Real World Aircraft that have raided the spare parts bin

[McColm]

Hi Guys,
Aircraft can take between 18 months and ten years to build,, from design to flying prototype. Sometimes to speed up the process other aircraft parts are used from their spares bin or off the shelf.
Three aircraft spring to mind:

Rockwell XFV-12
Although this never flew under it's own power, spare parts were used from;
Douglas A-4 Skyhawk Nose
McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom Intakes

Grumman X-29
Northrop F-5A Freedom Fighter, forward fuselage & nose landing gear
Control surface actuators & main landing gear F-16

Northrop/McDonnell Douglas YF-23
F-15 nose wheel
F/A-18 main landing gear parts
Forward cockpit components F-15E

Are there anymore examples?

[zebedee]

The Armstrong Whitworth Argosy...

Engines and cowlings from the Viscount, wing from the Avro Shackleton (in the type 100 at least...) and tail booms based allegedly on the fuselage of the Meteor...

A definite bitsa if ever there was one...

Zeb

[TomZ]

Fisher P-75 Eagle:
the outer wing panels from the North American P-51 Mustang
the tail assembly from the Douglas A-24 (SBD)
the undercarriage from the Vought F4U Corsair

Junkers Ju-287 V-1
the fuselage of an He 177 A-5
the tail of a Ju 388
the main undercarriage from a Ju 352
nosewheels from B-24 Liberators

TomZ

[sandiego89]

Have Blue stealth demonstrator: T-2 engines, F-5 landing gear.

Tacit blue borrowed some parts as well. 

[maxmwill]

You forgot the classic spare parts bird, the Fisher (as in "Body by Fisher", the logo GM has for its autos) XP75 Eagle, which had the outer wing panels of the P51, the tail assembly of the SBD, the undercarriage of the F4U, and the general arrangement of the P39.

[maxmwill]

Sorry Tom, ya beat me to it(was having problems posting the above reply).

[maxmwill]

Speaking of spare parts birds, I just got done looking at what's new in Unicraft, and there might be whif conversion of a Ju87 to take a BMW 801 engine, which has me to thinking now, about one of the nacelles on a Do217E with a Ju87, just to see how it might look.

I'm curious now, and have the parts to spare.

[MaxHeadroom]

Airbus A400M...
First planning and founding a company in 1982. First take-off of the prototype 2008.
"Aircraft can take between 18 months and ten years to build, from design to flying prototype..."... NUTS! That makes TWENTYSIX years!  

Norbert

[McColm]

The YF-23 was a lot quicker than that, under two years to build and test fly.

[Hobbes]

The BAe EAP borrowed a Tornado rear fuselage and engines.

[PR19_Kit]

Airbus A400M...
First planning and founding a company in 1982. First take-off of the prototype 2008.
"Aircraft can take between 18 months and ten years to build, from design to flying prototype..."... NUTS! That makes TWENTYSIX years!  

I don't think Airbus were thinking of building military transports when they first started up......

Following that logic you could say that Boeing took 41 years from its incorporation to flying its first jetliner.

[Librarian]

Didn't the Viking pinch A-10 engines and A-7 landing gear/bays?

[kerick]

A-10 and Viking had TF-34 engines but in totally different nacelles. Not sure about the main gear.

[Hobbes]

Airbus A400M...
First planning and founding a company in 1982. First take-off of the prototype 2008.
"Aircraft can take between 18 months and ten years to build, from design to flying prototype..."... NUTS! That makes TWENTYSIX years!  

I don't think Airbus were thinking of building military transports when they first started up......

I wondered about that too, but he's right:

The project began as the Future International Military Airlifter (FIMA) group, set up in 1982 by Aérospatiale, British Aerospace (BAe), Lockheed, and Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) to develop a replacement for the C-130 Hercules and Transall C-160.

(from Wikipedia)

[rickshaw]

I believe the Rockwell-MBB X-31 utilised parts from the F-5 as well.