[caldrail]

There are valid reasons that there never was an operational ramjet in any service. But it would be a blast to fly!

Until you have to land. Although the 283 would gide as any other aeroplane, the short span and swept back wings don't lend themselves to slow flight. If you mess up the approach, it's unlikely you'll have any emergency power, and since you'll be gliding in, you have to get it right. Worse still, there's no power available for taxiing.

When you first see the 283, the appearance wows you. When you consider how cheap and crude its manufacture would have been, how few instruments and controls it needed in the cockpit, and how basic its systems are, you realise what a primitive aeroplane it actually would have been.