P-80 air launched from B-24 mother ship *finished*

[sandiego89]

I like this whole idea and build a lot, so it pain's me significantly to see an issue with it, looking at this pic I cannot help but notice that almost the entire P-80 is behind the centre of gravity of the B-24, so trimmed to fly with the P-80 loaded the B-24 would become suddenly very nose heavy upon release of the fighter. Possibly add a shifting weight inside the B-24 into the backstory?

Yes, that pained me a bit as well, but has all been more of the thought process and "fun".  The center of gravity of the P-80 is about at the center of the aft bomb bay, so perhaps not as far off as it looks.  I wanted to go father forward, but that would have impinged even more on the nose gear bay, and eventually on the main landing gear on the B-24.   I have included ballast as part of the backstory, and also which fuel tanks are used on the B-24.  She has also lost the waist gunners, ammo and guns, so a bit of rear weight savings there.   Release was in a shallow dive to reduce the B-24 rearing up excessively.  Tokyo tanks could be added to the forward bomb bay to transfer fuel.   

[Wardukw]

Something a bit different for ya Dave..drop tanks on the wings..will bring the C/G forward and give the aircraft a heap of fuel to burn ..a couple of either 500 or 1000 gallon tanks would give it a ton of range with internal fuel .
Might look kinda cool too.

[zenrat]

Or, a second P-80 carried on top forward of the CoG...

[PR19_Kit]

Or, a second P-80 carried on top forward of the CoG...

And you'd need longer wings on the B-24 of course............   

[Wardukw]

Or, a second P-80 carried on top forward of the CoG...

And you'd need longer wings on the B-24 of course............   

😄😄😄👍

[sandiego89]

Finished

B-24 with P-80 parasite fighter, 1945.

by Sandiego89

With Operation Olympic, scheduled to commence in November 1945, as part of the larger Operation Downfall for the invasion of the Japanese home islands, Allied planners desired to included high speed aircraft and early jets into planning efforts.  As experienced during the recent battles such as Okinawa, resistance was expected to be fierce, and the threat from Kamikazes and Betty launched Ohka's was deemed very real.  The first squadrons of Ryan Fireballs were working up to conduct carrier operations against high speed threats, but how to get the land based P-80 into the fight was a problem, as range was going to be an issue.

The technical center at Wright field came up with a proposal to air launch the P-80 from modified bombers.  This would allow the P-80 to be launched much closer to the home islands, be able to loiter until threats were detected, and have enough fuel for meaningful engagement and to return to baes on newly captured Okinawa.  No airborne recovery was planned, just the carry and launch.  The B-29, with huge range and lifting capacity, was the obvious choice, but were critical to the continued bombing campaign and the B-17 and B-24 which were both widely available with the draw down in Europe were considered.  The B-24 was initially rejected as it was thought to be too low to the ground for carrying an underslung P-80, but upon closer examination it was thought it could just fit.....

Kits:
1/72 MPC B-24 Liberator
1/72 MPC F-80 Shooting Star

B-24 takeoff with a parasite P-80, early dawn drop test, Muroc Army Airfield, May 1945. 

[AeroplaneDriver]

Oh that is VERY good.  Beautiful work!!

[Old Wombat]

Oh that is VERY good.  Beautiful work!!

Absolutely!

Some of those shots, with a little editing to put a real airfield below &/or show the prop's moving, could look almost real!  

[NARSES2]

That really has come out well 

[Dizzyfugu]

Very cool!  I esp. like the "belly shot" picture, dramatic perspective.

[su27rules]

      

[PR19_Kit]

Oh my  life, that is SUPERB!   

Love the way the tip of the P-80's fin just pokes out the top of the B-24's fuselage. 

[Rheged]

I am most impressed!

[zenrat]

Fantastic.

  

[The Rat]