Not happening right now, and not a singularity, would be a collection based on the Antonov AN-2. I have no idea how often it appears on stamps but 18,000+ of this single engine biplane workhorse were produced between 1947 and 2001. I remember there was a group in the Google Earth community who were identifying as many as they could from the Google satellite photos. Another group were doing the same with the DC-3. For a commercial biplane to be built so late and so many and for so long it must have served some useful purposes. It was still being built when the one and only AN-225 was built in 1988. Now how many AN-2s could you fit in the AN-225?
When it comes to aeronautics, I'm flying blind (sorry), but I imagine the big advantages of a 'modern' biplane would be lift.
In the commercial jets in which you are a passenger, extra lift (for take-offs & landings) is achieved by extending the wing; this is an expensive feature to build, but an inexpensive configuration to fly, because the drag disappears when the extensible flaps are retracted into the wing.
In a modern biplane, I would imagine you get a ton of lift - good for short & rough runways - and good for harsh maneuvers - but expensive to fly because, when you do not need that lift, all that extra wing surface is also known as drag, which eats fuel.
Of course, since we're talking Stalin & his heirs, that long production run might just mean that no one knew how to take the decision to stop producing the plane.
Deep Memory Factoid: in the 1960s, a factory in Massachusetts was still producing spare parts for the 1906 Springfield rifle. The US DoD paid the bill, and sold the parts for scrap.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey (who forgot to say: the AN-2 topic is good idea, Danny)
Ikey you were very close..its the 1903 Springfield..an excellent military and sporting weapon and cartridge. The NRA once had them on sale for 20 dollars apiece, try to get one now !
I seem to have a 1906 problem. Some patriot was once mouthing-off about how 'we' built Japan into an industrial power after WW2. I pointed-out that the Japanese, starting from pretty much nothing after the 'opening' by Commodore Perry (1853) - one of those events only stamp collectors seem to know about, for some reason - Japan built a modern blue water navy that defeated a nominally European navy in 1906. My brother z"l, not wanting to interrupt my learned rant, stuck-out a hand and extended four fingers (that naval battle was in 1904, not 1906). Still an awfully fond & happy memory of my brother.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey (who conflated the .30-06 cartridge - who gets the '06' from the date of its introduction - with its best-known weapon - introduced in 1903)
Be sure to enjoy the technician's pseudo-biological metaphor:
https://www.rferl.org/a/mriya-world-biggest-plane-ukraine/29636501.html ... by By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
'
Heads up!
The world's only AN-225 will fly over Venice (Italy) at 12pm on 9 May 2019.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
I saw the Super Guppy once, though of course it doesn't compare with the AN-225.
The Antonov An-225 is a singularity [b]and[/b] the world's largest cargo aircraft flying today.
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/antonov-an-225-kiev-ukraine/index.html ... #2 lies unfinished in a hanger near Kiev
One way to collect the An-225 is by the stamps, but good luck finding those Gambian or Solomon Islands stamps GPUP (Genuinely Postally Used on Piece).
While you are waiting, you can create a Google Search on "AN-225" and follow the aircraft as it lands around the world:
You could print news of each 'visit', and attach ancillary items, such as a postcard of that airport / city / ethnography, or related stamps from that country, and build the sort of travel diary that a member of the flight crew might keep.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey (who has edited this post to correct the aircraft model number) (and who does not want to take anything away from the Zeps, the DC3s, balloon mail or my beloved Beacon Airmail, but the AN-225 is, like, happening right now)
re: AN-225 Spotting
Not happening right now, and not a singularity, would be a collection based on the Antonov AN-2. I have no idea how often it appears on stamps but 18,000+ of this single engine biplane workhorse were produced between 1947 and 2001. I remember there was a group in the Google Earth community who were identifying as many as they could from the Google satellite photos. Another group were doing the same with the DC-3. For a commercial biplane to be built so late and so many and for so long it must have served some useful purposes. It was still being built when the one and only AN-225 was built in 1988. Now how many AN-2s could you fit in the AN-225?
re: AN-225 Spotting
When it comes to aeronautics, I'm flying blind (sorry), but I imagine the big advantages of a 'modern' biplane would be lift.
In the commercial jets in which you are a passenger, extra lift (for take-offs & landings) is achieved by extending the wing; this is an expensive feature to build, but an inexpensive configuration to fly, because the drag disappears when the extensible flaps are retracted into the wing.
In a modern biplane, I would imagine you get a ton of lift - good for short & rough runways - and good for harsh maneuvers - but expensive to fly because, when you do not need that lift, all that extra wing surface is also known as drag, which eats fuel.
Of course, since we're talking Stalin & his heirs, that long production run might just mean that no one knew how to take the decision to stop producing the plane.
Deep Memory Factoid: in the 1960s, a factory in Massachusetts was still producing spare parts for the 1906 Springfield rifle. The US DoD paid the bill, and sold the parts for scrap.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey (who forgot to say: the AN-2 topic is good idea, Danny)
re: AN-225 Spotting
Ikey you were very close..its the 1903 Springfield..an excellent military and sporting weapon and cartridge. The NRA once had them on sale for 20 dollars apiece, try to get one now !
re: AN-225 Spotting
I seem to have a 1906 problem. Some patriot was once mouthing-off about how 'we' built Japan into an industrial power after WW2. I pointed-out that the Japanese, starting from pretty much nothing after the 'opening' by Commodore Perry (1853) - one of those events only stamp collectors seem to know about, for some reason - Japan built a modern blue water navy that defeated a nominally European navy in 1906. My brother z"l, not wanting to interrupt my learned rant, stuck-out a hand and extended four fingers (that naval battle was in 1904, not 1906). Still an awfully fond & happy memory of my brother.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey (who conflated the .30-06 cartridge - who gets the '06' from the date of its introduction - with its best-known weapon - introduced in 1903)
re: AN-225 Spotting
Be sure to enjoy the technician's pseudo-biological metaphor:
https://www.rferl.org/a/mriya-world-biggest-plane-ukraine/29636501.html ... by By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
re: AN-225 Spotting
'
Heads up!
The world's only AN-225 will fly over Venice (Italy) at 12pm on 9 May 2019.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
re: AN-225 Spotting
I saw the Super Guppy once, though of course it doesn't compare with the AN-225.