Fokker S.14 and S.15 - or how a quirky plank wing became a bland stovepipe jet.

[Paper Kosmonaut]

It's 1952. With the Fokker S.14 Mach trainer being only sold to the Dutch Airforce, Fokker thinks they might be able to try and make the S.14 into a more speedy and agile fighter by giving it swept wings. The Derwent engine might be a little old now but it still has some more power to squeeze out.
Fokker sets to work and uses the same airframe but now with swept wings and empennage and a big bubble canopy. In 1954 they present the S.15 Mach Trainer II. Capable of Mach 1.3 in horizontal flight and even with some hard points under the wings, After their initial pride they look at it again. One engineer even quietly mumbles a quick Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. And realise they have created...
...
... Just the next F-86 lookalike. The Dassault Ouragan, or MiG 15 or F-84 or whatever. The generic stovepipe with swept wings. Even the Dutch Air Force didn't want to buy it. "It just looks like the F-84 we already are planning to buy, only with two pilots sitting next to one another", an Airforce executive says. "Meh" says another one.
And indeed, that is how it looks. Meh. The quirky little plank-winged plane suddenly lost all its uniqueness. It was there and then that Fokker decided to  build only passenger planes from then on.

This is a paper model I wasn't really happy with. The camopy part of the model was too small and I had to reprint it 102, 103 percent enlarged to get it even barely fitting. The wings of the original model were good at the roots but the outer parts were too small and caused the glue section to buckle. The fuselage also had its discrepancies in fit.
Pity because it is a nice plane to start with. When I worked on the original one, I thought about its obsolete looks when it came on the market. Altrhough it actually was the first jet trainer not derived from an already exisiting fighter plane.
I thought about how the plane would be improved with swept wings and 'borrowed a set from an equally big F-86 Sabre andf recoloured them, just like I did with the original plane. The aircraft with callsign K-1 actually existed as a test bed. The print was nice and the fit of the wings onto the model was surprisingly good. I actually was pleasantly surprised in soite of the bad fit.
But after finishing, I looked at it and was underwhelmed by the effect the wings had on the S.14. It really became a generic first generation swept-wing jet. But just that also made it very funny. So here it is for you all to see. The Fokker S.14 Mach Trainer and its non-existing S.15 sister with swept wings.

Oh wait, do I still need to mention it all is paper? Yes? Well, it is all built from paper. 


The S.14. In real life a nice little plane but a disappointing paper model. I really had to do a lot of tweaking to get the shape and fit somewhat right.


The S.15 with swept wings and a smoother canopy without the framework. Just a plane. Nothing special about it. Quite a plain plane, so to say.


And both of them together. I refrained from giving the S.15 some wheels. I already had a hard time getting the S.14 to stay put when I realised it was a bloody tailsitter. I tore off the nose wheel and replaced it with part of a flint wheel of an old lighter. That did the trick. But only just. So the S.15 is on a skewer. Looking blandly like any old plane. Meh. Hahaha!

[NARSES2]

I like those 

[royabulgaf]

A real improvement.  The S.14 looked so clunky even by first generation jet standards.

[Dizzyfugu]

Very nice!