The Martin Mighty Midget

[Weaver]

I'd vaguely heard of this thing before, but Hushkit has put up some period brochures for it:

The Martin Mighty Midget close air support jet






Looks very like some late-war German projects, doesn't it?

Orignal post here: https://hushkit.net/2015/03/07/the-martin-mighty-midget-close-air-support-jet/

[Captain Canada]

Very cool ! The escape pod looks like a ship from some sci-fi show I used to watch. Looks easy enough to build

[Snowtrooper]

Why are the twin sideways-firing guns pointing upwards, Schräge Musik style? Was the intention to fly this thing upside down while strafing? Or to bank while circling the target as gunships would later do (but much more steeply - on the gunships the sideways-firing guns are still pointed at a downwards angle, not up)?

[RAFF-35]

That's so cool!! You're right, it does look very much like a Blohm & Voss creation. Doesn't stoke me as a close air support kind of platform though

[zenrat]

So after ejecting the escape capsule the pilot floats gently to earth in a head down position?
Not ideal but better than going down with ones plane.

I like it.  I think the sideways guns are drawn badly.  Maybe the idea is to circle the target while firing them.

[NARSES2]

I can see the B&V connection but it looks like someone has scaled down a Horsa glider and added jet engines and a T tail to me.

[The Rat]

I can see the B&V connection but it looks like someone has scaled down a Horsa glider and added jet engines and a T tail to me.

Yeah, that fuselage is just about pure Horsa.

[Rheged]

According to the data on the escape capsule, it seems to become a small armoured blockhouse on landing!

[kerick]

Put in a regular cockpit and guns that make sense and you might just have something!

[KJ_Lesnick]

Kerick is right

[Weaver]

I suspect the thinking was that a regular cockpit would present roughly twice the frontal area, thus requiring twice as much armour front and back. This is pretty small aircraft with early jet engines so weight saving was probably a big deal to them.

That nose ejection system might look cool, but remember that it has no rocket boost, so you have to be high enough for the parachute to open and slow you down for it to work. Not a good characteristic in a low-level close-support aircraft!

[Weaver]

There's a kit of it by Unicraft! (who else?)

http://fantastic-plastic.com/martin-mighty-midget---catalog.html


Secret Projects (who else?) have a thread about it with more information:

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,2419.0.html

There's a size comparison to a Gnat made in there, and also mention of the prone-pilot Meteor. That could be an interesting What If: take the prone pilot nose from the MPM Meteor kit and graft it onto a Gnat fuselage...

[kerick]

Reminds me of the runner up to the A-10, the A-9.

[RAFF-35]

Weaver, your British ground attack aircraft sounds like a fantastic idea  perhaps a jet provost might make a better airframe?

[Weaver]

Weaver, your British ground attack aircraft sounds like a fantastic idea  perhaps a jet provost might make a better airframe?

Or how about a surplus Vampire?