Refurbished Fighter Weapons

[Zombolt]

I was looking at my small stash of models and saw a P-40b. The Thought accrued when I saw my left over Apache parts, with eight unused Hellfire missiles.

What if we brought back older fighters as CAS for cheep air forces?
Well that's par for the course here, but what weapons could you fit on an older Airframe? Could I shove those 8 hellfires on a P-40? What Weapons can fit on older planes?

[Weaver]

Well physically it's no problem: a Hellfire weights about a hundred pounds and needs a launch rail, which is no big deal for a WWII fighter.

The tricky bit is controlling it. You'll need a fair bit of avionics, including a control panel in the cockpit and (I think) a MIL-STD 1553B ( or possibly higher) data bus to let the panel talk to the missile. Then there's the question of where the laser designation is coming from: Hellfire is a semi-active laser homer, so you'll either need somebody on the ground or in another plane to "spike" the target, or a designator on your plane, which means yet more black boxes, control panels etc... You might well find yourself running out of electrical capacity too, since WWII fighters didn't have to run much more than a radio and some lights.

Running with the idea though, the USAAF called one of their early Mustang version the "Apache", so how about getting an Allison-powered Mustang and fitting it with FFAR pods and Hellfires?, Then you could go on to stick FFARs and TOWs on a P-39, or put AT-2 Swatters and UV-57 pods on a certain Hawker biplane.......

[scooter]

The tricky bit is controlling it. You'll need a fair bit of avionics, including a control panel in the cockpit and (I think) a MIL-STD 1553B ( or possibly higher) data bus to let the panel talk to the missile. Then there's the question of where the laser designation is coming from: Hellfire is a semi-active laser homer, so you'll either need somebody on the ground...

That's where the TACP on the ground comes in handy.  They've all sorts of nifty targeting lasers to play with.

Running with the idea though, the USAAF called one of their early Mustang version the "Apache", so how about getting an Allison-powered Mustang and fitting it with FFAR pods and Hellfires?, Then you could go on to stick FFARs and TOWs on a P-39, or put AT-2 Swatters and UV-57 pods on a certain Hawker biplane.......

And that was the A-36 Apache dive bomber, that eventually became the Mustang.  And what's funny is I had the very same idea...except I mounted the FFAR pods on the underwing hardpoints of a Jug.  Unfortunately, it didn't survive the move from GFAFB back to New Jersey.

[Zombolt]

Think I still have a Rocket pod left from the RApacheF Build. But the Ideo also goes out to other weapons. Like a Cheep air force with planes carrying one Sidewinder/AAM Equivalent, and attacking en mass?

[jcf]

And that was the A-36 Apache dive bomber, that eventually became the Mustang. 

Nope, Apache was the name suggested by NAA for the P-51, the British name of Mustang won out.
The A-36 attack aircraft, originally to be named Invader BTW and never officially named Apache, was
developed from the Mustang, not t'other way round.

[MilitaryAircraft101]

Hmm, maybe similar mods to the Cavalier Mustang. Was wondering, why didn't WW2 fighters have swept wings? A question of feasibility or just hadn't been explored.

[PR19_Kit]

Was wondering, why didn't WW2 fighters have swept wings? A question of feasibility or just hadn't been explored.

No-one thought of it until later.............

That's in the same category as 'Why didn't the Wright Brothers build a double-deck, 800 passenger, four turbo-fan airliner instead of messing about with flimsy biplanes?' 

[andrewj]

Was wondering, why didn't WW2 fighters have swept wings? A question of feasibility or just hadn't been explored.

No-one thought of it until later.............

That's in the same category as 'Why didn't the Wright Brothers build a double-deck, 800 passenger, four turbo-fan airliner instead of messing about with flimsy biplanes?' 

Now , that I'd like to see, it would be some "Wright Flyer"

[deathjester]

Presumably still using wing-warping for control...!

[Weaver]

Hmm, maybe similar mods to the Cavalier Mustang. Was wondering, why didn't WW2 fighters have swept wings? A question of feasibility or just hadn't been explored.

It wasn't relevent to the sort of performance on offer: if you want to go at upto 400 mph, straight wings are best. Swept wings would just give you all their horrible aeroelasticity/pitch-up problems with no compensating advantage to make it worth while. This is why relatively slow aeroplanes still have straight wings to this day.

[MilitaryAircraft101]

Hmm, maybe similar mods to the Cavalier Mustang. Was wondering, why didn't WW2 fighters have swept wings? A question of feasibility or just hadn't been explored.

It wasn't relevent to the sort of performance on offer: if you want to go at upto 400 mph, straight wings are best. Swept wings would just give you all their horrible aeroelasticity/pitch-up problems with no compensating advantage to make it worth while. This is why relatively slow aeroplanes still have straight wings to this day.

That's what I was thinking, swept wings were better for high speed, so were implemented on jets, straight wings, more stable at low speed, for prop aircraft. Thanks mate.

[scooter]

Hmm, maybe similar mods to the Cavalier Mustang. Was wondering, why didn't WW2 fighters have swept wings? A question of feasibility or just hadn't been explored.

It wasn't relevent to the sort of performance on offer: if you want to go at upto 400 mph, straight wings are best. Swept wings would just give you all their horrible aeroelasticity/pitch-up problems with no compensating advantage to make it worth while. This is why relatively slow aeroplanes still have straight wings to this day.

That's what I was thinking, swept wings were better for high speed, so were implemented on jets, straight wings, more stable at low speed, for prop aircraft. Thanks mate.

Along with CAS aircraft like the A-10 and Su-25 Frogfoot.

[MilitaryAircraft101]

Yeah, slow stuff  Now we don't use the "classical" swept wings, as in the MiG-15, F-86, but a "fuller" wing which is still swept.

[Zombolt]

Had another Idea, I still have that unbuilt B-17 from my other two threads, how about making it into a poor man's Missile Bomber?? Replace the bomb bay with fuel and electronics, and hang one or two Anti ship missiles, and use a external mounted radar for guidance?

[scooter]

Had another Idea, I still have that unbuilt B-17 from my other two threads, how about making it into a poor man's Missile Bomber?? Replace the bomb bay with fuel and electronics, and hang one or two Anti ship missiles, and use a external mounted radar for guidance?

I did that once with the 72d Revell B-17.  Slapped a pair of external hardpoints and Harpoons on the outer wing panels and a laser pod inboard.  Still kept all the machine guns in place too.