WHIF's found in Magazines/books

[Weaver]

This month my son found another what-if plane in his cartoon magazine:

Reminds me a bit of the Avro Ashton.

[Tophe]

You are very right (thanks, Google Pictures confirmed me), while... I doubt that American cartoonists of nowadays know this British prototype of 70 years ago...

[Weaver]

Scanned this to help somebody out on Twitter, so I thought I'd post it here too.

Project for a parasol-wing, mach=4.5 fighter by the USAF's Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee.
Implicitly a live project when the book was published in 1983, but obviously came to nothing.
Published in Modern Air Combat (1983, reprint 1991) by Bill Gunston and Mike Spick.



Somebody else in the conversation posted links to two other interesting high-speed parasol-wing projects:

freepatentsonline.com/4598886.pdf
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19680028382.pdf

Twitter thread here: https://twitter.com/nyrath/status/1231014262841257984?s=20

[Captain Canada]

Very cool.

[tahsin]

That picture in the said book was almost enough to make me give up being a plane person... If that was the future there was no point in trying to become an aircraft engineer.

[tahsin]

Actually took up the book. Pages 10-11. Anyone calling himself a plane person should have it but for those who don't, here's what Gunston says:

"At first glance the idea seems ludicrous: unable to manoeuvre, vulnerable in the extreme, astronomically expensive. But dare one ignore it?"

Actually the very first and the last pictures of the book are the same, captioned "Even in an F-15 you dare not stop eyeballing the sky around you." Actually the Mike Spick section begins with almost the same shot, admonishing to check 6. The point? With all due reverence and respect, Bill Gunston would become somehow odd once every month. But instead of howling at the moon he would have it in print that "anti-gravity" was out there, kept secret for some nefarious aim by the Americans. While that USAF windtunnel is obviousy collaborating with the scam, that's nothing of the sort. The Secret Projects Forum has a certain amount of conceit against What-iffers, but maybe we could call on Overscan to say this is not a Slip Wing a la Hurricane style for P-75(?) . Which was a Republic MiG-21/Thunderchief mongrel with twin engines.

Also ignore the silly ideas. How are you going to control it, with Vulcan Mind Meld?  There's no Star Trek in 1962. Be simple, just drive two beams up from the bombbay of the '105F/G, hang two large tanks a la Lightning. (Yeees, that's a British invention!) Your loadout will be then, wingtip to wingtip, twin Sidewinder pylon, Standart ARM, 6 snakeyes(half with fuse extenders) Standart ARM, Shrike ARM. You can have a 3rd Standart under the fuselage, why do I care?

This is when the T-46 will tank and Republic/Fairchild will go down. They have added 3 or 4 different projects, a "kit-bash" I'll think you'll call it. There's no need for so many companies! Mach 4.5? Aren't those X-Wing engines? Lockmart would do Mach 45 with them... This is when America is doing the ATF! Why, yeeees, yeeees, America did the ATF.

The moral of the story? I don't what this Roper guy is trying to do. Everyone knows Lockmart will get the next fighter project, so integrated that the onboard pilot can watch Youtube and Netflix and have an ice cream while the AI downs 1000 Felons at once.

[Tophe]

In the new Disney magazine or my son is a weird airliner, with middle tailplanes like a Caravelle and jets like a 737:

The roundel is funny rich!

[Captain Canada]

That looks fast ! Cheers Tophe.

[martinbayer]

Gotta love that $ insignia, especially coming from a multi B$ corporation...

[NARSES2]

The January edition of SAM dropped through the letter box yesterday and there are 3 WIF builds in there, all 1/72. Fantastic Plastic's Vickers Armstrong 559 : Anigrand's XF-103 Thunderwarrior and XF-108 Rapier.

Nice builds 

[PR19_Kit]

The January edition of SAM dropped through the letter box yesterday and there are 3 WIF builds in there, all 1/72. Fantastic Plastic's Vickers Armstrong 559 : Anigrand's XF-103 Thunderwarrior and XF-108 Rapier.

.....and tomorrow the WORLD! 

[scooter]

The January edition of SAM dropped through the letter box yesterday and there are 3 WIF builds in there, all 1/72. Fantastic Plastic's Vickers Armstrong 559 : Anigrand's XF-103 Thunderwarrior and XF-108 Rapier.

.....and tomorrow the WORLD! 

*Cues up the Pinky and the Brain theme*

[kitbasher]

The January edition of SAM dropped through the letter box yesterday and there are 3 WIF builds in there, all 1/72. Fantastic Plastic's Vickers Armstrong 559 : Anigrand's XF-103 Thunderwarrior and XF-108 Rapier.

Nice builds 

Ah yes, the 559 that's produced by Special Hobby (according to the panel at the top of the article).  Same issue claims 35000 Grumman/General Motors Wildcats were built (actually 7885, so only 443% wrong!). 

[chrisonord]

I have  been tempted  with an xf-108 for some time  now, I  think  it would  suit  a 1950's  RAF  colour scheme.
Chris

[NARSES2]

The January edition of SAM dropped through the letter box yesterday and there are 3 WIF builds in there, all 1/72. Fantastic Plastic's Vickers Armstrong 559 : Anigrand's XF-103 Thunderwarrior and XF-108 Rapier.

.....and tomorrow the WORLD! 

Why wait ?