Trident K2

[JayBee]

Of course what has been said here is all light hearted humour.
The sad fact is that the true information is still covered by the Official Secrets Act and as a signatory of said act I am not permitted to tell.
Her Majesties Government can get a bit stroppy about things like that.
The unwelcome visit from a couple of "Snowdrops" (ie RAF Military Police) is also to be avoided unless you like a situation in which humour has been killed mercilessly.

[PR19_Kit]

The unwelcome visit from a couple of "Snowdrops" (ie RAF Military Police) is also to be avoided unless you like a situation in which humour has been killed mercilessly.

They'd have to get through my unobtanium re-enforced front door first............... 

[Captain Canada]

That is looking so good ! I could take it either way, with the tip tanks or the extended wings. Don't tell Kit I said that 

[PR19_Kit]

That is looking so good ! I could take it either way, with the tip tanks or the extended wings. Don't tell Kit I said that 

Earplugs are in.

What did you say?

[JayBee]

After the Glasgow show I got around to fitting the u/c legs and doors. The model sat supported for a couple of days while they set hard and I got on with painting the wheels.
Then it was time to fit the wheels and first the model got to stand on its own legs at last.

FECKING He11 !
( My Grandmother was Irish. )

What had gone wrong was that I had not checked that the u/c legs were sitting at the same length before they were allowed to set.

This photo shows the result, check the height of the wingtips above the ground.





This photo shows the reason.





You can see that one of the u/c legs is longer than the other.

The answer I decided on was to use a small drill in my Dremel power tool to re-shape the holes in the undercarriage, so that the wheel assembly's could be glued in to a position that would allow the wings to be level.

These photos show the idea.









Of course things did not work out as easy as they should have as I broke off one of the bottom parts of the u/c legs while doing this.

Glue it back on, and after it had set, three coats of plastic slurry painted on to strengthen it.

......and that is where it is at the moment. More to follow soon.

[PR19_Kit]

Hmm, that rings bells. 

I did a Channel Airways Trident 2E-140 some while back and had exactly the same problem. Maybe it's endemic to the Airfix Gripper? Hardly unusual for that vintage of Airfix kits.

I can't remember how I fixed mine, but was probably more on the lines of '....cut off the long leg and shorten it...' 

[NARSES2]

Not tried using "plastic slurry" to strengthen repaired items. Interesting. Cheers Jim 

[JayBee]

Well it is holding up at the moment. It is a technique that I had never thought of before so it will be interesting to see how well it works.

Jim

[JayBee]

Getting there, slowly.
Hopefully finished for this weekend, SMW.
The painting has been a battle.

[Captain Canada]

Oh yeah ! Glad she's coming together. Looks great in camo like that !

[The Rat]

Not even finished and it's already knocked my socks off! 

[JayBee]

Finished after approximately 15 years.
Completed approximately 20 hours before the great trek south to SMW.

Ladies, Gentlemen, and Whatiffers, I present to you for your delight and delectation..........

the Trident K2.


When the RAF was looking for a fast tanker aircraft, to suitably service their newer jet fighters, but also able to fly slower for the transport types, they looked to current designs in production rather than using modified older designs as they had previously.
They chose the DeHavilland/Hawker Siddley Trident as it had a high cruising speed, and was still in production.

The first two were manufacturer's aerodynamic test examples and were called Trident Test Tankers, these were fitted with refuelling pods but did not have the tankage or systems to actually transfer fuel. They were used to see if the fitting of refuelling pods would affect the basic handling of the aircraft, and for dry refuelling trial purposes.
One other change that was incorporated at this time was the return to the nose u/c being on the centre line of the a/c and not offset to the side. This latter feature not being required as the Military version would not have the Autoland capability.

After testing, a number of changes were made to bring the aircraft up to military specifications these were known as Trident K1.
Only one squadron was equipped with these and they were used for extensive military testing.

One problem was very obvious from the start.
The Trident, even in it's civilian role, where it had earned the nickname of "Ground Gripper" was badly underpowered.
The Trident K1, even with the uprated Speys could not get airborne with a significant load of fuel for transferring. This was especially apparent in hot and high operations.

Another point was that the relatively narrow wingspan of the Trident meant that with the refuelling pods mounted in the preferred location there would be problems with refuelling two fighters at the same time.

Something had to be done.

Thus was born the Trident K2. This was re-engined with RR Conways which also solved a logistics problem with the RAFs recently acquired Boeing 707 R1, which had the same engines.
It gave the aircraft considerably more power/thrust than before and solved the underpowered problem.
It was also found that in operations, once in normal flight, the number two engine (the middle one) could be shut down.

The positioning of the refuelling pods was solved by modifying the wing structure so that the pods could be mounted further out . This was achieved by extending the wings somewhat.

The K2 went on to equip all the RAFs tanker squadrons and remained in service into the 21st century.
During it's service it wore many colour schemes.
The example shown here is in the early camouflage scheme and in the markings of 112 sqdn, who having been stood down as a fighter squadron in May 1957 were promptly reinstated as a tanker squadron.

[Knightflyer]

Very VERY nice 

[Martin H]

I like it. 

Its good to see 112 retaining the sharks mouth as a tanker unit  

[PR19_Kit]

OUTSTANDING Jim. 

That's awesome, especially after so long. Love the scheme, and the sharkmouth as OGL has mentioned, and the refuelling pods being integral with the extended wings. 

Also the side note about the '707 R1's, which I suppose you'll be building soon, or at least sometime in the next 15 years....