Recce and Surveillance GB - General Discussion

[Weaver]

For ground recce, how about a Scorpion hull with a flat plate instead of the turret and a mast-mounted sight that folds forwards over the engine deck?

For naval recce, you could do an AGI-style spyship by sticking lots of domes and aerials onto a civilian ship like a passenger liner or cargo vessel.

[kitbasher]

I wonder???  I have a very elderly Airfix Heron kit in the deep stash........could it possibly become a Swedish/Finnish/Danish civilian feeder airliner operating around the Baltic with odd hatch covers on the underside?    Or perhaps operating between Calcutta and Bangkok.......or even  in the Levant?

'Deep stash'.  So sort of sleeper agent kits or just something somewhere at the very bottom of a huge stash in a dark corner of your loft? 

Thinking about long-winged-things, a recce Wellesley struck me as a possibility.

Much uprated engine (Sabre? Centaurus? There was a Wellesley-Hercules testbed IRL).

Gunner replaced by a 'slave' engine (Kestrel) driving a huge blower for high-altitude work (IRL suggestion from Avro and maybe Vickers too).

Pressure cabin with a tiny dome for the pilot. (Vickers did a lot of work on pressure cabins).

I'd say Hercules.  Domed cabin would create a whif connection to the pressurised Wellingtons.  Not sure about the blower engine idea, maybe one of the larger Gypsy engines if you go down that route?

One idea springing to mind as a subject is an 'operational' version of the Bristol 138, actual fixed main u/c replaced with retractable units.

[Dizzyfugu]

Thinking about long-winged-things, a recce Wellesley struck me as a possibility.

1:72 Vickers Wellesley GR Mk. IV; Royal Air Force Coastal Command, aircraft OZ-X/K7984 of 179th Squadron; Gibraltar, summer 1943 (Whif/Matchbox kit conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

[zenrat]

1/144 or smaller scale airliner kits might be a good source of long thin wings.

[Weaver]

Thinking about long-winged-things, a recce Wellesley struck me as a possibility.

Much uprated engine (Sabre? Centaurus? There was a Wellesley-Hercules testbed IRL).

Gunner replaced by a 'slave' engine (Kestrel) driving a huge blower for high-altitude work (IRL suggestion from Avro and maybe Vickers too).

Pressure cabin with a tiny dome for the pilot. (Vickers did a lot of work on pressure cabins).

I'd say Hercules.  Domed cabin would create a whif connection to the pressurised Wellingtons.  Not sure about the blower engine idea, maybe one of the larger Gypsy engines if you go down that route?

The original engine was a 9-cyl Pegasus, so the smaller-diameter 14-cyl Hercules looked awkward in a way that I can't decide if I like or I don't:



How about a whiffy "Twin Pegasus", which would be like a poppet-valve Centaurus? Mind you, you tend to think of the Centaurus as a 'late war' engine, but production actaully started in 1942 and was scaled back at one point because engines were being finished faster than the airframes that could take them. It really isn't much of a stretch therefore to imagine a few more being made for small number of 'special purpose' aircraft.

The blower idea was mooted by Avro for a high-altitude Lancaster proposal, with a fifth Merlin in the fuselage to both supercharge the engines and provide the cabin pressurisation. It's clunky, but it's 'period'...

Another way to offset the weight of the pressure cabin and larger engine would be to have a second pressure cabin aft for the navigator, with an astrodome and a ventral window for camera aiming. The blower engine would then be amidships.

[NARSES2]

I wonder???  I have a very elderly Airfix Heron kit in the deep stash........could it possibly become a Swedish/Finnish/Danish civilian feeder airliner operating around the Baltic with odd hatch covers on the underside?   

If it was Danish it could even bear a small CIA Zap earned whilst flying into Berlin ? 

[Rheged]

I wonder???  I have a very elderly Airfix Heron kit in the deep stash........could it possibly become a Swedish/Finnish/Danish civilian feeder airliner operating around the Baltic with odd hatch covers on the underside?    Or perhaps operating between Calcutta and Bangkok.......or even  in the Levant?

'Deep stash'.  So sort of sleeper agent kits or just something somewhere at the very bottom of a huge stash in a dark corner of your loft? 

"Deep Stash"=Storage box on shelving at the back of the garage........I only know it's in there (allegedly)  because I taped a list of contents to the storage box lid before it went into  "Deep Stash" storage.   But of course, the list might be incorrect!

[PR19_Kit]

Thinking about long-winged-things, a recce Wellesley struck me as a possibility.

I like that idea, yes.............. 

[kerick]

How about the ultimate surveillance tool, satellites?
It would help use up lots of odd parts laying around.

[kitbasher]

How about the ultimate surveillance tool, satellites?
It would help use up lots of odd parts laying around.

Tom and I have swapped thoughts and yes recce satellites most certainly are in scope.  Looking forward to the back story explaining their capabilities.

[rickshaw]

I have an idea.  I think a long winged Canberra variant might come a calling...   

[kerick]

I have an idea.  I think a long winged Canberra variant might come a calling...   

With some big fat turbofan engines?

[rickshaw]

I have an idea.  I think a long winged Canberra variant might come a calling...   

With some big fat turbofan engines?

Nope.  Nice slim lined engines...

[kerick]

I have an idea.  I think a long winged Canberra variant might come a calling...   

With some big fat turbofan engines?

Nope.  Nice slim lined engines...

That would be very interesting to see! Go for it!

[Weaver]

Thinking about long-winged-things, a recce Wellesley struck me as a possibility.

I like that idea, yes.............. 

Ah, thought somebody must have done it.

Got a link?