Sukhoi T-6

[Archibald]

First step to the Su-24 was the T-6-1. Basic fuselage of the future aircraft was already there, but there was two lift jets and... a delta wing with anhedral wingtips.
The lift jets proved disastrous and were deleted on the production aircraft... als, the fixed wing was replaced by a VG system. Lost of time, more weight, complication and in the end, bad handling.
So, whatif Pavel and its team only had delted the lift jets ? The anhedral wingtips were aprently added in the course of flight test.

I think about a straightforward scenario... for the reasons mentioned above, Pavel decide to get ride off the lift jets only. A ballast of concrete replace the engines in the T-6-1, before the T-6-2 makes its maidden flight in late 1968. There's now a fuel tank instead of the jets (or concrete   )

The rest of the Su-24 history is unchanged... Iraqi Su-24 flee to Iran after GW1.

The Osprey book "TSR-2 units in Gulf War 1" mention the fact that

"Australian, Canadian and British TSR-2s bombing Iraq during GW1 received high-viz, red triangles on their tails, because they were way too similar to those
damned Iraqis Su-24"  

[B777LR]

Hey archie, how about using the wings for a Mirage G? And using Mirage F-1 wing for this? Modify it a little

Is that revell Su-24 kit good?

[chadders]

Mmmmmmmmm, Archibald, if you don't use B777LR's Mirage wing idea, I think I may have to use it,     but even if you don't use the idea you have the makings of a really good build there, great work.
Mark

[Rafael]

Archi, this is shaping up nicely. Congrats  

Rafa

[cthulhu77]

That thing screams out for canards...almost a mini-firefox.

[John Howling Mouse]

Seems like such a natural...somewhere there's an ex-Sukhoi employee lurking on this board murmuring "Why didn't I think of that?!?!" in Russian, over and over again!    

[B777LR]

Почему я не думал об этом? Почему я не думал об этом? Почему я не думал об этом?

[upnorth]

Omluvam se, nerozumim moc Rustina.

[upnorth]

Is that revell Su-24 kit good?

The Revell SU-24 traces its history back to a mid 80s Italeri tooling. Between then and now its been through Dragon's and Zvezda's hands.

The only thing really accurate in it is the weapons sprue, which was added by Zvezda a few years ago and not seen in the Italeri and Dragon issues.

My understanding is that it makes a respectable representation of the type if you don't look at it too closely. It does have quite a few outline problems, but these are symptomatic of the fact it was a western made kit of an eastern subject before the Iron Curtain came down.

Compared to some of the other western made kits of eastern subjects that predate the fall of socialism, the kit certainly is not the piece of crap a lot of JMNs make it out to be. The SU-24 was an enigma of sorts to western eyes almost up until the fall of socialism. The kit came out pretty good considering was was known (or better to say still unknown) about the Fencer when Italeri tooled it.

Certainly a whole lot better than the old Revell 1/72 MiG-29, MiG-31 or Yak-38.

Archie:
It looks like you have something good there.

I think the main reason they made the SU-24 into a VG aircraft is that after the lift jets were removed, the VG wing was the only way the aircraft could meet the take off and landing distance requirements that were set for it.

I think the T-6-2 required an enormous length of run way due to its short wings and the Soviet government ordered a complete wing redesign or the whole project would be trashed.

[Geoff_B]

Archie

A note on using plastic card for wings, to get the Aerofoil shape you need to laminate a couple of sheets together to build up depth and strength then do lots of sanding and shaping to thin out the trailing edge and to curve the leading edge. They also need to taper down in thickness towards the wing tips. If you check a kit wing them most will be between 2-3mm in depth or more near the wing root.

Use the plastic card to create plugs to extend the intakes rather than tape. Either use a solid block made up of numerous laminations of plastic card or cut a strip of 40 thou (1mm) thick card to the correct width to create the correct shape for the intake plug. Either type can then be sanded/filed to shape to match the rest of the intake and filler used to clean up any imperfections.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Geoff

[Archibald]

I think the main reason they made the SU-24 into a VG aircraft is that after the lift jets were removed, the VG wing was the only way the aircraft could meet the take off and landing distance requirements that were set for it.

I think the T-6-2 required an enormous length of run way due to its short wings and the Soviet government ordered a complete wing redesign or the whole project would be trashed.

How did you managed to read in my mind ?    
That exactly what I thought !!!!

Yep, short wing + lift jets = VG wing.
BUT remind the TSR-2... it had, too, a short wing... there's a spectacular pic in british secret projects - bombers-  
A TSR-2 at landing with "everything down"... the plane had a complex system of flaps which allowed short landings.

I 've doubts that the Soviets could design such system for a fixed wing T-6 (I think that they were not very good in the field of flaps ans other STOL stuff).

What we can say is, for STOL
short wing+ lift jets = VG wing = short wing + flaps

Over these three options, the only viable for the soviets at the time was VG (lift jets were crap, and their flaps were not very good).

So, in this alternate universe, we must suppose that this fixed wing T-6 had a complex system of flaps (quite similar to the system fitted to the TSR-2).
Fortunately, we are in a whatif world  

[Archibald]

More pics! paint job has started...





There's a full load of missiles (Kh- something) on the box...    

[Archibald]

In progress pics

[ysi_maniac]

Looks well bttb      

[Archibald]

As many Revells models, this one is well detailed and shaped. BUT the decal sheet is full of small stencils... I've just spend one and half hour decalling!!! Think I'm going nut aaaaaargh but well, the effort is worth the result (not sure of this sentence   )

Think I'll put some photos on the TSR-2 research group. TSR-joe posted a nice 3-view of the T-6-1 which helped much