Recce and Surveillance GB - General Discussion

[Weaver]

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.

Oh that's easy:

"The KH-<REDACTED> had two <CLASSIFIED> and a particularly large <CLASSIFIED> which between them could scan a swath of <REDACTED> territory <CLASSIFIED> miles wide with each pass..."


If you wanted a more aeroplaney space recce system, how about a shuttle with a suite of recce sensors in the bay to act as a kind of recoverable MOL? You could add a small pressurised module to the front of the bay for extra consumables, the enlarged OMS tanks at the back of the bay (designed but never flown) for more orbital maneuverability, and as many of the telescopes (that seem to come with every kit) as will fit in between them. I've even seen the telescope parts for sale seperately on ebay before now.

[NARSES2]

Have one short range/tactical recce build planed and then yesterday found another resin kit that will make a nice long range/strategic recce build. So 2 builds in the planning stages 

[kerick]

I've got various shuttle parts laying around that might just work for a spy shuttle. Or a shuttle in the process of releasing a spy satellite. 

[PR19_Kit]

Ah, thought somebody must have done it.

Got a link?

Naturally. 

https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=34528.msg547037#msg547037

There's 7 pages of it as there were three different versions, getting wider and with more prop blades as it went on. 

[PR19_Kit]

I've got both a 1/72 Shuttle (actually two of them...) and a Hubble telescope kit..............

BAGS of scope there I'm sure.

[Weaver]

Here's an idea at the other end of the airspeed spectrum: use a sailplane kit, maybe scaleorama'd, to make a whiff equivalent of the Lockheed YO-3/Q-Star:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_YO-3
http://q-star-lockheed.blogspot.com/2008/06/lockheed-q-star.html





These used a belt-drive speed reduction system to drive a very big prop very slowly, together with the mother of all mufflers to make them near-silent. They were used for surveillance in Vietnam, and post-war for anti-poacher work, various other law-enforcement duties and research into aircraft/helicopter noise.

For those uncomfortable with lethal military hardware, you might imagine something like this being used for research on birds, as well as law-enforcement.

[Dizzyfugu]

Indeed, some entries from the Blue Lights GB would easiyl be eligible for the Recce/surveillance theme.

[zenrat]

I've done a stash dive and been matching up parts to see how they compare to the images in my head.
The asymmetric flying wing will probly grow a single offset tail boom making it not strictly a flying wing.
The initial choice of fuselage (Gnat) for the long winged cold war spy plane tuned out to be unsuitable due to the chord of the wings at the root.  Despite the June page of the 2021 Airfix calendar on the back of the toilet door trying to persuade me to use an F15 fuselage I have found something older which should work which means it will probly end up in US Navy colours.

[NARSES2]

Despite the June page of the 2021 Airfix calendar on the back of the toilet door trying to persuade me to use an F15 fuselage I have found something older which should work which means it will probly end up in US Navy colours.

There's been footage on the BBC News over here of people walking out of supermarkets in Victoria with all the toilet rolls they could carry because of the  Quarantine, but I didn't realise the shortage had extended to your neck of the woods ? 

[Nick]

Indeed, some entries from the Blue Lights GB would easily be eligible for the Recce/surveillance theme.

That's pretty much what I have in mind. I plan on building a MU-2S in either RAF Coastal Command or Coast Guard colours for a Maritime Patrol mission.

I also have a Unicraft EADS Barracuda drone that is begging to be built but it's quite nondescript so a big backstory will be needed.

[AeroplaneDriver]

I'm planning on something like this...not so much a What If and a "Might Be" since it was demoed for the UK earlier this year and the options the RAF have for the Protector system would cover an acquisition.  Sure would help take the load off the Poseidon fleet. 

[zenrat]

I'm planning on something like this...not so much a What If and a "Might Be" since it was demoed for the UK earlier this year and the options the RAF have for the Protector system would cover an acquisition.  Sure would help take the load off the Poseidon fleet. 

You could do it in Skynet scheme...


One of my two planned aircraft builds will be WW2 Luftwaffe (a rarity for me - but sometimes i'll build one if I feel the aircraft justifies it) but the other is up in the air as far as user is concerned.  If i'm already building a nazi aircraft I should really balance my karma by making the other one peaceful.

[NARSES2]

  If i'm already building a nazi aircraft I should really balance my karma by making the other one peaceful.

I'm balancing mine by planning one short range, low altitude and one long range, high altitude builds.

[zenrat]

Just a thought, but we could avoid the need for an extension by starting two weeks early...

[kitbasher]

Just a thought, but we could avoid the need for an extension by starting two weeks early...

Yer know what thought did, don't yer....