WHIF models from Modeling Madness

[cthulhu77]

Image source and additional images plus description: HobbyCraft 1/48th scale DH Vampire Mk.I WHIF










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[kitnut617]

The French actually had a similar idea, and built something like it. 

https://specialeast.com/popup_image.php?pID=1221&osCsid=2cd98470e8d1ac2ecbbc1ed24785c36c

[Weaver]

Nice model! 

One of the things that people forget with pushers (and real aircraft designers have done this too, or at least not made adequate provision for it    ) is that with no prop-wash running through them, the radiators run MUCH hotter when taxiing (i.e. when there's no airspeed either), to the point where they need an auxilliary fan to cool them. A whole variety of British pushers never saw the light of day precisely because of Rolls Royce's time/cost estimates for developing fan cooling systems.

I've always thought that a solution would be a suction fan in front of the prop, ducted to the radiators in front of it, sort of like a back-to-front FW-190A. You could probably arrange this with something like the Vampire.

[sequoiaranger]

Mebbe it's just the way the photo was taken, but....from my perspective the pusher-prop Vampire model's nose was BELOW the horizontal axis when on its landing gear.  According to the backstory, the rear landing gear needed to be raised in order for the props to clear the ground. Uh, OK, but, in order to FLY (airplanes are intended to FLY aren't they??) off the ground the leading edge of the wing has to be higher than the trailing edge, and thus the whole aircraft would have to be pointing slightly "up" in order to take off.  The whif pusher-prop Vampire sits on its landing gear nose DOWN, thus could never take off without ripping off the prop tips (same with landing). Compare to the pusher-prop Kyushu Shinden and its tall, spindly landing gear.  The jet-powered Vampire could sit low to the ground only BECAUSE it had no prop to plow the earth.

To be good, a whif has to have SOME semblance of reality. An airplane has to have a believable ability to FLY. Though I like the idea of a pusher Vampire, you can't just stick a prop on the back. Had the modeler borrowed the landing gear from a Shinden, or severely reduced the diameter of the contraprop so the plane sits "normally", it would have made the model at least believable.

[dragon]

Isn't that Tophe's avatar?

[The Rat]

I've often tinkered with this idea myself.

[AeroplaneDriver]

I've often tinkered with this idea myself.

Dammit Rat, I was trying to post a smart-arsed reply about tinkering with the idea of looking down 4 threads when this was moved....   

You're absolutely right though.  It's a great idea for a time when piston engines were at their peak and jets were in their infancy.

[John Howling Mouse]

To be good, a whif has to have SOME semblance of reality. An airplane has to have a believable ability to FLY. Though I like the idea of a pusher Vampire, you can't just stick a prop on the back. Had the modeler borrowed the landing gear from a Shinden, or severely reduced the diameter of the contraprop so the plane sits "normally", it would have made the model at least believable.

Meh, as said by others here: I simply substitute your reality for a more interesting one of my own choosing.

[sequoiaranger]

>Meh, as said by others here: I simply substitute your reality for a more interesting one of my own choosing.<

Amen to that! Sincerely.

However, when "your" pusher Vampire lifts its nose to take off down the runway, its pusher props will diagonal-stripe the runway like a manatee run over by a Florida ski boat; no extra charge for sparks.

[pyro-manic]

I was looking at the Revell Flitzer in my LHS the other day, and thinking about doing something very similar...

[Weaver]

More images and description available at this link: Lufthansa Do-335 P Pfeil "Manfred Von Richtofen"
Just found this, while looking for reviews of the Revell (ex Matchbox) He-70. Couldn't figure out why it had found this on an He-70 search, until I scrolled down......






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[GTX]

Another set of nice ones here:  http://modelingmadness.com/others/features/baker190x/baker190x.htm

Regards,

Greg

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Another interesting picture.  This time from a Modeling Madness kit review and build article of the 1/72nd scale Revell F-22 cRaptor by Carmel J. Attard showing of all things and AGM-88 HARM that has been modified ever so slightly by moving the front fins forward to a position just ahead of the forward suspension lug on the missile body.  It caught me as odd on the first glance and the closer examination confirmed it was not an AIM-120 AMRAAM which would be the normal menu item in that spot.  Guess that makes it a WHIF

[sequoiaranger]

While perusing the "Modeling Madness" site's contest entries and winners, I was drawn (no surprise here) to the "Warped" category. Most of the stuff is the "egg plane"-type stuff, but....

The following entries caught my eye for the whiffery quality we have come to find common here at this site:

[Taiidantomcat]

  very creative!