fore and aft AEW domes, circa 1984

[sandiego89]

Big radomes anyone?

Of course most of us are aware of the Nimrod AEW Mk3, but I found this gem thumbing through a June 1984 Air International. I had forgotten about the Transal.

A bit of optimism by Marconi....

 

[kitnut617]

I've got the same magazine ---  been working on the A310 version shown at the bottom, really an BAe 844 FASS (in 1/72 scale).  In one of Chris Gibson's books, he writes about the development of it and I contacted him about it because it shows something different to what is advertised here (he's a member of Air-Britain and was an Editor to Aeromilitaria for a while). We came to the conclusion that this was the offering to the Saudi's as it's a couple of years after than what is shown in the book.

Here's what appears in the book;



I separated the BAe 844 from the bottom of that advert and then scaled it to 1/72. I added a grid to the nose so I could work out the radome. I was going to use one of the Nimrod radome conversions but for this variant it's too small (it would work for the variant in the book though)



I then overlaid one of my A310's I have to see what is involved, to position the front of the fuselage I lined up where the engines are in the pic and on the kit, and I found I have to shorten the forward fuselage quite a bit.



After I've shorten the forward fuselage, the nose will look like this.

[McColm]

Well the Cammett/Mastercaster 1/72 Nimrod AEW fore and aft radomes if the Revell Breguet Dassault  Atlantic ATL1. There's a line drawing of the proposed Breguet Br.1250 flying boat on page 103 of Chris Gibson book Nimrod's Genesis , chapter Sideshows: NATO and the Trinity.
All I did was to change the wing to the Airfix Valiant, add two of the Airfix Avro Vulcan tail fins and use the Hasegawa Martin P5M Marlin deep hull to create the Breguet Mystic.
The front radome also fits the Revell- Matchbox HP Victor but you will need to scratch build the cockpit and canopy.
The kit also fits the Lockheed C-130, another Whiffer beat me to the  C-130 AEW which is featured in Chris Gibson The Air Staff and AEW page 39. From this idea I created the Lockheed Heliplane. This uses the front radome and has the tail section from a Heller/ Airfix Lockheed Constellation, the rotor stack from a Mil-26 helicopter and two TF33 turbofan engines on stubs attached to the fuselage.
Likewise the fore and aft radomes do fit on the Constellation , the Airfix Avro Vulcan and the Revell Blohm & Voss Bv222 flying boat.
Okay so I kitbashed the Vulcan wings on to the Wiking and added the fore and aft radomes which by this time had been well used and abused.
Try as I might they don't fit the Lockheed
P-3 Orion. I can get the rear one to fit but the front one just won't work.
Needless to say that the fuselage does help if it is circular. The B-29/50 is a prime example but you do need a new cockpit canopy.
I didn't get around to see if it fits the Boeing E-3A Sentry or VC 10.