Gunship ideas

[Maverick]

Bugger that, make it an Spectre and a Marlin or Shin-Meiwa and you're cooking with gas!!!

[Weaver]

Bugger that, make it an Spectre and a Marlin or Shin-Meiwa and you're cooking with gas!!!

Well those were the kits on offer, and I was thinking about the early days of gunships: maybe there were a few Cats still doing patrol duties and someone in the Navy saw an early Spooky and got to thinking about the Mekong Delta.....

[Maverick]

Funny you should mention that...

Back in 82 when I was going through recruit training, I happened upon a Cat sitting in an ARDU hanger.  Couldn't find out just what was going on with it, but then again, that was the same place that had a 'Bushranger' armed Huey with what looked to be an NVD hanging off its nose.

Regards,

Mav

[philp]

My goodness.  didn't think I would have to defend my story vs JMN ideas here.

AD, thanks for posting your Fokker, one of the 2 I remembers seeing (along with that Osprey).
BC, thanks for the support.  My story does take place at night and the gunship has IR suppressors and ECM gear but didn't think I needed to add all that to the story.

Sorry if I come off thin skinned.

Someone did post a drawing of an AN-12 gunship but I can't find it anymore.
Any other ideas.

The AC-47 has been used by several countries in Central /South America and South Africa.  Some even upgraded with turboprops.  Plenty of other countries that could have used them.

[Maverick]

Phil,

Assuming I'm one of the accused, I apologise for interpreting your story as being set in daylight, as you originally said, it was a new concept.  Given the Bar-Lev line assault was a daylight op, I incorrectly assumed it was a daylight story.

I don't however apologise for having 'JMN ideas'.  I believe that Whifs are more readily acceptable if they have some degree of plausibility.  Like real life, there are obviously degrees of whif from "what if the RAF flew B-58s" to "Vampire & Werewolf squadrons".  The former is obviously slightly more plausible than the latter and deserves a closer look at the circumstances surrounding it to engender it with a degree of 'realism' whilst the latter can be pretty much anything.

Regards,

Mav

[tinlail]

The RAF affording B-58, are you sure that is the more believable one?

Which points out the problem, and joy of Whiffing. There are technological, political, cultural, tactical, and strategic, dimensions to the purchase and fielding of weapon systems, and no one looking in from the outside, is likely to be aware of all the issues. But we make up planes with the hubris that we might do better than the guys that were there. Or we chose to ignore an issue, because it keeps us from the plane we wish to build.

Then it is up to us to build the plane to the best of our ability, I will admit right now that my paint jobs will suck when I get to that stage.

[philp]

Thanks Mav,
Figured by placing the tanks in Bivouac placed them at the end of the day. Oh well, I vented and I'm over it.

While most of my ideas center around real, possible ideas, I do have a lot of fun reading some of the ideas here that are really out there 

So Mav, any way I could talk you into a profile or 2?

[Maverick]

Phil,

When I re-read the story, the bivouac line sorta made me go 'd'oh!', but there you go.

Anyhoo, I'm assuming a Nortalas in IDF markings??  Might be a challenge to find a blank for that one, but i"ll have a look if that's what you're after.

Regards,

Mav

[philp]

Thanks Mav.
Yeah, as noted in the second post to this thread.  Also, if you could do the Omani Gunvan (Skyvan).

[Mossie]

The Short Belfast might be a good option, high wing & capable of carrying a fair bit more ordanance than a Spectre.

One I did a profile of some time ago.  Kaman were looking to lisence build the Fairey Rotodyne for sale to the US Army & USAF.  It's quite possible that had the Rotodyne entered US service it would probably have done so well in time for use in Vietnam.  With the tip jets lit it could probably have pulled very tight circles & it's not inconcievable to imagine it's use as a gunship.




Okay, an extreme one, but An-124 or C-5's might make for high altitude gunships?  Able to carry a vast amount of artillery, it might be useful to lay a vast a mount of fire over a wide area.  Targeting specific targets might be a problem, but they might work for carpet cover?

Glancing at the title, I thought this thread might be about helicopter gunships.  I've had an idea for some time for taking a Do.335 A-12 two seater & converting it into a helicopter gunship, or possibly some kind of Luft 46 VTOL project.  Just throwing it around!

[philp]

Nice one Mossie.

Guess we could throw helicopter gunships in this thread or you could start another.

[Bryan H.]

It been brought up before but the P-61 Black Widow might make a good Gunship/COIN platform.  Here's a previous thread http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,15695.0/highlight,black+widow.html with some great profiles.  The P-61 (in some sort of AF-61K Gunship reincarnation) and an updated AP-2 Neptune Gunship both would be interesting and might have a variety of potential customers.

Bryan

[LemonJello]

Gunships?  Did I hear someone mention gunships?



Reading all the suggestions here, I've come up with something - all those early model P-3s sitting in the boneyard - Cash strapped DoD looks to open an export market with all the mothballed airframes in Arizona, and they offer "option" packages to sell - The Orion has a bomb bay for torpedos, upgrade that with rotary launchers for Hellfire/Brimstone, even the JDAM or small diameter bomb?  Guns would have to go aft of the wing, but you'd have space for a couple busmaster/chain gun-type systems.  Change out the sonobuoy launcher with either flares or perhaps a series of single shot mortars for area suppression. 

[Maverick]

LJ,

Your gunship is obviously superb, but Sentinel Chicken did some P-3 gunship profiles back in '07.

Regards,

Mav

[philp]

SC did indeed do some interesting P-3 gunship profiles.

And if you haven't seen them already, Mav did my Nordatlas and Gunvan profiles on his Profile thread.
Thanks again Mav.