First Vertical, the Fleet Air Arm's VTOL initiation

[PR19_Kit]

                    First Vertical
                                   
    November 1st, 1956. 30,000 feet above the Eastern Mediterranean two
    Fleet Air Arm fighters climb at full throttle toward the South East,
    vectored toward radar echoes seen by the Allied invasion fleet's picket
    ships. The echoes confirm previous intelligence reports that the
    Egyptian Air Force might mount a major attack on the fleet as it
    approached the coast, and on the previous day Hunters based on Cyprus
    had seen off two EAF reconnaissance Tu-16s, hitting one, but failing to
    catch the other high flying Soviet built bomber.

    Lt. Colin 'Hoppalong' Cassidy, flying the lead 806 NAS fighter, turns
    onto the vector he hears on his VHF radio, and powers up his own radar.
    Immediately the small screen in front of him lights up with a veritable
    forest of echoes, and he toggles the gun switches to the 'Arm'
    position. By now the two fast climbing fighters have gained height
    advantage over the enemy bombers and are turning on to an intercept
    course, even though they are not yet within visual range. Cassidy gives
    a hand signal and his wing man veers off to their combat spread
    formation. A glint of sunlight on aluminium off to starboard betrays
    the position of the Egyptian bombers, and the Fleet Air Arm aircraft
    enter a shallow curving dive toward their targets. The two fighters
    split up, picking individual targets from among the thirty or so
    Tupolev Badgers. Cassidy is aiming for the lead Tu-16, and banking hard
    to one side he brings his gunsight to bear on the big bomber.

    As he comes within range, the Badger starts to turn away, and a bright
    twinkling from the tail turret shows the nervous gunner has opened
    fire. Cassidy's fighter is traveling at nearly 600 knots, far too fast
    for the tail gunner to track him with any hope of success, and Cassidy
    opens up in turn, his four wing pod mounted 20mm Hispanos wreaking
    havoc on the big Mikulin engine mounted close against the Tu-16's
    fuselage. With only one engine running, the big Russian bomber yaws
    sharply to starboard, and as Cassidy overshoots, the Egyptian pilot
    kicks in hard port rudder, over correcting and causing a shock stall in
    the thin air. Cassidy twists his fighter around sharply to deliver the
    coup de grace, and follows the Tupolev down as it rolls slowly over on
    to it's back. One more short burst into the tall tail assembly seals
    it's fate, and as the dark grey and pale green fighter turns away from
    the stricken bomber, Cassidy is already scanning his radar to select
    another target.

    Not until the combat reports are checked later does it become evident
    that Cassidy's Badger is the first combat victory scored by the
    Convair-Hawker Osprey F1, a fighter destined to change the course of
    Naval aviation.

    The events that lead up to that historic combat started in 1952 with
    a US Navy requirement for an experimental VTOL research aircraft that
    could possibly be developed into a shipboard fighter. Both Lockheed and
    Convair responded with their XFV-1 and XFY-1 designs. Both aircraft
    reached the build stage, and both of them flew successfully, but only
    the delta winged Convair aircraft took-off vertically, successfully
    transitioned to horizontal flight and back again, and landed vertically
    during the early months of 1954. Powered by the same Allison T40 twin
    turbo-prop, both aircraft had enough power to make a vertical take-off,
    but the Lockheed aircraft only managed to fly with a jury-rigged
    horizontal mode undercarriage.

    It was obvious that an operational fighter would need to be a much
    larger aircraft in order to carry a useful fuel and armament load.
    Although designed to carry cannon in the tip pods, firing outside the
    airscrew arc, they were never fitted to the experimental aircraft.
    Convair were awarded a development contract for four pre-production
    YFY-2s in July '54, while the XFY-1 was still in it's flight test phase
    spending most of it's time testing landing techniques on motion
    platforms at Point Magu and on board the USS Norton Sound, an ex-
    seaplane tender with an aft deck. A development version of the Hughes
    3-axis auto-stabilization system was fitted to the second XFY-1 during
    this period, and proved so successful in aiding the 'over the shoulder'
    landing process of the tailsitting fighters that it was immediately
    retrofitted to Pogo No. 1, and specified for the YFY-2s. The Navy
    intended to fit some of it's Mitscher class destroyers with a somewhat
    smaller aft deck and hanger to carry two of the FY-2 fighters, and the
    XFY-1 trials attempted to reproduce this situation.

    Around this time the Royal Navy also became interested in the concept
    of the VTOL fighter and as no British turbo-prop had anywhere near the
    power of the T40 let alone it's developed version, the T66, there was
    little interest in the project on the part of the UK industry. The only
    option was to turn to the US to supply the requirement, and although
    rather larger than the FAA's needs, the FY-2 looked on paper to have
    all the necessary qualifications for the job.

    The T66 was developing the most prodigious power levels on the bench,
    and it's test bed aircraft, a modified AD-5 Skyraider, reached 550
    knots in level flight during early trials. Allison developed a single
    stage afterburner for the engine, after discovering that the maximum
    torque level of the engine exceeded the capability of the strongest
    gearbox/propeller combination available. The 'burner' enabled the T66
    to use it's maximum power for short bursts, primarily during take-off
    and combat, without overloading the propeller/gearbox combination. The
    tailpipes for this combination were considerably larger than those in
    the Pogo, and therefore the rear fuselage of the FY-2 was much fatter
    than the earlier aircraft.

    With these and other modifications, Convair had now refined the design
    to a state where it was painfully obvious that there was no connection
    whatsoever with the little Pogo, and the US Navy re-designated the
    design as an F3Y-1. The first YF3Y-1, there being no XF3Y-1, was rolled
    out in March '55, and took to the air two months later. Compared with
    the Pogo, the new fighter had a much better performance, and required
    very few changes to become a production model. The proposed US Navy
    version carried two 20mm cannon and 18 FF rockets in each wing tip pod,
    but the FAA had little confidence in the rockets in a combat situation,
    and wanted any British aircraft to have four 20mm guns. This weapon fit
    was soon in hand, together with changes to accommodate the specified
    British radio and radar.

    The radar installation in the F3Y-1 was unique in that the scanner was
    installed inside the spinner, forward of the front element of the big
    contra-rotating, eight bladed propeller. The waveguides and control
    cables passed through a hollow, non-rotating shaft in the centre of the
    propeller assembly. Although unusual, this configuration proved
    remarkably trouble free in service, comparing well with more normal
    installations. The British radar could be fitted in this manner without
    too many problems, and the Commission promptly ordered 36 of the VTOL
    fighters, beating even the official order for the US Navy, although
    that followed quite quickly, and was for a much more substantial 250
    aircraft.

    The US Navy chose to name it's version of the F3Y-1 as the Convair
    Defender, and it's use of the aircraft will have to be the subject of
    further articles, but as part of the deal with the British Commission
    was that the final fitting out was to be carried out by Hawker Aircraft
    at Dunsfold, the appropriate Hawker name of Osprey was resurrected for
    the FAA aircraft. The first production Osprey F1, WV110, flew at San
    Diego in February '56 and was immediately shipped to Dunsfold for it's
    equipment fit. The remaining 35 aircraft followed closely behind '110,
    and before mid-summer the first Naval Air Squadron, 811 had been formed
    at Ford in Hampshire and began working up. A number of destroyers and
    cruisers had been fitted with the necessary hangers and decks to carry
    the Ospreys, and training on motion tables and on-board ship were soon
    being intensively practiced.

    The strange appearance of the Osprey, contrasting greatly with it's
    contemporary Sea Hawk cousin, soon became a familiar sight along the
    South Coast, especially so as a second NAS, 807 had formed at Portland.
    It was the first land based squadron to fly from the Dorset air
    station, previous aircraft operations from there being water based. In
    a moment of official madness, the Admiralty commissioned the base as
    HMS Osprey! The two NASs divided their operational Ospreys into flights
    of two aircraft, each flight allocated to a particular ship, and were
    then dispersed across the Oceans wherever the Navy needed to make it's
    presence felt. Both 807 and 811 retained four Ospreys at their shore
    bases as training flights, and the remainder of the order, some 10
    aircraft were put into store at Brawdy. In the fullness of time, as
    more ships had decks and hangers fitted, it was planned to allocate
    these remaining aircraft to 807 or 811 as appropriate.

    This master plan became overtaken by events as the Suez situation came
    to a head during September and October of that year, and it became
    rapidly apparent that the remaining Ospreys would be needed on board,
    especially as it had been found that by removing the lower fin assembly
    three Ospreys could be hangared in the space designed for two. The fin
    had been designed to be jettisoned in the event that the aircraft had
    to make a forced 'flat' landing, and RNAY Fleetlands modified this
    structure joint to their own ends. All the squadron aircraft were
    quickly modified to this later standard, and the remaining 10 Ospreys
    had the 'fin-fix' carried out as they were readied for service. The FAA
    had decided against assigning the new aircraft to the existing
    squadrons, electing instead to form a new unit. They also chose to
    resurrect one of the FAA's more notable squadrons, 806 NAS, whose
    famous 'Ace of Diamonds' insignia had until the previous year been
    carried on the nose of their elegant Sea Hawks, but the unit had
    disbanded in November '55, leaving the number free. 806's motto,
    'Sursam in pugnam' translated from the Latin to 'Up, and to the
    fight!', could hardly have been more appropriate for it's new
    equipment, and the 10 remaining Ospreys were soon flying with the 'Ace
    of Diamonds' on their noses.

    The new 806 formed at Yeovilton, although they hardly needed the long
    runways provided by the big Navy base. To staff the new Squadron, the
    instructors from 807 and 811's training flights were transferred to
    806, together with some more experienced pilots from other FAA units,
    and this staffing enabled 806 to complete it's work-up in record time.
    The 10 Osprey's were flown out to Gibraltar, where they were mostly
    assigned to existing flights on board, resulting in the odd situation
    of two different squadron's aircraft being carried on the books of the
    same ship's flight. Toward the end of October, the various elements of
    the fleet sailed for the eastern end of the Mediterranean, but during
    this phase of the operation, air cover was provided by the Light Fleet
    Carriers and most of the Ospreys remained hangared.

    The exceptions were four aircraft carried as singletons on board troop
    ships that had had makeshift flight decks added. These ships, sailing
    as part of a separate convoy, relied on land based air cover from
    Gibraltar, Malta and Cyprus in turn, and the four Ospreys found
    themselves flying long hours filling in the gaps. The only saving grace
    to this grueling workload was the unexpected bonus of ease of landing
    on the much more stable troopers compared to the Navy's lively
    warships. Lt. Colin Cassidy was one of these pilots, assigned to MV
    Cape Horn having previously been an instructor with 807, and soon
    became the highest hour Osprey pilot in the FAA. This experience was to
    serve him well in the days to come.

    Ultra-high altitude reconnaissance flights by RAF 13 Sqdn. Meteor PR19s,
    operating from their Cyprus base with impunity over the Egyptian
    mainland, had established that the Egyptian Defence Staff, anticipating
    action by French and British forces, had collected large numbers of
    both light and medium bombers from both the USSR and other sympathetic
    Arab countries. These aircraft were primarily Il-28 Beagle light
    bombers, comparable with the RAF's Canberra, and Tu-16 Badger medium
    bombers comparing to the USAF B-47 in capability. Both types carried
    defensive armament, unlike any British bombers of the period, and the
    Ospreys practiced attack techniques to counter the Egyptian guns
    against RAF Canberras flying from Malta and Cyprus. At the same time,
    more offensive operations were being conducted by other Canberras
    against Egyptian airfields, but effective dispersion of the EAF bomber
    fleets to the many available bases, most of which were ironically built
    by the Allies, made it very difficult to counter the threat provided by
    the bombers.

    One of the 811 NAS Ospreys, WV116, operating from HMS Dauntless, while
    returning from one of these training missions, had an engine failure
    during it's landing, which resulted in loss of the aircraft but from
    which the pilot, Sub Lt. J. Wicken, was able to eject successfully,
    although sustaining serious injuries. Accordingly, Lt. Cassidy
    transferred with WV121 to Dauntless becoming flight commander on board,
    and immediately proposed the tactic of locating an Osprey carrying ship
    close to a radar picket, thus cutting down the response time of the
    interceptors. This idea was adopted forthwith, and the Osprey pilots
    were able to lie in the tilting seats of the VTOL fighters awaiting an
    alert on deck rather than to fly standing patrols.

    The naval screening fleet came within range of the EAF during the last
    week of October, and very soon high altitude flights by reconnaissance
    TU-16s were being tracked by the radar pickets. As the carrier based
    fighters were fully occupied escorting the Allied strikes against the
    mainland, the Osprey flights were readied to intercept the first recce
    Badgers, but in the event they were chased off by RAF Hunters operating
    from Cyprus, although only one of them was shot down, the other making
    good it's escape. The accurate position fix obtained by this flight
    enabled the EAF to plan it's first strike against the Allies, and this
    was carried out on the morning of November 1st, with the results
    related earlier.

    This first strike comprised 30 Badgers and 26 Beagles, planning a
    high-low attack, and four of the Allied fleet launched their Ospreys in
    defence, resulting in great losses to the EAF from the high altitude
    TU-16 attacks, none of which succeeded in hitting their targets. The
    Il-28s were decimated by the close-in AA from the escorts, and never
    again tried to attack at low level, even though two of their targets
    were hit, one of them, HMS Hereford, subsequently sinking. The Osprey's
    defence against the Tu-16 resulted in the loss of 10 of the Badgers,
    two of these falling to Lt. Cassidy's guns.

    Over the next five days, the EAF flew seven more strikes against the
    Allies, most of them at high level, and all were badly mauled by the
    ship's flights. By the time the invasion had consolidated its beach
    -head, the EAF had lost 88 aircraft to the Ospreys, most of them being
    from the bomber strikes. During the latter days of the campaign, with
    air superiority clearly gained, the VTOL fighters operated some inland
    strikes of their own, flying escort to Sea Hawk and Wyvern ground
    attacks. These resulted in 15 further kills of EAF fighters, mostly the
    theoretically superior MiG-15s, but the maneuverability conferred by
    the large delta wing, and the incredible acceleration of the big engined
    Osprey, more than outweighed the transonic capability of the Soviet
    built fighter.

    It was during this phase of the operation that the second Osprey loss
    occurred, the aircraft falling to an AA battery over Heliopolis. This
    time the pilot, Lt. J.E. Pell, ejected safely, but he was unfortunately
    captured by the opposition. His incarceration was short-lived however,
    as the Allied forces overran the local air base where he was being held
    only two days later. Unfortunately the aircraft concerned was WV110,
    the first production Osprey, but some airframe parts were excavated
    during the '80s by the Egyptian authorities, and presented to the FAA
    Museum at Yeovilton, where they are now displayed close to Cassidy's
    aircraft, whose pilot ended the campaign with seven kills to his
    credit, and thus became the highest scoring Osprey pilot.

    With the Suez campaign coming to it's almost inevitable conclusion,
    the ship's flights were reduced to their normal compliment of two
    aircraft, and the surplus Ospreys returned to the UK, most of them on
    board the Light Fleet Carrier, HMS Bulwark, and carried rather
    incongruously on the flight deck immediately forward of the island, as
    it turned out the VTOL fighter could not be accommodated in the limited
    height of the hangar deck. A scheme to remove the propeller/radome
    assembly was thwarted by the discovery that the special tools needed
    for this task had been returned to San Diego in error at the time of
    806's formation!

    Two of 806's aircraft had been flown down to the Canal Zone airfield
    at Fayid toward the end of the campaign in order to demonstrate their
    remarkable capabilities to the Allied commanders, and at the RAF's
    request, had remained there for some time to test some ideas about
    local point defence tactics using VTOL techniques. Colin Cassidy had by
    now been promoted Lt. Commander, and as he had been largely
    instrumental in getting this tactical evaluation 'off the ground', was
    engaged in flying the evaluation with Lt. Perry in WV135 at the time
    the remainder of 806 embarked on Bulwark. The two Ospreys were
    therefore left behind until the end of the trials, and were flown home
    directly from the Canal Zone to the UK toward the end of December, via
    Cyprus, Malta and the French Naval Air Station at Toulon, where they
    put on an impromptu flying display at short notice.

    This latter exercise had a great impact on Aeronavale thinking, and it
    may be interesting to briefly explore the subsequent French approach to
    shipboard VTOL flying. Negotiations were opened with Convair and the US
    Government during the Spring of '57, eventually resulting in a French
    order for 24 of the Convair aircraft, and a further order of 20 during
    1958. The French aircraft reverted to the US armament of twin 20mm
    cannon, in this case sourced nationally by DEFA, and 18 FF rockets
    housed in the tip pods. For some obscure tactical reason the 44 F3Y-3s,
    as they were designated, were not fitted with radar, improving their
    climb rate, but making them wholly dependent on the radar pickets for
    command and control. The Aeronavale named their F3Y-3s as Tornade
    (Whirlwind) and uniquely amongst F3Y operators, built two specially
    designed ships to operate the VTOL squadrons, the Seine and the Rhone.

    These two ships were like carriers in that they had large flight decks
    compared to the size of the superstructure, but the bridge was placed
    right in the bows and was complemented by a twin hangar deck lift right
    in the stern. The overall configuration was similar to a smaller
    version of the two later Royal Navy assault ships, HMS Intrepid and
    Fearless, although only half the size. The picket radar sets were
    incorporated into the design, and thus formed a compact local fleet
    defence unit, which suited the Aeronavale thinking at the time, but
    differed from the very much smaller units adopted by the FAA and the
    USN.

    806's short 'vertical' life came to an end on 13th January 1957, but
    it immediately reformed at Lossiemouth with Sea Hawks once more on the
    following day, most of the Osprey pilots returning to their
    instructional duties with 807 and 811. Such duties were not for Colin
    Cassidy however, and he was assigned to the Naval Air Tactical Weapons
    Staff where he was able to promote his far reaching ideas for use of
    the Osprey units.

    The two Osprey squadrons carried on being used in similar fashion for
    a number of years, although they never again fired their guns in anger.
    Some carrier deployments were undertaken during the '60s, although the
    difficulties experienced in hangering the tall fighters were never
    fully solved. Highlights of this period included the famous '59
    Farnborough display when four Ospreys took-off at the same time as four
    others made an interleaved landing. Ear defenders should have been
    issued to every spectator!

    External changes to the aircraft during it's life included fitting of
    RWR pods on both fins, an under fuselage avionics pack and the belated
    fitment of Sidewinder rails to the tip pods late in the '60s. Although
    the cannon were originally retained, it transpired that any missile
    launch rendered the adjacent cannon immediately unserviceable, and so
    the upper cannon were deleted and the lower Sidewinder rails relocated
    under the wing immediately outboard of the aileron jack fairings.

    More obvious was the change to Extra Dark Sea Grey/White colour scheme
    in 1959, and the consolidation of the VTOL assets into one Squadron in
    October '58 when 807 was reformed as a Scimitar unit. 811 therefore
    became the only FAA combat VTOL squadron, still operating the detached
    ships flights, and moving it's shore based operations from Ford to
    Yeovilton at the same time, its departure signalling Ford's closure as
    an active shore base.

    Further development of the Convair 'Pogo' concept in the US was not
    followed up by the FAA, as the steady reduction in size of the British
    Fleet, matched by the size of the carrier based Sea Vixen and later
    Phantom squadrons, was enough to ensure that 811 did not need any
    supplemental deliveries. When 811 NAS finally stood down in July 1970,
    British Naval aviation's first VTOL era came to an end. It seemed at
    the time that the MoD's view was severely short-sighted, but behind the
    scenes the 'Cassidy Factor' was still at work.

    Rear Admiral Cassidy, as he had become by then, had been preaching the
    VTOL gospel for years, especially since early examples of the Harrier
    concept had been evaluated on board both the Ark Royal and the Bulwark
    in the '60s, and tactical evaluations had reinforced Cassidy's theories
    that had been developed while he served as an Osprey pilot. Hawker's
    involvement in the Osprey project could have been seen as a taster to
    their own VTOL projects, as the vectored thrust engine concept had
    become known at Kingston during early '57, and the Harrier had grown to
    a fully fledged operational aircraft, albeit a land based one, during
    the Osprey's service life.

    Cassidy's hard work at MoD eventually resulted in the much delayed
    order for the Sea Harrier FRS1 in 1975, resulting in the FAA once again
    acquiring a VTOL capability that had been missing from their inventory
    for five years, although the 'Ship's Flight' concept had been replaced
    by the 'Through Deck Cruiser' idea by this time. In truth it is
    doubtful if the Sea Harrier could operate from the relatively small aft
    decks used by the Osprey, and the hanger accommodation was totally the
    wrong shape for the flat rising jet. The much improved performance of
    the Sea Harrier more than made up for the slight lack of flexibility
    however, and by 1980 the FAA had commissioned it's first shipboard Sea
    Harrier squadron. Justly, Colin Cassidy took the salute at the
    ceremony.

    With a true sense of occasion, WV121 was also present, having been
    restored to it's '56 Suez configuration and colour scheme. The FAA
    Museum rolled it the short distance across Yeovilton's concrete to
    stand beside it's most famous pilot to produce an instant vignette of
    the Fleet Air Arm's VTOL capability.

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              Modelling the Osprey

    Roger Wallsgrove asked me if I'd describe the thought and building
    processes that produced my 'Convair-Hawker Osprey F1 for the Mushroom
    Monthly Aoril issue in 1995'. When I managed to bring my hysteria
    under control, I told him it shouldn't be too much of a problem so long
    as I could find the 'September '94' video tape to plug into my head!
    Luckily I found it.......

    Unlike the previous year's PR19 Meteor, which came to me in a blinding flash,
    the Osprey was actually the result of a reasoned thought process,
    surprising as it may seem. I'm fascinated by the development process
    that a lot of aircraft go through in their lives, the Spitfire being
    the classic case, and a more modern example being the Harrier. Both of
    them show a steady change in shape and capability from the earliest
    prototype to the final version, each Mark being a logical progression
    from the previous one.

    For a 'died-in-the-wool' spoof modeller and What-If SIG member, a
    logical progression from this interest is the building of Marks that
    the original manufacturer never got round to building (viz. the PR19),
    and production versions of aircraft that only got as far as prototypes
    in real life. I'd built the KP Convair XFY-1 Pogo kit in '93, and was
    quite impressed with it, so much so that I bought a few more, precisely
    because it seemed such a good basis for a spoof. I wasn't actually
    thinking of a production Pogo at that time, but by last Summer that is
    exactly what I had in mind.

    From various articles written about the two US Navy VTOL fighters, it
    seemed that any production version would have to have been larger to
    give it a sensible range, and therefore would have needed a more
    powerful engine in order to actually lift off vertically. It would also
    have needed a larger wing area to lift the extra weight, and a bigger
    propeller to absorb the increased power. Translating this into model
    terms lead to F-102 wings, as they were designed by the same team as
    the Pogo, and I had a pair handy from a scrapped attempt at a TF-102.
    The larger propeller turned out to be a problem, as the standard Pogo
    one was pretty big anyway, and I originally thought of a Shackleton
    unit, but to my mind a paddle blade type was essential, and soon the
    scrap box yielded an Aeroclub Beverley set. (No, I haven't got a
    Beverley stashed away in the loft minus it's propellers, I just wish I
    had. I did a lot of flying in them in the late '50s, and I'd love to
    make one.)

    Of course, Beverley props are single units and they are all the same
    hand, so to make a contra-prop I had to reverse the pitch of one of
    them! It turned out easier than it sounds, though. The white metal that
    John Adams uses is ideal for a little re-working so long as you work
    slowly enough, and soon I had a normal and a reverse pitch Beverley
    prop. Fitting them into the Pogo spinner was much harder however, and
    filling and filing the assembly took FOR EVER. Purely by accident, it
    turned out that I'd reversed the direction of the assembly, with the LH
    half at the front, like a contra-prop Griffon, and this was to
    culminate later in the Anglicisation of the project. The big prop
    looked silly close up to the cockpit, so I inserted a short extension
    made from the rear of a U-2. Guess where THAT came from....

    Mating the bigger wings and the short Pogo fuselage produced something
    that looked like a turbo-prop Angels Interceptor, and a comparison of
    likely power outputs showed that my proposed 'Big' engine would still
    be too much for the propeller, so why not re-heat the exhaust during
    the take-off? As the engine was a 'double', like a Gannet, a twin
    engined layout was essential, and obviously a much larger rear fuselage
    and jet pipes were called for, so after sawing the Pogo in half just
    aft of the cockpit, I started off looking at a Javelin, but it was far
    too British. An F-101 looked a possibility, but the high tail didn't
    suit, and a Phantom was just too big.

    Then I came across parts of an ancient Airfix F-111, and it all fell
    into place. With the centre 'nib' removed and a tapered section sawn
    out of the rear half, the F-111 was exactly the right width at the
    cockpit, and with a bit of trimming even the wings fitted well. The
    real bonus was that the fairings outboard of the F-111 jet pipes were
    exactly right to house the 'Shock absorbers' that would have been
    needed to take the extra weight of the F3Y-1. The underside needed a
    little filling, and a couple of extra scoops, from the F-102 tanks,
    were added to cover the worse dents. I left the front half of the
    intakes off, to increase the area, and then put splitter plates back
    on, 'cos it looked better.......

    All this left me with a big space behind the cockpit, and adding the
    rear of the Pogo's fuselage still left a gaping hole. I filled this
    with 'planks' of 40 thou. 'card and filled and sanded it all to a
    smooth shape. The upper fin of the Pogo needed an extension to make it
    symmetrical in span, and I added it's outer undercarriage fairings and
    tanks to the F-102 wing tips. However the tanks just didn't look right,
    and after a number of trials I used the tanks from the F-102 as well,
    with 30% sawn out of the middle. The cannon muzzles were bits of handy
    brass tube.

    All this time, I'd been seeing the 'Production Pogo' in Midnite Blue
    or a Gull Grey and White scheme, with VF14 markings or something
    similar, but then the 'Britishness' of the propeller assembly impinged
    itself on my addled brain, and the thought 'Why not Fleet Air Arm?'
    popped into my head. Checking the same books that got my PR19 Meteor
    over Suez in '56 produced a similar juxtaposition of dates, and all of
    a sudden I was looking for yellow and black paint.

   

   

    I'm not quite sure where the idea of the 'post Suez' finish, with the
    yellow/black stripes showing through the normal paintwork, came from,
    but a photo of a post-Suez PR7 Canberra had some influence I'm sure.
    The only problem was I knew absolutely nothing about FAA squadrons, but
    I know a man who does! Mike McEvoy came up trumps as usual, referring
    me to Ray Sturtivant's superb book on the subject. He even bought his
    own copy to a very foggy Shuttleworth to give me some ideas, and by an
    even bigger stroke of luck Mike Stewart, the Airliner SIG leader and a
    good friend, had a copy that he was willing to sell me. This mine of
    information produced suitable colour schemes and codes, and fired my
    imagination for the 'full-size' story that you'll find elsewhere. By some
    amazing fluke the FAA managed to disband one of
    it's most famous Squadrons, 806 'Ace of Diamonds' NAS, for the entire
    period of Suez, so I re-equipped them with Ospreys, as I was now
    calling this beast, and so committed myself to making the badge from
    teeny-weeny bits of red and white decal sheet.

    The result of all this mayhem you can see in the photos, and it
    managed to bamboozle Roger into awarding it the 'Flight of Fancy'
    trophy at the '94 IPMS Nats'. Thanks Roger, my wife Mary really
    appreciates your taste in trophies, and she thinks you're just as mad
    as me!

    Drawing up the Osprey plans was a whole order worse than the PR19,
    and they have yet to be done, if only because I couldn't find anything to
    base them on at all. Writing the 'full-size' story was fun though. Historical
    coincidences came up all over the place, never ceasing to amaze me,
    possibly the best being the one about the Admiralty naming Portland as
    HMS Osprey! I expect I'll run across some retired Admiral called Cassidy
    next week.......

[Ed S]

WOW.  That's a lot of story.  Well thought out and detailed.  I'd like to see more shots of the model. 

I might also mention that I did a WHIFF Pogo for the Spring Break Group Build

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,19145.0.html


Ed

[PR19_Kit]

Ed,

Thanks, glad you liked the story.

I really ouught to take more piccies, I only have a couple of each model so far. I'll get onto that.

LOVED your Mexican Pogo! If ever there was a kit designed as a 'What If' source it's the KP Pogo. Your cockpit interior is miles better than mine, I'm glad I kept the canopy shut now.

[Weaver]

Kit - that's excellent! 

[Joe C-P]

Very nice! May we see more pictures?


I did mine in USN grey-over-white. I'm looking for the right decals to finish it in specific markings instead of generic.

[PR19_Kit]

JoeP,

I'm trying to organise a Gallery for my stuff, so hopefully I can post some on there. I took a few of all my spoof models the other night, so there's plenty to fill the gallery.

Grey over white for a Pogo sounds good, lots of units to pick from in that scheme. Some of the F-8U units might be worth looking at?

[Maverick]

Nifty model & backstory, Kit,

I did a KP Pogo in overall blue for the USN, but I went a shade further and replaced the prop with a jet intake.  Gotta be one of the neatest types for whiffing in my opinion.

Regards,

Mav

[sandiego89]

Kit, love this story and build- thanks for linking it in the other thread.  I am a huge fan of the Pogo and have built several over the years and have a few WHIF ideas.

Love the changes you made, especially to the armament, props and shock absorbers

A couple of questions for banters sake- please not a criticism at all- I realize this is WHIF.  You propose afterburners on takeoff- surely that would put a huge strain on the deck and eflux on the aircraft with the burner cans almost touching the deck.  Perhaps burners after take off?  I think wooden decks would be out  

Also you removed the lower fin to pack more of them in the hangar.  Are you proposing that the Osprey was stable to tail sit without the bottom fin?  Or would the bottom fin be bolted back on for operations.  Sorry if I missed that.  

I offer that the Popo appears to be shorter (in overall height) when sitting horizontally on its jeep towed trailer.  Perhaps this could be a solution for fitting underneath the hangar ceiling heights?  Of course you would need one trailer per Osprey and a gaggle of Ospreys would take up a good deal of square footage....

Again, no criticism, just chatter if you had thought about this stuff.

-Dave      

[PR19_Kit]

Dave,

Crumbs, that's bumped this thread a tad, 8 years worth of bump! 

Ah yes, the afterburner issue. After the FAA had trialled the original Ospreys aboard HMS Victorious and found that the deck warped considerably after a few take-offs and landings NAY  Fleetlands developed a gridded deck for the operational ships with water cooling applied during flight operations. This worked reasonably well but had the slightly undesirable effect of producing huge clouds of steam through which the Ospreys had to fly. While this wasn't too much of a problem during take-off, landings became rather 'fraught' at times.....

[I just invented that lot after reading your post.  ]

The lower fins of the Ospreys were always jettisonable in case the aircraft had to make a belly landing, so all the Ship's Flights did was remove them while the aircraft was hangared, and then replace them before launch.

[sandiego89]

An overdue revival!  Can't go wrong with a Pogo/Osprey.  Thanks for the answers- Good fast thinking!

-Dave

[Captain Canada]

I'm going to print that one off for my break time reader at work. Can't wait to sit down and have a read ! Cheers !