Twin-Whirlwind & Catalina…

[Tophe]

I may try someday to draw a twin-Bearcat

And here is the final Double-Bircat drawing I made for my uncle's son Jacques, half-brother of mine.

I remember my late uncle explaining his Bircat adventure: he had volunteered for the Indochine (French VietNam) war in the 1950s, to serve Jesus-Christ and fight the God-less Chinese communists embodying Satan evil; then, dropping bombs on villages, murdering maybe dozens of old ones and new born to kill one hidden terrorist, he wondered if he actually was serving Jesus-Christ... During a dive-bombing, his lungs almost exploded, and he survived in hospital, then back in France, he married his nurse and got 6 children.
He told me this uncomfortable story years later. He said the most pleasant aircraft memory he kept was training in a Spitfire, and he offered me a great Spitfire 1/32 kit...

[nev]

Thats a wonderful painting Tophe  

You have some real talent (I'm sure resident super-artist JHM will agree)    

[Gary]

Awwww rats!

Now I gotta go out and buy two Bearcats!!! :dum:  :dum:

I equally enjoyed the story too my friend. Kinda neat how romance can blossom out of something so destructive. Perhaps it is when so many are dying that we feel the most alive. Sort of like a flower growing up through a crack in the ashphalt.

[Tophe]

I equally enjoyed the story too my friend. Kinda neat how romance can blossom out of something so destructive. Perhaps it is when so many are dying that we feel the most alive. Sort of like a flower growing up through a crack in the ashphalt.

Pretty words, dear poet. You made me almost cry...

Thats a wonderful painting Tophe 
You have some real talent 

Thanks a lot, dear Nev... But I am far below modellers that do much better here in creation, according to me. My going back in actual modelism is scheduled for Summer 2005, my moving to a new home (and opening old boxes) being delayed again. I hope I will in be in time for the contest...

[Tophe]

(from another topic) Thanks to Madoc... :

the "Indy" model show.  I believe that to be the most recent Indianapolois Model Show (IPMS?) and I came across this Me 463 Thunderkomet

this 463 is a nice addition to the Me 462 double-262. I will think it over, you make me dream pleasantly...

And the result is... the Zwilling Thunderkomet 463Z. Thanks.

[Tophe]

Thanks to Chris (I mean Narses2, not myself) for directing me to the Henschel P.75 canard pusher, different from the XP-55 as having fins and rudders on the fuselage, rather than on the wings.
I will not spend 4 hours drawing this P.75 for my collection, but I can easily draw a XP-55 in this way separating better tail and wing. And that brought to life the P-55A & P-55Z, approved version (in my dreams) of the XP-55 & XP-55Z...
Thanks Chris!

[Tophe]

Zwilling Thunderkomet 463Z. Thanks.

Some may raise an objection: why are you doubling planes, you stupid dreamer, there MUST be a reason for the mission! Well, there are, or at least: what if?
Take the Me 163 Komet, using an unknown rocket that may be in a jam and that is lacking range badly. The twin-propeller Me 463 Thunderkomet version would have range but not much speed... So the best would be one propeller + one rocket. Though the fuselage is too small, a big nose would be bad for the view forward, so the best is a port propeller with its engine, a starboard cockpit with the rocket aft (Me 163P). As 2 fuselages bring more drag than one, a second rocket is installed on the propeller-fuselage, aft. Logical, almost...

[Tophe]

The Me 662 was (in my nap dream...) a 6-seat Me 262 with both a radar nose and an observer nose (I don't like Nazi guns nor bombing), with a piston-engine (central, well balanced) for long-range cruise before the dash at high speed over dangerous areas.

[Tophe]

What if Linzi and Allan marry and have Siamese twin-babies?

(Family name: Tank, Health-system-code: Ta-483Z, First names: TurboJet & TurboProp)

[Tophe]

And the 1945-designed BearJet, both "last piston-engined fighter" and "first jet fighter" here...

[Tophe]

What if the Go 244 was not the best cargo that could be designed? Yes, the twin-boom layout did provide a good access to the cargo hold, but the tailplane was preventing a full access. Obviously, a T-tail would have improved (Go 244T).
To ease lateral access, the Go 344 would have used raising up booms, with hung T-tail, but the design was refused by chief engineer Herr Howling Mause...
Then the Go 444 was proposed, by myself in 1944 (I was a student aged Minus 19), for full access from the rear: this seemed very useful, to load a sailboat, puting down the mast at the very last time, with the prow already inside – as a reward, I received no order nor congratulations but pleasant psychotropic injections.  

[Tophe]

Thanks to Aircav's link http://www.fredsboringpictures.com/images/...ds%20Arrive.htm, here is the final Mitchell: B-25Z (Z meaning Zwin, like in Zwin-brothers). 2 noses to paint: 4 sides meaning 4 pin-up girls...

[Tophe]

Thanks to dear Zuijd99 , here are Japanese twins    from  http://www.warbirds.jp/hayabusa/
The Shinden plastic model is a true what-if speculative object (which scale? is the car behind a 1/1 or 1/35?), while the Twin-Raiden & Twin-I16 seem to be Photoshop fakes. Great !
Thanks Tom !

[Tophe]

Improving the Fw189 (here the radial 189E) for better observation: move the tailplane disturbing rear view, slim the booms disturbing lateral view below, into Fw 189T... This has not been done, and I am rather glad the Nazi did not have the best planes...

[Tophe]

into Fw 189T...

With separate tails, the tailplanes seemed so far ... Maybe this is good for control , but this is not elegant for model shelves , so this leaded to the 'improved' Fw-189T-2 & 3 .