Never Retired

[rallymodeller]

On another tack, did this one a while ago but it deserve reposting (in my not-so-humble opinion...heh)



What the heck, let's toss this one in, too:

[B777LR]

The Hunter is a plane that could have kept going for ages, and has recently been reintroduced in the Lebanese AF.
Add a more powerful version of the engine, a radar (Blue Vixen?), and ability to carry weaopons such as LGBs and targeting pods, possibly AMRAAMs/METEOR, one or two anti-ship missiles such as the Exocet and Harpoon, and of course a modern glass cockpit. The 2 seater would be a very capable strike aircraft. Could be interesting to compare a such plane with the Tornado

The T-33 could have gone on for some time as well, given the same upgrades as mentioned for the Hunter. Perhaps rename it A-33?

[B777LR]

More ideas:

UH-1:

The Black Hawk never came, resulting in updated UH-1s. New tail-boom (as on the UH-1Y), 5 blade composite main rotor.
Versions:

Gunship versions, with undernose MG, stub wings with up to 16 Hellfires, rotor-top mounted AN/APG-78 Longbow fire control radar. Gunner fired GAU-17s in each door.

CSAR (HH-1), with all glass cockpit, stub wings for drop-tanks, gunner operated GAU-17s.

Sea Huey (SH-1) with folding tail and rotors. Skids replaced with wheels.


A-6X Intruder: (based largely on the A-6F)

Has potential to become a fine strike aircraft, with heavy load, and room for improvements. Full glass cockpit, F-404 engines, HOTAS controls for the pilot, LGB, Hellfire, Maverik, Harpoon, JDAM and SDB capability. And an AN/APQ-173 radar, allowing for self defense AMRAAMs. Lots of countermeasures. Add an GAU-8 gun from the A-10, allowing it to do more CAS work. (US Navy A-10 counterpart).

EA-6X
A stretched 4 seat version based on the A-6X. Fitted out with the Erieye radar, allowing it to replace the ageing Hawkeye (given that the E-2D Hawkeye 2000 didn't excist).

EDA-6X
A stretched 4 seat version based on the A-6X. Used for controlling drones, in case satelites are put out of use in a potential war against a larger superpower such as China or Russia. Is outfitted with electronic warfare pods. Drones can also be outfitted with electronic warfare pods.

[Mossie]

I'd like to do a Me-262 in a similar scheme to this one day:

Regards,

Greg

I've got the kits to do a real world T.7¹/₂, scratching the canopy will be the hard part.  I would be good to see a Schwalbe as a similar testbed.  Take a two seater & hack out the back, earlier T.7¹/₂'s had a strengthened canopy, maybe you could take a U1 & go with this approach?

[PR19_Kit]

Mossie,

How about using the front half of an NF14 and the frame from a T7 for the rear half, suitably cut away of course?

[GTX]

I'd like to do a Me-262 in a similar scheme to this one day:

Regards,

Greg

I've got the kits to do a real world T.7¹/₂, scratching the canopy will be the hard part.  I would be good to see a Schwalbe as a similar testbed.  Take a two seater & hack out the back, earlier T.7¹/₂'s had a strengthened canopy, maybe you could take a U1 & go with this approach?

I am actually kind of tempted to do it in 1/32.  It would be an alt hist of course with the Me-262 in much the same scheme as the Meteor but with German markings including a pre-war red band/swastika on the tail.

Regards,

Greg

[Mossie]

Mossie,

How about using the front half of an NF14 and the frame from a T7 for the rear half, suitably cut away of course?

I wondered about that, although the main canopy of the T.7¹/₂ is Martin Baker's own creation & has a different shape.  I could fudge it though, it'd stand up without too much scrutiny & is an option if I stuggle to scratch one.

[chrisonord]

A lot of my Honduras airforce will consist of retired aircraft that have been dragged out of the "Davis Monthan retirement home, given a new set of nashers, avionics and weapons capabilities. Some have gone as far as being converting to turbo props from jets. My 2 F-84 conversions and my ouragan conversion are examples of this. My current RB-57 build is also a boneyard relic forced to earn a living again.
Hawker Hunters, upgraded now there is a thought, I wonder if my Honduras A.F would like some of those?
The cartel also have a lot of ex soviet/CIS aircraft that were acquired from various museums and shady dealings in the former Soviet union.
They have Mig-21's, SU-21's, SU-25's, IL-28's,Mig-29's, SU-7's, SU-17's,SU-22's. As well as a TU-16 TU-22B and a TU-22M.
The armour the cartel has is also a mixture of current and museum relics.   

[Weaver]

GTX: the Smer 1/72nd single-seat 262s come with a 2-seat cockpit tub, which is actually a problem (needs cutting down to fit) if you're building it straight. It occurs to me that you could, instead, open out the top of the fuselage to give an open ejector-seat test  cockpit behind the regular one.

In the never-retired stakes, how about this: the Basler Turbo-67 (Turbo-Dakota) has a fuselage stretch behind the cockpit to compensate for the PT-67s being much lighter than the old radials. Since that section has to be manufactured from scratch anyway, why not buld a radome onto the bottom of it to accomodate a Searchwater radar (as used in the AEW Seaking and AEW Defender prototype), the result being a cheap AWACS for third world airforces? The taildragger undercarriage would be positive advantage here, giving plenty of clearance for the dome. All it might need is a fin extension or Nimrod-style finlets to compensate for the extra side area. Sure it's not going to have the endurance or ceiling of an E-3 or even an EMB-145/Erieye, but how much better would it be than a Seaking or Defender?

You could call it a DAKWACS.... sorry, sorry......

[GTX]

GTX: the Smer 1/72nd single-seat 262s come with a 2-seat cockpit tub, which is actually a problem (needs cutting down to fit) if you're building it straight. It occurs to me that you could, instead, open out the top of the fuselage to give an open ejector-seat test  cockpit behind the regular one.

Thanks, but I prefer 1/48 or larger.

Regards,

Greg

[Weaver]

GTX: the Smer 1/72nd single-seat 262s come with a 2-seat cockpit tub, which is actually a problem (needs cutting down to fit) if you're building it straight. It occurs to me that you could, instead, open out the top of the fuselage to give an open ejector-seat test  cockpit behind the regular one.

Thanks, but I prefer 1/48 or larger.

Regards,

Greg

Tch - people who live in big countries..........

[GTX]

GTX: the Smer 1/72nd single-seat 262s come with a 2-seat cockpit tub, which is actually a problem (needs cutting down to fit) if you're building it straight. It occurs to me that you could, instead, open out the top of the fuselage to give an open ejector-seat test  cockpit behind the regular one.

Thanks, but I prefer 1/48 or larger.

Regards,

Greg

Tch - people who live in big countries..........

Be quiet small fry!!!

Regards,

Greg

[dy031101]

What the heck, let's toss this one in, too:

I'm planning on one of these days modelling an upgrade for the F-104G in 3DS Max as a ROCAF's counterpart to the J-8F.

TC-2 missiles, some advanced-looking WVRAAMs...... and god knows if there's enough clearance to carry a HF-2 under the fuselage centreline...... but I feel tempted to imagine things that way......

I kinda feel that I need a new camouflage scheme though......

[Spey_Phantom]

guess i found another reason to build an F-14 Tomcat.
maybe as a Tomcat21, armed with JDAM, AMRAAM or MBDA Meteor, AIM-9X, AESA radar, fully digital glass cockpit F-22 style,....

or even stealth-modified Blackburn Buccaneers 
do i hear a 4th generation SAAB Draken 

[Mossie]

Draken, that reminds me, I cooked up this Super Viggen for Carlos' thread some time back, would fit into this thread.