouthfull, he currently hold 25 Gyro world records. His singularly uninformative website is www.kenwallisautogyro.com.

I must admit I'm not terribly keen on rotorcraft but this man is very interesting and all homebuilds are interesting.

My preference is for the tween the wars full size and SAM models. Rutan and Bede are responsible for the only modern craft that really interest me.

John L.

John:

You mentioned Jim Bede. It's not commonly known, but the first Grumman-American general aviation plane was his BD-1 design.

Bill.

A Vari-Viggen per chance?

There are binoculars there you know?

Also I don´t think the F-15 take off from ReykjavÃ*k airport, they are all in KeflavÃ*k

I think this MUST be what I saw. Odd how memory plays tricks and manufactures shape from dimly seen images. I had pointed tips to the vertical fins firmly in mind.

It is also rather interesting. I suppose I was rather previous claiming only tween wars etc as of interest. I hate commercial flying, asthma and commercial air con do not mix well. (neither does smoking but I have/do both) The name Vari Viggen as a prop aircraft is not in my memory, is this an oddity or again am I misremembering it. I thought Vari Viggen was a jet, maybe just the Saab Viggen?

IT WAS Reykjavic. I flew into and out of Keflavic and only saw horrid passenger jets, I didn't see much else except a Travelair, Full Sized suspended from ceiling of the airport building.

John L.