What If's in Fiction

[tigercat]

They're are countless What If's in fiction some of them delibarately so some down to poor research or sloppy writing.

I have just encountered on while reading Duncan HArding who shall we say was renowned for the quantity of his books.

A Do 17  ship launched biplane seaplane.

So what other What Ifs are there either created deliberately by the author or inadvertently.

[Hobbes]

There's loads of them. Military fiction that is set in the near future is full of whatifs.

- Tom Clancy: Red October (modified Typhoon),  Red Storm Rising (F-19)
- Dale Brown (modified B-52, Tristar satellite launcher, modified B-2, and loads more)
- Stephen Coonts (various aircraft)
- James Cobb (stealth DDG)
- James Bond (Q dept and supervillain weapons)

etc.

[kitnut617]

Just a thought!

Considering that fiction is the 'What-If' of the literary world, wouldn't a 'What-If' appearing in a 'What-If' book, actually be real.   

[Weaver]

Ian Serraillier's alternative universe spy book There's No Escape was a favorite of mine as a kid. Set in a 1940s-ish world, it features a modified "Barbarian" bomber, used to drop the agent. Looking back at it now for the first time in years, I've finally recognised what the artist (C.Walter Hodges) used for the tiny pen-and-ink drawing of the Barbarian: it's a Viscount with two engines removed and a glass nose!



Interestingly, and indicating an early preponderance for Whiffery, I had it christened in my memory as a "Bristol Barbarian", and was rather surpised to realise that "Bristol" doesn't appear anywhere in the text. I've been wondering how to model this: go with the Viscount and have to fix it's anachronistic features (like slim turboprop engine nacelles and a low wing with no bomb bay) or ignore the picture and re-invent the aircraft entirely...

There are couple more whiffs in the book: a small jeep called a "Wolf Cub" which looks a bit like a Willy's Jeep but with more curvey 1930's car features, and a helicopter which is very inconsistently illustrated, thus pretty much giving you licence to do what you want with it.

[Merv_P]

As Hobbes says, loads of examples. My favourite is the A-17 of Joe Poyer's "North Cape", which I read as a kid and again about five years ago.

The aircraft and its systems are lovingly detailed. The paperback version I had on both occasions rather lazily depicts the A-17 as a U-2, other versions at least try to get the sense of the configuration.

[Spey_Phantom]

from a certain point of view it looks more like a prop-powered Canberra 

[Weaver]

from a certain point of view it looks more like a prop-powered Canberra 

It crossed my mind, but it has to be bigger than that on two counts:

1. The aircraft is big enough to use for paradropping, and presumably they didn't use it purely for dropping single agents. The descriptions inside the aircraft, while not technically specific, nevertheless give the impression of an interior a bit like a DC-3, with standing room and the ability to walk around without clambering over wing spars and the like.

2. Silvania feels like the Austrian Alps, which implies quite a long flight.

Both of these factors lead you towards a "converted twin-engined bomber" that's more akin to a Wellington than a Do-17. before somebody says it though, the Wimpy's geodetic construction makes it a bit too distinctive to play anything else. I was thinking of something like a Bristol-ized B-25 or B-26, with Hercules/Centaurus engines and a British-style tail turret (all the other turrets being removed for the para-dropping role).

[Mr.Creak]

Tony Williams' The Foresight War.
It's full of whifs.
A re-do of WWII (if you haven't read it) after a guy from today goes back to pre-war Britain and gives them hints.
Chapter 1 available here:
http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/TFW%20Extract.htm

I recommend the book unreservedly.

[Weaver]

Yes I've read the Foresight War too, in fact Tony lives just up the road from me.

It's full of good ideas, some of which would be easier to model than others. His tanks, being essentially 1940s Merkavas, are well designed, but it's hard to see how you'd make them other than by complete scratchbuilding.

[Jschmus]

Also in James H. Cobb's Amanda Garrett books are the LAMPS IV helo developed from the RAH-66 Comanche and the "3 Little Pigs", littoral fighting craft developed from the LCAC.  He's also written a couple of shorts featuring what-ifs like the Shinseki armored fighting vehicle (a kind of Super Stryker) and an interceptor capable of taking out ballistic missiles in low Earth orbit.

[Weaver]

James Rouch's The Zone books mostly feature real 1980s hardware in a hot WWIII, but the "hero" vehicle in most of them is a British FV499 HAPC (Hover Armoured Personnel Carrier) called The Iron Cow:



From here: http://members.iinet.net.au/~avalon11/WW3THEZONE/THE%20ZONE%2001%20HARD%20TARGET.htm

Another one that I'd like to model one day. There isn't any other view of it though, so a lot of it would have to be speculative.

[jcf]

: go with the Viscount and have to fix it's anachronistic features (like slim turboprop engine nacelles and a low wing with no bomb bay) or ignore the picture and re-invent the aircraft entirely...

1/96 Frog Viscount with 1/72 Wellington wings.  

There are couple more whiffs in the book: a small jeep called a "Wolf Cub" which looks a bit like a Willy's Jeep but with more curvey 1930's car features,

So kinda like Bantam's original pilot model?

[PR19_Kit]

James Rouch's The Zone books mostly feature real 1980s hardware in a hot WWIII, but the "hero" vehicle in most of them is a British FV499 HAPC (Hover Armoured Personnel Carrier) called The Iron Cow:

From the descriptions of it in the various books in the series it's a bit like a mini-BH7 with a gun turret on the roof. Perhaps a scale-o-rama'd 1/144 Trumpter LCAC would make a good start? The LCAC itself has about the same footprint as a BH7 in reality.

[GTX]

One I always remember was The Ship with No Name by Christopher Nicole which featured Japanese pilots using Ju88s from the German carrier Graf Zeppelin to launch an attack on the US.  Kind of a Doolittle Raid in reverse.

[Rheged]

YE GODS!!   There are others in the multitude who  have There's No  Escape   and North Cape  on their reading lists! I thought  that I was the only one left  who had copies.  The Serrallier was read to a class of 10 year olds (of whom I was one) by my primary school  teacher in 1962.   He was an  Mustang  squadron leader in Italy in 1944, flying "Jovial Judge"     If I ever do a Mustang it will be his aircraft.

There is also the Rutland Reindeer,  see No Highway  by Neville Shute.