What's on the workbench!

[McColm]

Even before he gained fame in the 1930s,James Stewart was fascinated by aviation. He became a pilot in 1935.
Entered the war as a Private and received his wings in 1942. He quickly became a flight instructor on B-17s as no commanding officer wanted to risk a high profile entertainer getting hurt or killed on their watch. With the help of a friend he was transferred to the 703rd Bomb Squardon equipped with B-24s part of the 445th Bomb Group.
Jimmy flew 20 missions in Liberators. He reached the rank of full Colonel in the 2nd Bomb Wing.
He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in the Air Force Reserve by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1959.
He flew B-36s, B-47s and B-52s during periods of Reserve duty.
On February 20th 1966 Brig Gen Stewart was listed as an extra pilot onboard a B-52F, its mission was to bomb a suspected Viet Cong stronghold and bivouac area north-west of Saigon.
The rest of this mission can be found in Aeroplane March 2015 edition.

[Captain Canada]

Interesting stuff. I used to buy both Aeroplane and Flypast every month. I miss all the great stories in there !

[McColm]

Got an idea for a theme, aircraft associated with actors or surnames.
The Gladiator-Russell Crow
Connie Francis- Lockheed Constellation
Tom Cruise- F-14 Top Gun

[PR19_Kit]

James Stewart - B-36 and B-47 

[zenrat]

Lupe Velez - Supermarine Spitfire

[McColm]

Helicopters,
I was down at Blackbushe Airfield and saw a civvie CH-53 come into land. This gave me an idea to use airline decals on future CH-53 builds, air ambulance and water bomber versions. Even the Super Sea Stallion could lose It's military look, a few more window added to the fuselage.
I did have a go at stretching the fuselage and found this worked best either side of the engines. One of my conversions was adding the engines to the Rotodyne and Sky Crane with Rotodyne tail.

Time keeps slipping into the future, I've got a few weeks leave but no Whiffing as yet. Trying to find new accommodation is my main priority. Ideas still pop into my head.
Off to visit the Fire Power exhibition at Woolwich Arsenal today, then pound the high street taking down details of rooms available.
Next week I'll be busy restoring a bureau for a neighbor.

[McColm]

I went to see The Royal Artillery Museum, nearest station Woolwich Arsenal mainline or the DLR. I pass this everyday on the way to work and thought I'd take a look.
Don't be put off by the building work going on due to the Cross Rail Project or Berkeley Homes as they have bought the entire site .
The museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am until 5pm admission £5.50 adults and children £2.50.There's plenty of places to eat and to take in the views, although you can't climb or sit in any of the exhibits, two hours goes by very quickly.
The main building houses modern and antique cannons, there's lots of Real World Whiffs. I was amazed that all of them. Not being a tank fan or big guns. I always thought some tracked vehicle with a long barrel/gun fitted to a turret was classed as a Tank. And that Self Propelled Guns the turret didn't move, loaded from the rear and dug in. Howitzers no turrets, outside seating, portable and very large.
Green seems to be the colour of the day, although I was surprised to find some of the artillery vehicles fitted with RR Merlin engines, as most use a diesel engine.
There's a few non artillery pieces such as the armoured personnel carriers, drones, and riot proof vehicles.
Its not only aircraft that millions of tax payers money gets spent on only to have the project cancelled. The British, Germans and Italians did the same with their own improved version of the 109 and 110 gun.
The Germans provided the Leopard chassis, the Italians the barrel and all the  British had to do was design the turret. The Germans wanted the loading system to be fully automatic but in practice the gases filled the turret.
There's some footage on YouTube and photos by harry4438 which lasts 12.48 minutes. Covers everything in this article, which is worth a look. I know I'll be using this as reference with my Whiffs.
Unfortunately the collection will be split up and the Arsenal turned into new homes, which is a shame.

[NARSES2]

Yup it's an interesting museum.

My fav's were the 50/60's projects that never saw service life particularly the automatic mobile AA Gun that could fire it's full magazine in about 1 min and then the operator just had time to grab a cuppa before the bomb dropped !

[McColm]

Didn't see any museum guides of the exhibits of the Real World Whiffs. There's a couple of builds I'd love to kitbash.

[McColm]

Having read the articles on the Bartini VVA-14 both on this site and Model Aircraft February 2015 issue. I thought hang on the Revell 1/144 model of the Lockheed Sea Shadow is almost the same, why not kitbash it into a seaplane?
Yes it would require wings, a tail plane, engines (turbofans/turboprops) and wheels/undercarriage.
I had previously built a stealth hovercraft and had some pieces left over.

Might even use parts from the VVA-14 on this build as there's a drawing of a nuclear powered seaplane on page 97 in Convair Advanced Designs of a 500,000-pound aircraft labeled as an alternative configuration. Having a straight wing (looks like a Lockheed P-3 Orion, to me.)Twin tail and extended fuselage.
The VVA-14 would change its wings and the pair of jet engines. May need to add a new cockpit or forward fuselage section.

Ideas are flooding my brain, a delta wings on the Sea Shadow, deeper cargo hold with loading ramps or doors at either end. Or bomber.

[Captain Canada]

Sea Stallion idea sounds pretty cool

[McColm]

Thanks, should be ready in time for the Telford show.

[McColm]

Come mid March I shall be Whiffing again, deciding what kit I should build first is a real puzzler. Should stick to the 1/72 Sea Hurricane, still in its box. Perhaps get some floats, or work on an engine conversion. Perhaps both. Haven't given up on a two seater version.

The Mach2 Valiant did look good with the wings from the Airfix BAe Nimrod. So the next project will be using the Airfix kit and swapping over the wings and using the FlightPath RB-47H conversion kit.
The Nimrod with Vulcan wings works, this time I'll keep the Vulcan's engines and upgrade the exhaust pipes.
Wings from the Caravelle could work on the remaining parts of the Vulcan.
Depends on this years budget.

With MG cars being 90 years old, I've got a few vehicles that I'd like to rebadge or kitbash.

[McColm]

V/STOL Airliners.
Yes there have been helicopters, Rotodyne and tilt-wing experimental aircraft, but nothing as yet in service.
I had an idea to fit tilting wings on a C-130 or C-160 not so long a go, on the Hiller format as a Whiff.
Even a civvie decal V-22 Osprey would look good.
Now that's an idea worth Whiffing! I'm sure I've seen decals for helicopters on S & M models website.

[PR19_Kit]

I'm sure I've seen decals for helicopters on S & M models website.

They do civvie decals for  the S-61, Wessex, Whirlwind and Dauphine. I think that Whirlybirds do some too, to go along with their S-61L conversion kit.

I like this Rotodyne type airliner in the first pic on this page

http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?208233-Where-can-i-find-the-download-Avro-Rotodyne

Hm, I've seen that before in the FS world but seems to defy aerodynamic laws.

It's got two largish turbofans, one on each wing tip, which supposedly supply just compressor bleed air to the rotor tip nozzles to power the rotor. The turbofans need to supply enough bleed air to run the rotor fast enough to lift the whole shebang off the ground vertically, which will take quite some poke.

So how come the aircraft doesn't taxi straight into the terminal at a fast lick when it spools up the rotor? The turbofans will be running at full throttle and unlike the original 'dyne, which had variable pitch props, much of the thrust will still be pointed rearwards! 

They'd need to invent variable pitch fan blades first, not to mention having the hot flow diverted via thrust reversers at the same time.