Project Archangel, S.H.A.D.O. XF-412.

[chrisonord]

Project Archangel is the the designation for the future replacement of the F-411 Hyperdart. This experimental aircraft, which is a completely new design, is less than half the size of the hyperdart, yet carries an equally deadly payload at speeds equalling that of the Hyperdart.The Archangel has another trick up its stealthy sleeve though in that it can go trans-atmospheric, due to its hybrid propulsion system, this power plant consists of air breathing rocket motors that are used for take off, and to get the aircraft to the correct speed for the Scram jets to take over. The rocket motors are also used outside of the atmosphere, with the use of liquefied oxygen.
On a test flight, up to the edge of the atmosphere, the aircraft was taking part in simulated point interception of U.F.O's, all seemed well, and all systems were working correctly, until the proximity warning siren squealed into action, this was not part of the exercise.
There was a malfunction in the aircrafts friend or foe recognition system, this lets aircraft of the various air forces, governments etc, know what is flying into their aero space, by sending an encrypted message back. On the console the system reported no malfunction, so the pilot switched through the redundant circuitry to try and find the cause. There was something very wrong here, as the comms had suddenly gone down too.
The pilot was on his own, in an un armed faulty aircraft, and he was about to be shot out of the sky.
Unknowingly the pilot had flown into restricted aerospace belonging to the USAF, this area was a top secret research facility, for next generation stealth and spy aircraft. The weapon which had been launched at the SHADO aircraft was S.A.W. 260 Reaper.
The Reaper is a new weapon designed to defend high value installations from multiple  unit attacks, it is a super sonic high manoeuvrability attack drone, armed with air to air missiles, cannon and itself can also be used as a direct attack munition as it is fitted with a high yield bast fragmentation war head. The Reaper in tests shot down 6 aircraft, and intercepted 3 out of 4 cruise missiles launched at its designated defence area. This was not going to be Chief Test Pilot Mamola's day and being un armed made it even worse.
The reaper locked on 2 of its, 6 AIM-178 TALLON missiles, these missiles streaked at the XF-412 at 4 times the speed of sound, the on board threat computer of the XF-412, diagnosed the threat and sent the aircraft vertical to the edge of space, the missiles followed but were distracted by the sun reflecting off a weather satellite and completely wiped it out. Two missiles down 4 to go and still the Reaper had more to throw at it,Colonel Mamola skipped the aircraft along the atmosphere, towards S.H.A.D.O HQ, hoping to get near enough for him to be able to contact H.Q, but the comms just would not work. Mean while the Reaper was shadowing him, in the upper atmosphere, not giving him an inch of room.
What next he thought?? what can I do to shake this thing off?? The stealth capability was inactive so he could not try and slip by undetected, Colonel Mamola paused a moment took in a deep breath and turned the XF-412 into a high angle re-entry dive, the throttles were to the stop, hoping to out run the Reaper and its missiles, the XF-412 exceeded its designated safe re-entry speed by 900 MPH. This gave Mamola a bit of time to think, as it had put a lot of distance between him and the Reaper,which was still out to blow him out of the sky.
Using the GPS navigator on board the XF-412 Mamola set a rough course back to base, flying at Mach 4, he thought he would be safe and get within S.H.A.D.O. radar reception no sooner had he done this, the proximity siren shrieked in his ear, the reaper was back, 2 more missiles were launched, one of which malfunctioned and shot straight into the sea below, only slightly relieved Mamola managed to launch a flair off, which the missile completely ignored. S**T!! said Mamola out loud, as he put the throttles to the stop and pulled one after another high G turns to out manoeuvre the missile, Mamola was starting to feel the effects of this and was on the verge of black out when the life support systems, monitoring his every heart beat, inflated his G suit and sent a small electrical current to the 20 pads stuck to his body. These pads stimulated his blood flow and heart beat to cope with the high G's that were punishing Mamolas body.
After what seemed like hours, the missile dropped out of the sky. The reaper instead of launching the rest of its missiles, changed its wing configuration, and sped up towards the XF-412, it had gone into close quarter combat mode, which involved using the cannon and then itself as a guided missile.Proximity sensors told Mamola that the Reaper was on an intercept course with him and advised what method of evasion to use.
Because of the evasion tactics used to get away from the missiles previously, Mamola found himself a long way from base and going in the wrong direction, and the reaper was in for the kill. Mamola pointed the now low on fuel XF-412 towards home and said to himself, here goes nothing, and lit all 4 engines, Mach 5 was soon achieved, but to Mamola it seemed a life time, and still the Reaper, followed.
That thing must be all fuel tank Mamola thought to himself, as they had been in the air for 25 minutes by now, and he was running on fumes already. The coast line line beneath Mamola was a very familiar sight, and for what it was worth, he put on his distress beacon and  took a deep and nervous sounding breath as he awaited his fate. Would the Reaper get him or the punching out at super sonic speed.
A moment later the Beacon beeped back in a higher tone, this happens if the signal has been intercepted, and a rescue has been launched.
Mamola looked around him through his anti flash red canopy for any other aircraft, but nothing was visible or on his  sensors.
The Reaper however came into visual range and started an attack on the XF-412, causing damage to one of the engines and to the left wing and fuselage, the engines caught fire and caused severe damage to the fuselage right the way  from the intake down to the exhaust nozzles and diffuser. Just as Mamola thought it was his last moment, a bright flash of light and an explosion lit up the port side of his canopy.
Then, Mamolas own Archangel appeared, the second prototype had intercepted the Reaper and destroyed it.
Mamola was escorted down to land by the other XF-412, and 2 Hyperdarts, retrievers 1 and 4 were on standby also.
On the ground, was Commander Straker's Limo, and as soon as Mamola was taken out of the aircraft and put onto a stretcher both Straker, and 2 USAF Generals got out of the limo and joined Mamola in the Ambulance.
Straker immediately congratulated Mamola for keeping his head and staying alive, then in the same breath, and for saving the Archangel, we have a lot of work to do to that wouldn't you say. As the Ambulance drove off, Mamola could see the XF-412 being loaded straight into a crate on the back of a low loader. Straker saw Mamola looking in wonder as to why the aircraft was being took away so soon, and told him what had really been happening, and why there were 2 air force Generals were with him.
Both the USAF and SHADO had been infiltrated by Alien agents, 2 within the air force research and test centre where the Reaper had been fired from and 2 within the SHADO Archangel project. The Reaper was designed and built by 2 sleeper agents within the Air force, and the sabotage to the XF-412 was built into the electronics and remotely activated by Alien Agents, causing the aircraft to become vulnerable to attack, and then on going friction between the air force and SHADO, with the goal being to disrupt the defence of Earth from attack.
Straker said this was just the outline details of what has been happening, but they had been monitoring  what the agents were doing for some time. Mamola felt like he had been used as bait for this, but said nothing about that, he just said not very convincingly "I am glad to have served my country and saved the aircraft  sir" One of the Generals looked back at Mamola nodding as though to say I know what you really mean.

Here is the XF-412 Archangel, designated replacement for F-411 Hyperdart in front line atmospheric interception duty.All weapons are carried internally, and the aircraft has full stealth capability, and is very  highly manoeuvrable. Engines are hybrid rocket and SCRAM jets. Other weapons which will be fitted to the aircraft are a pair of pulse cannons, these weapons are still in the development stage though.







Cheers,
Chris.   










     

[GTX]

I like!

Regards,

Greg

[proditor]

Looks great, and has the added benefit of putting the theme song in my head.   

[Cobra]

2 Words:Hyper Sweet This is Too Cool for Sure! Hope to see More great Work from You! i Question:Is that a Mig-37 you sued to Create Your KA Jet?  :cheers:Dan

[Weaver]

Nice one - that looks really mean! 

[chrisonord]

cheers for the comments folks,
Due to the bad weather lighting the paint scheme and battle damage didn't come out too well in the pics, trust me to pick a rainy day
The kit is the Italeri Mig-37 Ferret in 1/72nd scale,this was quite and easy build really, as the other SHADO build I have on the go has turned into the mother of all FUBARs. To such an extent I ordered myself a file belt sander to attack it with
Cheers,
Chris.

[ysi_maniac]

 

[Pablo1965]

I like too

[Mossie]

Now that's freaky.   When I got my first Ferret kit (never built it 'cause I lost some of the bits, bought another one sometime later) I always thought it's look good with a forward swept wing.  There was a front on shot in the Italeri instructions which gave this impression.

Great work Chris!