Among other things I have worked on in my life, I did a lot of graphics for the V-22 program. As you may or may not be aware, the V-22 is that big propeller short wing airplane that the Marines want to have instead of helicopters. Here's a picture or two:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=v-22+photo&id=C0732656A6F08A4D4EFEF9D40320EA6BBAAE9A2A&FORM=IQFRBA#a
The main problem they had to overcome (jury is out on if they've fixed it, which is part of the reason why you don't see them flying around everywhere) is that the wings and engines have to tilt to get the thing to take off and land. This causes problems which I won't go into here. MY solution, embodied by the R2, is to tilt the whole aircraft so it takes off (with the running start you saw on page 30) and land almost vertically, with the help of the landing legs. My drawing on page 46 is supposed to capture this, but it needs work. I'll get on that while I get to the point of this blog entry.
Jeffrey was perceived as an overly cautious person, and many might think from this that he would never set foot on, let alone build, a plane like the Reindeer Mark 2. In fact, Jeffrey loved to fly. One of his favorite experiences was to get on a small (4-seater) that his cousin Bernie owned and fly to Detroit or somewhere else for a visit. Having been on small aircraft myself, this is not an exercise for the timid, but Jeffrey relished the experience, especially as he had complete confidence in Bernie's abilities as a pilot. Just one more example of the man being completely different than his image.
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