Boeing 737 AEW & C

[McColm]

It seems to me that the Boeing 737 would make an ideal AEW & C platform, using the E-3 rotodome instead of the Wedgetail.
I know that I managed to get my hands on a Revell 1/144 Boeing 737 and the P-8 conversion set, along with a Revell E-3A Sentry.
My thoughts were to swap the parts over.
I did look at buying the 1/144 Airbus A340 as a possible alternative to the E-3 Sentry but Revell has stopped production and prices are around the £40 mark for a secondhand kit. You can get the A380 for half price!

[Hobbes]

The 737 seems on the small side, which would limit equipment growth and the number of operators you can carry.

Revell made kits of the A300, A310 and A330, all of which are larger than the 737 and would be more suitable for the conversion. Some of them may have been used for real-world proposals, you'd have to check Chris Gibson's book Battle Flight.

[jcf]

Mmm, yeah the 737 AEW&C would make a good AEW&C, no kidding. 
BTW Wedgetail is the Oz name for their version of the aircraft not the
flipping radar. Anyhow the Northrop MESA Top Hat array is superior to the old
rotating dome of the E-3, and a 30' diameter rotating dome isn't the best fit for
the 737 airframe. For obvious reasons.


In case you're interested I spent a year commuting daily from Everett, WA down to BDS
in Kent, WA and back again (right through the kluge that is Greater Seattle area traffic)
doing electrical design on Wedgetail. So, I'm more than slightly familiar with the aircraft.

[AS.12]

The E-2's rotodome would be a better fit for the 737, it went on top of the P-3* and C-130 neatly.

It is 24ft in diameter instead of 30 and was also proposed for the Nimrod, fuselage 123 inches in width versus 148 for the 737.  Warning: bace for Teh Ugly:

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1986/1986%20-%201101.html


* Ironically Lockheed made a proposal for four P-3C AEW&Cs to the RAAF in 1983 for a package cost of $300 million. That was too pricey for the Ozzies who instead chose... nothing for the next two decades.

[zenrat]

Aussies.

Oz is a fantastic land run by a big headed tyrant and peopled with fantastic creatures.

[AS.12]

Ah, I made the same mistake as Dassault's staff! 

[McColm]

I have two publications by Chris Gibson; The Admiralty and AEW, and The Air Staff and AEW.
Along with 'Beyond the Horizon', the history of AEW & C aircraft by Ian Shaw with Sergio Santana.
I just thought as Boeing has the E-3 Sentry and E-767 the E-737 would be the next size in the series.
Likewise the C-97 would be an alternarive testbed to the Lockheed WV-3 
Another likely candidate is my whiff of the Avro Type 722 Atlantic airliner which is very similar to the Fat Vulcan. My proposal is to put the Grumman E-2 Hawkeye rotodome on the vertical tail fin.

[AS.12]

I vaguely recall that the original proposal for the C-130 AEW had the E-2 rotordome on the fin-top.  There might be a reference in one of those books.

[McColm]

There is, the Lockheed C-130AEW.
Using a NC-130H and Grumman Northrop E-2C radome with a raised stand. The aircraft was used during the flight testing of the E-2D back in October 2002.
Where as GEC-Marconi teamed up with Lockheed to offer a C-130AEW using the fore and aft radomes as fitted to the Nimrod AEW.3/
Another option was to fit the 'kettle drum'  retractable radome mounted to the tail ramp .
I put a AN/APS.20 radome under the the twin tail fins on my Lockheed
C-130 heliplane and the nose is from the Cammett resin BAe Nimrod AEW. 3 conversion set.

[kitnut617]

Another likely candidate is my whiff of the Avro Type 722 Atlantic airliner which is very similar to the Fat Vulcan.

It's nothing like a "fat" Vulcan

[jcf]

Aussies.

Oz is a fantastic land run by a big headed tyrant and peopled with fantastic creatures.

I stand by my usage. 

[McColm]

Another likely candidate is my whiff of the Avro Type 722 Atlantic airliner which is very similar to the Fat Vulcan.

It's nothing like a "fat" Vulcan

Mine is as I have used a Airfix BAe Nimrod stretched fuselage and Airfix Avro Vulcan wings ,tail cone plus vertical tail fin. It's sort of in the middle of the two. Plus the wings are on upside down on mine. It gives that squattish appearance.

[jcf]

The 737 seems on the small side, which would limit equipment growth and the number of operators you can carry.

Revell made kits of the A300, A310 and A330, all of which are larger than the 737 and would be more suitable for the conversion. Some of them may have been used for real-world proposals, you'd have to check Chris Gibson's book Battle Flight.

What was that you said? 

[McColm]

No doubt Kit will stretch the fuselage!

[PR19_Kit]

Isn't that what fuselages are for?