SJMc Sea Cat Erieye YAEW.2 with photos

[McColm]

I'm using the 1/72 Italeri Douglas C-47 Skytrain model which is being kitbashed with a pair of Rolls-Royce Darts,  the wings,  tail and spin top from a Grumman E-2C Hawkeye.

[kerick]

Interesting. At first I thought you might be putting a turbo Dakota on floats. That would be fun too.

[McColm]

Interesting. At first I thought you might be putting a turbo Dakota on floats. That would be fun too.

There's two 1/72 Douglas XC-47C float plane Skytrain Dakota kits if you can find the RVHP 7294 conversion set or the AMC  7206 kit.
There's also a 1/144 model.


Maybe the floats taken from a 1/72 Ju-52 floatplane/seaplane might be a alternative 🤔

[McColm]

Slight change in design.

[McColm]

More changes since returning from holiday.
The SJMc Sea Cat Erieye AEW.1 has a pair of Rolls-Royce turbofan engines and the Ericsson Erieye airborne early warning system fitted on top of the fuselage. An arrestor hook has also been added.
 The Sea Cat has been used for C.O.D. trials with the British Royal Navy and the USNAVY. Whilst in the USA the US MARINES evaluated the use for ground support and an air-to-air refuelling tanker for their helicopters.
Trials work using the tried and tested AN/APS-20S radar as a carrier AEW for the Fleet Air Arm commenced in the late 1970s with five aircraft plus the prototype kept for training purposes. This allowed missions lasting upto eight hours without refuelling to be achieved using the Avro Shackleton avionics. Pilot, copilot, tactical navigator and six radar operators. No hot food was served although flasks of tea could be kept warm throughout the missions.
The trials resulted in the aircraft was very vulnerable to ground attack and enemy fighter aircraft.
It was the HMS Customs department which threw the SJMc Sea Cat a lifeline as they needed an aircraft to monitor illegal immigration especially around the English Channel. An order for nine Sea Cats was placed, the remaining aircraft carried out the surveillance duties as changes to the interior specification by the new customer couldn't be altered to the existing Sea Cats.
It was around the mid 1980s that a replacement for the AN/APS-20S radar was being looked into. Negotiations between Britain and Sweden had resulted in the Transall C-160 Skyguardian and the Ericsson Erieye was being promoted as the next generation.
The nine Sea Cats would have the Erieye radar fitted but the delivery date pushed back to 1990.
 This wasn't the end of the original batch of five and the prototype. The prototype went on to become the official training aircraft, upgraded to the Erieye standard.
The best three were converted into freight/transport aircraft and certified as commercial aircraft. The other two stripped for parts.
The Sea Cat (C.1)s are used for pleasure flights or camera aircraft for films.

[McColm]

The SJMc Sea Cat Erieye is currently undertaking a few changes, it now has a new nose and a couple of modifications hence the green masking tape.

[McColm]

Now that the masking tape has been removed a side heat exchanger has been added. The Erieye radar sensor is in the stowed position and can be raised at different angles as required.