GCC (General Cosmic Company) Skydraggon, March 1977

[nönöbär]

GCC (General Cosmic Company) Skydraggon, March 1977

Background:

In June 1971, the STARDUST commanded by Major Perry Rhodan did the first landing on the Mun. There, an alien spaceship, the AETRON was discovered, manned by human like Arkoniden.
Together with the Arkoniden, Perry Rhodan returned to Earth, united humanity an lead the humans into space....

The story is history now and is described in the SF-series "Perry Rhodan" which is published weekly since 1961, approaching volume 2900 now. (www.perry-rhodan.net)

Shortly after his return to Earth, the General Cosmic Company was founded by Homer G. Adams to sell Arkon-Technology on earth to create the financial background for Perry Rhodans operations.
However, even if the GCC could access Arkon technology, it was looking for technological parters to combine human and alien technology to cut down investment costs. (This was never mentioned in the series, but it was always an open secret).

The Plane:

During the expedition to Venus in 1972, an old Arkon base was detected, build about 10000 years in the past. In it, a few single seat fighter crafts were found.
As those kind of vehicles could be build in larger number without taking too much resources (compared to space cruiser with 200m in diameter), it was decided to start a production line of single seat fighters back on earth.

The GCC searched for an industrial parter to build the fighter with, and finally came to an agreement with Saab from Sweden. Being a neutral country, it was a preferred parter.
Based on the Saab-35 "Draken", a new airframe was developed, the GCC Skydragon. Equipped with a single impulse engine, and two desintrgrator guns, it was heavily armed for its size.
Its operational radius were the inner planets of the Solar System, but soon, those kind of fighters were not only based on earth, but also on Venus, Mars and on board of bigger space ships.

The Skydraggon got famous during the first interstellar voyage to the Vega System in May 1975. Two Skydraggons were on board of the 60m sized GOOD HOPE and flew several operations against the Topside invasion forces in the Vega system.
However, both crafts were lost during this operation.

As technology advanced very fast in the few years after 1971, the Skydraggon was getting obsolete after a few years, but still over 500 of them were produced.
By 2017, all of them were taken out of active service and only a few survived in museums.

The model shows a Spacedragon stationed on Ceres in March 1977.






Together with another vehicle of this era, the first varinat of the flying tank "Shift"


The Model:

The Skydraggon was made based on a 1/72 scale Airfix Saab Draken kit. The outer wings were modified, the fin removed and the landing gear war rebuild without wheels.
The desintegrator guns were made from special Tamiy Q-tips 
Everything is painted with Revell Aqua Colour, the decals are taken form the spare parts box.

[Captain Canada]

Neat story and neat build ! Love the flying tank ! Looks like a refueller. Needs a nice moonscape dio base 

[PR19_Kit]

That looks REALLY good, and the colour scheme is pure 'sci-fi'. 

[kerick]

Nice work and great concept! I'll have to try this some time.

[Weaver]

Yeah I like the colour scheme too: there's something about silver and orange...

Nice work!

[Cobra]

Superb Build This Really Looks Cool,Well-Built,& Well Painted! Any Plans to a Gerry Anderson type Build? Keep up the Superb Work Dan

[zenrat]

Excellent.

[nönöbär]

Neat story and neat build ! Love the flying tank ! Looks like a refueller. Needs a nice moonscape dio base 

There are a few pic of the flying tank (which was build about 20 years ago) in its "natural" enviroment here:
http://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php/topic,35559.msg567551.html#msg567551


(The red stuff in the sand is paprika powder.....  )

[NARSES2]

I did wonder where you were going with it, now I understand and it all works  so well.

Excellent build 

[chrisonord]

Brilliant use of a Draken there 
Chris