Northrop Grumman F-29A Tigerbat

[waynos]

BAE Scorpion and Northrop Grumman F-29A Tigerbat

The roots of this fighter go back to the Grumman X-29 FSW research aircraft of the mid 1980's, which mated a 'bought in' front fuselage of a Northrop F-5 to an otherwise mainly all-new airframe. Although the lineage to the F-29A is not quite as direct as you might think.

At the same time as the X-29 was being developed, Northrop were promoting their much enhanced F-20 Tigershark, which had begun life as the F-5G, and across the Atlantic BAe were designing a small single EJ.200 engined light fighter, called the P.106,  in the same class as the F-20, as an insurance in the event of the EFA project collapsing.

One of the classified alternative P.106 layouts featured an FSW canard configuration, whilst the most well known version was a delta canard similar to the SAAB Gripen. Apart from the wing planform all the P.106 designs were virtually identical.

As the years passed the X-29 completed its research programme and was retired to a museum, meanwhile the F-20 failed to attract any orders and was put to bed, as was the P.106 without any metal actually being cut on this project, although by the time this happened BAe had decided on the FSW version (P.106F) as its preferred layout and released a photograph of a wind tunnel model of it to the aviation press.

A couple more years down the line and a seismic change in UK defence policy led to a revival of the P.106F programme that otherwise would have been consigned to history. Firstly, the UK MoD decided it was unwise to rely on a single air defence type and a return would be made to the days when the RAF flew two types of front line air defence fighter at the same time, the new fighter would need to be small, inexpensive, but super agile and bang up to date technology wise., at the same time, and to accommodate this it was also decided to cut the number of Typhoons on order to just 120, including attack variants which were now the majority variant, so just three squadrons of Typhoons were now destined for air defence duties. BAe had many ideas for new and adventurous designs but the 'inexpensive' clause ruled all of them out as far as development costs were concerned.

This paramount need to 'keep it cheap' also affected the FSW P.106F proposal and BAE (as they had become) found that even the cost of building this design was out of reach, However, it was reasoned, the Grumman X-29 very closely approximated the design parameters of the P.106F and an early idea to use it as an EAP style demonstrator for BAE's own ideas soon morphed into a discussion with Northrop Grumman about producing a collaborative light fighter.

Work on converting the X-29 demonstrator soon got under way once it had been transported to Warton in the UK, It had been decided that the first prototype would fly in the UK because of the RAF requirement for 'over100' aircraft which was to become the launch order for the type, there being no domestic US requirement at this time. The original wings were removed and replaced by BAe's own design which had been manufactured at Chester where Airbus wings are made. Outwardly similar in shape to the Grumman wing, which was optimised for purely aerodynamic research purposes, the BAe wing was of completely different internal design and was designed to demonstrate its integrity with a full military load with four missile pylons and dummy wingtip ECM pods. BAe's use of leading edge wing pylons also meant that the X-29's canards had to be moved. Therefore all new intake architecture was fitted that allowed for a shoulder mounted canard. On the original P.106F the canard was of aft swept design so it was decided to stick with this idea and, rather than simply reattach the X-29 canards on the new points, a pair of canards were taken from the Typhoon assembly line to represent those of the P.106F, this also helped to keeps costs down. It was also decided to replace the F404 engine with an EJ.200, fit a dummy PIRATE IRST fairing and to represent with ballast the CAPTOR radar as it would more accurately reflect the performance that the new fighter would achieve.

Prior to this stage a joint production agreement was reached with BAE whereby the UK company would manufacture 60% of all UK operated models and 40% of global production (but only 25% of any that might be ordered by US forces utilising home-grown systems).  

The rebuilt X-29 prototype was now renamed 'BAE P.106G' in the UK but was referred to as the YF-29 by Northrop Grumman. Following the first flight in the UK a second, all new airframe was produced in the USA and this flew under the name 'F-29A Tigerbat' the RAF were unimpressed by the name however and elected to call their version the 'Scorpion F.1'

The F-29 went on to succeed in the global light fighter market in a way that the F-20 never managed, helped no doubt by the RAF order for 120 of them followed by its selection for the US aggressor squadrons and production eventually ran to over 2,500 aircraft.

Scorion F.1 of 11Sqn, RAF









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[Shasper]

Sweet!


Shas B)  

[cthulhu77]

Awesome!!!  Very cool stuff there!

[K5054NZ]

Brilliant! Just plain brilliant. Wouldn't mind seeing a "stock" P.106 though...

[anthonyp]

Now that is a great conversion!  Gives me ideas for mine.

Where'd you get the Asraam's from?  And what is that Jaguar loaded out with  

   

[Brian da Basher]

Ohhh man Waynos that is absolutely stunning!

Brian da Basher

[Tophe]

Nice!  

[waynos]

Glad you guys like it, I wanted to do a little more than just stick missiles on the wingtips, but not too much more

I think it was Anthony who asked about the Jaguar. That is my SEAD 2 seater Jaguar GR.4. Although I was limited to just 2 ALARMS so I loaded it out with 6 1,000lb bombs and 2 overwing sidewinders. I didn't post it on here because (a) I didn't think it was enough of a WIF to interest you and (B) I whacked it together over two days from a Matchbox 2 seater and an Airfix single seater that I bought for £1 off ebay, if you want picures I can add them here or start another thread?

[Captain Canada]

Great stuff, Waynos ! Especially enjoyed the story....funny how much it looks like a Gripen in that last photo, eh ? Must be the higher canards.

And yes, more Jag pics, pls !

[anthonyp]

Not enough of a WiF?  Oh, please!  POST!!  SHARE!!!  Accept our praise!!  

   

[John Howling Mouse]

Yep, that's how it should be done!

   

[waynos]

OK here it is, Jaguar GR.4. You might be able to spot many flaws on this but I was happy considering it was a Matchbox Jaguar,  the RWR pod and fin tip are from the Airfix GR.1, as are the bombs and underwing pylons. The ALARMS (and the ASRAAM's of the Scorpion) are from the Airfix weapons set. The pointy nose is also off one of the Airfix missiles as the nose of the kit was rounder than my finger end! Oh yes, I also added  2 HUD's that were cut out of an old CD case.

[BlackOps]

Nice, it looks hungry!





Jeff G.

[anthonyp]

That's cooooool!!  I couldn't tell from the earlier pic with it in it if those were bombs or some sort of anti-shipping missile (of course, had I looked carefully at the second, I would have noticed the bombs' fins).

Great job on both the F-29 and the Jag!

   

[Davey B]

...argh...      

I may have to do something private...