Douglas's SR-71 Rival

[Leading Observer]

Some progress:

[Leading Observer]

Wings are on. These will be skinned with a sheet of 0.2mm plasticard. The tail fillet has also been added - this will also be skinned over to make it more rigid.

[chrisonord]

Looking good 

[Leading Observer]

Final configuration. Next its off to the paintshop

[zenrat]

Looking good.

[NARSES2]

You'll need a licence for that, you could do someone serious mischief with that nose.

[PR19_Kit]

Very handy at shows though, if there are too many finger-pokers there. 

I used to show a RW SR-71 which had a hypodermic needle as a nose probe, that was just as useful in such situations. 

[Old Wombat]

 

[TheChronicOne]

Ooooh yeah, me likey.

[Tophe]

good!

[Leading Observer]

Douglas's SR-71 Rival
It is not widely known that the Douglas Aircraft Company tendered for the CIA/USAF Strategic Reconnaissance aircraft contract, and built and flew a competitor to Lockheed's A-12/SR-71, and unfortunately very little information is available about this aircraft.
Douglas based the airframe was on their experimental X-3 Stiletto, enlarged to accommodate 2x J38[JT11D-20A] engines (as used on the SR-71), but with a T-tail and longer wings to allow more efficient cruise at high altitude. These glider style wings also gave the aircraft a bigger range than the SR-71, although its top speed of Mach 2.5 was less than its competitor.
The CIA/USAF contract was awarded to Lockheed, but having devoted considerable time and money to the project, Douglas were loath to simply give up on it, as the prototypes had more than met the criteria originally set for the contract [in fact Douglas always suspected that there was a "Black Hole" in Lockheed's costs for their tender, which led to the contract being awarded to Lockheed, but were unable to prove this].
But Douglas still had valuable contacts inside the U.S. Navy and utilised these to generate interest from the Navy for their aircraft, pointing out that the Navy would be reliant on the Air Force for the kind of long range reconnaissance the SR-71 would provide. Douglas's aircraft would give the Navy their own, independent, Long Range Reconnaissance Aircraft.
There is nothing like inter-service rivalry to spark interest, and as a result, after serious negotiation, Douglas were given a contract to build 12 aircraft [ 2- pre-production and 10 production] for the Navy under a contract named Albatross.
Co-incidentally, at about the same time, the National Reconnaissance Office [NRO] was experiencing problems with their Satellite programme and needed a stop gap solution. Inter-Agency rivalry meant that they could [or would] not ask the CIA for assistance. When details of the proposed Navy contract were given to the NRO by one of their Navy agents, it was the answer they were looking for and so the NRO approached Douglas and ordered an additional 6 of Douglas's aircraft

[TheChronicOne]

Outstanding!!! This is the best. I love the shape, stance... paint... everything. It even has a T-tail!

[Captain Canada]

Wow ! What a neat looking machine ! Great stuf.

[Tophe]

 

[Pellson]

Cool