Alternative aircraft platforms for the AN/APY-1 radar installation

[McColm]

 Whilst I was a member of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force 1986-1997, there was a picture of an BAe Nimrod with the AN/APY-1 radar superimposed with the words "The compromise ".
This was based on  concept artwork dating as far back as 1983, as there were delays with the Marconi Avionics radar. The compromise involved removing the ventral pannier and fitting the 30ft dorsal rotodome and the internal systems from the E-3A.
Having flown several missions on board a BAe Nimrod MR.2P this might have worked if the fuselage was stretched.
However I haven't seen any drawings of the VC10  carrying this radar or the  one fitted to the Grumman E-2 Hawkeye.
The Bristol Britannia was considered as an AEW platform as late as 1970 and the BAC 1-11 was another contender for the Hawkeye rotodome.
India held trials with the HS.748 ( I 've  got the 1/72 kit)  plans were drawn up for the Andover but with new turboprop engines and even a four engined variant.
Across the pond the Lockheed C-130 and the P-3 (P-3AEW was built), C-141, Douglas DC-8, Boeing 747 and the 707 which went on to become the
E-3A.
Closer to home was the Breguet Br1150 Atlantic which caught the attention of the French Air Force.
I would have thought that the Airbus A-340 would have been a contender.
Japan went with the Boeing E-767.
Another cargo plane was based on the iL-76 Candid which became the Beriev  A-50, Baghdad/Adnan and  Xi'an KJ-2000.

[McColm]

The DC-6B or the Caravelle.

[Scotaidh]

Boeing 727?  I logged a lot of passenger miles in those - they never seemed cramped to me.  'Course, that was when I weighed half as much  ... <le sigh>

[Hobbes]

It's hard to believe the systems from the E-3 would fit in the much smaller Nimrod. There were studies for fitting the AN/APS.120 radar (from the Hawkeye) on the Nimrod, and there was early artwork of a large rotodome on the Nimrod, but that may have been related more to the BEWARE study than the AN/APY.1.

VC-10 AEW proposals usually showed the Marconi MSA radar, or a spherical radome which was carried ventrally.

[McColm]

I think that the HS/BAe Andover has to be one of the smallest platforms for the AN/APY-1.
Whilst there were studies into a four engined BAC 1-11MR for the Japanese Self-Defense  Force carrying the AN/APS.120 radar from the E-2C Hawkeye.
Whereas the 1/72 Grumman E-2 Hawkeye rotodome does fit on the roof of a similar desktop model of a BAe 146-300. I've got two of these desktop models one has the Flybe decals and the other British Airways.  The BA one is lacking it's engines,  so a twin engined variant could be whiffed.