Transavia Yalga Night Stalker I

[comrade harps]

Transavia Yalga Night Stalker I
a/c 372, 1st Air Commando Wing, Burmese Air Force
Loi Mwe, Burma, dry season 1965



The Transavia Yalga series of Griffon-powered fighter-bombers began life as a product of the Department of Aircraft Production (DAP) – later the Government Aircraft Factory (GAF). Designed to meet the same RAAF requirement as the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation's CA-15, the DAP Yalga (an Aboriginal word for a barbed spearhead) was superior in most aspects and was victorious in a fly-off. The Yalga owed much to DAP's experience with building and supporting Hurricanes, Beauforts and Beaufighters for the RAAF throughout the second world war. Although the RAAF was flying Meteor F.3 jet fighters by mid-1945, an initial production run of 200 Yalgas was followed by contracts covering a further 150 that were built through to 1948.




By the mid-1950s the Yalga had seen action in Korea, Malaya and Indochina with the RAAF and surplus examples had been exported to Burma and Thailand. Those who flew it praised the Yalga for its performance, range, ease of maintenance and heavy ordnance load. To maintain those still in service GAF subcontracted support contracts to Transavia, a private company owned by the New South Wales-based Transfield Engineering. In 1958 GAF sold all Yalga rights to Transavia, which set about devising updates and marketing new versions to meet the growing demand for counter-insurgency operations. Transavia maintained Yalga production through a process of rebuilds from 1960 through to 1969, developing and selling a variety of versions including the night fighting Night Stalker I (single-seat) and Night Stalker II (a two-seater). The Night Stalker featured wing-tip fuel tanks, with a small radar in the nose of the starboard tank.  Night Stalkers were sold to Burma, Malaysia and Thailand, with other rebuilt Yalga versions also going to Burma. The RAAF also acquired a pair of Night Stalker IIs for chase plane duties at Woomera. Single and 2 seat civilian versions of the Yalga were also produced by Transavia.





The details of the 1st Air Commando Wing's activities are still sketchy, but is known that they were active against the Mao Tse Tung Trail, which brought personnel and supplies from China south through the border areas of Burma, Laos, Thailand and Malaysia. Flying with airborne scouts in Cessna O-1 Bird Dogs, the Burmese Night Stalkers flew trail interdiction and also mounted several cross-border attacks into Laos and Thailand targeting Maoist guerillas. They remained in service until 1974, when the last was retired in favour of North American OV-10C Broncos.




The Yalga Night Stalker I depicted here was photographed armed and camouflaged for a night attack mission against Communist insurgent forces. It carries a pair of Mk.82FE bombs, two BLU-1B napalm tanks and four wing-mounted AN/M3 20mm cannon. Of interest is the large dust filter mounted ahead of the ventral air intake, which was deemed necessary during the dry season when operating from unpaved airfields.

[The Rat]

I would NOT want to go against one of those! 

[Captain Canada]

That's awesome ! Love the camo and colours. Tip tanks always get me as well. Great stuff !

[NARSES2]

Looks good 

[PR19_Kit]

It looks to have its roots in an MB5 kit perhaps, has it, or is it something totally different?

It certainly looks very good. 

[comrade harps]

It looks to have its roots in an MB5 kit perhaps, has it, or is it something totally different?

It certainly looks very good. 

It's the MB.5 that Zenrat passed up at Metro Hobbies.

[Sport21ing]

that was fast 0_0

[DogfighterZen]

Looks very good indeed, like that camo a lot!

[CammNut]

Nice. We need one now, instead of all these anemic ag-attackers and strike-trainers

[comrade harps]

that was fast 0_0

Actually,  no. I began this before the Mitchell but found that I didn't have the underwing pylons to finish it, so got started on the Mitchell. They were finished over the same weekend. It probably took longer than I usually take.

[rickshaw]

Nice!   

[TheChronicOne]

Nicely done!

[zenrat]

The camo is fabulous.  That and the tip tanks certainly improves (IMO anyway) the look of the thing.
Good job.

[Old Wombat]

Funky!

[comrade harps]

Funky!

I was thinking of the word rakish, but funky will do.

The MB.5 (with added tiptanks) is natural for a turboprop conversion. I forgot to write about the Yalga TP prototype in my background material.

There may have also been a Zwilling-style Twin Yalga proposed for long-range escort work.

And a small number of PR Yalgas with really long wings.