Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

Sud-Ouest Farandole II - EC2/11 Vosges, Armee de l'Air, 1955

When the straight-wing Sud-Ouest Farandole I lost out to the Dassault Ouragan they quickly schemed an improved swept-wing version known as the Farandole II utilising the same Hispano-Suiza Nene 104B engine. Working at speed the Sud-Ouest team flew the first prototype in October 1950 and the scintillating performance soon attracted the Armee de l'Air who ordered 150 production aircraft almost immediately (leading to the cancellation of the Dassault Mystere IIC). Entering service in November 1952 the Farandole II soon became considered as an interim type (as Dassault had got his own back by getting the Mystere IV selected by the US Government for off-shore procurement) but served until 1960 with the Armee de l'Air and until 1974 with the Heyl Ha'Avir of Israel (the only export customer).

ADLAFARANDOLE207 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ADLAFARANDOLE206 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ADLAFARANDOLE208 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is, of course, the MiG-15bis masquerading as a totally fictional French rival to the Mystere IIC.

[SPINNERS]

Sud-Ouest Farandole III - EC2/11 Vosges, Armee de l'Air, 1956

Even before the first flight of the Farandole II in October 1950 the Sud-Ouest designers were planning the follow-on Farandole III with more sweepback, a lower thickness/chord ratio, a completely new tail design and powered by the Hispano-Suiza Verdon 350R engine producing 7,500lbs of dry thrust and 9,000lbs with reheat thanks to a crude but effective afterburner. First flown in May 1953 and entering service in January 1955 the Farandole III gained only small production orders and served with the Armee de l'Air mainly overseas seeing service in the 1956 Suez crisis.

ADLAFARANDOLE301 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ADLAFARANDOLE302 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ADLAFARANDOLE303 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ADLAFARANDOLE304 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ADLAFARANDOLE305 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

SAAB/Hawker Draken F.1's - No.56 Squadron, RAF Middle East Command (on UN deployment to East Africa, 1966)

RAFDRAKENF101 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFDRAKENF105 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFDRAKENF102 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFDRAKENF103 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFDRAKENF104 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A superb new terrain was added today - East Africa and Madagascar. I thought I'd use to give a different look to these RAF Draken F.1's.

[SPINNERS]

Saab-Hawker Draken F.1's - No.74 Squadron, 'The Tigers', RAF Fighter Command, 1965

RAFDRAKENF107 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFDRAKENF109 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFDRAKENF108 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Saab-Hawker Draken F.2A's - No.25 Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1983

RAFDRAKENF2A02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFDRAKENF2A03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFDRAKENF2A04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Saab Draken J35P - Esquadra 301, 'Jaguares', Portuguese Air Force, 1975

PoAFDRAKEN01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PoAFDRAKEN02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PoAFDRAKEN03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PoAFDRAKEN04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Dassault Mirage 5 - 'Lion' Squadron, Kenya Air Force, 1986

KAFMIRAGE503 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KAFMIRAGE504 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KAFMIRAGE505 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Saab-Fairchild F-13 Draken - 125th FIS, Florida Air National Guard, 1968

During mid-1965 with attrition rates rising as the Vietnam conflict progressed (sic) the USAF's plans for re-equipping the ADC and ANG interceptor squadrons with F-4C's fell apart. Undaunted they launched a quick study into an off-the-shelf purchase of an alternative interceptor looking at the BAC Lightning F.3, Dassault Mirage IIIC, Saab Draken and the homegrown Lockheed Starfighter 'ADC' (a 'G' optimised for air-defense duties). With some considerable weighting given to low cost in the detailed analysis the Saab Draken soon became the front-runner being the only aircraft with a fly-away price below $1M but, in fact, the USAF study team scored the Draken highly in most areas.

In July 1966 the USAF announced that Saab's outstanding J-35F was the winner of the competition and that Fairchild, who had recently taken over Republic Aviation, were to partner Saab in producing the aircraft by now redesignated F-13 (despite objections from Fairchild to the 'unlucky' number although Saab didn't seem too bothered). Entering service with the Florida Air National Guard in March 1968 the F-13 was initially viewed as the poor relation by the F-106 squadrons, a situation that soon changed with the success of the F-13 in the 1969 and 1970 William Tell competitions. F-13's served until the mid-1980's when they were replaced by F-16A's although one squadron remained in service until 1990 at Tonopah, Nevada in a ruse designed to mask operations of the F-117 Stealth Fighter.

USAFDRAKEN10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFDRAKEN06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFDRAKEN13 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFDRAKEN07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFDRAKEN08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Saab-Fairchild F-13A Draken - 4451st Tactical Squadron, Tonopah Test Range, Nevada, 1984

During the flight-testing and the early service years of the F-117A 'Nighthawk' the F-13A Draken was used as a surrogate aircraft to maintain pilot proficiency and to provide a cover story for the existence of the 4450th Tactical Group. Whilst in no way similar to the shape of the F-117A the rakish lines of the Draken did have an unusual planform and was therefore chosen as the 'cover' aircraft for the specially created 4451st Tactical Squadron based at Tonopah. It is believed that 18 F-13A's were given a modest refurbishment to extend their operational lives and a two-tone grey scheme to give them more of an operational 'front-line' appearance.

F-13A's entered service with the 4451st TS at Nellis AFB in May 1981 and wore 'LV' tailcodes due to their proximity to Las Vegas. It is believed that some F-13A's were operated from Tonopah almost immediately to coincide with the F-117A test programme and it became a deliberate policy to park F-13A's out in the open so as to give the impression that Tonopah was simply a normal operational F-13A base. At least four derelict ex-Florida ANG F-13A's arrived by low-loader and given a coat of matt grey paint on the upper surfaces only to maintain this impression.

The F-13A's were extremely popular with the pilots of the 4451st TS and were often used as 'Red' assets in Red Flag exercises and even made the occasional guest appearance in 'Constant Peg' operations when MiG's became unserviceable or simply to provide dissimilar bogeys. As the F-117A gradually moved from 'black' to 'grey' towards the end of the 1980's the 4451st TS's F-13A operations slowly dwindled and the unit was disbanded on June 30th, 1989.

USAFDRAKEN17 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFDRAKEN16 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFDRAKEN23 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFDRAKEN24 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Saab-Fairchild F-13A Draken - New Jersey Air National Guard, 1974

USAFDRAKEN18 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFDRAKEN19 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFDRAKEN20 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFDRAKEN21 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Lots of good ideas there guys but I plumped for New Jersey. That's enough Draken for now but I will re-visit it and also re-visit the idea of European aircraft in colourful ANG markings, or even (gulp) US Navy aircraft in colourful ANG markings!

[SPINNERS]

Republic of Paran State Aviation Company Piranha - Republic of Paran Air Force, 1956

PARANIPIRANHA01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARANIPIRANHA02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARANIPIRANHA03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARANIPIRANHA04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARANIPIRANHA05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

North American F-109A 'Retaliator' - 186th FIS, Montana ANG, 1975

Development of the North American A3J-1 Vigilante progressed well during the late 1950's and the first flight of the YA3J-1 prototype in August 1958 revealed a real thoroughbred, packed from nose to tail with outstanding technology. However, a strong faction against the Vigilante was forming within the USN arguing that strategic bombing was not part of the USN's business and North American decided not to assume that large orders for the 'basic' A3J-1 would follow and they began to look at other roles for the Vigilante.

One line of development would eventually lead to the reconnaissance Vigilante (RA-5C) but another line of development transformed the A3J-1 into various fleet defender and fighter options. The wing of the A3J-1 was designed for zero wind over deck launches and resulted in a wing too large for low-level attack missions but ideal for a fighter. During early 1959 North American offered a long-range fighter version to the USN and USAF but had only a lukewarm response. However, following the cancellation of their F-108 Rapier in September 1959 things now became a bit more urgent for North American and they schemed a revised A3J-1 Fighter with uprated J79 engines and semi-recessed Sparrow missiles.

Trying again in 1960 they received a firm no from the USN (who by then knew they had a winner in the F4H-1 Phantom II) but the USAF agreed to a detailed analysis of an optimsed land-based interceptor fighter (named Retaliator in May 1960) and announced that the Retaliator was to be ordered as an immediate follow-on to the F-106 programme with 350 ordered although this figure was later reduced to 240.

The prototype YF-109 flew on April 30th 1962 and production F-109A's entered service in early 1964 with the 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Minot AFB, North Dakota. The only export order was from Canada who ordered 60 in 1968 and these entered service with No.409 squadron in 1970 remaining in service until 1990.

USAFF-109A02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-109A03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-109A04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The Vigilante was made by Julhelm (a member of this site) and he's made A-5A and RA-5C versions and also kindly released his PSD templates for ham-fisted amateurs like me to play around with! I've previously done RAF and RAAF machines in grey/green camo but I've been itching to do a 'Big Sky Country' machine and here it is. Bill Gunston reckons that the Vigilante's wing was ideal for a fighter and in 1959 North American proposed Vigilante long-range fighters to the USN and the USAF following this up in the early 1960's with a refined Vigilante 'ADV' (called Retaliator) with rocket-boost and offered to the USAF for ADC use and they even got so far as a second USAF evaluation in early 1962 but sadly it came to nothing.

[SPINNERS]

North American F-109A Retaliator - 159th FIS, Florida Air National Guard, 1972

USAFF-109A05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-109A06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-109A07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Perhaps the space occupied by the linear bomb bay could have been used for a rotating bay like the Buccaneer but pumping out Genies or Phoenix!

[SPINNERS]

North American F-109A Retaliator - 101st FIS, Massachusetts Air National Guard, 1977

USAFF-109A08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-109A09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-109A10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Final ANG Retaliator from me for the moment but I'll almost certainly re-visit this, probably using the hump-backed RA-5C as a follow-on F-109B. Having a quick read about the Viggi and the proposed Retaliator has made me realise how cutting-edge North American were at around about this time with the F-107, F-108, B-70 and the Vigilante programmes underway and overlapping for at least part of that era. How sad that only the Vigilante should come to fruition and in modest numbers too. It really was a sharp fall from grace.

[SPINNERS]

Convair F-7A Sky Dart - 186th FIS, Montana Air National Guard, 1976

USAFFOXBAT01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFFOXBAT02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFFOXBAT03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

As many of us know, it gets increasingly tough finding 'spare' US military aircraft designations to I've kicked the Convair Sea Dart into touch and used F-7 for an advanced manned interceptor (strangely reminiscent of the MiG-25) built by Convair and entering service in the late 1960's. Perhaps like Dassault did with the Mirage F.1 they realised that the delta was a dead end and went for straight wings with a low aspect ratio.