RAF 203 Sqn Sea Protector MRA.2

[AeroplaneDriver]

As promised a little whiffery is on deck.  For the Maritime Patrol GB over on BTS (thanks for the invite Old Wombat!).  I initially was planning an RAF Sea Guardian as seen here: 



It is apparently under serious consideration to supplement the Poseidon fleet, and part of the Protector order apparently has an ability to convert some or all of the options to Sea Guardians. 

My plan was pretty well set until today when I found this article on the new STOL version intended for use on small carriers without the need for a catapult.

https://www.navalnews.com/event-news/indo-pacific-2022/2022/05/general-atomics-unveils-mq-9b-stol-for-small-flat-tops/

The RN is one of the intended customers...it looks like I can shorten the wing and increase the chord fairly easily and make the V tail bigger without too much fuss too just by blending in some styrene strip.  Very tempted to go down this path.  Decision to come soon as this will go together quickly with no cockpit to worry about. 

Anyway here we go.  Belly tank from a P-47 on the right looks like a good basis for the radar pod. 

[PR19_Kit]

...it looks like I can shorten the wing

What is this heresy? 

[AeroplaneDriver]

You will be happy to hear that after further study I decided against the STOL shipborne Sea Guardian. 

From the limited materials available it looks like a wide, constant chord wing maybe halfway between the span of the STOL Mojave and the standard Sea Guardian. This is all just from eyeballing it and comparing pictures based on the handful of promotional images released.  Anyway at the end of the day the rather sleek shape of the Reaper/Protector fuselage looks horribly mismatched with a slab of a wing that looks like it came off a Bronco.

So I went with making it the shore based Sea Guardian. Which means taking a standard Reaper and MAKING THE WINGS LONGER!! 

All may rejoice!!!

[Old Wombat]

Wonder if an IFR probe would be appropriate?

[AeroplaneDriver]

Wonder if an IFR probe would be appropriate?

It has a stated endurance of 40 hours.  I think it's more likely to need inflight re-oiling.

[Old Wombat]

Wonder if an IFR probe would be appropriate?

It has a stated endurance of 40 hours.  I think it's more likely to need inflight re-oiling.

[AeroplaneDriver]

Good progress today before heading away for three days at work. 

Going with the land based Sky Guardian means about a 13 foot greater wingspan than the standard Reaper, plus winglets.  I did the extension by cutting off the kit wingtip at the panel line and sinking a hot sewing needle into the stub to provide some support for the extension.  Then using a thicker piece of Evergreen stock on the borrow and thin piece on top built up the wing extension to patch the wing profile. 

For the winglet, the MQ-9B doesn't have a smooth blended winglet like airliners do.  There is a distinct box that seems to be carrying some gubbins to other that blends the wing into the winglet.  Pics I could find seemed to indicate a very streamlined and faired in triangular cross section so I started with what came to hand first.  A scrap of nice soft light gray Airfix sprue with the one side flat.  a lot of CA and some carving and sanding made this into a representation of what I'm seeing in the pictures available.  the winglet itself is thin Evergreen, currently tacked on with a drop of CA.  Still more PSR to do to get it all blended together but for rough shape I'm happy.

The radar pod also made some progress today.  The basis is a 1/48 P-47 belly drop tank.  It's cut down and reprofiled in the back to make it more streamlined.  I'm not totally happy with it...thicker in the back than the pictures I have, but still a lot of work to do on it so we'll see.  Plus it's a What If based on an aircraft atet is not yet in production so I'm really not going to lose sleep over it. 

Anyhoo....here she is, done for the night.  Progress to resume over the weekend hopefully. 

[AeroplaneDriver]

To expand the backstory a bit and incorporate my aborted idea of the newly announced STOL Carrier-based Sea Guardian...General Atomics are offering the STOL kit as a bolt on quick change kit of new wings and new larger V-tail.  The change can be made in the field in a hangar in a day from land based to STOL.  So...What If...? The UK sees a need to supplement the small Poseidon fleet with Sea Guardians (not really What If...a real thing being looked at).  But they order 16 Sea Guardians and 6 STOL kits.  When a carrier deploys it goes with three STOL Sea Guardians for onboards persistent MPA and ASW ahead of the battle group.  When not at sea the Sea Guardians operate alongside the Poseidon fleet in normal land based configuration giving an extra 10 hours endurance (40 hours vs 30 for the STOL variant). 

[McColm]

Looking great so far 

[comrade harps]

Looking good   

I imagine a carrier based AEW EQ-9 (with lots of secure bandwidth) would be more useful (definitely more persistent and with a deeper view over the horizon due to a higher cruising altitude) than a Merlin AEW. You really don't need the crew on board.

[AeroplaneDriver]

Looking good   

I imagine a carrier based AEW EQ-9 (with lots of secure bandwidth) would be more useful (definitely more persistent and with a deeper view over the horizon due to a higher cruising altitude) than a Merlin AEW. You really don't need the crew on board.

The Mosquito/Vixen program that is supposed to produce a flying prototype next year is slated to be the next AEW platform along with AAR, EW, and Strike versions.  Looks quite interesting. 

[Old Wombat]

Yep, here, too!

[comrade harps]

Looking good   

I imagine a carrier based AEW EQ-9 (with lots of secure bandwidth) would be more useful (definitely more persistent and with a deeper view over the horizon due to a higher cruising altitude) than a Merlin AEW. You really don't need the crew on board.

The Mosquito/Vixen program that is supposed to produce a flying prototype next year is slated to be the next AEW platform along with AAR, EW, and Strike versions.  Looks quite interesting.

l'd missed references to these programs, so l looked them up. Thanks for alerting me 

[AeroplaneDriver]

Managed a little bench time tonight and got the Radar pod and pylon mostly done.  Got to wait for the Milliput to dry and still some PSR ahead but overall fairly happy with the shape.

Extended wings with winglets in the background.  Fairly happy so far with my most ambitious modification in quite a while. 

[Old Wombat]