B737 relief transport

[sandiego89]

I was musing one night about what would happen if the world ever got serious about getting food and such delivered to the people who really need it in the parts of the world afflicted with famine or disaster. It occurred to me that the faithful B737 would be a great choice except for those FOD collectors hanging under the wings. Last thing a disaster relief agency needs is one of its aircraft with damaged engines sitting on some remote strip out of reach of the mechanics. If its not possible to get the engines any higher off the ground then one should get the wings higher in the air.

One way to increase engine ground clearance while maintaining the general layout and wing position would be to put the turbofans above the wing a la VFW 614: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VFW-Fokker_614

I've always had a soft spot for that design .

Martin

That is what I did for my ski-equipped 737.  1/144 scale.  Gets the engines away from the ice/FOD.  This was an early 737 with the smaller diameter engines, would like to do one with the big engines.

[kitnut617]

I was musing one night about what would happen if the world ever got serious about getting food and such delivered to the people who really need it in the parts of the world afflicted with famine or disaster. It occurred to me that the faithful B737 would be a great choice except for those FOD collectors hanging under the wings. Last thing a disaster relief agency needs is one of its aircraft with damaged engines sitting on some remote strip out of reach of the mechanics.

Up in the far north they use 737-200's to fly into gravel airstrips all the time, there's passenger and freight 737's doing it.  They have several adaptions to be able to do it, one is a special trailing mudguard behind the front wheels and another is a long pipe with it's front end turned down towards the ground, it's fitted right under the engine intakes.  This blasts air bled from the compressor stage onto the ground, firing any FOD away from the intake.  I found all this out after a trip up to a mine near where the Arctic Circle starts and we flew in on a so equipped 737.

[PR19_Kit]

There is, or was anyway, a 1/144 scale etched brass conversion for that rough field kit on the 737-200. I've got one somewhere, but I have NO idea where it is just now. 

[kerick]

The pipe to blast away debris looks easy to scratch while the mud guard looks a little more complicated. Does it fold up and fit into the nose gear bay when retracted?
I considered the engine above the wing set up also. I just had an itch to do a high wing 737.
Engine above the wing and blended to blow over the flaps to create a STOL version would be interesting. something like the YC-14. Clearly an aircraft that should have been.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Yc14-1_072.jpg
I'll have to search the decal bin to see what kind of civilian markings I might find. Something aftermarket shouldn't be too hard to find.
What about a forest service fire bomber working out of forward strips? Yellow or white with red markings?
Just off the top of my head, would it be possible to have a land based aircraft skim the water surface and fill tanks like an amphibian? I suppose if it were a good idea someone would be doing it.
I debated about cutting open the rear fuselage and adding a ramp door. Maybe next time. I did scribe a cargo door on the side but its hard to see in the crumby pics.
The over wing 737 with skis looks great. Lets see some more of the A310TP!

[sandiego89]

Does it fold up and fit into the nose gear bay when retracted?

Just off the top of my head, would it be possible to have a land based aircraft skim the water surface and fill tanks like an amphibian? I suppose if it were a good idea someone would be doing it.

The over wing 737 with skis looks great.

When retacted the nose gear deflector lays flat near the nose gear door, it does not fold into the wheel well.  So you can still see it, external.

It would be very difficult to have a normal land based aircraft scoop up water.  Amphibian firefighting aircraft land on the waters surface, lower scoops from their hull (or floats) and fill their tanks at high speed. This would be very dangerous for a land plane.  In WHIF world, perhaps a hyrdro-ski could be fitted allowing the aircraft to skim the surface and prevent full fuselage contact with the water. 

Glad you liked my 737 on skis, I really did it as a test build, but never got around to a more refined and better painted version. I think it would look much better with the big engines.       

[kerick]

I'm getting the itch to do the high wing, YC-14 version, perhaps as a military transport. The engine nacelles would be scratch built as I see it right now. Maybe something will show up in the future that could be kitbashed.
I used the Hasegawa 1/200th scale kit for this project and will use it again for any future 737 builds. Great fit and nice engraving.
I saw some pics of the gravel kit a little bit ago. I see how it works now. I would hate to be around when an aircraft takes off or lands on a gravel runway. There must be rocks flying in every direction. Getting dusted in Iraq from a C-5 making a turn on a taxiway was bad enough!

[ChernayaAkula]

The high-wing 737 looks pretty nifty! 

Engines above the wings also look strangely fitting! 

[kitnut617]

Lets see some more of the A310TP!

Will do, I'm trying to figure out how to fill a great big hole where the original wings fit in.  The moulding in this area is deliberately left very roughly finished and had bumps protruding.  It's supposed to show what has to be cut out, I was thinking of plastering the insides with some Milliput and then sanding the outside as smooth as I can get it.  Problem with that I don't have enough Milliput to do that.  I've got a Plan 'B' ---- the fuselage is 76mm in diameter, I'm going to bend some 1mm styrene card so I get 76mm OD which will make the job much easier.  I'm going to see if I can rent a heat-gun to heat up the plastic and then wrap it around a length of 2 1/2" Nominal pipe (which happens to have an OD of 2 7/8").  If a heat-gun isn't too expensive, I might buy one because I can see this helping out in a number of other situations.

[kerick]

Can you borrow a hair dryer first? Some of those get pretty hot and I'm afraid a real heat gun will be too much. Plus they might be cheaper if you decide to buy one. Is there a Ms kitnut you can swipe one from for an hour or so? Be careful, women hate it when you take their power tools out to the garage.
I left the original wing attachment point on place and attached the landing gear sponsons to it. I cut out a part of the top of the fuselage then blended in the wing with Aves.
PS, wear gloves with the heat gun/hair dryer, trust me.

[kitnut617]

I've tried the hair dryer route already kerick, it doesn't get the styrene hot enough.  It has to get almost as hot as if you were vacuforming.  I've also tried boiling it in the microwave which seems to have a different result to boiling on the stove top, but the experiment wasn't as successful as I first thought it was (did this on my Avro Atlantic build).

Your warnings though are noted   

On the A310TP, I'll be using the main gear sponsons from the A400M kit, which is where the wing comes from.  I had all these parts left over because the A400M I will build next will be a stretched version which needed two A400's to build and I didn't want too big a pile of bits left over.  Where the sponsons attach on the A400, the fuselage is round so they would attach to the A310 fuselage quite well if I get the bottom sorted out.

[PR19_Kit]

How about gluing sheet styrene'shelves' inside the edges of the hole and planking from one to the other? Then some filler and 3-4 days of PSR should do it OK.

I've used that technique before and it's worked OK, but not on such a massive fuselage as a 1/72 A310 I must admit.

[kitnut617]

That was Plan 'C' Kit   

[Captain Canada]

I never know about the blast pipe ! That's awesome. I love watching ( and hearing ) the old-school turbojet 737s blast off from Edmonton, especially on those super cold days.

[kerick]

Super dense arctic air would help provide max thrust and noise!
How about a layer of Aves or Milliput placed over the PVC pipe as a mold? I had a bunch left over and I pressed it out into a thin sheet. It set up pretty hard.

[kerick]

Some pics that are actually in focus.
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt322/kerick214/IMG_07551_zps490043ca.jpg
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt322/kerick214/IMG_07541_zps713dfd9b.jpg
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt322/kerick214/IMG_07531_zps83068101.jpg
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt322/kerick214/IMG_07511_zps20b11023.jpg
I drew with a pencil around the cargo door I added.