L'Ogre, French Strategic Recce 1973

[Alvis 3.1]

Realising that the US and the UK were fielding long range reconaissance aircraft like the U2 and the EE Corona, the French Air Force deemed it necessary to have their own, independant strategic reconaissance capability. The simple expedient of slapping glider wings onto a Mirage was explored, but the winning design came from an unusual source.
With the phasing in of ballistic missiles, the day of the large jet missile had come to an end by the mid 1960s. Northrop, always looking for foreign sales, found a willing partner in Nord Aviation for the French Strategic Reconaissance Design. Utilising major components of the Northrop Snark missile, and the Atar 09K engine as used in the Mirage IV, most of the design changes came in the form of the pressurized cockpit, and the camera bays in the nose of the plane.
Winning the design competition in 1968, the Nord Ogre was produced in small numbers (likely only 12 or so) and was based far from any regulary observed bases.  Flying with Group de Reconaissance X/33, one of France's most  secret squadrons, the Ogres were responsible for observing several Soviet force build ups and movements that once passed along to NATO operations became highly valued and useful in maintaining peace during some of the very hot moments of the cold war. One such incident, in 1973, occurred during the Yom Kippur War, when the US forces were placed on high alert due to faulty intelligence. Had not the Ogres observed the total lack of Soviet action, war may have broken out between the USA and the USSR, with very tragic results.
Ironically, the name Ogre is from old French folk tales about ogres who lived in the woods and devoured children. The Nord Ogre was known to ingest inattentive ground crew due to it's ventral intake. This design feature, which had it's advantages, also led to the requirements of runway cleanliness to be extreme, and eventually led to the loss of more than 6 of the planes due to FOD ingestion upon takeoff. The last of the Ogres was withdrawn from service in 1997. One, oddly, is stored in the top secret USAF facility under McMurdo Base, Antarctica.


The Kit:

It's the 1/48 Lindberg Snark missile with F-105 gear and F-100 canopy added. The Markings came from my spares box.

Alvis 3.1

[Alvis 3.1]

Nose on view.

[Alvis 3.1]

Side View

[Alvis 3.1]

and finally the top view...


Alvis 3.1

[Archibald]

I just love this model, Alvis!!!
Nice whatif...
Well we call Schreck an Ogre (in the French translation of the film). So why not adding a small Schreck noseart below the cockpit?

Nord Aviation become Aerospatiale in 1971 (after merging with Sud Aviation). so your plane is an Aerospatiale Ogre (sounds weird )  

[Hobbes]

Cool! And nicely unusual, too.  

[Alvis 3.1]

Archibald: Thanks! I would keep it as Nord as that's the time frame it was built in..much like I don't refer to F-15s as Boeing F-15. Also..it sounds kind of odd in itself: Nord-Northrop Ogre: Sounds like a sound effect noise!
I'd also skip the Shrek nose art as I don't want to be sued by Disney!



Alvis 3.1

[Archibald]

You mean something like OOOOOOOogrrre... drink beer or limonade?
oops. You're reight, 1968...  
I really like yout model, it reminds the SO-6020 Esapdon

[Alvis 3.1]

Oh no! Not again! I've accidentally replicated (almsot) a REAL airplane?







Drat!



Alvis 3.1  

[Archibald]

Oh I'm soory but don't worry Alvis! The Espadon (Swordfish) date back of the early 50's, it is much little (a small mixed-powerplant fighter with nene engine)
And look at the canopy... very different...  

[Maverick]

Alvis...

I have admired your work ever since i saw your whifs over on ARC.  I've always loved the Revellogram 50s cruise missiles and thought that they'd make perfect manned aircraft.  You've proven that without a shadow of a doubt.

Perfectly Alvis!!!!

           

[RotorheadTX]

Once again I bow and scrape in your presence!!
Freakin' staggering!!!!  

[Gary]

As always, the mind of a guy who doesn't work in the much vaunted field of aviation engineering working in sync with the well trained and expert minds of professionals in the same field.

Somehow that's not drat worthy dude. It's actually kinda awe inspiring.

Awwwwww, ain't that cute! ^_^

Now the model, that's just sweet! And the story. You know how I love stories.  

[Tophe]

Very nice model and story (the Ogre eating ground crew: frightening...)  
The most impressive is the apparent weight balance: on a missile, I thought it is impossible to add a nose cockpit with keeping some balance. I was wrong! You made it right! Congratulations!
 

[anthonyp]

Um....  wow.  Just.... wow.

That is one beautiful model, Alvis!  Very cool!