Airbus WHIF Ideas

[Archibald]

The cargo variant of the 747 has a moveable (hinged ?) nose similar to the An-124 or C-5, not the A380 (IMHK) which has a lateral cargo door.

[Hobbes]

Still, the 747 cargo floor is several meters off the ground, unlike the An-124 which has a ramp on both ends. This is a huge advantage in tactical situations. Also, the An-124 has its entire cargo volume in one big space, unlike the 747 and A-380 which have a floor almost halfway up the fuselage (and the A-380 has a second floor as well).  

[Mossie]

No reason why you couldn't scribe a line on the nose of the A380 to suggest a cargo variant, maybe even a rear cargo ramp.  Retractable nose wheel to lower the nose for loading?

[Archibald]

Mossire, that's the difference between the 747 and A380 : the former has a cockpit on top of the fuselage (thus allowing its nose to hung) the latter has its cockpit a mid-level.
But why not a Conroy / Guppy A380 similar to what they did to the Britannia ?

First step, a moveable tail (to the side).

Second step, a ballooned fuselage
(similar to what Boeing did to its 747 "dreamlifter").

A 6*GE-90 A380 (or brand new aircraft!) would be nice, too. Such power (300 tons of thrust   ) would allowed huge cargo loads, to say the least!

[B777LR]

I think this A-380 AF1 proposal has more to do with the contest having to be "fair". Sorta the same as the KC-330 vs KC-767, C-130J vs A-400M vs C-17, etc.

The USAF should be buying An-124 instead.

Launch customer for the An-124-300 perhaps

First step, a moveable tail (to the side).

Not so practical, since the dreamlifter needs ground equipment to support the tail when it moves

on another note, If the Americans wouldn't buy a French airliner, i guess they wouldn't buy an Anglo/Italian Merlin Helicopter either for Marine 1

On hte otherhand, britain will buy a ton of F-35s (france, germany and spain wont )

[Spey_Phantom]

BUMP:

i just found a Revell Airbus A340-300 in my stash storageboxes in the attic.
i was originally planning to convert it into an Airbus A330,
but since i bought a new A330, i have no need for it but want to build it as a whiff anyway.

i know the most obvious choices would de a tanker (being the same size as the A330) or AWACS, but i would like to build something else with it.

i was thinking of a proposed freighter version Airbus was offering as a conversion for secondhand A340's after the production shut down.
but im not sure what markings, however, ive been playing with the idea of a PLAAF Freighter  

according to what i found, an A340-LCF (Low Cost Freighter) would be able to transport about 60 tons of freight.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/low-cost-a340-freighter-scheme-seeks-launch-customer-370156/
http://www.lcfconversions.com/a340.html




however, there is also the Super Beluga plan that never was built  
from what ive seen and heared, the A300 Beluga is a B*tch to control, perhaps thats why the project never seen the light of day.

[kitnut617]

I'm in the process of building this:



It's an A310 with an A400M wing.

I've got another A310 which I'm converting into this, a BAe 844 FASS:



I'm going to use the cockpit area from the A400M for this project and then I'm going to build a stretched A400M using the left-over parts from the A400 I've use for these two project and add them to the second A400M I have.

These are 1/72 scale BTW -----

[PR19_Kit]

The A340-300ST looks eminently modellable with the aid of an A340 and a couple of Beluga kits. The MEGA one would be very difficult to model though, but it would be seriously impressive!

[DarrenP]

always wondered if the RAF should have looked at the possibilities of the "Rivet Joint" ELINT fit going into the A330? or an A330 sentry replacement for the French/UK AWACS fleet.
But would have been nice to see the A310-MRTT in UK colours instead of the delays and PFI mess of the Airtanker deal.

[pyro-manic]

Cost. Of course it could be done (or better yet, Nimrod R.1's "Helix" systems!) but there's no money to pay for it. The Sentries were modernised fairly recently in line with US standards IIRC. Not sure about the French E-3s.

[marko dash]

has anybody ever given the A380 the guppy treatment? 

[PR19_Kit]

has anybody ever given the A380 the guppy treatment? 

Not quite but I got close with my 'A390' some years back.

It's a stretched, de-snooted Beluga (or rather two of them) with A340 wings, 4 x A330 engines, a stretched 747 fin and a DC10 tailplane.

[Spey_Phantom]

the Belgian Air Force's new Airbus A321 was revealed today.
the grey color scheme looks similar to that of the RAF's Voyager and BAe146 fleet, but i realy hate the tail design.
a low-vis defence logo and a full-color Belgian flag? what were they thinking.
a angled Belgian tricolor fin-flash would have been great, but this? 

would have looked good if it was a refueling-tanker though 

[PR19_Kit]

Why does it have an IRISH civvie registration???

[major]

Why does it have an IRISH civvie registration???

Apparently, a former turkish, ONUR AIR, airliner. Must be a temp reg. No sign of that reg no. listed on the Irish aircraft register though.
Must have been in storage here, before being flown out to the midlands!
And to be operated by Portuguese airline HiFly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi_Fly_(airline)
The line between reality and WHIF is getting blurred, or is it me?
Cheers... Ray