Maritime Patrol and ASW- the little ones......

[Gary]

How about the CL-415. A military version made the airshow circuit a bunch of years ago but I don't think there were any takers.

I have photo copies of a brochure somewhere and they had a whacking great radar, searchlight, Harpoons, and mentioned depth charges, torpedoes, sonobouys, MAD booms etc.

[Weaver]

I've got the Heritage Aviation 1/72 Turbo-prop conversion and some of the parts and decals included are for a South African AEW trainer, it has a small radar on a pylon above the fuselage just about where the plug is, so your idea isn't that too far stretched.

Check out the other photo and you'll see the small radome.  http://www.heritageaviationmodelsltd.com/turbo-dakota-saaf-113-p.asp

Plus I see Heritage has a Dart conversion too, I'm gonna get me one of those     http://www.heritageaviationmodelsltd.com/dart-dakota-97-p.asp

Cheers - that's interesting. 

Those Dart pods could be used for all sorts of things, and I don't mean Dakotas......

[jcf]

Dash 8 300 ASW proposal, from JAWA 1988-89

[AeroplaneDriver]

I wish someone made a decent 1/72 Dash...

[GTX]

What about a Cessna 337 Super Skymaster modified to have only a single engine (my preference being the rear pusher one) of greater power and the nose set up with observation equipment?

Regards,

Greg

[AeroplaneDriver]

What about a Cessna 337 Super Skymaster modified to have only a single engine (my preference being the rear pusher one) of greater power and the nose set up with observation equipment?

Regards,

Greg

I've had the same thoughts about a 337 with a single engine.  Probably a turboprop in the 700shp range.  I was thinking of a Vietnam or Desert Storm FAC, but with radar, FLIR, and maybe a couple of Sea Skuas or Hellfires it would be a cool looking light MP aircraft.  I can imagine one in Irish colors, or perhaps some Carribbean nation.

[dy031101]

What about a Cessna 337 Super Skymaster modified to have only a single engine (my preference being the rear pusher one) of greater power and the nose set up with observation equipment?

Regards,

Greg

I've had the same thoughts about a 337 with a single engine.  Probably a turboprop in the 700shp range.  I was thinking of a Vietnam or Desert Storm FAC, but with radar, FLIR, and maybe a couple of Sea Skuas or Hellfires it would be a cool looking light MP aircraft.  I can imagine one in Irish colors, or perhaps some Carribbean nation.

Probably based on this:

[GTX]

What about a Cessna 337 Super Skymaster modified to have only a single engine (my preference being the rear pusher one) of greater power and the nose set up with observation equipment?

Regards,

Greg

I've had the same thoughts about a 337 with a single engine.  Probably a turboprop in the 700shp range.  I was thinking of a Vietnam or Desert Storm FAC, but with radar, FLIR, and maybe a couple of Sea Skuas or Hellfires it would be a cool looking light MP aircraft.  I can imagine one in Irish colors, or perhaps some Carribbean nation.

Probably based on this:

Yep!

AD:  Exactly - or someone like the Philippines maybe.  I would also add tip tanks for added range.

Regards,

Greg

[Maverick]

I had a similar idea for an ultra high endurance ship, ostensibly recce configured, but I guess maritime patrol (albeit unarmed) would be an option of using a Rutan Voyager (& the Amodel kit's in the stash), swapping out the nose engine with the requisite recce/radar suite and beefing up the rear with a turboprop.  I guess one could even go a step further and UAV it, but then you may as well use Global Hawk to start with.

Regards,

Mav

[Mossie]

Talking about Rutan designs, the Proteus is a possibilty.  Carrying an underslung mission pack, it could carry out recce from a high height & stay on station for very long periods.  White Knight One & the forthcoming White Knight Two could also carry similar packs.

We're getting very much into UAV territory now.  Even if the next generation of MPA's were piloted, would they need to be large aircraft, as I guess you could operate the equipment from the ground by telemetry?  That'd free up a lot of weight & space in the aircraft, that could either be eliminated for more economic ops, or replaced by fuel & extra missions fit.

[Maverick]

I've heard thoughts about that idea before.  Basically, the pilot becomes a taxi-driver for an avionics suite.  If it got to that point, I tend to think that UAV is a sensible option where the endurance would only depend on the aircraft's performance & specs rather than human endurance.  Once again, though, they've done that with Mariner (which is a maritime tasked Prowler derivative if I'm correct).

Proteus is a dead sexy ship though to be sure.  When I heard it was being kitted by Unicraft (waits for wail of pain from Wooksta ), I immediately wondered about its suitability for high-endurance recon.

Regards,

Mav

[Mossie]

Yeah, I've wondered about getting hold of the Proteus kit & doing it in a U-2 stlye black with red markings.

[B777LR]

I wish someone made a decent 1/72 Dash...

Everything is relative, thus the Hobbycrap kit is better than converting a P-51D...

[elmayerle]

Reminds me of Hasegawa's cute little MU-2 SAR plane: the last kit I bought before dropping out the last time!

A fun one to do would be an enhanced MU-2 version by mixing parts from that one with thelonger-fuselage MU-2J kit and then upgrading the props to the four-bladed props used by the MU-2N, MU-2P, Marquise, and Solitare - esp. with teh engine and system upgrades of the last two.  You could add additional sensors in the front portions of the MLG sponsons since the start as simple fiberglass shapes.

[Joe C-P]

We're getting very much into UAV territory now.  Even if the next generation of MPA's were piloted, would they need to be large aircraft, as I guess you could operate the equipment from the ground by telemetry?  That'd free up a lot of weight & space in the aircraft, that could either be eliminated for more economic ops, or replaced by fuel & extra missions fit.

UAVs also make a good option for future ship-borne ASW aircraft, especially in the USN, where the ASW helos are linked back to the ship. It has been done in the past, using the QH-50 DASH flying off USN and JMSDF destroyers. Weight and space are even more important on a ship-based helicopter, plus you're not risking the life of a pilot and one or more crewmen.