The second of two tales of modern UK aircraft manufacturing

rickshaw · January 18, 2017, 07:29:23 PM

And now begins the second tale of British aircraft manufacturing. As we have seen, Duncan Sandys was forced to resign because of his sexual peccadillo with the Duchess of Argyll. His replacement was John Profumo. In late 1957, Profumo handed down the much expected Defence White Paper. It promised savage cuts to an already over-extended and increasingly out of date RAF. All aircraft contracts for fighters and strike aircraft were to be cut, immediately. Instead the RAF would go over to using guided missiles. Fighters were to be replaced by long range Surface to Air missiles and strike aircraft by IRBMs (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles) initially and then, once developed, ICBMs (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles), both of which were to be situated in "silos" below ground, in the British countryside.

John Profumo had done his deed. He had saved the British tax-payers millions of pounds but at the expense of several tens of thousands of workers' jobs. Profumo, as we know was later forced to resign because of his involvement with Christine Keeler. The RAF began to "wind down". Aircraft were not replaced, except with missiles. Within five years, the RAF was only a shadow of it's former self. British aircraft manufacturing had been devestated.

The RAF realised that whilst missiles looked good on the cover of magazines, they were not quite as useful at policing the airspace of the UK. Soviet bombers started approaching closer and closer as the numbers of fighters were retired. The scandal finally broke when a Soviet Bear bomber, allegedly "blown off course" overflew Belfast without challenge in broad daylight. London was alarmed. Washington was horrified. London urgently requested that the USAF station more fighters in the UK. Washington complied, on the understanding that the UK would either restart its aircraft manufacturing or purchase aircraft from America. It did both.

Here we have an example of the later. An F-106C Delta-Dart F.1 of 3 Squadron RAF wearing a commemorative set of markings in 1970, stationed "somewhere in Britian". It carries internally four AIM-4, one AIR-2 Genie and an M61 Vulcan 20mm cannon.

The model is an ancient Hasagawa F-106A, to which I added the nose conversion from Falcon for the F-106B. The nose was quite simple to add, although a fair degree of PSR was required to even out the pieces. I also added a Vulcan pod, from the sparesbox, made from a drop tank for a Gnat T.1. The markings came from a combination of Kit Spackman Enterprises (the tail checks) and an Xtradecal Lightning set.

McColm · January 18, 2017, 09:43:04 PM

Great background story and build

PR19_Kit · January 19, 2017, 04:08:45 AM

So THAT'S what those checquers were for!

You've done a super job with that Falcon conversion, it works very well on the Hase Six. I like the whole idea and it looks terrific.

NARSES2 · January 19, 2017, 06:33:47 AM

Looks really good in that scheme

zenrat · January 20, 2017, 02:01:09 AM

Ooh yeah. Like it.

TheChronicOne · February 04, 2017, 01:40:23 PM

Outstanding!! I like it alot! Great work, sir!

DogfighterZen · February 04, 2017, 01:51:47 PM

Nice scheme, well done!

rickshaw · February 04, 2017, 08:05:31 PM

Thank'ee, kind sirs, for your kind words. What is remarkable is just how well the Hasagawa F-106 bits fit together. I am unsure what they are using in their mould metal but after what, 40 years? It is still flash-less and everything fits like a glove! The Falcon F-106B nose similarly goes together quite nicely. Well worth the purchase.

Martin H · February 05, 2017, 07:12:55 AM

Looks good to me.

Reminded me of this old one of mine from 9-10 years ago....................... Yours looks better in my eyes.

Same serial and codes, althou the checquers on mine were painted on.

PR19_Kit · February 05, 2017, 08:30:59 AM

The two seater Six has a tad more elegance than the original to my mind.

Painted on checquers? You've got more patience than me OGL.

Martin H · February 05, 2017, 09:04:40 AM

Quote from: PR19_Kit on February 05, 2017, 08:30:59 AM
The two seater Six has a tad more elegance than the original to my mind.

I tend to agree

Quote from: PR19_Kit on February 05, 2017, 08:30:59 AM
Painted on checquers? You've got more patience than me OGL.

I couldnt possibly comment

Glenn Gilbertson · February 05, 2017, 03:41:35 PM

That's a real good looker!

rickshaw · February 05, 2017, 07:51:25 PM

Painted on checkers? No thank'ee. It was bad enough with Kit's decal ones. I had to mix the red paint to try and match the colour he'd used...

PR19_Kit · February 06, 2017, 02:15:06 AM

Quote from: rickshaw on February 05, 2017, 07:51:25 PM
Painted on checkers? No thank'ee. It was bad enough with Kit's decal ones. I had to mix the red paint to try and match the colour he'd used...

Always a problem with decals. Matching paint is a SERIOUS problem anyway as it always looks different when it's wet to when it's dry and varnished.

Martin H · February 06, 2017, 05:50:25 AM

Quote from: PR19_Kit on February 06, 2017, 02:15:06 AM
Quote from: rickshaw on February 05, 2017, 07:51:25 PM
Painted on checkers? No thank'ee. It was bad enough with Kit's decal ones. I had to mix the red paint to try and match the colour he'd used...

Always a problem with decals. Matching paint is a SERIOUS problem anyway as it always looks different when it's wet to when it's dry and varnished.

Now you know why i painted the tail on my 102 instead of decals