Black Widow B.1

[Devilfish]

By the mid 1980's, the RAF were looking towards replacing its fleet of aging Eagle aircraft (TSR-2).  Looking to the future, they wanted an aircraft that would be able to survive the modern, and future, battlefield.
Around this time, the USAF were looking for the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF), and two designs were in contention, the YF-22 and YF-23.  With the YF-22 winning the contract, Northrop looked around for other uses for their design.
BAe approached them with a view to a collaboration.  The design was tweaked to suit the RAF's requirements, which mainly included adding a second seat, specialist avionics, and strengthening the airframe for lower level flight.
The result was the Black Widow B.1

Kit is the Hobbyboss 1/48 YF-23, with a scratchbuilt rear cockpit and a modified 1/32 Hawk canopy.

20171021_001358 by Paul Carter, on Flickr

20171021_001409 by Paul Carter, on Flickr

20171021_001420 by Paul Carter, on Flickr

20171021_001511 by Paul Carter, on Flickr

[PR19_Kit]

An excellent idea, and the  model looks terrific. 

Obviously the squadron commander's aircraft, with the AJ-G tail codes. 

[Dizzyfugu]

Cool. Just the bump behind the cockpit looks a littlle strange?

IIRC, somebody also put the Su-34/platypus side-by-side cockpit on an YF-23, looked very good (but hunch-backed), too.

[Devilfish]

Cool. Just the bump behind the cockpit looks a littlle strange?

That's er....er...er...avionics....yes! Avionics, lol

[Old Wombat]

Cool. Just the bump behind the cockpit looks a littlle strange?

That's er....er...er...avionics....yes! Avionics, lol

That was my call, too.

Looks good!

[TomZ]

Looks wonderful. Great idea!

TomZ

[DogfighterZen]

 

[63cpe]

Simply amazing.....

David

[scooter]

Looks vaguely familiar... 


I Like it

[Snowtrooper]

The canopy fits surprisingly well. Am I only seeing things, or did you give her a second weapons bay too, just behind the original?

[McColm]

Great work

[Devilfish]

The canopy fits surprisingly well. Am I only seeing things, or did you give her a second weapons bay too, just behind the original?

Looks can be deceiving. It took me 3 years to figure out how to mate the canopy to the airframe!  And yes, because the panel lines were there, I just took the opportunity to use them.

[ysi_maniac]

WOW. This is a great project!

[jalles]

Dang, that's awesome!   

[TheChronicOne]

Very cool....    I like the dual cockpits a lot!