Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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British Aerospace Condor Mk.50 - 119 Squadron, Israeli Air Force, 1982

IDF CONDOR.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF CONDOR.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF CONDOR.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF CONDOR.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

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Panavia Condor F.1 - No.23 'Red Eagle' Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1979

On July 25th 1968 a memorandum of understanding was signed by Belgium, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, the UK and West Germany expressing their interest and intent on producing a multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA) with a tentative in-service date of 1975. Belgium dropped out very early and before the end of the year Canada had also pulled out with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau claiming that they simply could not afford it but this was, perhaps, a convenient excuse to hide behind whilst Trudeau's liberal goverment re-shaped the entire Canadian armed forces. For a short while the remaining four nations ploughed on but the Dutch became increasingly concerned as their prime mission was for an air superiority fighter and even though they had cranked in severe requirements for long radius of action and maximum performance in air combat at all altitudes they then complained when the resultant design became larger and therefore more expensive. Once the Dutch had left the MRCA project the remaining three nations formed a Joint Working Group firming up on requirements, removing excessive demands and establishing a technically viable baseline solution to their MRCA requirement. Fashionably, this baseline solution was a swing-wing design with afterburing turbofan engines. With all three Governments on board the project was to be delivered by a co-ordinating organisation called NAMMO (NATO MRCA Management Organisation) employing three newly created international contractor companies; Panavia Aircraft GmbH (airframe), Turbo-Union Ltd (engines) and Avionica Systems Engineering GmbH (avionics) that would combine to produce the Panavia Tornado.

Whilst the RAF were fully behind the swing-wing MRCA design for their all-weather interdiction and strike requirements they expressed deep concern over it's suitability to meet their RAF Air Staff Requirement 395 which called for a long-range interceptor to replace the Lightning and Phantom. Influenced by U.S. studies on future air superiority fighter aircraft, and especially by John Boyd's energy–maneuverability theory, the RAF demanded an aircraft with extra power and maneuverability compared to the proposed Tornado ADV. Whilst they conceded that the Tornado ADV might be acceptable as a long-range interceptor it would be totally outclassed as a 'central front' fighter by the expected threats of the next generation of Soviet fighter aircraft (in particular, and before it's limitations became known, the MiG-25 was especially feared). When the UK Government argued that another combat aircraft could not be considered on cost grounds the RAF reminded them that the proposed Tornado ADV was already morphing into a different aircraft with a longer forward fuselage to accommodate semi-recessed Sparrow/Skyflash missiles, more powerful engines to address the low power to weight ratio and a totally different avionics package.

Panavia were already ahead of the curve with several design studies on various advanced air superiority fighter aircraft with the most promising being 'Projekt Condor' from the Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) design team at Ottobrun for a single-seat air superiority fighter powered by a single large afterburning turbofan engine (the RB.250 - itself a paper project by Turbo-Union but based on a scaled-up Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan). Preliminary technical studies demonstrated that Specific Excess Power and manoueverability were off the chart when compared to all current fighter aircraft and a parallel study on the market for such an aircraft in the 1975 to 1990 period revealed a potential market for 600 aircraft in Western Europe and the Middle East alone. Unexpected support for Projekt Condor came from the Italian Government who sought a follow-on fighter aircraft to replace the Aeritalia F-104S on the Turin production line. In the UK, with unemployment at its highest level since 1940, the incoming Conservative Government led by Edward Heath supported the project as one of a raft measures to boost the UK economy. By 1971 all three Governments (Italy, the UK and West Germany) were in agreement and the Panavia Condor programme was allowed to proceed with an initial order for 10 Condor prototype and development aircraft and 465 production aircraft (West Germany 200, UK 165 and Italy 100) to be assembled on final production lines in each country but with workload shared out with the United Kingdom and West Germany each having a 40% share of the workload with the remaining 20% going to Italy.

With inflation running rampant in Western Europe the Condor programme was under the strictest financial scrutiny during the early 1970's but luckily escaped the axe on at least two occassions. Despite the Condor programme being a political football (and seemingly a permanent fixture in the news headlines) development moved swiftly aided by the existing collaborative structures within Panavia recently created for the Tornado programme. With a new airframe and a new engine Panavia were keen to avoid also introducing a completely new avionics package so sensibly opted for an off-the-shelf purchase of the Hughes APG-63 multimode radar system but designed to incorporate a software programmable signal processor allowing the system to be modified to accommodate new modes and weapons through software reprogramming rather than by a more costly and disruptive hardware retrofit. The first prototype (PC-01) was structurally complete by early April 1974 and was trucked from Ottobrun to the Hannover Air Show where it was displayed in the static park attracting considerable interest from Saudi Arabian and Omani officials. DA-01 was then taken to Manching to be mated with the Turbo-Union RB.250 engine for ground-testing and taxying trials that continued during the summer months before MBB's chief test pilot, Nils Meister, took to the air on August 15th 1974. A few short weeks later he dazzled the crowds at the 1974 Farnborough Air Show demonstrating the Condor's remarkable manoueverability. The fleet of development aircraft began to build up during 1975 with the only real mishap occuring when DA-06 (whose main task was armament development) was mysteriously lost over the Irish Sea.

Entering service with No.23 Squadron of the Royal Air Force on April 1st, 1978 the Condor F.1 eventually served with seven squadrons in the UK and another two in RAF Germany. Primary armament was the Skyflash semi-active radar homing air-to-air missile and the AIM-9L 'all-aspect' version of the Sidewinder infra-red air-to-air missile. In addition, the Condor was fitted with two internal Mauser BK-27 cannon (developed for the Panavia Tornado) each with 250 rounds.

RAF CONDOR F1.18 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CONDOR F1.19 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CONDOR F1.20 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CONDOR F1.21 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CONDOR F1.22 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This lovely RAF Camo was made by 'Nyghtflyer' for Cocas' Condor which we've (jointly) decided to make a Panavia product. The backstory has more holes than a Swiss cheese but, hey, it's a what if!!

RAF CONDOR F1.17 by Spinners1961, on Flickr
Bonus shot of a No.29 Squadron machine.

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Dassault Mirage F.1A - No.111 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1963

RAF MIRAGE F1A.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MIRAGE F1A.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MIRAGE F1A.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Just a short photoset of another revised upload - this time from 2011. Note the engine stencilling 

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McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom - 182nd Tactical Fighter Squadron, Texas Air Force, 1976

TEXAN F-4E PHANTOM.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

TEXAN F-4E PHANTOM.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

TEXAN F-4E PHANTOM.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Another one from 2011... and not my idea then either!

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Yakovlev Yak-23F - Fighter Squadron 31, Finnish Air Force, 1953

ILMAVOIMAT YAK-23F FLORA.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ILMAVOIMAT YAK-23F FLORA.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ILMAVOIMAT YAK-23F FLORA.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ILMAVOIMAT YAK-23F FLORA.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

For this revised upload (over at Combat Ace) I've changed one squadron to use the iconic Lynx fin marking of Fighter Squadron 31 who today fly F-18C/D Hornets out of Rissala.

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Douglas Dakota C.3 - No.30 Squadron, RAF Transport Command, 1960

RAF DAKOTA C3.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF DAKOTA C3.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF DAKOTA C3.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF DAKOTA C3.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF DAKOTA C3.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF DAKOTA C3.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The C-47A has been a non-flyable aircraft in Strike Fighters for a while now (the C-130 has been there since the start in 2002) but all non-flyable types can be made flyable using a surrogate cockpit with some simple edits. There's even a quick and dirty way of making everything flyable using the A-4B cockpit. Anyway, a superb new C-47 cockpit was released yesterday and I thought I'd give the C-47A a check flight and it's quite nice to fly. I then found a desert camo scheme by 'gerwin' over at Combat Ace which I thought I'd convert to make an early 1970's RAF Hercules scheme. I've added black undersides using my 'cut and shut' method of combining two skins - gerwin's camo and the stock silver skin for the undersides but these silver undersides have the colour inverted and a 70% opacity black layer is added to these undersides to dampen things down. Early Herk's had the last three digits of the serial number repeated on the fin and nose so I had to make 12 new serial number decals and 12 new three-digit number decals as well but they really do complete the look.

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Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17PF 'Fresco-D' - Grupo 6 de Caza, Fuerza Aérea Argentina, 1970

FAA MiG-17PF FRESCO.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA MiG-17PF FRESCO.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA MiG-17PF FRESCO.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA MiG-17PF FRESCO.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA MiG-17PF FRESCO.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA MiG-17PF FRESCO.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA MiG-17PF FRESCO.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA MiG-17PF FRESCO.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA MiG-17PF FRESCO.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Another revised upload but this time I've added the indigenous 'Espada' radar-guided air-to-air missile. This is actually an AS-20 with a simple new skin and with the innards of an early Sparrow missile (a cut and paste of the data for an AIM-7D).

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Grumman Intruder S.1 - No.214 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, 1966

In 1963, with the Mark 2 versions of the Vulcan and Victor becoming the spearhead of Bomber Command, four Valiant squadrons (49, 148, 207 and 214) were assigned to SACEUR forming a powerful strike wing based at Marham in Norfolk. But during the summer of 1964 fatigue cracks were discovered in the front and rear wing spars of several aircraft and whilst serious consideration was given to a rebuild programme the estimated unit cost of this was close to the original price of a Valiant so a rebuild programme was ruled out. However, when further cracks were discovered the RAF reluctantly grounded the Valiant in December 1964. In January 1965, this lead to Denis Healey (Minister of Defence) declaring that the Valiant situation was "causing considerable embarrassment for us with our NATO allies" and that an interim solution was urgently being sought "to restore our missing strike power and commitment to SACEUR".

With US President Lyndon Johnson already critical of Harold Wilson's refusal to commit British troops to Vietnam, Wilson and Healey needed a quick solution and in February 1965 they pulled off a deal with the US Government and the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation to take 60 A-6K Intruder aircraft straight off the Grumman production line at Bethpage. Designated as the Intruder S.1 and finished in anti-flash white the A-6K's were optimised for the nuclear strike role armed with American Mk28 (B-61) free-fall tactical nuclear bombs before switching to the UK WE.177B in late 1966. Entering service with No.214 squadron in June 1965 the RAF's Intruder S.1 force built up at RAF Marham before being transferred to RAF Geilenkirchen during the Spring of the following year.

RAF INTRUDER S1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF INTRUDER S1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF INTRUDER S1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF INTRUDER S1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF INTRUDER S1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF INTRUDER S1.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF INTRUDER S1.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The Intruder was a flyable type in 'Wings Over Vietnam' back in 2004 but, rather oddly, was dropped to 'AI' only (i.e. non-flyable) status in the second-generation Strike Fighters 2:Vietnam released in 2009. That didn't make a lot of sense to me back then (and still doesn't now) but by using the first-generation cockpit you can quickly get it flying. This simple skin was created by cutting the parts out of the US Navy grey & white skin bitmaps and pasting them onto the white specular bitmaps that have some decent line and rivet details. Crude but effective! Decals complete the transformation and I made a lo-viz version of my 214 'speedbird'.

Yes, my "Valiant is broken, what can I do" backstory has been used before!

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Westland Wolf Mk.I - No.612 (County of Aberdeen) Squadron, Royal Auxilliary Air Force, 1946

RAF WOLF F1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF WOLF F1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF WOLF F1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF WOLF F1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF WOLF F1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

More Yak-23 shenanigans! One of the things I like about Strike Fighters is that you can tweak the performance of any aircraft in a variety of ways and for the Westland Wolf I've de-tuned the engine back to the 2,000lbs thrust of the Derwent Mk.1 engines that powered the early production Gloster Meteors (but not the earliest which had Wellands). The Yak-23's Klimov RD-500 engine (an unlicensed Derwent Mk.5 copy) had about 3,500lbs of thrust so it does make a difference at take-off and climb. I got a bit lazy with markings and re-used some '8W' codes and 'VT' serials that I made for something else.

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Douglas Skywarrior S.1 - 809 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1970

RN SKYWARRIOR S1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN SKYWARRIOR S1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN SKYWARRIOR S1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN SKYWARRIOR S1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

"We're going to need a bigger boat".

This A3D-1 Skywarrior is (I believe) an unfinished beta by 'angelp' and was missed by me when I took my 18-month break from Strike Fighters. I've previously converted one of the USN carriers into an 'Elizabeth Class' RN carrier but I really can't see why the Senior Service would want such a beast but there you go! When making the 809NAS tail decal I discovered that they are due to become an F-35 unit but that's still nearly 3 years away.

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Hawker Hunter FGA.9 - No.43 Squadron, RAF Middle East Command, 1968

RAF HUNTER FGA9D.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER FGA9D.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER FGA9D.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER FGA9D.11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Another 'cut and shut' DIY skin combining the Omani camo scheme with the undersides of the standard RAF Camo. It takes a while to mask things off but then it's just a cut and paste overlay and some decals with stock serial numbers. I might do another one with 'B' type roundels for a mid-70's deployment.

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Hawker Hunter FGA.9 - No.112 Squadron, RAF Middle East Command, 1968

RAF HUNTER FGA9D.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER FGA9D.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER FGA9D.10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER FGA9D.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER FGA9D.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER FGA9D.12 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Same skin but with the classic No.112 sharkmouth!

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Lockheed Martin F-16C Fighting Falcon - Grupo 6 de Caza, Fuerza Aérea Argentina, 2021

FAA F-16C FALCON.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA F-16C FALCON.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA F-16C FALCON.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA F-16C FALCON.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Not my cup of tea but done as a request. The F-16 is a slightly tricky one to 'what if' as the fuselage roundel decal is on such a curved surface that it distorts badly. I've had to paint it directly onto the skin bitmap but it's so small the resolution is poor.

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Convair F-102J Delta Dagger - 203, 204 and 302 Hikotai, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, 1970

JASDF F-102A DELTA DAGGER.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDF F-102A DELTA DAGGER.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDF F-102A DELTA DAGGER.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDF F-102A DELTA DAGGER.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDF F-102A DELTA DAGGER.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDF F-102A DELTA DAGGER.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDF F-102A DELTA DAGGER.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDF F-102A DELTA DAGGER.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDF F-102A DELTA DAGGER.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

When I did my F-102A-based Gloster Galant FAW.1 a few weeks back I knew that the grey skin would make a good JASDF interceptor. All the decals were already made and with 173 F-4EJ tail serial numbers and 173 F-4EJ nose numbers already 'in game' I thought this would be a nice quick 'what if' but getting the Falcon missiles to load was a nightmare as some missiles are nation specific and have specific station codes to (for example) prevent Phantoms loading Firestreaks and Lightnings loading Sidewinders. Anyway, I got there in the end!

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Kawasaki Ki-60 'Terry' - 101st Sentai, Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, 1943

IJAAF HE-100D-1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IJAAF HE-100D-1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IJAAF HE-100D-1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A lovely Heinkel He-100D1 was released recently and I thought it would look cool in IJAAF markings. Now I'm no expert on WW2 Japanese markings so WYSIWYG!