General Dynamics Fv-13a

Archibald · July 13, 2007, 04:57:42 AM

In the early 70's the Soviet navy decided to build a carrier force. First atempt were the Minsk helicopters carrier, first entering service circa 1968. Improved variants were planned with the new Yak-38 Forger.

In the USAs, scrapping of the Essex and CVL had already started, result being a diminution in the number of carriers. To solve this, Admiral Zumwalt proposed various concepts of ships smaller than Nimitz or Forrestal carrier. A 60 000 tons, downgraded Forrestal, the CVV was studied, along a much smaller ship, the SCS or Sea Control Ship. Both were rejected by the USN, which wanted its money for Nimitz only, seeing smaller ships as waste of ressources.

The service neverthless recognized that smaller ships could be accepted if they were cheap and didn't distracted efforts in building the Nimitz fleet. In fact they would be used by the USMC as escort for its forthcoming LPA and LPH...

In this context, only "off the shelf" designs could be accepted. Various propsals were made

- a LPH or LPA based ship
- refited Essex or Midway carriers
- variants of the Clemenceau carriers (without their catapults)
- Invincible class

In every case the USS Guam was modified as interim SCS (albeit the USN disliked the name).

Right from 1972 composition of the air group was announced. It would need an attack machine (the AV-8A was selected) a COD / AEW machine (Canadair CL-84)
and a supersonic V/STOL interceptor, which was probably the highest hurdle.

General Dynamics and Rockwell programs were selected in 1973 and, as with many programs at the time, it was decided that two prototypes would be built.

Dubbed Rockwell XFV-12 and General Dynamics XFV-13, the two were mach 2 V/STOL interceptors. They must be able to carry two AIM-7 sparrow and 2 Sidewinders.

Both prototypes flew in 1977 but despite its promising lift system the Rockwell was unable to take off vertically!
General Dynamics won the competion hands down with its project in december 1977... just before program was scrapped by the Carter administration.

But the GD machine was not to be lost... it flew rather well, despite erosion and hot gases reingestion problems. This was partially solved by STOL take off and reinforcement of carrier decks. When land-based, the plane would be used in CTOL mode only, using its exhaust in the ordinary way, or STOL, using only one of its lift jets on a 150m take-off run.

In the late 70's the Shah of Iran was building a huge arsenal. He anounced that the Iranian Navy would buy two Invincible class CVS, with a batch of Sea Harrier and helicopters. After an islamic coup against its regime barely failed, the Shah accelerated its armement programs and democratic reforms.

As with the F-14 fiver years later, he ordered an Iranian bank to finance the General Dynamics project.
This revived the project, and in 1979 it was announced that Midway class-ships would host supersonic V/STOL fighters. The USMC also decided to base some aircrafts on its amphibious ships. Spanish, Italian, Australian and Thai navies followed the move in the 80's...

The Italian navy received its first FV-13A in the late 80's. They were based on the Garibaldi and later Cavour light carriers.

Iranian Humminghawks (as the planne was named) proved their value against Iraqis Forgers, protecting amphibious landings which left to Iranian occupation of Bagdad in late 1982...

First shots...

A very difficult build, but at least after four days of intensive works it start looking like the pics I have...

Howard of Effingham · July 13, 2007, 05:24:24 AM

good start archie. ^_^

i looks foward to seeing the finished article.

what cam' scheme are you thinking of using?

HoE

ysi_maniac · July 13, 2007, 05:26:44 AM

I like your concept

Archibald · July 13, 2007, 06:44:23 AM

Quotegood start archie. ^_^

i looks foward to seeing the finished article.

what cam' scheme are you thinking of using?

HoE

I want to do it as an Italian machine, in AV-8B sheme

Rafael · July 13, 2007, 11:43:58 AM

I want one, two three, the whole Air-wing!!!!

I love VTOL aircraft, and the model 200 is a magnificent example!!!

Please Archi, post the three-view, so we can appreciate the striking similarity of your model to the ¿Genuine article?.

Rafa

Archibald · July 13, 2007, 12:13:09 PM

Ok, here we go for the 3-view...

I've glued the undercarriage now. It come -rather ironically- from an Italeri
X-35 !!

You english-speaking, would Humming Hawk mean something ? Hummingbird means something, and a hawk is a bird, so...

Mossie · July 13, 2007, 12:43:15 PM

Archie, Humming Hawk doesn't really mean anything, although it could possibly be a code word for the project. A "hummingbird" is an individual species (I think it's colibri in French), it's named after the sound it makes with it's wings. Just to confuse you, you can add some words to 'hawk' to mean something completely different. The P-40 was named Kittyhawk, Warhawk & Tommahawk, all of which have a meaning of their own. That's English for you!!! :dum: :dum: :dum:

Hummingbird would be an appropriate name for a VTOL aircraft & you could use that, although it was used for the Lockheed XV-4A. Keep up the good work with your FV-13A, it's coming together well!

Rafael · July 13, 2007, 01:46:01 PM

Archi, I'm impressed with the work you have done in this project. If you haven't discussed it earlier on how to do and what parts to use, I would have thought it was a kit!!

Great work.

Rafa
(I insist, I want one!!)

Archibald · July 14, 2007, 12:45:36 AM

QuoteArchie, Humming Hawk doesn't really mean anything, although it could possibly be a code word for the project. A "hummingbird" is an individual species (I think it's colibri in French), it's named after the sound it makes with it's wings. Just to confuse you, you can add some words to 'hawk' to mean something completely different. The P-40 was named Kittyhawk, Warhawk & Tommahawk, all of which have a meaning of their own. That's English for you!!! :dum: :dum: :dum:

Hummingbird would be an appropriate name for a VTOL aircraft & you could use that, although it was used for the Lockheed XV-4A. Keep up the good work with your FV-13A, it's coming together well!

I know that Hummingbird had been used by Lockheed, that's the problem... your idea of building something on ---Hawk sounds good to me, I'll try to build a name...

Archibald · July 14, 2007, 09:36:07 AM

Well the quest for a decent name keep on... I think about Barracuda (not Mister T)
As with the F-16, the official name was never used (Fighting Falcon was replaced by Viper). In this case, the pilots would nickname the machine Grasshoper, because of its long legs and vertical hops... ^_^

It still coming along nicely, I've added the ventral strakes (which, interestingly, were fractioned by the doors of the tilting intake), filled some holes on the back and around the lift jets. Pics to come... now I have to add a pair of doors below the lift jets, AIM-9 racks on the wingtips, and others goodies...

This model was really a pain in the arse to build, but now I've mastered the main difficulties (canopy and length of the fuselage)...

Archibald · July 15, 2007, 07:07:39 AM

The underside of this machine is truly a mess... you have two doors on the rear for the exhaust, two more for the lift jets, and two big strakes on the rear...

It slowly progress, as I spread a round of putty after another... and the doors on the back really give me headaches, it's the third time I move them... I think this time they have reached their definitive location!

anthonyp · July 15, 2007, 07:35:28 AM

QuoteAs with the F-16, the official name was never used (Fighting Falcon was replaced by Viper).

Erm... no. It's called Falcon all over the place still (Fighting Falcon is still sometimes used). Viper (thank you, Battlestar Galactica), Lawn Dart (my personal favorite), and Electric Jet are some of the nicknames for it that the pilots have used or still use.

Nice model, btw! What gave it's life to make that thing?

EDIT: Ah, never mind, found the thread in the Alternate History section.

Archibald · July 15, 2007, 10:11:06 AM

WTF mean LAWN DART ?
Not enough english knowldege (and too much laziness to search into a dictionnary :zzz: )

I've butchered a Mirage 2000 following Thorvic advices (and lack of Gripen at the shop)

Hobbes · July 15, 2007, 10:35:33 AM

It's from a game where you throw darts at a target. The target is set up on a lawn. more info

Thorvic · July 15, 2007, 02:19:13 PM

QuoteWTF mean LAWN DART ?
Not enough english knowldege (and too much laziness to search into a dictionnary :zzz: )

I've butchered a Mirage 2000 following Thorvic advices (and lack of Gripen at the shop)

The Gripen has a mid mounted wing which means the kits wouldn't be all that much use, the Mirage 2000 at least had a suitable wing and shape, just needed to be quite a bit longer.