avatar_Zeke

P-39...Oh this is going to hurt!...FINISHED!...with back history as well.

Started by Zeke, February 06, 2009, 02:48:50 PM

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Zeke

#45
February 11, 2009, 02:24:15 AM
Mikhail Ivanovich Gudkov was one of the founder members of the famous LaGG design bureau but after Lavochkin took over as its chief designer, Gudkov branched out on his own. His main aim was to try and find a fighter configuration that was more manoeuvrable than the standard fighter plane of the time. He was particularly impressed with Bell's work in the US on the P-39 Airacobra, where the engine was kept close to the centre of Gravity and the aerodynamic Centre of Pressure, theoretically leading to a nimbler machine.
   During 1942 Gudkov managed to get funding for the design and build of a mid-engined design of his own. He drew up plans for a low-wing, mono-plane fighter, built of compressed wood and bakelite-ply skinning with the engine behind the pilot and the nose clear for heavy armament. It was planned that the Taubin 37mm cannon would be fitted, along with a massive 87 round magazine and 6 ShKAS machine guns!
   It was powered by the AM-37 rated at 1,380hp, which made it severely underpowered and the aircraft (designated GuT1) was a complete failure for Gudkov. On only its second test flight, it failed to clear the airfield perimeter and crashed into trees, killing the pilot, A I Nikashin.
   Undeterred by this sad loss, Gudkov vowed to make something more worthwhile and threw away his own design and turned to the tried and tested P-39 that had impressed him so much. Russia had a vast supply of these aircraft, thousands of them having been supplied by the Americans under the Lend-Lease programme. Realising that the piston engine was the limiting factor in getting the best from his machines, Gudkov modified an Airacobra airframe to accept one of the new jet engines being produced by Mikulin to become the GuT2.
   His first attempt was again a failure; the engine thrust was insufficient to produce an effective flying machine. No pictures of his original alterations have survived but his second, more extensive set of modifications, has been captured on film. They show a basic P-39Q airframe with an extended tail pipe for a more powerful engine as well as a taller tail to increase the longitudinal stability. The wings and horizontal tail have been clipped, presumably to save weight, and the propeller, armament and reduction gearing have all been removed from the nose, being replaced, according to records, by test instrumentation for the engine performance.
   The undercarriage was also replaced by a stronger set of units to cope with the increased landing speed of the new machine.













This version, the GuT2bis flew quite successfully and was praised by the test pilot, A.M. Davidov, as being easy to control but severely limited by lack of internal fuel. Further problems were encountered on subsequent test flights when, at high speed, the aircraft suffered severe vibration and buffeting, caused by the high-speed airflow over the relatively fat wing.
   Gudkov knew that to solve this particular problem (the dreaded compressibility) he would need to design a whole new wing but with other, more successful jet powered designs already flying, those plans came to nothing.
   That would have been the end of the GuT2 but Gudkov used the design as the basis for a test-bed for turbo-prop development. In a hastily put together rework, that Gudkov  himself described as; "Crude and barely airworthy" the GuT2bis was fitted with a six-bladed contra-rotating propeller and under-wing auxiliary fuel tanks and scheduled for high-speed taxi tests before the first flight. On the 6th June 1945 disaster struck the programme when, on its 3rd high speed taxi run, the nose undercarriage leg collapsed and the propeller blades sliced into the concrete runway apron, tearing the nose from the aircraft. The GuT2bis came to rest against one of the hanger walls where it continued to burn furiously, finally putting the programme to rest. The test pilot Davidov miraculously walked away from the crash with minor injuries, much to Gudkov's relief.
   Not many period photographs exist of the Turbo-prop powered machine but those that have survived show it to be an ungainly looking beast, the smooth lines of the basic P-39 airframe being completely distorted by the large multi-blade propeller unit and wing-mounted tanks.














RIGHT THEN, WHAT CAN I DO TO IT NEXT?...ANY SUGGESTIONS?...RAZOR SAW IN HAND!!!...:P :D
It's a big, wide world out there...so if it's all the same to you I'll just stay indoors!

Mossie

#46
February 11, 2009, 02:33:20 AM
Wow!  Looks plausible, the Reds had enough P-39's to have a good understanding of how they worked.
I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. You see, my mule don't like people laughin'. He gets the crazy idea you're laughin' at him. Now if you apologize, like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it.

Weaver

#47
February 11, 2009, 03:31:00 AM
WOW - that's excellent, well done!  :thumbsup: Love the photographs......

It's also almost exactly the same as one of my plans for one of the 1/72nd P-39Qs in my stash, but what the heck; you got there first and did it better than I would have done. Plenty of other things I can do to an  Airacobra...... :wacko: :wacko: :wacko:
"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."
 - Sandman: A Midsummer Night's Dream, by Neil Gaiman

"I dunno, I'm making this up as I go."
 - Indiana Jones

Rafael

#48
February 11, 2009, 04:40:04 AM
Aircraft-Porn!!! :wub: :wub:

Rafa
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ElectrikBlue

#49
February 11, 2009, 06:15:12 AM
The jet version looks great and I like the back story! :bow: :bow: :bow:
Can we have some colour photographs of the two versions...

EB

sotoolslinger

#50
February 11, 2009, 06:30:15 AM
Quote from: Rafael on February 11, 2009, 04:40:04 AM
Aircraft-Porn!!! :wub: :wub:

Rafa
Absolutely agree Wonderful, pics, build ,and design :wub: :wub: :wub: Now leave that puppy alone :o
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Sauragnmon

#51
February 11, 2009, 06:37:59 AM
My small knowledge of German just had to make me laugh at the designation for the design bureau though - Gut, or Good, in German.  Gut-1 - Apparently it wasn't, or else it was a joke and a good one!

Awesome job on the execution, Zeke.  Hilarious would be seeing a fighter built out of the engine on a Tu-95 - the power on those puppies, hauling a fighter into the air, it'd be interesting, at least to me.  And of course you'd hear it coming for miles.  Stealthy? Not a hope in hell.
Putty-fu, Scratch-jutsu and Bash-chi, the sacred martial arts of the What-If. Mastering them, is Ancient Chinese Secret.

Just your friendly neighbourhood Mad Scientist and Ship-whiffer.

Overkill? Nah, it's Insurance.  So are the 20" guns.

chrisonord

#52
February 11, 2009, 07:18:54 AM
That is just absolutely amazing Zeke!!
I really think you should keep her as she is as she is a work of aeronautical art, seriously. I have looked at the pictures time and again and she is an absolute stunner. Of course I am biased as I love turbo props :bow: :bow: :bow:
Chris.
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If you cant eat it hump it or fight it,
Pee on it and walk away!!

Zeke

#53
February 11, 2009, 07:38:21 AM
Quote from: ElectrikBlue on February 11, 2009, 06:15:12 AM
The jet version looks great and I like the back story! :bow: :bow: :bow:
Can we have some colour photographs of the two versions...

EB

Thank you all for the kind comments...this was a fun little project for me... ;D :thumbsup:

I've kindly been given a gallery space in here, all for my very own and there will be some snapshots in full colour appearing in there soon.

As for the GuT designation Sauragnmom, I have to admit to not thinking of the German translation, which is a bit ironic; "Good 1"...yeah right Ha ha...no, I just thought of gut because it sounded funny!...:)
The bit about Gudkov and his original design Gu1 (or Gu37 according to some) is absolutely true by the way, the crash that killed the test pilot effectively put paid to his carreer as an aircraft designer.

And yeah...I guess I'll leave it alone, although the urge to chop it's tail off and do a butterfly conversion is pretty strong... :wacko:
It's a big, wide world out there...so if it's all the same to you I'll just stay indoors!

Ed S

#54
February 11, 2009, 07:43:38 AM
BRAVO!!   This is a work of art. 

:thumbsup:
:cheers:Ed
We don't just embrace insanity here.  We feel it up, french kiss it and then buy it a drink.

BlackOps

#55
February 11, 2009, 08:02:54 AM
This is brilliant! I'm not sure which impresses me more, how nice the model turned out, or how quickly you turned out such a beautiful model, with a great backstory to boot!  :bow:
Jeff G.
Stumbling through life.

tanktastic43

#56
February 11, 2009, 08:32:05 AM
Ef me! The jet is gorgeous. As Rafa said this is 'whif porn'.  :wub: :bow:
Well done Zeke.  :thumbsup:

nev

#57
February 11, 2009, 09:21:37 AM
Absolutely superb!  And the photography is the cherry on the icing on the cake :wub:

Where do I go to nominate this for the 2009 whiffies?
Between almost-true and completely-crazy, there is a rainbow of nice shades - Tophe


Sales of Airfix kits plummeted in the 1980s, and GCSEs had to be made easier as a result - James May

jcf

#58
February 11, 2009, 09:33:49 AM
Brilliant!
Love the combination of fact and fantasy, my favourite kind of whiffery.  ;D

For folks interested in the real-world Gu-1, see attached 3-view.

Jon

Brian da Basher

#59
February 11, 2009, 04:04:30 PM
Fantabulous, Zeke!!! You could fool historians with those pictures!

Outstanding in every way!!! Bravo!!!
:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Brian da Basher
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