What-ifing a Danish Draken

[Tophe]

another view:

[Brian da Basher]

Well done, Tophe! I've never seen better weathering!
Tres magnifique!!!

Brian da Basher

[sideshowbob9]

Wonderful paint job! 

[srkirad]

interesting upgrade of tail, and veeeery nicely done heavily weathered camouflage!!

bravo! 

[Rafael]

...aaaand another hit from France!!!

This is a wonderful subject, masterfully modified, Tophe. Looks like a speed competition between two fast spearpoints.

Rafa

[Tophe]

Thanks for your so nice comments, all of you...
while my own mind is less gentle: I accuse myself of lie and treason... as this is not a genuine T-tail (judge JHM may kill me) : a tail must be far aft the wing (or far in front if canard), not above the wing ! Is this rather biplane or sesquiplane (supersonic)?!
[And it is repetition guilt : it was the same for the Miravelin and Mirage 2003D – see my guilty what-if collection at http://www.kristofmeunier.fr/thankingIgor.htm ]

[Tophe]

(judge JHM may kill me)

It seems dear JHM judge has not pronounced the death penalty yet, so... let me tell you, as a "testament", how this half-realist Danish-SAAB was part of a love story.
Well, back in 1979, aged 15, I was (what you call) a JMN, trying to reach perfection in Realism, and I disagreed about the Heller page saying "RF-35 Armée de l'Air Danoise" ("Danish Air Force" in French language). I said "no I must write in Danish, to put in front of this model"! So I asked a student-friend (at Foreign-language University, helping me in Russian, and that introduced me to Japanese, Finsk, Serbo-Croatian...) "how do you translate that in Danish? What-if this was actually possible in the Real World?". This was almost a joke, but he found the very answer, years before Internet ... He explained me, 2 weeks later, together with the precise answer: "You know, in my university, there is a VERY beautiful Danish girl, that every boy loves secretly but hesitating to speak with her, and (thanks to you Tophe) I went to her and told her that a friend badly needed the Danish name of the Danish Air Force, this is it! And as a normal way to thank her, I invited her to restaurant, and... Thanks Tophe!". What-if now they are actually married with French-Danish little children, nice kids helping European friendship?...
Alas, love is not always that easy, and in 1979 I tried to kill myself (rejected by a Polish-Jewish girl) , and I do not know what became of this little paper, translating in Danish "Danish Air Force"... Maybe B787 will say it again? What-if...?

[B777LR]

Danish AF - Det Danske Flyvevåben

Official name - Det Kongelige Danske Flyvevåben (The Royal Danish Air Force)

The RDAF belongs under the "Forsvaret", which would be roughly the same as the Canadian Armed Forces (Danish Armed Forces). The Danish armed forces contain 3 services. Officially, the names are, for the AF, "Flyvertaktisk Kommando", the navy, "Søværnets Operative Kommando", and the army, "Hærens Operative Kommando".

The AF covers all military flying, from the Lynx operating from the ships, to the Fennecs operating for the army (anti-tank, recon) and the police (speed control, search of people), as well as VIP flying, air transport to the colonies (Faeroe Islands and Greenland*), SAR, SAR and defence of the colonies and air defence.

Before the AF was founded in 1950, there was the Army Air Corps - "Hærens Flyvetropper" (the armys flying soldiers), and the Navy Flying Corps - "Marinens Flyvevæsen".

Apart from that, there were 2 other Danish flying organisations. The Danish RAF squadron, founded when money was collected for the purchase of 2 Spitfires, flown by 2 pilots that escaped from Denmark during the war. The squadron was disbanded less than a year later, when both Spitfires had been shot down during the Battle of Britain, with the loss of both pilots. Finally there were the Free Danish Forces who consisted of Danish volunteers who fled to Sweden. Here they received a bunch of B-17 dive bombers. The Free Danish Forces were meant as an invasion force, to retake Denmark once the allies started advancing on Germany. They launched the invasion on the 5. of May 1945, with Montgomery rolling into Denmark. Most of Denmark was liberated by the evening. The island of Bornholm remained forgotten, and was pounded by Soviet forces on the 7th and 8th of May. The Red Army invaded on the 9th, the day after VE day. The war unofficially ended on that day. Bornholm was returned to Denmark in March 1946.

[Tophe]

Thanks a lot, B787, for this expert piece of knowledge...
I have dowloaded a free translator, to get what-if versions of that, but I don't understand how to get (with it) the translation in Danish of "T-tail Dragon squad", "what-if task force" or else...
Trying, I just got a different translation for Royal Danish Air Force, close to yours while slightly different. And I did not know how to type your own letters with my keyboard... Well, Alt-0229 is å, Alt-0248 is ø, Alt-0230 is æ... what-if I could speak Danish indeed?

[B777LR]

Tophe, Æ, Ø and Å can be typed with normal letters too

Æ - AE

Ø - OE

Å - AA

As for T-tail dragon squad, it would be something along the lines of "T-hale drage eskadrille". Mind, the Draken was always known as the Draken in Denmark, not as anything else, thus it would be "T-hale Draken eskadrille" or "Draken med T-hale eskadrille"

[ElectrikBlue]

I love the T-tail Draken!  

I made a small (photosh**) change to the chord of the fin... hope I won't go to jail for that!

[John Howling Mouse]

Dear Tophe,
I hereby declare that this craft is indeed a T-Tail in the eyes of TATAS (Tee-Applied-Tailed-Aircraft-Society) and that it is fabulous!

Great job on the paint...I'm more than a little bit jealous over here.

[Tophe]

Thanks a lot José! Wonderful!
And thanks judge JHM (sigh of relief: pfuh...)