Avro Shackleton ideas

[McColm]

  With Revell and Airfix releasing the MR.2 and AEW.2 kits , the modeller has the chance to build the complete range . Starting with the MR.1 if you want to use the AlleyCat T.4 conversion set and using the Revell/Frog MR.3 in 1/72 scale.
There are kits in 1/144 and vacform kits in 1/72 & 1/48.
Unlike the Lancaster the Shackleton had a limited time as a test aircraft.
A twin engined Shackleton can be built either by just using the two inner engines or replacing the Rolls-Royce Griffons with the Allison T64 turboprops or compound turbo engines from the B-29 or Lockheed Constellation.
I did try and use the Napier Elands from the Airfix Rotodyne kit but theses didn't look right.
Then there's the nose. I have on several occasions flattened the Observation / Gunners hump, which looks similar to the B-24 Liberator.
I'm in the process of adding a pair of floats and I have dry tested a  twin bubble canopy on the nose. So the pilot would sit above the guns with the weapons officer behind. In the empty space where the cockpit would have been occupied the radome could be fitted.
The Shackleton works well with twin booms twin fins.
With the Grumman E-1B radome or E-2 Hawkeye rotodome.
Even works with jet engines.
A Avro York version is possible as well with the Fire Shack as another variant.
There is scope to build your own Shackleton.

[McColm]

This is purely a whiff not intended to be a real world idea, although I would be stunned if someone produced artwork that the idea was proposed.
It's to use the Rotodyne layout with the Shackleton MR.2.
It would be a simple build as most of the parts on the Shackleton are very similar to those on the Rotodyne.
The Shackleton wings could be cut down to make them into stubs, an extra fin for the tail and the rotor stack.
I think that I have a Revell Rotodyne in the stash somewhere, or failing that there are plenty of helicopter kits that will do.
It could have been an alternative to the Gannet AEW replacement or if the weapons bay doors are opened and ordnance loaded an attack aircraft.

[McColm]

The Avro Shackleton twin engined float plane aka Maverick.
This started life as a 1/72 Revell Avro Shackleton MR.3.
I started using the Revell AEW interior parts but some of them don't fit, so I changed to the Airfix Shackleton when fitting the two inner engines.
A pair of vacform floats and the clear nose from the AlleyCat T4 conversion set have been glued into place.
Instead of using the MR.1 radome the AEW.2 radome has moved from the top of the fuselage to under the chin. The MAD boom from the Airfix HS/BAe Nimrod had also been glued on to the rear of the Maverick.
The right side wingtip fuel tank from the Heller/Airfix Lockheed Constellation Super G now has the searchlight from the Airfix HS/BAe Nimrod added to it. The left handside hasn't.
The propellers are from the Hasegawa Lockheed P-3 Orion.
On the centreline I have glued a turbojet from a 1/72 B-66 to provide extra power on take off.

[Caveman]

I reckon a double mamba version would be cool

[McColm]

I reckon a double mamba version would be cool

Just the engines in the nose , like the Gannet?

[Caveman]

No in the wing engine nacelles. Probably get away with just 2 though.

[McColm]

QuickBoost do the exhaust pipes for the Mamba engines.

[Snowtrooper]

Shackleton gunship, in the style of the AC-47/119/130 family? Shack's MTOW of 40 tons puts it between 119 (30 tons) and 130 (70 tons) and it was already optimized for loitering at low altitude.

[McColm]

Shackleton gunship, in the style of the AC-47/119/130 family? Shack's MTOW of 40 tons puts it between 119 (30 tons) and 130 (70 tons) and it was already optimized for loitering at low altitude.

The Gunship idea would work well with the Turbo Shack in USAF South Asia camouflage or South Africa Air Force.

[McColm]

The carrier Shack to be flown by the USNavy from an aircraft carrier.
If they flew B-26s from aircraft carriers during WWII, then a Shackleton should in theory work,  just like the Neptunes

[McColm]

I was experimenting with moving the wing to the shoulder position but the depth of the fuselage posed a problem whether to lengthen the main landing gear otherwise the bomb bay doors wouldn't open. Unless this is deleted and the nose revised, similar layout to that of the Avro York.
Alternatively a biplane layout with kidney gun turrets, front, rear and upper guns.

[PR19_Kit]

The carrier Shack to be flown by the USNavy from an aircraft carrier.
If they flew B-26s from aircraft carriers during WWII, then a Shackleton should in theory work,  just like the Neptunes

They were B-25s, and they only took-off, and never had to land on the carrier.

[kitnut617]

The carrier Shack to be flown by the USNavy from an aircraft carrier.
If they flew B-26s from aircraft carriers during WWII, then a Shackleton should in theory work,  just like the Neptunes

They were B-25s, and they only took-off, and never had to land on the carrier.

A C-130 landed on USS Forrestal during some tests  ---- you'd need a very big carrier to land a Shackleton and Britain has only just got two now so back when the Shackleton was in service, wasn't going to happen was it ---

[McColm]

Back in the late 50's the Royal Navy was promised two new super aircraft carriers.
I don't know what size they were going to be but the Admiralty was considering using the Andover for a carrier AEW aircraft.

[Rheged]

Back in the late 50's the Royal Navy was promised two new super aircraft carriers.
I don't know what size they were going to be but the Admiralty was considering using the Andover for a carrier AEW aircraft.

CVA-01  was Length: 925 ft (282 m)  Beam: 184 ft (56 m)    More data here:-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CVA-01

I have heard that a Shackleton MR3 caused a degree of nausea on a USN carrier when it made a very low pass to drop off some spares by parachute.  The deck crew are supposed to have panicked, thinking that the "Great contra-rotating Nissen hut"   actually planned to land on!