Wild Weasel TSR2

[Hobbes]

Don't! I tried using spray cans in my shed once and the paint got everywhere. It was a pain to clean up; you'd have to move or cover up everything.

In a pinch, set up a cardboard box outside with a sheet of plastic on top to keep it from getting soaked. Spray in that.

Better yet; build a paint booth. You'll need a pretty big fan to cope with spray cans though. My paint booth has a bathroom fan which is sufficient for my airbrush, but if I use a spray can the overspray comes billowing out the front of the booth.

[darthspud]

Had a break in the monsoon yesterday here in our part of the South West, managed to get a good two coats of matt black on to the beast.
Going to brave the tropical rainstorm and retrieve the digital camera from my glove box and post some pics over the next day or three.

[darthspud]

Right,
Shrike missiles on inboard weapons pylon
AIM9B, HARM and a.n.other anti-radiation missile loaded to a triple rack on outer weapon pylon.
might load extra sidewinder b's to inlet weapons pylons as there is plenty of ground clearance, not sure if they'd be clear of the wing mounted weapons though.

Going to be black undersides and seac topsides with red lettering.
Really must figure picture posting.

[eatthis]

The only problem with sticking any kind of sensor on the tail of the TSR is that it has an all moving tailfin.  This presents problems with directional reception.  i.e. if the aircraft is flying in a straight line and it picks up a signal dead astern, alls good.  However if it is turning and it picks up a signal dead astern, that signal is actually not dead astern...it's astern of the current position of the tailfin.  So, without complicated electronics, the signal would be shown in the wrong place on the display.
This is a problem I am working on with mine as I want to fit period RWR, which was normally fitted on the fin top....

stick it under the engines between/behind the airbrakes  

ps i used half of a 1/32 f4 drop tank underneath a 1/48 tsr2 and it was a perfect fit

[PR19_Kit]

The only problem with sticking any kind of sensor on the tail of the TSR is that it has an all moving tailfin.  This presents problems with directional reception.  i.e. if the aircraft is flying in a straight line and it picks up a signal dead astern, alls good.  However if it is turning and it picks up a signal dead astern, that signal is actually not dead astern...it's astern of the current position of the tailfin.  So, without complicated electronics, the signal would be shown in the wrong place on the display.
This is a problem I am working on with mine as I want to fit period RWR, which was normally fitted on the fin top....

If Tornadoes and F-111s can have rotating weapon pylons I don't see why you can't have an anti-rotating fin tip with the ECM aerial fitted into it. It wouldn't even need complicated hydraulics etc. it could work via a rod and bell-crank linkage up the centre of the fin.

[rickshaw]

The only problem with sticking any kind of sensor on the tail of the TSR is that it has an all moving tailfin.  This presents problems with directional reception.  i.e. if the aircraft is flying in a straight line and it picks up a signal dead astern, alls good.  However if it is turning and it picks up a signal dead astern, that signal is actually not dead astern...it's astern of the current position of the tailfin.  So, without complicated electronics, the signal would be shown in the wrong place on the display.
This is a problem I am working on with mine as I want to fit period RWR, which was normally fitted on the fin top....

If Tornadoes and F-111s can have rotating weapon pylons I don't see why you can't have an anti-rotating fin tip with the ECM aerial fitted into it. It wouldn't even need complicated hydraulics etc. it could work via a rod and bell-crank linkage up the centre of the fin.

Makes it rather complex though, doesn't it when a simple fixed antenna would do just as well.   Only problem is, would one under the rear fuselage be as effective?

[eatthis]

The only problem with sticking any kind of sensor on the tail of the TSR is that it has an all moving tailfin.  This presents problems with directional reception.  i.e. if the aircraft is flying in a straight line and it picks up a signal dead astern, alls good.  However if it is turning and it picks up a signal dead astern, that signal is actually not dead astern...it's astern of the current position of the tailfin.  So, without complicated electronics, the signal would be shown in the wrong place on the display.
This is a problem I am working on with mine as I want to fit period RWR, which was normally fitted on the fin top....

If Tornadoes and F-111s can have rotating weapon pylons I don't see why you can't have an anti-rotating fin tip with the ECM aerial fitted into it. It wouldn't even need complicated hydraulics etc. it could work via a rod and bell-crank linkage up the centre of the fin.

Makes it rather complex though, doesn't it when a simple fixed antenna would do just as well.   Only problem is, would one under the rear fuselage be as effective?

why not? its looking down and to the front/rear and it would be unobstructed on the bottom of the fuselage

[Pellson]

...the main under carriage will be a straight conversion/slice off the wheel hub and remove the trailling wheel and put it inboard of the other wheel as i'm sure it would have developed that way once it went operational.

This just caught my eye, and actually - I think that you are wrong in your assumption on u/c development. Look at the Avro CF-105 Arrow - it has a similar main tandem u/c arrangement. As the CF-105 and the TSR is somewhat children of the same strategic reality and period, the resemblance might not be entirely coincidental.



Also, a few fighters actually making it into service used similar arrangements. See the Swedish Viggen for instance



..and the russian MiG-31. Note however that the russkis actually chose to put the boggie diagonally rather than inline. Unusual!



Should you definitely want to reconfigure the u/c anyway, may I urge you to have a look on one of the closest local competitors. Tandem boggie - yes, but also twin wheels on each axle to provide low enough ground pressure to use chemically hardened farmers fields as runways.

[PR19_Kit]

Makes it rather complex though, doesn't it when a simple fixed antenna would do just as well.   Only problem is, would one under the rear fuselage be as effective?

I don't think so.

The reason why they put the CEM on top of the fin is because it has the maximum possible field of 'view', both fore and aft and UP and down. If it's below the rear fuselage it can't see 'up' much because the engines are in the way and that's where the threat would be coming from mostly OK, from a fin top postion it can't see down and foreward too well but there's a big radat set in the nose to deal with that threat. The fact that fin is swept back (usually) gives the ECM aerial some look-down capability.

[The Wooksta!]

Except, as I've been saying ad bleedin nauseum, there is no actual need to put the ECM in the fin.  There's plate aerials on the wing and fuselage for that and the fit *was* planned and designed by by BAC.  It was never seen because we never got a production/in service standard aircraft.

[Devilfish]

Plus, I think we're getting confused between ECM and RWR.  ECM isn't there to detect radar, it's there to jam it.  As the sort of radar and ECM or wild weasel aircraft would be looking at finding and jamming would be ground based SAM sites, the positioning would want to be somewhere where the main structure of the fuselage wouldn't cause an obstruction.  Again, we have a confusion about roles.  Wild Weasel is a low level, anti-SAM attack mission, whereas ECM aircraft such as the EF-111 and EA-6, which are the ones fitted with tail top ECM, tend to fly higher level to blanket jam all search and aquisition radars in the area to allow following strike aircraft free roam.

So, you need to decide which it is to be.  And, as Wooksta said, the fit was planned from the start anyway....

[PR19_Kit]

Erm, are we talking Real World or Whiff World here? THAT'S where the confusion is.

There doesn't have to be any logical reason to put any aerial, be it RWR, ECM or whatever anywhere on the airframe other than somewhere it would look cool.........

[Captain Canada]

Wow....looks pretty interesting ! Look forward to seeing some more.

[darthspud]

sorry, house move has taken over life. Whiffing on hold/packed until move wrinkles out.

[eatthis]

righto good luck