Trying to ramp up a backstory for an Me P.1101 Whiff.

[upnorth]

Hello All:

I've got a 1/72 Messerschmitt P.1101 kit by Huma that I'd like to to a whiff job with and I've got a couple of ideas about what direction to take it in and would like some thoughts from you lot.

Whatever way I take it, I would like it to be influenced by the Bucharest Alliance theme that I created for my bubbletop Hurricane build last year.

Here are some initial musings. The general premise is that the Americans do not get possesion of the aircraft at the end of the war and the world's first production variable geometry aircraft will ultimately come from a European manufacturer.

Premise 1:
The aircraft is developed and tested on German soil and captured by Bucharest Alliance ground forces toward the end of hostilities. Aircraft is initially taken to Czechoslovakia or Poland for analysis but ultimately is appropriated by the Soviet "assistance regiments" on orders from the Kremlin and transported to the Soviet Union for deeper ananlysis and research. As the Bucharest Alliance governments had all but been reduced to puppets for Moscow by that time, there was no stopping the Soviets from taking the aircraft home with them. As a result, the Soviet Union gets the leg up on the rest of the world in variable geometry technology.

Premise 2:
Aircraft is developed in Occupied France to distance it from the Eastern Front with the Bucharest Alliance. Towards the end of the of the war the aircraft is captured by the French resistance and hidden away at a remote location. After France is liberated, the aircraft is kept in France and they lead the way in variable geometry aircraft development.

Variation on Premise 2:
Aircraft is captured by British forces in the liberation of France and taken back to Britain and developed further there.

Premise 3:
The aircraft is developed in a remote location in southern Spain. The aircraft was abandoned when the compound was attacked by a combined force of FAA aircraft from Malta and SAAF aircraft operating from northern Africa. In this premise, the aircraft is captured by British and South African land forces and taken to Britain.

So, the honour (and frustrations) of giving the world it's first production variable geometry aircraft will fall to either Britain, France or the Soviet Union through these scenarios.

Of course they are just crude "seed" ideas that need a lot of "fleshing out" but What do you all think of them?

Any and all feedback is most welcome as are suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

[Cobra]

Sounds Good so far. Think you might Consider a Scenario where the P.1101 is Secretly Sent to Japan to Prevent it Falling into Allied Hands by the Germans??? just something to Consider. Stay Cool

[upnorth]

Sounds Good so far. Think you might Consider a Scenario where the P.1101 is Secretly Sent to Japan to Prevent it Falling into Allied Hands by the Germans??? just something to Consider. Stay Cool

Interesting, then the Australians could capture it....hmmm....

How would the world be different if the Australians gave us our first variable geometry type?

[lancer]

Have to admit being an Englishman, I do prefer the premise 2 variation and of course no. 3, but all of those ideas are good ones.
Another idea could be that the prototype is captured by British and Soviet forces at the same time and the soviets are kind of obligated to share the technology with the UK, thus leading to 2 couhntries leading the way (with slight variations) in the VG field.

[Barry Krell]

The only problem is that as it was simply a testbed for VG technology* it would have been developed in Germany.  Bavaria is decidedly hilly and not easy for a conquering army to take.  The best bet and most likely is that the aircraft was captured by the French Army, who did capture all of the paperwork and design material relating to the aircraft.  

Given the number of communists and Soviet sypathisers in France at the time, it's a safe bet to assume that some of this could be passed along to Moscow.  Witness the Russian Concordski.

*In point of fact, the wing sweep could only be altered on the ground on the P.1101 prototype, it wasn't a true VG design.  It's closer in concept to the Shorts SB5 used as a low speed testbed for elements of the English Electric Lightning.  In addition, as it was a demonstrator only, there was too little fuel tankage incorporated into the design, a problem Bell later discovered with their X5 copy.  Any fighter resulting from the P.1101 is going to be somewhat larger...

[jcf]

Barry is correct, the P.1101 was not a VG aircraft in the common meaning of the term.

While the Bell X-5 was based on the basic form of the P.1101 the wing-sweep mechanism
(and everything associated with making it work) was developed at Bell by Robert Woods and his team.
The mechanism not only swept the wings it also translated them for CG control.

Having the Messerschmitt doesn't automatically give one a leg-up on VG technology.

[upnorth]

Thanks Jon and Barry:

I was generally aware that the P.1101 was a demonstrator and I'm not running on the premise that a fighter could be made directly from it; More I'm running on who gets to make that X-5 type aircraft first.

Whichever way I build this model, it will be a demonstrator itself. I think it would kind of look cool with the British prototype marking of a "P" in a circle.

I guess for me, the story of which of the allies got their hands on it to develop it into a true VG demonstrator is the important part if I'm to dovetail it with the Bucharest Alliance storyline I created in my Hurricane project.

I don't see that the resulting aircraft would be all that different from the X-5, I'm just thinking of ways to make it work in the history I'm creating.

Thanks for all the feedback so far.