Pellsons Perceivings

[PR19_Kit]

Fred said exactly what I thought.

Unless there's a risk that the Supersonic Lansen would become radio-active as well of course. It would bring a new aspect to exhibiting it at show, in a lead lined box of course.   

[Rheged]

I'm not sure that this is quite what's meant by  "Glowing with health"  but if it keeps you trundling onwards, I'm in favour.   Will you be able to read the books you take in  by your own glow?  I never managed that with the radiotherapy I was given.

[Rick Lowe]

Fascinating treatment Mr P, hope all goes well and you don't get too bored. 

Agree.
All the best!

[Pellson]

Gearing up for next week's session at the hospital, I'm trying to distract myself with the Lansen model. And it's coming out rather ok, I think. The wing pieces did marry up reasonably well, with only minor shimming, as did the fuselage extension, made from a cut-out section from a previous J32F attempt. Obviously, some PSR has been necessary, and as usual, the number of sessions soon tend to go towards infinity. There's always some irregularity or microscopic shape issue that you just need to correct. Now, the model is smooth like a baby butt and I have had to rescribe ailerons as well as flaps.

But shapewise, I'm more than pleased. It looks fast, if a somewhat fat aircraft can look fast, and the wings are still very much Lansen wings, but definitely faster.
Having had a good think, I've decided to keep the antennae on the wing roots as well as the one under the nose. While the PN-59 navigation system they originally were attached to will be a tad out-of-date in my timeframe, they are too large a part of the Lansen visual impression to leave out.
Another consideration has been whether to add a Hughes 71N IRST under the nose as per the J35F as that would attach rather well to the timeframe during which the fictitious development of this Lansen version was to have taken place, but again, I think I'll pass. The Draken IRST came into being as a compensation for a less than satisfactory radar solution, forced by space constraints, but the sheer bulk of the Lansen snoot allo s for a radar with entirely different and much superior qualities, rendering the argument for an additional system less convincing. And then, again, there's the reason of the aircraft looking like a Lansen. An IRST wouldn't really look right.

However, before adding any small antennae to the underside of a model that lies flat on its belly like a crocodile, I need to add hard points/pylons to protect these smallish fins somewhat. That mean I have to decide on loadout and configuration as well. For the time being, I'm contemplating hanging supersonic drop tanks under the wings. It is somewhat unnecessary given that a Lansen on internal fuel only already well matched a Draken with external fuel, but despite that, many missions were flown with the ubiquitous 600 litre belly bump, and that just isn't very supersonic, is it? So a long range interceptor it is, methinks, and while I initially was tempted to assign it to the first Lansen wing, the F12 wing in Kalmar, I'm now leaning more towards the last Lansen wing, the F4 in Östersund/Frösön, in the middle of the vast northern expanses, rather to the west. IRL, they lost their final Lansens as late as 1969, having flown them for just over four years, and receiving tail-chase capable only J35D Drakens instead, but I think they could have hung on to their twoseaters for a good two decades more, if the Lansens just had been a bit faster and capable of head-on interception. And after all, only a few years later, the development of the vastly superior Viggen air-to-air radar kicked off in earnest. Adding that to a faster Lansen, and having it tended to by a dedicated WSO could have made for quite the capacity.

I'll have to write up something around that thought. And add a picture or two of the current status, I suppose

[PR19_Kit]

That belly tank is just ESSENTIAL to any self respecting Lansen model, and it always amazed me that Heller didn't include it as standard. But it's anything but 'supersonic' of course.

Could there be a more streamlined version of it for your faster update maybe?

[Gondor]

I strongly suggest that with your impending Hospital visit, if you are allowed to take some electronic devices with you, make doubly sure that you have the chargers with you. Nothing worse than your phone or laptop dying on you. I wish you the best with the treatment and that it all goes as planned.

[kerick]

I strongly suggest that with your impending Hospital visit, if you are allowed to take some electronic devices with you, make doubly sure that you have the chargers with you. Nothing worse than your phone or laptop dying on you. I wish you the best with the treatment and that it all goes as planned.

Good luck to you and may all this improve your health.
Be careful with the electronics so you don't wipe out all that memory with all that radiation! 

[Pellson]

That belly tank is just ESSENTIAL to any self respecting Lansen model, and it always amazed me that Heller didn't include it as standard. But it's anything but 'supersonic' of course.

Could there be a more streamlined version of it for your faster update maybe?

I couldn't agree more on the Heller kits omission. Unfathomable! However, the design is, much like the blunt nose, very much subsonic, so while aesthetically necessary under a strike Lansen, I think I will have to give it a pass on my interceptor.

One could actually debate whether any external fuel at all would be necessary in a Swedish perspective. The original J32B interceptor held a maximum of 4100 litres (3500 l internally + 600 l externally) whereas the early J35A/B only held 2810 litres (2280 l internally + 530 l externally), and this with very similar power plants (Avon 47/48). The later Drakens doubled the external tankage and also increased the internal volume somewhat for a total of 2865 litres.
These later Drakens, however, featured the somewhat thirstier but much more powerful Avon 60, which is the powerplant I'm using in my J32F.

From interviews with fighter pilots at the time, it is clear that the Drakens, much like the British Lightnings, were very much intended for short, ground controller led dashes, intercepting and dispatching of an enemy, and then quickly back to base for refuelling and rearmament. The average mission duration was 45-60 minutes. When the JA37 Viggen interceptor entered service, tactics could change a bit. While even more powerful, the Viggen engine was a turbofan being significantly leaner on fuel per thrust unit. As the Viggen held almost 7200 litres on a standard mission, they now flew racetrack combat air patrols, being able to independently search out an enemy and attack. Mission durations thereby increased with about half an hour. However, radar coverage was such that generally, the earlier Draken tactics was expected to work satisfactorily given that enough fighters would be available.

In the Lansen case, one could argue that even the existing internal 3500 litres would allow for a more extended mission than your standard Draken, and as the J32F fuselage is extended by inserting a ca 0,5 m long plug just behind the cockpit, an F Lansen would carry about 4000 litres internally, at least. And that doesn't take any increased tankage in the new wings into account.

On the other hand, the entire raison d'etre for modifying and keeping the Lansen in the first place is the superior radar and WSO team, and just flying 100% ground controlled interceptions might not be to employ the full potential of the Lansen system. Hence, adding capacity to stay aloft longer, not only flying CAP's on its own, but maybe also using the radar/WSO as an airborne fighter controller, directing other assets would be more efficient.

That, however, would take even more fuel, and as I already has performed some practical studies on somewhat larger supersonic Swedish drop tanks, derived from the acute need for more fuel when shoehorning an Avon 60 in a 1780 litre Hawker Hunter, there seems to be an existing solution, and one that can assist in the backstory of said Hunter.
So two sleek 900 litre tanks under the wings, maybe? There will be dry fitting sessions to test this thoroughly before I make the final decision, though.

[Pellson]

I strongly suggest that with your impending Hospital visit, if you are allowed to take some electronic devices with you, make doubly sure that you have the chargers with you. Nothing worse than your phone or laptop dying on you. I wish you the best with the treatment and that it all goes as planned.

A(nother) EU perk - everything these days have the same charger. Computer, phone, headphones, speaker..  everything is connected via USB-C

And thanks for the thoughts all. Much appreciated.

[Pellson]

At the hospital, and in between the never ending interviews, poking arounds and insertion of various sharp objects, I've managed to read up a bit further on RSwAF Cold War strategy and basing philosophy. Many things can be said on that subject, but the main takeaway has to be the ruggedness and fieldworthiness of the SAAB designs, and the simplicity and from that resulting efficacy in turnarounds.
Two examples.

• Repeated strikes at the same, seaborne target, with the same asset/aircraft, at approximately 200 km from base and never exceeding 30 m altitude. Mean time between munition delivery: 1 h 30 min.
• Warlike exercise, scenario is developing including enemy strike at war base, meaning loss of many personnel and half a sqn of aircraft. The other half is returning from a mission, getting diverted to a civilian airfield to where only one technician and one conscript manages to arrive in time to receive the returning flight. These two men manages, entirely on their own, to turnaround four strike aircraft in less than 90 minutes. Two men!

I do find this rather cool, tbh. And mojo enhancing. 

Anyway - as usual when travelling, I'm a bit homesick, and equally as usual when at hospital, someone forgets something, so I was being kept up until one o'clock, and I'll be chased up at 0700. Not nice.  But then again, I'll live. And it's a

Now - long overdue sleep.

[Pellson]

Another sunny(!) morning in Uppsala! The night was a beast. All the noises, lights and not to mention alarms made it really difficult to sleep properly. Also, at about 23 they realised that they had forgot to set an IV port, and at that time, the schedule is as tight as the staff is short handed, so it took some time to get things in order. But it is what it is.
This morning, at least I was allowed to sleep in a bit before x-rays at nineish, so now, I'm sitting in one of the rather worn sitting chair in my hospital room, waiting for the treatment which is due at ca half past one. And that's the great unknown.

In the meantime, I'm distracting myself a little bit more with Cold War history. It's utterly unimportant in relation to where we currently are, to be quite honest, but it's still fascinating and that's all it has to be right now. Fascinating.
What it does, though, is boosting my mojo. God, I long back to my modelling desk where that Lansen interceptor currently is sitting idle. I want to try out load, finally decide on colour scheme for the Rb73 Active Skyflashes and also mull properly on whether to have a divergent colour on the radome on the older aircraft, just to emphasise the radar. I think the Lansen, in particular, would benefit from that, but that also triggers the question about what colour to use. Another grey tone, or maybe a brownish hue, to simulate unpainted glass fibre? In real life, only the J35J's were ever painted grey, and there, the radomes were overpainted with the same colours as the rest of the airframe, bur earlier Drakens, featuring the ubiquitous blue/green camouflage, originally had black radomes, as did the J32B Lansens. Early Drakens, however seem to occasionally have lost the black colours on the radomes, these reverting to glass fibre greenish brown. But it's very individual, apparently. Look at there two.  First a J35A from F16, probably shot in the late 1960's

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And compare to this J35B from F18, probably taken around the same time

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The first one displays "bare" intakes (which I have taken up on my early Drakens, btw), but on the second one, the similarity between the intakes and the radome is striking!

And then, there is obviously the odd museum Draken that, having sat outside for too long, showing clear signs of bleaching of the radome, to an almost greyish tone.

In reality, this question is obviously purely fictional anyway, as my models are what-ifs, and so are my colour schemes. But there's still a desire in me to find an appearance that COULD have been, if just..
And then, there's also an aesthetic perspective. I want my models to look "right". And who knew that would be so complicated.. 

Well, the sun seems to have gotten lost outside my hospital window. Pity - it's a mood booster, sunny weather. But I'll manage. And bad weather is, after all, rather commonplace in these parts of the world, as can be seen on this nice shot of a J35D on a war base exercise in the late 70's. It's an allweather fighter, the Draken..

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[kerick]

I hope all goes well for you. It always stinks to be stuck in a hospital.
Those pictures are great! Especially the last one. Interesting architecture of the building behind the jet.
I forget the manufacturer but there is a paint color called radome tan. I'm pretty sure it was useful on aircraft like US Navy A-6 Intruder.

[PR19_Kit]

Humbrol do a 'Radome Tan', but it's not like any RAF radome I've seen. But it's a good basis for some mixing and matching I guess.

[Dizzyfugu]

For unpainted glass fibre I am a big fan of RAF "Hemp" (Humbrol 168, IIRC) or Revell 75 (RAL 7030), both rather brownish greys. Humbrol's Radome Tan was/is very yellow-ish, but it does IMHO not look like bare glass fibre.

[NARSES2]

Glad your making good use of your time in hospital    Hope all goes well