1:144 NAMC YS-21 “かりがね (Karigane), All Nippon Airlines (ANA)

Dizzyfugu · December 04, 2019, 12:04:43 AM

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 - Fake Box Art by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Some background:
Although Japan had designed and manufactured a number of military aircraft before and during World War II, it was forbidden according to the Potsdam Declaration from engaging in the production of airplanes and other products that could be used to rearm a military. These restrictions, however, were lightened by the United States during the Korean War, opening up the possibility for a Japanese company to produce a civilian aircraft.

Actually a consortium of several different manufacturing companies and university professors, NAMC was founded in April 1957 by executives from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Fuji Heavy Industries, Shin Meiwa Manufacturing, Sumitomo, Japan Aircraft, Showa Aircraft, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries with the goal of designing and manufacturing a Japanese civilian turboprop airliner to replace the successful but aging Douglas DC-3. The resulting aircraft, the YS-11, a low-winged twin-turboprop-engine monoplane, capable of seating up to 60 passengers, became a successful civilian airliner.
On 30 August 1962, the first YS-11 prototype performed its maiden flight. Deliveries commenced on 30 March 1965 and commercial operations began the following month. The majority of orders for the type were issued from various Japanese airliners. While sales to such customers were swift in the YS-11's initial years of availability, this limited market soon became saturated, leading to a slump in demand. By the late 1970s, after producing several variations of the YS-11, NAMC hoped to introduce a jet airliner in order to replace and upgrade the primarily domestic operators and compete with those short-haul airliners being produced in the U.S. by companies such as Boeing and McDonnell Douglas.

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

This project was called YS-21 and work started in 1968. During the design phase, a high level of attention was paid to market research and operator concerns – even though this was almost exclusively limited to the domestic, Japanese market. Amongst other changes made, the prospective jetliner was increased in size, changing its maximum seating capacity from the YS-11's 60 to at least 85 passengers in a five-abreast configuration, with a maximum of 100 seats in a tight single-class arrangement.
The aircraft's general layout resembled the contemporary Boeing 737: a low-wing twin-jet airliner with a conventional tail and podded engines slung under the only slightly swept (just 25°at quarter chord) wings. However, the engines were not directly mounted under the wings, but rather in pods on pylons that set them apart from the wings' undersurfaces. Fuel was stored within both the outer wings and within the lower fuselage. As a special feature, additional pylon-mounted tanks could be installed under the outer wings for extended range operations if so required.

Special care was taken to allow the aircraft to operate from the same smaller airfields as the YS-11, and various elements of the YS-21 were designed to maximize passenger comfort and operator convenience during operations on 2nd class airfields. One such measure was the rear entry door with built-in stairs that, while adding structural complexity, meant that mobile airport stairs were unnecessary for boarding. In order to ensure operations on smaller airfields and reduce ground pressure, the aircraft received, despite its compact size, four-wheel bogies on its main landing gear. The machine furthermore feature an autonomous power unit (APU) for operations independent from most airfield equipment.

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

However, a central problem of the YS-21's development became the powerplant: there was no indigenous engine available to power the aircraft, and developing one at a timely schedule for the YS-21 program turned out to be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. At one stage of development, NAMC had reportedly intended the YS-21 to be powered by a pair of Bristol Siddeley BS.75 turbofans. However, this selection was hotly contested by rival British engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce, who proposed their Rolls-Royce Spey Junior, a simplified version of the Rolls-Royce Spey.
The engine procurement from foreign sources caused a lot of debate, not only among the NAMC engineers, but also on a political level, since the YS-21 was intended to be a 100% domestic product. Eventually, pragmatism prevailed and the Pratt & Whitney JT8D-9 with thrust reversers and an output of 14,500 lbf (64.50 kN) was chosen, because it was, at the time of the YS-21's development, to be built under license by Mitsubishi for the Kawasaki C-1 JASDF military jet transport aircraft. A compromise that more or less saved face of the project leaders and the political powers that promoted the aircraft.

A distinctive design trademark of the YS-21 became its engine pods: in order to gain as much ground clearance as possible and keep the landing gear short, the JT8s' auxiliary installations were mounted to the engines' sides, resulting in a noticeable bulge on the pods' outer flanks and a noticeable oval air intake orifice.

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Initial domestic market response was quite positive, mostly boosted by national pride, though, and NAMC tried to attract the interest of major national airlines (primarily JAL and ANA, but also smaller companies) and several foreign regional airlines, touting the YS-21 as the better alternative to the foreign Douglas DC-9 or Boeing 737. A few airlines, also from other countries, showed some initial interest but only ANA and JAL placed concrete orders. These were (mis)interpreted as a very positive sign, though, and production was prematurely greenlighted with only 15 firm orders and 10 options in the books.

This lack of interest could be, despite the YS-21's qualities, contributed to several factors. The main influence was the oil crisis of the 1970s, but another factor was the YS-21's limited capacity and range – suitable for domestic service in Japan with many short routes, but unattractive for many other potential users. At maximum payload, the aircraft's range was only a mere 1,700 km (a comparable early Boeing 737 had a range of 2.800km), and the optional underwing tanks did not help much since drag and extra weight almost entirely compensated for the potential increase in range. This inherent flaw resulted in a high refueling frequency that grounded the aircraft more often than other types and, as a further effect, relatively high operating costs.

Consequently, the YS-21 achieved no foreign sales, and beyond JAL and ANA as launch customers and main operators of the type, only Japan Transocean Air ordered four machines. With a total of only thirty-three sales and with one of the three prototypes refurbished and sold as the 11th YS-21 to ANA, the airliner represented a severe failure for NAMC and the Japanese commercial airliner industry. Plans for an enlarged version with a stretched fuselage for up to 120 passengers never left the drawing board, since both the domestic and the international markets for short and medium range passenger aircraft were already dominated by other types like the Boeing 727 and 737.

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

In service, the YS-21 was quickly nicknamed "Karigane" (かりがね; Wild Goose), due to its slender fuselage, the streamlined cockpit section that resembled a goose's head on a long neck, and the engine nacelles under the rather straight wings, which reminded of the bird's stretched feet upon landing. This nickname was never officially adopted, though, but frequently used by the crews and in public.

The YS-21 turned out to be a reliable and sturdy aircraft, popular among its crews for its good low speed handling. On 29 April 1995, the last YS-21s in service flew their last commercial flights. Throughout their combined cumulative operational lifetimes, the YS-21s accumulated a total of 1.18 mio. flight hours, during which 80.4 million passengers were carried across 1.3 mio. individual flights, without any accidents and an impressive 98% in-service reliability.

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

General characteristics:
Crew: 3
Capacity: 85 with 8,400 kg (18,519 lb) payload
Length: 32.40 m (106 ft 1 1/2 in)
Wingspan: 34.3 m (112 ft 6 in)
Height: 10.80 m (35 ft 4 1/2 in)
Wing area: 146.7 m2 (1,579 sq ft)
Empty weight: 22,200 kg (48,943 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 46,000 kg (101,413 lb)

Powerplant:
2× Mitsubishi-built Pratt & Whitney JT8D-9 low bypass turbofans, 64 kN (14,500 lbf) thrust each

Performance:
Maximum speed: 590 mph (950 km/h, 510 kn) at 6,100 m (20,000 ft)
Cruise speed: 470–530 mph (750–850 km/h, 400–460 kn) at 6,100 m (20,000 ft)
Range: 1,700 km (1,100 mi, 920 nmi)
Service ceiling: 12,000 m (39,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 16.7 m/s (3,300 ft/min) at 2,135 m (7,005 ft)
Takeoff roll: 1,859 m (6,099 ft)
Landing roll: 1,755 m (5,670 ft)

The kit and its assembly:
Even though I am not a fan of small-scale airliners, I have recently (and successfully) built two what-if conversions, and I still had the idea of this short-haul airliner in the back of my mind since my Il-60 airliner build. The latter was based on a Caravelle airliner and featured two turboprops on the wings in new nacelles as well as a low tail. However, when I built it, I already considered a similar conversion, just with podded jet engines under the wings like the Dassault Mercure or the Boeing 737.
I had based the Il-60 on the rather crappy Caravelle kit from Mastercraft, so that I switched this time to the new (but much more expensive) Amodel kit – in this case the Caravelle 10R model, which comes with proper JT8 engine pods.

Despite a completely new layout of the aircraft, I wanted to change as little as possible and use only few donor parts. In fact, the only additional/new parts are the radome (actually a propeller spinner from a Matchbox He 115, simply glued onto the Caravelle's nose and blended into the fuselage with PSR) and longer landing gear struts, because the re-located engines under the wings called for a bigger ground clearance. The front leg was completely replaced (taken from a 1:200 Space Shuttle, but still with OOB wheels), while on the main struts only the legs were replaced with longer parts from a 1:72 F4U. A weird detail: the kit comes with separate struts and bogies, but this makes this surgery relatively easy. In order to change the profile of the aircraft I replaced the round fin tip with a square one, scratched with styrene sheet and PSR.

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 (Whif/modified Amodel kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 (Whif/modified Amodel kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Lots of PSR went into the build, in part because of peculiar solutions the mold designers chose. For instance, the window section consists of three clear panels per side, to be glued into recesses on the flanks, which have back walls. The benefit of this construction is beyond me, because it just causes surface mess and calls for sanding and filling. Naturally, the three panels per side do not lie perfectly flat or even in their recesses, and they are in total 2mm too long for their intended openings...? WHY!? If Amodel had wanted a clean solution, they could (and should) have molded the complete fuselage halves as clear parts? Another weak point I came across was the windshield, which comes (Minicraft style) as a clear cockpit area section and seemed to belong to an altogether different aircraft – it did not fit into the respective fuselage opening at all and called for massive trimming and more PSR...

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 (Whif/modified Amodel kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 (Whif/modified Amodel kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

These problems with the clear parts almost ruined everything, and that's a shame because the Amodel Caravelle is a nice kit of this airliner, with fine, recessed surface details and delicate details. Nevertheless, even though it is a modern mold the kit does not get together easily, a typical short-run affair without locator pins.

As a typical feature of my airliner builds, I added a vertical styrene tube in the fuselage's center of gravity as a display holder adapter for the in-flight scenes.

Painting and markings:
I had a hard time figuring out a potential manufacturer and operator for this aircraft – placed into the Seventies time frame, there were many similar designs on the market, so why add another short-/medium range airliner with a rather limited capacity which would rather be a Sixties design? After long considerations I settled upon a Japanese aircraft – national pride and stubborn processes might certainly lead to such an aircraft, and the YS-11 shows that the idea is not far-fetched.

I also considered a fictional airline as operator, but when I checked options for an aftermarket decal sheet, I realized that the early ANA livery, the so-called "Mohican" scheme due to the blue dorsal stripe, featured a da Vinci helicopter as a logo. I never noticed this before or wasn't able to identify it, and I found this badge so charming and weird that I eventually settled for ANA as the aircraft's operator. After some more search I even found a decal sheet from 26decals for an ANA Boeing 767 from 2009 in a retro scheme, and I was also able to organize a Mohican livery sheet from a Hasegawa 1:200 Boeing 737, because the 767 fin emblems were simply oversized for the Caravelle's fin.

Creating and adapting the early ANA scheme to the model was complicated, though. In an initial step I gave the model's underside and the upper wing surfaces a coat of White Aluminum from the rattle can – I opted for this simple quasi-NMF finish because of its retro look. The upper fuselage became white, with the help of decal sheet material and enamel paint (Humbrol 22). The blue spine and the fin were also painted with a brush in French Blue (Modelmaster), which came close to the cheat lines' blue tone from the retro 767 sheet – even though these are IMHO a bit dark. Some fine-tuning and decal trimming had to be done in order to make the livery work, though, but I think the result looks quite good – better than expected after this material mish-mash.

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 (Whif/modified Amodel kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 (Whif/modified Amodel kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Once the basic livery had been applied, the windows were added with decals. The cockpit windows had to be improvised, since Amodel's Caravelle sheet does not offer a decal option for the windscreen. But I am not sure if it would have matched the modified nose section at all? So I trimmed down the Boeing 767 windscreen from the 26decal sheet and improvised. The cabin windows were taken from the 767, too. I wanted a very different look from the Caravelle's original triangular window rows, and with the 767 windows' rather oval shape and higher density, this worked well. It also makes the YS-21 look bigger than it actually is.
After that, the airline markings and some more details like walkways on the wings (created with generic decal strips from TL Modellbau) were added.

In a final step, the landing gear was finished and some more detail painting (position lights, exhausts and thrust reversers) was done, before the kit was sealed with an overall coat of gloss acrylic varnish for a clean and shiny look.

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:144 NAMC YS-21 "かりがね (Karigane)"; aircraft "JA-602A", operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA); Japan, 1976 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

I am torn about the outcome of this build, esp. the Amodel base. After long waiting, I hoped for a decent Caravelle kit in 1:144 scale. It is basically there, but the weird window panel construction really ruins what could have been a crisp up-to-date offering. This does not ruin the model as such, but the panel solution is IMHO far from perfect and user-friendly.

The layout conversion into the 737-style YS-21 whif worked well, despite some problems, and I think there's only little left of what reminds of the model's Caravelle heritage. The ANA Mohican livery also looks stylish, it adds a nice retro touch to the aircraft, very Seventies (if not Sixties?). With the glossy and bright finish, the model even looks, from certain angles, like a vintage Chinese tin toy?

PR19_Kit · December 04, 2019, 12:15:40 AM

FANTASTIC job there Thomas!

Just about the only thing that gives away the kit's origin is the fuselage spine, other than that it's a case of 'Where does THAT bit come from?'

Whiffed airliners are catching on a bit.

Oh yes, I LOVE the kit box shot too.

loupgarou · December 04, 2019, 12:32:24 AM

Beautiful build, Dizzy.
In the front views, the engines seem to suffer from toothache!

NARSES2 · December 04, 2019, 01:52:42 AM

Lovely looking bird Thomas

Dizzyfugu · December 04, 2019, 01:53:41 AM

Glad you like it - and many thanks for the Whiffies consideration, Kit!

zenrat · December 04, 2019, 02:45:33 AM

Nice. One of my YS-11 kits has that scheme. It looks really good and I see what you mean about the tin toy similarity.

TheChronicOne · December 04, 2019, 09:38:03 AM

Most fantastic! I love it. Keep doing more of this.

Captain Canada · December 13, 2019, 08:18:53 AM

Very nice ! Looks so sleek and fast, yet not so.....love the colours as well. Very attractive !

Dizzyfugu · December 14, 2019, 09:45:41 AM

Thanks a lot! It turned out really pretty.

sandiego89 · December 14, 2019, 09:59:55 AM

Really well done, the livery is fantastic! Dave

PALG · December 30, 2019, 02:27:10 AM

I bloody love this. I love any WHIF early experimental jet airliner, and this is one of the best. it inspires me to get up and finish my own project. great job and I esp like the edgy nose and cockpit configuration.

Dizzyfugu · December 31, 2019, 03:20:48 AM

Thank you, glad you like it!

TheChronicOne · December 31, 2019, 01:12:08 PM

Always glad when this pops back up!

chrisonord · January 01, 2020, 03:15:57 AM

Marvellous