U.S. Army Truck Launched Aircraft, 1980s/very early 90s

TheChronicOne · October 30, 2016, 12:46:06 PM

I know I'm not dreaming this up because it was all over the news here in Lawton/ Ft. Sill. The Army was testing some kind of small airplane/drone type thingy that was launched off the back of a truck. I seem to remember than they launched this thing then caught it down range in some net? This was done at the artillery base here (Ft. Sill) and it was in the 80's or early 90's.

Now, the thing that sticks out for me, was how similar this thing looked to an Me 163 Komet. I tried googling around a bit but can't find anything and I'm not even sure what search terms to use.

Does any of this sound familiar to anyone here?

jcf · October 30, 2016, 01:23:53 PM

Lockheed MQM-105 Aquila.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_MQM-105_Aquila

TheChronicOne · October 30, 2016, 01:35:57 PM

Fantastic!! Thanks.

That 86-87 test period must have been when they were here at the base and matches up perfectly with the time frame and etc.

In other news.. it's good to know my memory is holding up fairly well!

(Heck, I was only in kindergarten or first grade or so when I saw this stuff on the news... so not bad for a kid!)

kerick · October 30, 2016, 02:02:33 PM

Were you thinking of building one?
Doesn't look too hard.

TheChronicOne · October 30, 2016, 02:16:26 PM

Quote from: kerick on October 30, 2016, 02:02:33 PM
Were you thinking of building one?
Doesn't look too hard.

Well, something similar.... but mainly I just wanted to find some stuff on this to make sure I wasn't losing my mind!

Actually, truth be told, I have a 1/35 GMC 2.5 ton truck (WWII vintage) and a 1/72 Me 163S that I plan to turn into a drone... So, I got to thinking about that truck... why not turn the truck into a mobile drone launcher. I could build a catapult akin to the ones used on battleships and turn it all into some whiffery. Paint the truck all blue with the white lettering on the door, put some blue strobes on top, then make take the 163 and fill in the cockpit, slap some antenaes or something on it, paint it up orange or orange and bare metal and put some AF roundels on it. Maybe put some type of small ordinance on it if I made it into an actual working platform and have the whole thing be bare metal. The 163 would be half the size of the actual one in order to make it the proper "size"with truck.

Could be neat.

But yeah, thinking about all this reminded me about the thing they tested out here on post in the 80s and how similar it looked to a lil Komet.

Captain Canada · November 19, 2016, 06:49:28 AM

Cool. Love that army stuff. I have always wanted to try and build some varying scales of the old Flying Peanut

TheChronicOne · November 19, 2016, 08:38:50 AM

Nifty coincidence... last night I was surfin' the ol' net when I came across some neat Mustang stuff....

One of the three Cavalier Mustangs the Army order to be used as chase planes. This one was taken from USAF stock, the other two were taken from Bolivia or something and had vertical stabalizers a full 14 inches taller than stock. At one point they even loaned to the Marines who put 105mm recoiless rifles on the wing tips! (see below)

I found that the newest variant of the P51 was flying for the US military as late as 1984!!!

Not Army, but related; Also in 1984 the air force trialed done up Cavalier Mustangs, they had the radiator intake/Meredith contraptrion removed from the bottom, pylons and tip tanks added, etc. These are neat because... look...Military livery complete with low vis roundels yet with sexy civil air N numbers!!

But anyway...

Captain Canada · November 19, 2016, 08:50:53 AM

Very cool. In all my years of seeing those Mustangs, I hadn't realized until you had said so that the rad intake is removed !

TheChronicOne · November 19, 2016, 08:55:37 AM

Quote from: Captain Canada on November 19, 2016, 08:50:53 AM
Very cool. In all my years of seeing those Mustangs, I hadn't realized until you had said so that the rad intake is removed !

I had no idea ANY of this stuff existed!! I was having quite a lovely time last night looking at and reading up on all this stuff. Those Army Cavalier Mustang II's.... I HAVE to make one now. The livery is a lot like the AF trainer planes.

Anyway, here's a really good web page about it all. It's in Spanish but I had google translate it (option shows up with a right mouse click) and there are a lot of really really nice pictures!!

https://sobchak.wordpress.com/tag/p-51/

jcf · November 19, 2016, 09:52:38 AM

N48IPE has no radiator because it is a turboprop, the prototype of the Piper PA-48:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-48_Enforcer

The taller fins were a postwar mod, most Cavalier Mustangs received it as part of the rebuild process:
http://www.mustangsmustangs.us/thehangar/index.php?topic=328.0

TheChronicOne · November 19, 2016, 04:29:19 PM

Quote from: joncarrfarrelly on November 19, 2016, 09:52:38 AM
N48IPE has no radiator because it is a turboprop, the prototype of the Piper PA-48:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-48_Enforcer

The taller fins were a postwar mod, most Cavalier Mustangs received it as part of the rebuild process:
http://www.mustangsmustangs.us/thehangar/index.php?topic=328.0

Yeah pretty cool, right!

I want to build one of the ones loaned to the Marines... with the rifles on the wing tips. Pretty far out! Neat subject matter and I just love the livery all to pieces. . .