Argentine Navy Skyray

[PR19_Kit]

Nice bird 
Lieutenant Commander Lionel Messi 

Hotte

Most of my aircrew are soccer players from the relevant nation. 

Which is why I don't get the joke, but I LOVE the model and the backstory. 

[Weaver]

I did think about popping on some Sparrows as AIM-7Ds, but the Falcon is compact and looked neater. I think where the Falcon gets a bad name, from what I've read, is with the IR versions; they took too long to cool and there wasn't enough coolant. Anyway, it might be a case where the Americans were offloading their AIM-4Fs to export customers. To put a positive spin on it, the Falcon was by comparison a mature technology and possibly more reliable. In the story, Falcons do appear to be doing the trick.

Yeah that was mostly a problem with AIM-4Ds on Phantoms in Vietnam: they took a ton of button pushes to make live, then something like 20 seconds to cool, and once they'd been cooled they only stayed that way for a limited time, so if you didn't fire in that 'window', you were left with a perfectly serviceable utterly useless 'warm' missile that couldn't see past it's own nose. Of course, 20 seconds might as well be 20 minutes in the middle of a dogfight...

AIM-4 A/B/Cs were pretty unreliable even when shooting at bombers, but the AIM-4E/Fs were the improved versions for the F-106, so presumably they were better in that regard. For a small plane shooting at big bombers and big, straight-line missiles, like the Skyray vs Badger/Kennel situation, they're probably not a bad choice. Switzerland and Sweden had alternative choices, but they both seemed to think that Falcon variants were worth having.

[NARSES2]

I really like the Skyray and you've done a great job with it, truly suits that colour scheme 

Lieutenant Commander Lionel Messi 

Stopping off in Manchester by any chance ? 

[Snowtrooper]

One more problem with Falcon was the contact fuze as opposed to a proximity fuze. Contact fuze was fine against bombers, not so good in a dogfight against MiG-17's.

Regarding the success (or lack thereof) of exports, the Swiss HM-58 and HM-55 were US produced AIM-26B and AIM-4C respectively. Canada, Greece, Turkey, Japan, and Iran used straight-up AIM-4D (for a while at least).

The Swedish variants are a different tale altogether, however. Rb 28 was originally based on the AIM-4C body with the seeker head from AIM-4G (so already better than any of the early variants), but with gradual upgrades the Swedes ended up practically rebuilding the missiles from inside out until only the aerodynamic shape remained, complete with proximity fuze and limited all-aspect capability (so basically what the XAIM-4H would have been, except that in its final form the Rb 28 was even superior to that). The SARH variant Rb 27 was also heavily modified from the AIM-26B baseline-

[comrade harps]

One more problem with Falcon was the contact fuze as opposed to a proximity fuze. Contact fuze was fine against bombers, not so good in a dogfight against MiG-17's.

Regarding the success (or lack thereof) of exports, the Swiss HM-58 and HM-55 were US produced AIM-26B and AIM-4C respectively. Canada, Greece, Turkey, Japan, and Iran used straight-up AIM-4D (for a while at least).

The Swedish variants are a different tale altogether, however. Rb 28 was originally based on the AIM-4C body with the seeker head from AIM-4G (so already better than any of the early variants), but with gradual upgrades the Swedes ended up practically rebuilding the missiles from inside out until only the aerodynamic shape remained, complete with proximity fuze and limited all-aspect capability (so basically what the XAIM-4H would have been, except that in its final form the Rb 28 was even superior to that). The SARH variant Rb 27 was also heavily modified from the AIM-26B baseline-

That's OK then, because the Argentine Skyrays aren't getting into dogfights with Kennels and Kippers. They manoeuvre worse than bombers.

Also, the story is set in my whif world of constant combat between 1950 and 1980, so I would expect rapid upgrades being produced on the basis of actual combat experience. I would expect a proximity fuse being installed into the Falcon by 1960.

[comrade harps]

Nice bird 
Lieutenant Commander Lionel Messi 

Hotte

Most of my aircrew are soccer players from the relevant nation. 

Which is why I don't get the joke, but I LOVE the model and the backstory. 

The funny thing is this: l can't stand soccer. I wouldn't get the joke, either.

[Glenn Gilbertson]

That looks really good - I like the colour scheme; an interesting backstory as well.