Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.1 - No.19 Squadron, RAF Germany, 1974

RAF HARRIER GR1.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HARRIER GR1.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Just added the camera - good info Weaver! The night shot is lit by moonlight and it's quite rare for a night shot to be acceptable. Most of the time I have to take them in daylight and add a bluey-black layer.

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Sukhoi Su-29 'Fishpan-A' - Soviet Air Force, 1988

SOVIET Su-29 FISHPAN-A.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET Su-29 FISHPAN-A.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET Su-29 FISHPAN-A.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Not the greatest and I'm only able to show the starboard view as the port fin has horrendous decal 'bleed'. I looked at the list of Sukhoi aircraft and saw two 'spare' jet fighter designations - Su-29 and Su-31. Great! However, they used those numbers for their single-seat aerobatic planes. Oh well. In my alternate timeline I got there first.

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de Havilland Sea Hornet F.Mk20 - MFG2, Bundesmarine, 1951

MFG SEA HORNET F20.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

MFG SEA HORNET F20.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

MFG SEA HORNET F20.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

MFG SEA HORNET F20.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

MFG SEA HORNET F20.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

There are a few de Havilland Hornets and Sea Hornets available, made from the same core 3D model, but they are showing their age a bit now. This is the Sea Hornet F.20 with the RN markings overpainted and suitable decals applied with the Bundesmarine being formally established much earlier than 1956 - let's say 1950.

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Lockheed F-19A Sniper - VMFT-401, United States Marine Corps, 1985

Only during the mid-1980's was it revealed that an unexpected outcome of President Nixon's historic visit to China in 1972 was the purchase of 30 Shenyang J-6 fighters for use as Aggressor aircraft. The aircraft were clandestinely delivered early in 1974 with the US Navy taking 22 aircraft and the US Marine Corps taking the balance of 8 which entered service with VMFT-401 in April 1976. In service, the aircraft were supported by specialist teams from Lockheed and were eventually designated F-19A with the unofficial name of 'Sniper'.

USMC F-19A SNIPER.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

'Wings Over Israel' has this nice Egyptian camo skin for the MiG-19S so I thought I'd use if as an 'Aggressor' and decided to place it in USMC service. I knocked up some yellow edged two-digit numbers and tail star and all the other decals are a stealthy black and I've also added a fake canopy.

[SPINNERS]

Lockheed F-19A Sniper - VFC-13, US Navy, 1984

USMC F-19A SNIPER.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.12 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is a Chinese Camo skin by 'Whiteknight06604' with my fake canopy added directly to the skin and I've knocked up some decals for VFC-13. The fake canopy is really effective as shown in the last piccie.

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Lockheed F-113C Starflash - 119 Squadron, Israeli Air Force, 1973

IDF F-104M STARFLASH.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-104M STARFLASH.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-104M STARFLASH.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-104M STARFLASH.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-104M STARFLASH.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-104M STARFLASH.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-104M STARFLASH.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Released as the F-104M Starfighter this is a 3D model by 'Cocas' with a variety of skins by 'Nyghtfall' including this one meant for a Saudi machine which I've used as the basis for an Israeli F-113C Starflash. My new PC arrived today and whilst I'm up and running it will take a few days to get used to the different file structure of SF2 and get everything the way I want it including GIMP the excellent shareware graphics programme I use to edit my screenshots.

Not so good news is that my external hard drive on which I had about 8 years worth of skin templates, decals and decal templates just will not work on any of the four PC's in our household and I've spent hours trawling through YouTube clips showing 'how to fix' with no luck. A data recovery specialist will apparently charge a minimum of £450 which is out of the question so I've ordered the small Torx screwdrivers off ebay and will break open the external hard drive in a last gasp attempt.

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Lockheed F-104L Starfighter - VF-162, United States Navy, 1966

USN F-104L STARFIGHTER.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F-104L STARFIGHTER.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F-104L STARFIGHTER.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F-104L STARFIGHTER.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Another 'Cocas' 3D design with a 'Nyghtfall' skin requiring no input from me except to take the screenshots. In the two years I've been away from SF2 there have been a few what if's and a few new real world aircraft with what if potential so I'll have a little trawl through them over the next few days.

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Siddeley Aviation Sirocco FG.1 - 893 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1970

RN SIROCCO FG1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN SIROCCO FG1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN SIROCCO FG1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN SIROCCO FG1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN SIROCCO FG1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN SIROCCO FG1.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Another one by 'Cocas' and his envisioning of the Breguet Br.1120 Sirocco - a late 1950's French paper project. Huge 'what if' potential here me thinks and I've quickly put it into RN service by just desaturating the French Marine skin (like their F-8E's) to lose the blueyness to give something more like EDSG and added some Fleet Air Arm markings.

[SPINNERS]

De Havilland Vulture S.1 - No.17 Squadron, RAF Germany, 1969

De Havilland's submission to GOR.339 came from their Christchurch team under the leadership of W.A. Tamblin who proposed the De Havilland Vulture, a radical design featuring a variable incidence wing with podded Rolls-Royce RB.142R Medway turbofan engines. Tamblin's design was slightly smaller than most of the other submissions to GOR.339 and, apart from the variable incidence wing, it featured supersonic drop tanks and a bulged conformal belly tank to help it achieve the range requirement. In addition, De havilland's experience of 'buddy' refuelling techniques with the Sea Vixen were incorporated into their design from the outset and the company pitched a minimum change version at the Admiralty for carrier-based interception and strike. Air Ministry officials were delighted at De Havilland's claimed 70,000lb all-up-weight and with a general correlation between an aircraft's all-up-weight and cost their design soon became favourite to win the GOR.339 competition and in early 1959 they were awarded a contract for 220 aircraft for the RAF and 80 aircraft for the Royal Navy.

Entering service in early 1968 with No.6 Squadron in the UK the aircraft soon spread it's wings to become the backbone of RAF Germany with the Vulture S.1 eventually replacing all remaining Canberra and Hunter squadrons and reaching a peak strength of eleven squadrons in RAF Germany by 1973.

RAF VULTURE S1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VULTURE S1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VULTURE S1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VULTURE S1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VULTURE S1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Another 3D model by 'Cocas' to which I've added some typical RAFG markings and a little backstory! Sadly, the model doesn't have the variable incidence wing but does capture the overall shape of the De Havilland design to GOR.339.

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Vickers Vanquish B.1 - No.100 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, 1967













Outrageous isn't it?!

This is by 'Sundowner' who has added 3D modelling skills to his considerable skinning skills to produce the Vanquish V-Bomber. He's heavily modified a Boeing 707 and armed it to the teeth (72 x 1,000lb-ers anyone?) including an 8 x Skybolt option. I can vividly recall seeing an illustration of a VC10 armed with Skybolts (and also Wellesley style bomb pods) in a 1970's Air International.

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Vought A-7B Corsair - 57th Fighter Weapons Wing, Tactical Air Command, USAF, 1966

In early 1961, the United States Navy announced a development study for a replacement for the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk announcing the VAL (Heavier-than-air, Attack, Light) competition stipulating that all proposals had to be based on existing designs and with increased range and payload when compared to the A-4 plus increased accuracy in the delivery of weapons. This coincided with the appointment of Robert McNamara as the new Secretary of Defense for the incoming John F. Kennedy presidency and McNamara wasted no time in directing the Air Force to adopt both the Navy's F-4 Phantom and the Navy's new VAL program.

Vought's VAL proposal to the Navy was based on their F-8 Crusader fighter, having a broadly similar configuration but noticeably shorter and without the variable incidence wing feature. To achieve the required range, Vought's proposal was powered by a single Pratt & Whitney TF30-P-6 turbofan producing over 11,000 lbs thrust and growth/export potential was built in thanks to a modular engine bay designed to also accept the promising Rolls-Royce RB.168 (Spey) turbofan. In addition, Vought squeezed in an impressive array of cutting-edge avionics including the AN/APQ-116 radar, the ILAAS digital navigation system, a digital weapons computer, a Marconi-Elliott HUD and an innovative projected map display system. Unsurprisingly, Vought's design was selected as the winner on February 11th,1963 and they soon received a production contract for an initial batch of 400 aircraft designated A-7 and consisting of 200 A-7A's for the Navy and 200 A-7B's for the Air Force. In early 1964, the aircraft received the name Corsair II (after Vought's successful F4U Corsair of World War 2 and Korea fame) and the A-7 had an incredibly fast and smooth development with the YA-7A making it's first flight on October 31st, 1964.

Whilst some priorty was given to the production of the A-7A for the Navy, the A-7B first entered service in August 1966 with the 57th Fighter Weapons Wing based at Luke AFB Arizona and they were soon followed by the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing based at Myrtle Beach AFB, South Carolina with the 354th later deploying to Korat Royal Thai AFB, Thailand in April 1967.

USAF A-7B CORSAIR.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF A-7B CORSAIR.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF A-7B CORSAIR.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF A-7B CORSAIR.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Quite a subtle one this as the USAF did, of course, operate the Corsair in it's A-7D version. I'm basing this on the early USAF Phantoms which had the USN grey/white scheme and quite smart they looked too! The backstory brings everything forward a bit but Vought did ever so well in real life with the A-7 program.

[SPINNERS]

Vought A-7B Corsair - 355th Tactical Fighter Squadron, USAF, 1968

USAF A-7B CORSAIR.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF A-7B CORSAIR.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF A-7B CORSAIR.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF A-7B CORSAIR.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF A-7B CORSAIR.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF A-7B CORSAIR.10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I've used the SEA Camo from the Portuguese A-7P (so don't look too close as you'll see bi-lingual stencilling) and I've also removed the bolt-on refuelling probe from the starboard nose although some of the 'dirt' shading is still visible.

[SPINNERS]

Panavia Tornado IS 'Bavandar' - No.28 Squadron, Indian Air Force, 1985

IAF TORNADO IS.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IAF TORNADO IS.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IAF TORNADO IS.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IAF TORNADO IS.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IAF TORNADO IS.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

In my absence from SF2 there's been a couple of revamps of the original Tornado 3D model covering virtually all versions across all the Tornado users and one of Italian versions contained this excellent skin AMI Camo which I've used here to create an Indian 'Bavandar'. It certainly would have met their Deep Penetration Strike Aircraft requirement better than the Jaguar but would have been delivered about 6 years later and there seemed to a real urgency to replace the Canberra and Hunter. The Jaguar seems set to continue in IAF service for many years to come with INS upgrades underway and even re-engining being considered.

[SPINNERS]

BAC Panther FGR.1 - No.54 Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1971

After a couple of blissful years when it was allowed to proceed in relative peace and quiet, 1963 was not a good year for the TSR.2 programme.

At the start of the year both Olympus 22R test engines at BAC's Patchway engine testing facility were playing up with LP shaft problems and turbine disc failures eventually traced to high-frequency oscillations of the LP shaft. With a view to reducing the unit cost per aircraft an export order to Australia was deemed vital to the TSR.2 programme but when technical reports got back to the Australian Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, he publicly stated that Australia couldn't wait for the TSR.2 and that they needed to replace their ageing Canberra's within three years. With the British opposition Labour party openly stating that they "would cancel the TSR.2 when elected" the Australian government felt that they simply dare not rely on an aircraft that might not get built so it was no real surprise when on October 24th, 1963 Menzies signed for 24 F-111C's at a cost of US$ 91million. In early November 1963, whilst still reeling from that blow, BAC were devastated when a prototype Olympus 22R engine blew up under the Vulcan test bed at Filton destroying not only the engine but also the heavily instrumented Vulcan.

By this time, Britain had a new Prime Minister after Alec Douglas-Home had succeeded an ailing Harold Macmillan in October 1963. Douglas-Home knew that his Conservative government, still unpopular from the Profumo scandal, would likely lose the forthcoming General Election to a resurgent Labour party under the leadership of Harold Wilson. Therefore, in a bold move, Douglas-Home decided to take away one of Wilson's Tory-bashing weapons by cancelling the TSR.2 programme himself and BAC's recent woes played right into his hands. The assassination of US President John F Kennedy in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963 allowed Douglas-Home to quietly announce the cancellation of the TSR.2 the day following Kennedy's tragic death to a nation and a world focused on just one sad story.

British interest in variable-geometry (VG) had stemmed from Dr. Barnes Wallis' 1944 studies on 'polymorphic' aircraft but whilst English Electric had finally settled on a small, highly blown, fixed wing design for the TSR.2 both they and the counterparts at Vickers had sketched many and various VG designs for aircraft ranging in size from small supersonic light-attack aircraft to supersonic airliners. In early 1964, with the RAF still looking for a Hunter replacement, BAC dusted off their private-venture P.45 design for a small VG fighter-bomber powered a single afterburning Spey turbofan and gambled on an eager RAF requiring slightly more range and payload so they designed an overall larger aircraft powered by two turbofan engines in the 16,000lbs thrust category. With engines generally taking longer development time than airframes this could have caused BAC considerable problems but Rolls-Royce and MAN-Turbomotoren had already been running the RB.153 turbofan since November 1963 and were confident of upsizing this advanced three-shaft turbofan "to fit anything up to F-4 size" and BAC confidently settled on the RB.199 engine proposed by Rolls-Royce. With a view to making their new aircraft design as marketable as possible BAC named it the MRCA-70 (Multi-Role Combat Aircraft for 1970) and were soon waving brochures around the Air Ministry and posting copies to senior RAF officials.

Having lost the TSR.2 (and feeling sour at the prospect of being forced into adopting Mountbatten's beloved F-4 Phantom) the RAF were desperate to order the MRCA-70 and politics once again played it's part. Labour leader Harold Wilson stated that "only Labour could lead the technological revolution necessary for a modern Britain". So, to counter this, on April 6th, 1964 Alec Douglas-Home announced that Britain was to develop it's own variable-geometry multi-role combat aircraft and that contracts would be placed with the British Aircraft Corporation for 120 MRCA-70 aircraft for delivery in the 1969 to 1970 timeline to replace Hunters and Canberras in the strike/attack role and that further orders were likely to replace Lightnings in the air defence role. In 1966 the aircraft was christened Panther by BAC and development moved swiftly with the first flight of the prototype taking place on April 1st, 1968 as part of the celebrations to mark the RAF's 50th anniversary. Development and testing continued during 1968 and 1969 and in November 1970 No. 228 Operational Conversion Unit at RAF Coningsby became the first squadron to equip with the Panther FGR.1 followed in March 1971 by No.54 Squadron at RAF Coltishall.

RAF TORNADO FGR1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TORNADO FGR1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TORNADO FGR1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TORNADO FGR1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TORNADO FGR1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TORNADO FGR1.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TORNADO FGR1.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Just a crazy attempt to get the Tornado Panther in service during before red/blue tactical roundels came in!!

[SPINNERS]

Bell-Fiat Aviazione F-109A Airacobra II - 154 Gruppo, 6 Stormo, Aeronautica Militare, 1968

AMI F-109A AIRACOBRA.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AMI F-109A AIRACOBRA.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AMI F-109A AIRACOBRA.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AMI F-109A AIRACOBRA.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AMI F-109A AIRACOBRA.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AMI F-109A AIRACOBRA.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AMI F-109A AIRACOBRA.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is the Bell D-188, a proposed eight-engine Mach 2 VTOL fighter for the USN and the USAF. Rather cheekily, Bell gave it the unofficial designations of XF3L-1 for the Naval version and XF-109 for the Air Force version but neither version was of real interest. But as this was at about the time that NATO was advocating various V/STOL requirements (like NBMR-3) then I've made it a joint venture between Bell and Fiat but it would probably have needed Germany to have come on board with a decent requirement to have given it the critical mass. Anyway, it's a lovely 3D mode by 'Velro2K' who is an Italian-American so I like putting his models in Italian service whenever I can!