**FINISHED** X/JT-47 "Valon" NASA

[kerick]

There is always all those aggressor schemes out there. Check out the unit from Alaska.

[TheChronicOne]

Only problem is that isn't remotely what the project is...   

[TheChronicOne]

Doors, gear and wheels, and pilots are now painted. I'll throw a coat of clear on them then I'm at a stand still for another day or so when I can get to sanding on the aircraft itself. Glue is still slightly soft so I better wait instead of trying to force it to sand right now.  So far, no luck with the transfers but that's in part because I can't find things in my stash right now. I recently moved it all so it's in complete disarray. 

I guess that's it for today unless I feel like digging around in the stash any more. Probably just avoid that headache and just order in a sheet. To eBay! 

[DogfighterZen]

I like the color schemes and the name, although i was imagining that trainer aircraft would be called some word starting with a T, like Tailor or Trooper...
But i get it, Viper+Talon=Valon... 

[TheChronicOne]

Huh! I guess I never realized the AF protocol but I see it now... Trojan, Talon, Tweet,.... can't think of any more right now but I learned something new today. Hell, I'm going to brainstorm and maybe come up with something. T-16 Linoleum or something. 

EDIT:  LINOLEUM!? This is what happens when distracted... I was thinking about cleaning the floor and said "linoleum" and that doesn't even start with a T! 

[Tophe]

if I paint it and it looks stupid, I can go back and re-spray it all white

Ahem... the word "Stupid" maybe does not apply in the what-if universe! Weird is good, Crazy is even better! All positive when surprising and inadequate for realists...

Finally, I think I have a name. "Valon." I don't think it means anything

Good! Viper Talon = Valon!
In my French language, Vallon means small valley. I cannot explain how it is pronounced though, our "on" (and "en", "an", "in", "un", "ain") having no corresponding sound in English, sorry... Maybe ask Google Translate the sound of the French "vallon" (and "pain", "vendre") and you will hear it (them).

[TheChronicOne]

Right you are! "Stupid" isn't a good word for it.   


I took French in high school so I can grok the pronunciation! Kind of a nasally "ohn."  Like in "entendre" I suspect, which is a somewhat commonly known word used in English language. Probably going to change it from "Valon" to something else though in order to adhere to the USAF naming protocol. 

[Flyer]

How about Taipan?

[TheChronicOne]

Ohhh man, that is clever....  "T" -and- a snake.....  well played.    Not generic enough for USAF I'd wager; no Taipan over here. "Denied by the Patriotic Board of American Plane Names."     Bureaucrats, pffft.   

We'll come up with something. Hell on that note, I'm not even set on "T-16" either. That's just a placeholder. 

[Flyer]

Not so sure T names are mandatory, just googled USAF training aircraft and seen that the new T-7 (never heard about it before now myself) is named Red Hawk. It's to honour the Tuskegee airmen, but why not name it T-7 Tuskegee then... Anyway I didn't look any further than that but I know of Texan and T-bird to add to the one's you said.

[Flyer]

Oh yeah the BT-13 was called Valiant and the Stearman biplane was called Kaydet...

[DogfighterZen]

I don't know if the USAF has any kind of rule or protocol for the names but i figured they chose the names according to type because of the aircraft you've mentioned but i may have that impression because of the NATO names for Soviet aircraft. Correct me if i'm wrong but they assigned the western english names beginning with the first letter of the word that designated the type like Fishbed, Farmer, Faggot and so on, all being fighters.
I really don't care what you end up calling it, Brad, i just wanna see it built.

[TheChronicOne]

At this point I'm just curious about the naming routines of USAF.      This stuff is interesting! There definitely is a thing with "T" names... even if it were just for a period of time.  I also was thinking of other trainers and thought of the Mescalero but that one is a bit outside of the range of the other trainers but naturally there are more that fall outside the realm of the "T" universe. The Talon and Tweet were "trainer cousins," as it were, so it makes sense for those two to have similar names and "T" makes sense for "trainer." So that's a pretty cool example. Designations and all types of things changed over the years and even when they try to standardize everything, it still makes for confusion, so in the grand scheme of things there's no real answer, yet, if we focus on a specific time period there could well be. Like I said... fun to think about!

[Tophe]

The opposite of Valon would be Tiper or Talcon (or Fighting Talcon or Training Talcon)?

[Flyer]

 

Another one is the PT-19 Cornell