? on what may be a silly ?

[batmancustoms]

Has anyone here converted a modern airliner to a bomber?  Was thinking like post Apocalypse type deal where they converter 747 or dc10?


Thanks guys

John

[B777LR]

The Russians have Tu-134s converted into bombers. They are used to train Backfire pilots.

[batmancustoms]

thats cool diddnt know that.  Thats another kit I wish I had. Love those Russian Bombers.

[batmancustoms]

i wonder realistically how easy it would be to do in real life?

[Silver Fox]

Fairly simple modification really...

Most large Maritime Patrol aircraft have their roots in civilian airliners. They all have sensor suites, weapons bays and various other military equipment fits. Expanding the weapons bay while taking out much of the sensor suite is simple.

The USAF studied just such a program at various times as cruise missile carriers or bombers for low threat areas. 

[batmancustoms]

very cool!

hmm , ideas

[beowulf]

well...............the Comet became the Nimrod  


and if you reverse engineer it the Lancaster became the Lancastrian 

[Daryl J.]

737---->P-8 Poseidon   
Would that be a 'bomber' even if not technically considered that?

Somehow it seems as though there was some discussion as to using the DC-10 as a cruise missile launcher in the late 1970's or early 1980's.    Others know more.

(bourbon)
Daryl J.

[Captain Canada]

A380...you can imagine how much ordnance an a/c that size could carry ! I imagine you'd need all sorts of gear to shift it to keep the c/g, but that's all part of how cool it would be !

[Silver Fox]

Coot > May
Comet > Nimrod
Electra > Orion
B737 > Posiedon

The 4 major large MP types... all based on civvie airliners. Historically there are others:

Ju 52/3m became a bomber, Brittainia became the Argus...

Putting in fore and aft bombays would largely address the issue of CG shift while also dealing with how to simplify the delivery system. The result wouldn't be as efficient a design as a purpose built type... but doable.

A large business jet used as a tactical bomber type using PGMs might be a better fit. Imagine a Challenger Global Express dropping JDAM or small diameter bombs from around 50,000 feet.

[B777LR]

i wonder realistically how easy it would be to do in real life?

In the case of the Russian Tu-134 bombers, they fitted fixed bomb racks (Tu-22 type) under the fuselage, and the sharp nose of a Tu-22. I think it has some of the Tu-22 systems as well.

[pyro-manic]

A Comet variant was proposed as a V-bomber, and there were bomber/missile carrier versions of the Vickers VC-10.

[Green Dragon]

There's a DC-9 Bomber profile on Glanini's profile thread too (plus a hell of a lot of other great profiles!).

Paul Harrison

[Mossie]

Tupolev's proposal (they built the Blackjack, but inital design was done by Myasischev) for the Tu-160 was largely based on the Tu-144 supersonic airliner.  The Tu-230 & Tu-360 proposals from the eighties seem to have borrowed from the Tu-144's design too.
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,26.msg30380/highlight,blackjack.html#msg30380
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,28.0/highlight,blackjack.html

Staying with SST's, there may have been a military proposal for Concorde.  Several members have built their own Bombcordes (just enter 'Bombcorde into the Search function & it'll bring up several).
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1460.0/highlight,bombcorde.html

[puddingwrestler]

A lot of soviet equipment went either way - bombers converted to airliners mostly, but it might have gone the other way round at times. I know all soviet airliners have glazed noses so they can be quickly converted for military use (but I can't remember exactl what they are intended to convert to, might just be transport)
Also, a lot of ww2 Luftwaffe bomber equipment was originally built as a bomber, but disguised as an airliner so the luftwaffe could be built in secret...