North American AF-82/A-11 --- Finished (now with pics)

[PR19_Kit]

I thought about that one too Jon, but it comes after A-10 which of course was designated to the -- err -- A-10     which came quite a bit later timewise

Thus the CIA obfuscation. 

 

Now what would the CIA be doing with a CAS aircraft   

Similar things to what they did running an airline (Air America...……………) 

[kerick]

CIA was running the B-26/A-26 in Laos.

[kitnut617]

Hmm! the plot thickens  ===== 

Now how can I work this into my backstory, what with the aircraft loaded to the ti!$, err! I mean has a lot of stores on it 

[Mossie]

Convair Advanced Designs Ii has a an A-8 study in it, which was a turboprop replacement for the Skyraider.  They give the same reason for the skip, Harrier.

There's always A-9 though, your timeline might just bump along the later machines.  A-2 as well, because who remembers the Savage??? 

[kitnut617]

Convair had a competitor in the OV-10 program, the Model 48 Simon. Can't find anything about a Skyraider turbo-prop replacement though. Douglas had the Skyshark A2D.

But I might go with Jon's suggestion, the A-11. Just need To find out if SEA camo was used on a CAS aircraft by them. Plus what sort of markings too ---

[joncarrfarrelly]

Another thing about A-11 is that it has never been officially assigned, unlike
the A-12 which was the Dorito.

One could really build on the spook aspect and use A-13, as -13 designations
aren't used on US aircraft in the post-1962 series, supposedly for superstitious
reasons.
 

Really confuse the issue by not assigning a model suffix, so just A-11 rather
than A-11A.
 

[kitnut617]

OK, A-11 it is   

I imagine the marking would be suitable obscure, basically star-&-bars with no codes to speak off ---

[Mossie]

Convair had a competitor in the OV-10 program, the Model 48 Simon. Can't find anything about a Skyraider turbo-prop replacement though. Douglas had the Skyshark A2D.

But I might go with Jon's suggestion, the A-11. Just need To find out if SEA camo was used on a CAS aircraft by them. Plus what sort of markings too ---

Convair Model 100, half way down the Secret Projects page:
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/ax-contenders-alternatives-to-the-fairchild-a-10-thunderbolt-ii.2615/page-4

It seems to have been an A-X precursor ( may have been called this later on) and was only referred to as A-8 unofficially.  There were a few versions, T64 and T56 powered, tandem and single seat.  Early versions had a t-tail, later ones had a conventional tail but all variants were broadly similar.

[kerick]

A-11 and A-12 was used by the CIA for the predecessor to the SR-71. Of course it didn’t stand for attack. Probably something the spooks used to throw people off of what the real purpose was. Just like how the U-2 could have been mistaken for utility aircraft.
A-11 sounds just fine for your project. I’m just being a stinker. Your build, build it and name it your way!

[joncarrfarrelly]

A-11 and A-12 was used by the CIA for the predecessor to the SR-71. Of course it didn’t stand for attack. Probably something the spooks used to throw people off of what the real purpose was. Just like how the U-2 could have been mistaken for utility aircraft.
A-11 sounds just fine for your project. I’m just being a stinker. Your build, build it and name it your way!

A-3 through A-12 were internal Lockheed designations
for the various configurations explored in developing the
SR-71 and YF-12, it had nothing to do with the CIA.

[Snowtrooper]

On the other hand, you could dual designate and call it the AF-82. (F/A-82 would be anachronistic, as it was invented for the Hornet to keep the peace between fighter and attack pilots.)

[zenrat]

It's very thoughtless of these military bureaucracies not to leave more gaps in their designations for us to use.

[NARSES2]

Reading all this rather confusing info perhaps explains why the RAF and numerous other air forces give their aircraft official names.

[kitnut617]

You got it salt6, and I might just fall back and do that.

At the moment though it's an A-11 Twin Mustang. Just figuring out the CIA angle to the backstory.

Anyway, here's a few pics of what I'm using. I was going to use the black F-82 kit you see in the photo I post earlier, however I've noticed that I had started to modify one of the fuselages so the Merlin would fit it. So I'm going to use another one.

Sometime ago, Hannants had a sale on for this kit, so I bought four IIRC, I've found two of them.



Contents:



And these are some of the bits I'll be using:

[kitnut617]

I had already decided I was going to put wingtip tanks on it before someone mentioned it, frees up all the hardpoints for ordnance 

I'm going to use some Zuni RP pods but all I can find in my stash at the moment is two of them. As I need these pods on other projects I'm going to make a mould of them and cast up a few.
Same with the other RP launchers you see there, it's those 'bazooka' styled ones with six launch tubes.
I'll go with just the two Mk.82 bombs with the fuse extenders and I'm thinking maybe two or four napalm bombs too (if I can find where I put them).
Under each outer wing there will be six pylons (off a Skyraider as that kit will be used for an AEW project) and the gun pod is an SUU-23. Only it won't be like that once I've finished with it.

The engine cowling comes from an Airfix Fairey Firefly Mk.IV which previously I had just cobbled together for the other project it will be used on (RAF F-82's but that's another story). I found that I had to modify it slightly so it would mate-up to the F-82 fuselage joint properly, I've had add a sliver of styrene strip to the glue joint, tapering from .5mm at the rear to nothing at the front. I also swiped a couple of exhaust stub fairings from the new tool Airfix Shackleton MR.2 kit, as in the backstory that's where the engines came from.  I had to add a disk of styrene to the front because the Frog (spawn) Shackleton contra-props don't have enough spinner at the rear of the rear spinner, and also some styrene added to the rear of the cowling just to lengthen it a bit. I'll make some casting of this too, I've got a couple other projects I'm thinking of using them on.



So that's the plan so far -------