Author Topic: Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread - AFDS F-100D's (Read 1151867 times)

SPINNERS · « **Reply #105 on:** August 09, 2009, 08:52:36 am »

Curtis-Wright Ascender FB.3

In the dark days of 1940 the UK Government were frantically placing orders with British and American companies for almost everything and anything. One such order was that placed with the Curtis-Wright company for 500 P-55 fighters despite it being very much a paper project at that time. By mid-1941 the folly of such an order was becoming increasingly apparent so the UK Government tried to convert the order into more Kittyhawk aircraft for the RAF in North Africa but Curtis-Wright insisted that the order would remain for the 500 P-55's as contracted despite only lukewarm interest from the USAAC who were yet to place an order due to chronic development problems with the Pratt & Whitney X-1800 engine.

After direct intervention from Churchill, British officials instructed Rolls-Royce to send a team of engineers to Buffalo, New York to see if the ubiquitous Rolls-Royce Merlin could be shoehorned into the P-55 and their initial findings were promising. With the forecast delay in the airframe, and feedback that the aircraft might only be fit for fighter-bomber duties, Rolls-Royce gambled on placing the Merlin 50M engine (a low-altitude version of the Merlin with a supercharger impeller cropped to 240 mm in diameter and with a "negative g" carburettor). Curtis-Wright had closely followed the Rolls-Royce team during the engineering investigations and boldly decided to forge ahead with the programme despite the lack of a order from the USAAC and, using the British order to kick-start the programme, the revamped P-55 was born. In a way, the gamble paid off and the P-55 Ascender programme emerged to give a useful fighter-bomber for the USAAC (mainly used in the PTO) and the RAF (mainly used in the MTO) with many seeing service in the immediate post-war years and several eventually finding their way to the newly-formed Israeli Air Force in 1948.

Wow! The Curtis-Wright P-55 Ascender looks such a hot-ship I assumed it was a late war design and hadn't realised that the design stems from a 1939 requirement.

SPINNERS · « **Reply #106 on:** August 09, 2009, 12:43:19 pm »

Ascender FB.3's of No.54 Squadron, 1946.

I've made my own simple template for the Ascender and apart from the silver No.56 squadron bird I've also done this RAF camo scheme. Unfortunately there is a slight tear (rip) in the 3D model just in front of the windshield and I can't work out where the exhaust stubs are on the original skin bitmap.

SPINNERS · « **Reply #107 on:** August 10, 2009, 02:05:29 pm »

Quote from: Jostein on August 10, 2009, 12:59:19 pm

Could you make one with markings and emblem of 303 Sqdn?

Echoes of the Airfix Spitfire VB...

SPINNERS · « **Reply #108 on:** August 12, 2009, 01:38:49 pm »

Boulton-Paul Firenza Prototype

The appearance of high-flying Ju-86 reconnaissance bombers over Southern England during 1941 re-awakened earlier Air Ministry interest in a high-altitude interceptor-fighter and specification F.4/40 was quickly revised into specification F.7/41 setting out challenging values for altitude, radius and armament. Three companies tendered to F.7/41; Westland with their Welkin design, Vickers with their Type 432 and Boulton-Paul with their innovative Type 98.

The Boulton-Paul Type 98 (lated named Firenza) was an unusual 'canard' design with a slightly swept wing set well back and outside of an extremely broad but flattened fuselage designed to accommodate two 'conjoined' Merlin 61 engines driving (jettisonable) contra-rotating propellers in a pusher configuration. As if that wasn't novel enough, a tricycle undercarriage and a huge ventral fin completed the most dramatic looking of all of Britain's WW2 aircraft. Armament was planned to be a closely grouped battery of four Hispano V 20mm cannon located in the long nose and each with 300 rounds per gun.

With Rolls-Royce heavily committed to more orthodox Merlin installations the complicated gearbox and contra-rotating propellers saw Boulton-Paul struggle to make progress and the Firenza soon lagged behind the other two competing designs with the prototype not flying until February 1943. Test flying from Boulton-Paul's home airfield of Mousehold Heath in East Anglia continued into the Summer of 1943 but with the threat of the Luftwaffe fielding large fleets of high-altitude bombers becoming increasingly remote a 'stop works' order was issued to Boulton-Paul on September 19th, 1943 just before the third prototype was about to fly and the remaining two prototypes were soon grounded by lack of gearbox spares once the project was cancelled.

This is, of course, the Henschel Hs P.75 masquerading as the Boulton-Paul Firenza! Sadly, a bit of a disappointment this - and all after a fair few hours work making my own templates off the original bitmaps. To explain, I like to use my decals added to the aircraft 'in game' as opposed to being applied directly to the bitmaps as the resolution is so much better. But unfortunately the Henschel Hs P.75 3D model has a couple of tears in it so I've had to put the decals on the bitmaps and they look a wee bit rough. In addition, the Henschel is such a curvaceous beast there's also some distortion (as on the top of the prototype 'P'). Nevermind, but no requests on this one thank you!

SPINNERS · « **Reply #109 on:** August 16, 2009, 12:11:23 pm »

Israeli P-56's 'Zeev'

After David Ben Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948 the new nation had a desperate battle on its hands and the urgent formation of an air force was seen as a priority. The arrival of Avia S-199's from Czechoslovakia was a major step forward and the 'Sakin' made an instant impact by downing several Egyptian C-47's and Spitfires whilst also halting the Egyptian army at Ashdod with strafing attacks.

But more aircraft and, indeed, more pilots were still desperately needed. During 1948 the fledgling state acquired many aircraft clandestinely and among those were an assortment of Northrop P-56's left behind in Europe by the USAAC. Enough P-56's were scraped together to equip 101 squadron and the 'Zeev' (Wolf) was a popular and durable aircraft shooting down several RAF aircraft in Operation Horev in early 1949 and remaining in service until replaced by Gloster Meteors during the mid-1950's.

SPINNERS · « **Reply #110 on:** August 23, 2009, 11:23:21 am »

The Blackburn Barnsley B.1 Bomber

In response to a 1934 Air Ministry requirement for a twin-engine advanced monoplane bomber with a retractable undercarriage, Blackburn Aircraft designed the Type B8 to specification B29/34 and with war clouds looming flew the prototype Barnsley bomber in late 1935. Powered by a pair of Bristol Mercury VIII engines the Barnsley was selected for priority production as part of the expansion scheme and the Barnsley B.1 entered service in 1937, mainly replacing the Heyford and Overstrand in RAF service and quickly becoming the mainstay of Bomber Command during 1938 and right up to the time of the Munich crisis. Thankfully, more advanced types were on the way and by the late Summer of 1939 this rather pedestrian aircraft was declared obsolete and transferred to various overseas Commands eventually seeing very limited service in the Far East where it was hacked out of skies by Japanese Zeros in December 1941 during the fall of Singapore.

This is, of course, the Bloch MB.210 dressed up in NIVO green and 'B' type roundels as seen on other RAF bomber types at the the time of the Munich crisis. Thankfully, the skin is already that colour but I just had to overspray some markings. Once again, the 3D model has a an unfortunate tear in it so I couldn't photograph the port side.

SPINNERS · « **Reply #111 on:** August 24, 2009, 02:38:33 pm »

RAF Su-27 Scimitar II's ('Flanker')

In a major review of RAF equipment following the 1991 Gulf War an honest appraisal of the Tornado F.3's shortcomings was made and the report made it clear that whilst it made an adequate long-range interceptor it lacked the manoeuverability for air superiority. With the Eurofighter 2000 still many years away from entering service the RAF looked closely at purchasing F-15A's from USAF stocks but, with the fall of the Iron Curtain, Sukhoi offered an export version of their superb Su-27 fighter. In February 1992 the UK Government accepted the offer (on political grounds) and the Sukhoi Su-27 entered service as the Scimitar F.1 in 1995, seeing service in the Second Gulf War and also the Second Falklands conflict of 2006.

SPINNERS · « **Reply #112 on:** August 26, 2009, 06:27:42 am »

Red Arrows Flankers!

Just a hint of what a Red Arrow Flanker would look like really, as to do a full-blown Arrow would just take too long I'm afraid and you know how I like to leapfrog around and not get bogged down!

SPINNERS · « **Reply #113 on:** August 26, 2009, 08:25:17 am »

BAe/Sukhoi Scimitar FG.3 - Operation Telic

Apologies for the number of Desert Pink Flanker pics, I got a bit carried away.

SPINNERS · « **Reply #114 on:** August 26, 2009, 12:49:49 pm »

BAe/Sukhoi Scimitar F.1A's of No.23 Squadron

I do like grey/green camo with 'B' type markings ('twas my teenage years - LOL).

SPINNERS · « **Reply #115 on:** August 26, 2009, 01:53:16 pm »

BAe/Sukhoi Scimitar F.2's of No.43 Sqd

SPINNERS · « **Reply #116 on:** August 26, 2009, 03:06:38 pm »

Quote from: thedarkmaster on August 26, 2009, 12:57:23 pm

Just loving these Sukhoi's, how about one in anti flash white with full colour roundels ?

Surely that's got to be toned-down three colour roundels?! (And don't call me Shirley)

BAe/Sukhoi S.4's of No.543 Squadron

OK. I've OD'd on Flankers. No more for a while!

SPINNERS · « **Reply #117 on:** August 28, 2009, 05:59:44 am »

North Vietnamese Lavochkin La-15 'Fantails'

This lovely little aircraft already comes with the Green skin so I've just added VPAF markings. I like to add anything to my Vietnam install that gives me an enemy to fight in the pre-1964 era and, just like the MiG-15, it's a tough little opponent.

SPINNERS · « **Reply #118 on:** August 28, 2009, 11:29:52 pm »

Xian FBC-1 Flying Leopard (JH-7A 'Flounder')

With production well underway for both the People's Liberation Army Air Force and the People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force the Xian company offered their robust FBC-1 design for export with the first export customer being the Vietnamese People's Air Force who are purchasing the JH-7V version to replace their Sukhoi Su-22's in the attack role with first deliveries being made to the Truong So airbase in 2006.

Just like the VPAF 'Fantail' I was looking for something to populate my Vietnam install but in more recent times.

SPINNERS · « **Reply #119 on:** August 29, 2009, 08:04:30 am »

Shiny Tornados!

What If^TM the brass hats decided to do away with camouflage, well at least for the home-based squadrons, and the RAF fly silver Tornados with colourful 'Lightning' type markings and three-colour roundels?