Hey look, you can put a shuttle into orbit with the shuttle. Granted, the doors can't really close but that's just a technicality.

Yeah, Nanoblocks are tiny.

Vice President Mike Pence, left, and Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., prepare to talk with Expedition 53 crew members Joe Acaba, screen left, Randy Bresnik, screen center, and Mark Vande Hei onboard the International Space Station from the Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Monday, Sept. 25, 2017 in Huntsville, Alabama. The Vice President visited the space center to view test hardware for NASA’s Space Launch System, America’s new deep space rocket and to call the crew onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

like a giddy astro-boy in the payload bay of the space shuttle Endeavour.

I last saw her in her glory days, for the launch of STS-118.

More photos and video below...

The payload fairing for NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is being moved to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Inside the facility, TESS will be encapsulated in the payload fairing. The satellite is scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on April 16. The satellite is the next step in NASA's search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. TESS is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer mission led and operated by MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and managed by NASAâs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Dr. George Ricker of MITâs Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research serves as principal investigator for the mission. Additional partners include Orbital ATK, NASAâs Ames Research Center, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Space Telescope Science Institute. More than a dozen universities, research institutes and observatories worldwide are participants in the mission. NASAâs Launch Services Program is responsible for launch management. Photo credit: NASA

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Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians assist as a crane lowers the Orbital ATK Cygnus pressurized cargo module, enclosed in its payload fairing, onto a KAMAG transporter. The Orbital ATK CRS-7 commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Cygnus will deliver 7,600 pounds of supplies, equipment and scientific research materials to the space station. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

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Single VF-1W at low level flight, using the landscape as cover. This UNSAF machine carries its full weapon (two ARMs and four AMM-1 self defense missiles) and ECM equipment payload.

Mutations, mutations... another (totally) fictional Valkyrie version, and an exotic one, too. This kit had two inspirational sources: after building some grey low-viz Valkyries, I considered a machine with a darker paint scheme like "Europe One" a.k.a. "Lizard" (even though I am not a big fan of this kind of murky look).

On the other hand, with the recent VF-1G AEW Valkyrie in the back of my mind, I speculated about a specialized SAM supression aircraft like the F-105G, F-4G or Tornado ECR (so-called "Wild Weasel" aircrafts), and how an innocent Valkyrie could be eqipped for such a task...?Well, with this murky and not really elegant VF-1W, both aspects came together.

Some further explanation might be useful: A "Wild Weasel" is an aircraft (the term originates from the United States Air Force) specially equipped with radar seeking missiles, and tasked with destroying the radars and SAM installations of enemy air defence systems. Wild Weasel tactics & techniques were first developed in the Vietnam and the Yom Kippur War, and were later integrated into the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD). In brief, the task of a Wild Weasel aircraft is to bait enemy anti-aircraft defenses into targeting it with their radars, whereupon the radar waves are traced back to their source so that the Weasel or its teammates can precisely target it for destruction.

A simple analogy is playing the game of "flashlight tag" in the dark; a flashlight is usually the only reliable means of identifying someone in order to "tag" (destroy) them, but the light immediately renders the bearer able to be identified and attacked as well. The result is a hectic game of cat-and-mouse in which the radar "flashlights" are rapidly cycled on and off in an attempt to identify and kill the target before the target is able to home in on the emitted radar "light" and destroy the site.

The kit is a standard, vintage 1:100 scale VF-1D dual seater Valkyrie Fighter from ARII, which underwent various modifications. As usual, it received a crew. Since the machine would be rather dark, I went for olive drab pilot suits, but I could not resist and still use a bright red and white ("bone dome") helmet ;) Further cockpit details include a HUD, a console for the 2nd crewman, seat belts and election seat triggers. Some antennae on the outside were added, too..

Beyond that, the extra radar sensor equipment on board had to be placed somewhere - in the USAF's F-4G for example, the M61 gatling gun had to go. I found two plausible places on the Valkyrie: most obvious change is the different, more voluminous nose cone which comes from an 1:72 IAI Kfir. Less obvious is the elongated dorsal hump, which is supposed to hold extra equipment and a heat exchanger. Additionally, radar sensors were added on the fins as well as sensor arrays on the legs' sides, later enhanced witn dielectric panels. Overall, the VF-1W looks bulkier and somehow bigger now - much of it must be tributed to the nose. It is not longer than the original cone, but the proportions have become way different.

This "different" look is augmented by a bizarre looking ordnance mix under the VF-1W's belly and wings. Instead of the GU-11 gun pod, this SEAD version carries a slender ECM/sensor pod. It consists of two very poor (not to say ugly!) ALQ-119 pods from a vintage Revell F-16 prototype kit, combined and with some added elements. After years, these things could be used somewhere... This piece, painted in grey, also holds an adapter for the kit's display.

In order to accomplish its radar suppression task, a pair of 1:72 AGM-45 'Shrike' came under the outer pylons, including starter rails, conincidently resembling AGM-88 HARM anti radar missiles in 1:100 scale. Under its inner wing pylons the VF-1W carries a vintage ALQ-87 (in white) and an ALQ-101 (in grey) ECM pod, from a 1:72 Hasegawa aircraft weapons kit. Four AMM-1air-to-air missiles are also carried for self-defence purposes, even though such a Wild Weasel machine would hardly operate on its own. Being a special decoy machine with high target priority, it must be assumed that it is accompanied by true fighters for protection, and by some buddies which carry (more) weapons against ground targets.

For the paint scheme, inspiration came from Spangdahlem-based F-4Gs from the 80ies. These Germany-based machines used to carry the USAF "Lizard" scheme. Effectively, these Phantoms were painted in the South East Asia scheme with two greens (FS34102 and FS34079), but the tan simply replaced by charcoal grey (FS36081). Such a livery is even plausible in the Macross universe - in the "This Is Animation Special: Macross PLUS" source book, U.N.S.A.F.'s VF-11 and VF-5000 are shown in a similar livery.

Anyway, on the small 1:100 kit, "Lizard" with authentic colors would look VERY dark and dull. I searched for lighter alternatives and stumbled across A-4K Skyhawks from New Zealand. These machines used to carry a wrap-around paint scheme with the Lizard colors, but when I found a drawing of their paint scheme, I was intrigued by the "wrong" colors that were used in the graphic. The overall machine looked rather greyish and ...interesting. I found this different look so unique that I tried to emulate these "wrong" tones, and the VF-1W's three basic colors have finally become:

Humbrol 224 "Dark Slate Grey" (probably a British tone)

Humbrol 66 "Dark Olive Drab", which is VERY dark and has a rather greyish hue

Humbrol 79 "Dark Blue Gray", much lighter than FS36081

After basic painting the kit received a thin black ink wash, blending out the differences between the 3 colors even more. Additionally, engravings were blackened witha 0.1mm fine liner pen. No colorful markings were intentionally added, just the wings' leading edges received a contrats in Humbrol 83 (Ochre), some dielectric sensor covers were marked with black decals. Almost all markings and stencelling were kept in black or grey for low contrast. The Macross insignia were self-made from sliding decal paper, enamel paint and a black fine liner. The result is not perfect, but it was the only way to make these markings almost invisible and blend them into the camouflage. Finally, the kit received a matte varnish coating - except for the black radar nose, which is - just as on the A-4Ks - glossy black, a total contrast to the rest of the greyish-green machine.

Honestly,I am not totally happy with the overall result. The dark camouflage scheme takes the kit very far away from the Macross "color code"? I suppose it will remain the first and last attempt into this direction...

Inside a clean room in Building 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, technicians install the first half of the Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL payload fairing around NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) on Oct. 4, 2018. ICON is being prepared for its launch on the Pegasus XL, which is attached to the company's L-1011 Stargazer aircraft, from the Skid Strip at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Launch is scheduled for Oct. 26. ICON will study the frontier of space - the dynamic zone high in Earth's atmosphere where terrestrial weather from below meets space weather above. The explorer will help determine the physics of Earth's space environment and pave the way for mitigating its effects on our technology, communications systems and society. Photo credit: NASA/Dan Quinajon

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Jim Mantovani, left, and A.J. Nick, with Kennedy Space Center’s Exploration and Research and Technology programs, unbox a CubeRover at the Florida spaceport on Oct. 9, 2020. The rover was delivered by Pittsburgh-based space robotics company Astrobotic, as part of a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) award from NASA. Nick will lead CubeRover testing in the coming months in the Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations (GMRO) Laboratory’s regolith bin, which holds approximately 120 tons of lunar regolith simulant at Kennedy’s Swamp Works. In 2019, NASA announced a $2 million Tipping Point award to develop more mature CubeRover’s payload interfaces and increase its capabilities. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

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Dr. Shannon W. Lucid flew on the STS-51G Discovery, STS-34 Atlantis, STS-43 Atlantis, and STS-58 Columbia shuttle missions, setting a record for female astronauts by logging 838 hours and 54 minutes in space. For years she also held the United States single mission space flight endurance record for her 188 days on the Russian Space Station Mir.

From February 2002 to September 2003, she served as chief scientist at NASA Headquarters before returning to Johnson Space Center to help with the Return to Flight program after the STS-107 accident.

In this photo taken during her first space mission, STS-51G, in June 1985, Lucid monitors the activities in Discovery's payload bay.

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Credit: NASA

Image Number: 51G-04-010

Date: June 18, 1985

In response to a specification issued by the US Army Air Corps in 1939, Martin Aircraft designed and submitted the Model 179. Martin had a longstanding reputation as a designer of superb medium bombers, and the Model 179 showed much the same promise. It was very revolutionary: the aircraft used a circular fuselage to maximize payload and aerodynamics simutaneously. A twin-gun powered dorsal turret was added, a design so good that it would become the standard turret design for USAAC/USAAF bombers for the entire World War II period.

Despite being half the size of the B-17 Flying Fortress, it could carry a similar bombload at three times the speed. To further enhance the Model 179’s performance, Martin intended to “bake” the fuselage in a heating process designed to smooth out any wrinkles that occurred during construction, which was done in single large panels than the standard method of using smaller sections. In fact, the latter was the only problem the USAAC had with the aircraft: the Model 179, shortly designated B-26 Marauder, would be very expensive and time-consuming to build. Nonetheless, the USAAC placed an order for 201 aircraft, with the runner-up in the competition, the North American B-25 Mitchell, being selected to supplement Martin’s design due to lower cost and quicker manufacturer. The first B-26A flew in November 1940, and deliveries began immediately.

Also immediately, the B-26 began to run into problems. It was not necessarily a fault of the aircraft: the Marauder was simply too “hot” an aircraft for pilots experienced in slower, more docile designs, much less pilots fresh out of flight school. The B-26 had to be flown carefully at all times, especially takeoff and landing, due to a comparatively small wing for its size. The R-2800 engines were very powerful, and without regular maintenance, would overspeed and fly apart—and the B-26 was nearly uncontrollable on one engine. The landing speed was 105 mph, equal to that of many modern jet fighters. Landing too hard would inevitably collapse the nose landing gear. At MacDill Field in Tampa, Florida, 28 B-26s were lost in less than a year, 15 in a single month, leading to the phrase “One a day in Tampa Bay” and new monikers for the bomber: the “Martin Murderer,” the “Widowmaker,” “Baltimore Whore,” and the “Flying Prostitute” (as it had no visible means of support).

Accident rates were so high that cancelling the B-26 entirely in favor of the B-25 was considered, and the Martin Company directors were called in front of Senator Harry S. Truman as to why. Hearing that Martin had considered adding six feet to the wingspan but had decided against it due to cost, Truman demanded the design be changed. The subsequent B-26B did so, which helped some of the handling trouble. As some pilots were flatly refusing to pilot the Marauder, Martin asked two famous test pilots—James Doolittle and Jacqueline Cochran—to fly it. Doolittle successfully looped the B-26 on one engine, while Cochran said that anyone who was afraid to fly the B-26 was a “sissy.”

Slowly, the B-26 began to shed its murderous reputation. Its combat debuts in the Pacific and Europe had not gone well: four B-26s were hurriedly converted to torpedo bombers and sent out against the Japanese carrier strike force during the Battle of Midway in June 1942 with poor results, while a low-level strike mission at Ijmuiden, Netherlands in May 1943 led to the loss of all eleven B-26s on the strike. Nonetheless, despite these initial failures. the B-26 proved itself in the tactical bomber role in the Italian theater from late 1943 on, and over Europe after the Normandy landings.

The B-26’s high speed allowed it to attack from low-level and high speed, which could surprise the enemy defenders, and its crews gained a reputation for precision strike rivaled only by British Royal Air Force Mosquito units. It was especially effective in destroying bridges in northern Italy, denying German forces supplies, and in Operation Crossbow attacks against V-1 launching sites. With refined tactics, the B-26 was to post the lowest loss rate of any bomber in Europe; one B-26B, Flak Bait, flew 207 missions over Europe, the highest posted by any USAAF aircraft over Europe.

Despite its advanced design and enviable war record, the B-26 could never quite get rid of its initial poor reputation, and the advent of the Douglas A-26 Invader gave the USAAF a bomber with all the capability of the B-26 with half the cost. As a result, at the end of World War II, the Marauder fleet was rapidly withdrawn and nearly all the 5288 B-26s met the scrapper’s torch. Only seven aircraft are known to have survived.

"Shootin' In" was built as 43-34581--and ironically, never served with the USAAF. It was provided as Lend-Lease to the Free French Air Force in 1944, and flew combat with either the 31st or 34th Bomber Squadron. Placed in storage after World War II, it was bought by Air France in 1951 and used as a crew trainer. As one of the few B-26s left by the 1960s, the National Museum of the USAF bought the aircraft in 1965 and flew it back to the United States. 43-34581 was restored as a B-26B of the 387th Bomb Group at RAF Chipping Ongar, assigned to the 8th Air Force.

Though somewhat pedestrian in its nose art (compared to wartime B-26s) "Shootin' In" is one of the best preserved of the B-26 survivors. It is painted in immaculate standard USAF camouflage of olive drab over medium gray. The torpedo in the foreground is a reference to the use of the B-26 as an emergency torpedo bomber by the USAAF in the Pacific, most notably in the Battle of Midway. The results were not impressive, though that was more due to poor American torpedoes in the early years of the war than a problem with the B-26.

PictionID:44811848 - Catalog:14_014463 - Title:Atlas Payload Component Model - Filename:14_014463.TIF - - - - Image from the Convair/General Dynamics Astronautics Atlas Negative Collection. The processing, cataloging and digitization of these images has been made possible by a generous National Historical Publications and Records grant from the National Archives and Records Administration---Please Tag these images so that the information can be permanently stored with the digital file.---Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Yakovlev Yak-38 (Russian: Яковлева Як-38; NATO reporting name: "Forger") was the Soviet Naval Aviation's first and only operational VTOL strike fighter aircraft, in addition to being its first operational carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft. It was developed specifically for and served almost exclusively on the Kiev-class aircraft carriers.

Officially, all Ukrainian Yak-138 were scrapped until 1994, even though rumor has it that one or two airframes had been sold behind the scenes to China. In Russia only five specimen had survived, and since the spares situation was doubtful none could be kept in flying condition. One Yak-138 was eventually handed over to the Ulyanovsk Aircraft Museum, while the rest was either mothballed or scrapped, too. Unfortunately, the sole museum exhibit was lost in 1995 in a fire accident.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length (incl. pitot): 15.84 m (51 ft 10 1/2 in)

Wingspan: 8,17 m (26 ft 9 in)

Height: 4.19 m (14 ft 3 in)

Wing area: 24.18 m² (260.27 ft²)

Empty weight: 7,385 kg (16,281 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 11,300 kg (28,700 lb)

Powerplant:

1x Kuznetsov NK-32L-2 turbofan engine, rated at 137 kN (31,000 lbf)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1,176 km/h (730 mph; 635 knots) at sea level

Combat radius: 230 mi (200 nmi, 370 km) lo-lo-lo with 4,400 lb (2,000 kg) payload

Ferry range: 2,129 mi (1,850 nmi, 3,425 km)

Endurance: 1 hr 30 min (combat air patrol – 115 mi (185 km) from base)

Service ceiling: 51,200 ft (15,600 m)

Time to climb to 40,000 ft (12,200 m): 2 min 23 s

Armament:

1x GSh-23L 23mm machine cannon with 250 RPG under the fuselage

5 hardpoints with a total external capacity of

- 3.000 kg (6,600 lb) for C/STOL operations and

- 2.000 kg (4.400 lb) in VTOL mode

Provisions to carry combinations of various types of unguided rockets (up to 240 mm), anti-ship

or air-to-surface Kh-23 (AS-7 Kerry) missiles (together with a Delta N guidance pod), R-60,

R-60M (AA-8 Aphid) or R-73 (AA-11 Archer) air-to-air missiles; tactical nuclear bombs, general

purpose bombs of up to 500 kg (1.100 lb) caliber, or incendiary ZB-500 napalm tanks or up to

three PTB-800 drop tanks under the fuselage and the inner pair of wing pylons

The kit and its assembly:

Sixth contribution to the “Soviet” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com in early 2017, on pretty short notice since the GB had been coming to its end. This totally fictional aircraft was inspired CG illustrations that had been roaming the WWW for some time: a hybrid between a Yak-38 (mostly the tail section), mated with an AV-8B Harrier II (cockpit, wings, landing gear). This did not look bad at all, yet a bit weird, with lift engines added in front of the fin. Certainly not conformal with a good CG balance – but I liked the idea of a single-engine Forger. And actually, OKB Yakovlev had been considering this.

So, the basic idea was a Harrier/Yak-38 kitbash. But the more I thought about the concept, the more additional donor parts came into play. One major addition was the nose section from a MiG-27 – with its slanted nose it would offer the pilot an excellent field of view, and the aircraft would, as a front line attack plane like the Harrier, not carry a radar, so the Flogger’s nose shape was perfect.

Therefore, initial ingredients for the Yak-138 were:

- Rear fuselage, wings and tail from a Tsukuda Hobby/Kangnam/Revell Yak-38

- Mid-fuselage with air intakes and front vectoring nozzles from a Matchbox Sea Harrier

- Cockpit from an Academy MiG-27

Work started with the MiG-27 cockpit, which was more or less taken OOB (except for side consoles in the cockpit and different seat), and the Yak-38 the tail section, built in parallel. To my surprise the Forger fuselage was easier to combine with the Harrier than expected, even though the position of the right cuts took multiple measurements until I came up with a proper solution. Since the Harrier is overall shorter than the Yak-38, the latter’s fuselage had to be shortened. I retained the tail cone, the Forger’s vectoring nozzles and the landing gear wells – and a 2cm plug was taken out between them. Instead of the Harrier’s tandem landing gear arrangement with outriggers under the outer wings, this one was to receive a conventional landing gear for optional C/STOL operations with a higher ordnance load, so that the Yak-38 parts were a welcome basis. Once the fuselage’s underside was more or less complete, the upper rest of the Yak-38 fuselage could be cut to size and integrated into the lower half and the Harrier parts.

After the rear end was settled, the MiG-27 cockpit could be mounted to the front end, which was slightly shortened by 2-3mm (since the Flogger’s is markedly longer than the short Harrier nose). In order to change the overall look of the aircraft, I eventually dropped the Harrier intakes and decided to use the Flogger’s boxy air intakes instead. These are considerably smaller than the gaping Harrier holes, and blending the conflicting shapes into each other for a more or less consistent look took several PSR turns. But it worked, better than expected, and it changes the aircraft’s look effectively, so that almost anything Harrier-esque was gone.

Once the fuselage was completed, I realized that I could not use the Yak-38 wings anymore. They are already pretty small, but with the more voluminous Harrier and Flogger parts added to the aircraft, they’d just be too small!

What to do...? I checked the donor bank and – in order to add even more individual flavor – used a pair of double delta wings from a PM Model Su-15! But only the core of them was left after considerable modifications: The inner delta wing sections were cut off, as well as the tip sections and parts of the trailing edge (for a planform similar to the Yak-38’s wings). On the underside, the landing gear openings were filled up and wing tips from the Yak-38, with puffer jet nozzles, transplanted. The inner leading edges had to be re-sculpted, too. The Su-15 wing fences were kept - a welcome, very Soviet design detail.

A lot of work, but I think it paid out because of the individual shape and look of these “new” wings?

As a consequence of the new, bigger wings, the little Yak-38 stabilizers could not be used anymore, either. In order to keep the square wing shape, I used modified stabilizers from an Intech F-16C/D – their trailing edges were clipped, but the bigger span retained. Together with the characteristic OOB Yak-38 fin they work well, and all of the aerodynamic surfaces IMHO blend well into the overall design of the aircraft.

After the hull was complete, work on smaller things could start. Under the fuselage, a GSh-23-2 pod from a MiG-21 was added, as well as pylons from the Tsukuda Yak-38 under the wings and a donor part from the scrap box in ventral position.

The landing gear is a mix, too: the main struts come from the Yak-38, the balloon wheels from the Matchbox Harrier. The front landing gear comes from the Academy MiG-27, including the wheels with mudguards. It was just mounted in a fashion that it now retracts forward.

The Harrier vectoring nozzles were modified, too, the exhaust “grills” replaced by square, simple ducts, scratched from styrene profile and putty. Care was taken that the nozzles would remain moveable in the fuselage flanks – for later hover pictures. The Yak-38’s nozzles were retained, but since they can OOB only be mounted in a single, fixed position, I added a simple pin to each nozzle, together with two holes in the hull, so that positions can now be switched between hover and level flight.

All around the hull, finally some small details like pitots, blade antennae and air scoops were finally added, and the ordnance consists of a pair of unguided 57mm rocket pods and a pair of Kh-23 (AS-7 Kerry) guided missiles – the latter come from the Yak-38 kit, but they are very crude and their tail sections were modified in order to come (slightly) closer to reality.

Painting and markings:

As an aircraft of the Soviet Frontal Aviation in the late Eighties, I settled upon a typical, disruptive four-tone camouflage with blue undersides. Very conventional, but with an exotic VTOL model I thought that a subtle look would be appropriate – and also separate it from the Naval Yak-38 cousin.

Design benchmark is the scheme on a contemporary MiG-21bis from a Soviert Frontal Aviation unit, chosen because of the disruptive pattern. The tones are guesstimates, though, based on various similar aircraft in more or less weathered condition. I settled for:

- Humbrol 195 (Dark Satin Green)

- Humbrol 78 (RAF Interior Green)

- Modelmaster 2005 (Burnt Umber)

- Humbrol 119 (Light Earth)

- Humbrol 115 (Russian Blue) for the undersides

The cockpit was painted in Russian Cockpit Green, opf course. The landing gear and their respective wells in a mix of Aluminum and Khaki Drab (Humbrol 56 & 26), and the wheel discs became bright green (Humbrol 131). Several di-electric panels and antennae were painted in Humbrol 106 (RAF Ocean Grey).

The kit received a thin black ink wash, in order to emphasize the panel lines, and panel post-shading with subtly lighter tones of the basic colors. National markings, codes and emblems come from several aftermarket sheets, mostly from High Decal Line and Begemot.

After some soot stains (grinded graphite) had been added, the kit was sealed with matt acrlyic varnish (Italeri) and the ordnace added.

Messy work, but I am surprised how consistent and normal the resulting aircraft appears? From certain angles, my Yak-138 creation reminds a good deal of the stillborn Hawker P.1154 (no similarity intended, though), the SEPECAT Jaguar or rather exotic Soko J-22 Orao/IAR-93 Vultur fighter bomber. IMHO, there’s also some A-4 Skyhawk style to it, esp. in planview? Anyway, there’s still some good Yak-38 heritage recognizable, and the tactical Frontal Aviation paint scheme suits the aircraft well - looks like a serious mud mover.

The Australian-designed Ikara missile was a ship-launched anti-submarine missile, named after an Australian Aboriginal word for a "throwing stick". It launched an acoustical homing torpedo to a range of 10 km, allowing fast-reaction attacks against submarines at ranges that would otherwise require the launching ship to close for attack, placing itself at risk. Also, by flying through the air to the general area of the target, the engagement time was dramatically reduced, giving the target less time to respond.

Ikara was powered by a two-stage in-line solid-fuel Murawa rocket engine developed by Bristol Aerojet Ltd in the UK and was guided by radio command link until it reached the vicinity of the submarine, determined by the ship's sonar contact, where it would first jettison the rear ventral fin and torpedo rear covering and then release its Mk 44 or Mk 46 acoustically-guided ASW torpedo. The torpedo payload would descend by parachute while the missile itself was programmed to splashdown some distance away to avoid interference with the acoustic torpedo's seeker head. The torpedo would then begin either a circular- or snake-search pattern to find and lock-on a submarine contact.

The variant fitted to some of the Royal Navy's Leander class frigates differed in several respects from the original Australian version designed to operate in the Pacific. The Royal Navy required changes to the frequencies used, to enable Ikara to be used in the NATO area, where different electronic warfare conditions and international frequency agreements had to be taken into account. The Australian-built analogue computer system was incompatible with the ADA digital battle-control computers being fitted into RN ships, and this was also changed.

The UK-manufactured version of the Mk 44 torpedo also differed from the US-built version purchased by the Australians for their Ikara missiles. The British also required the missile payload to be changeable aboard ship to permit different payload combinations to be used, including a Nuclear Depth Bomb (NDB) option, and this, together with the different ship internal layouts required further changes to the missile, storage and handling arrangements.

Ikara was fitted to all of the RAN's River-class frigates and Perth-class guided-missile destroyers. It was also operated by the Brazilian Navy, Chilean Navy, Royal Navy, and Royal New Zealand Navy. It was phased out in the early 1990s.

Seen in the Cold War Hall at the RAF Museum's Cosford site in Staffordshire.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was one of the largest and heaviest fighter aircraft in history to be powered by a single piston engine. It was heavily armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns, four per wing. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to eight tons, and in the fighter-bomber ground-attack roles could carry five-inch rockets or a significant bomb load of 2,500 pounds; it could carry over half the payload of the B-17 bomber on long-range missions (although the B-17 had a far greater range).

Twelve P-47H were lost in operational crashes with the 358th Group resulting in 11 deaths, two after VE Day, and two (44-21134 on 13 April 1945 and 44-21230 on 16 April 1945) were shot down in combat, both by ground fire.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 39 ft 2 in (11.96 m)

Wingspan: 40 ft 9 in (12.42 m)

Height: 14 ft 8 in (4.47 m)

Wing area: 300 ft² (27.87 m²)

Empty weight: 10,000 lb (4,535 kg)

Loaded weight: 13,300 lb (6,032 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 17,500 lb (7,938 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Chrysler XIV-2220-2 sixteen-cylinder inverted Vee liquid-cooled engine, rated at 2.450 hp.

Performance:

Maximum speed: 503 mph at 30,000 ft (810 km/h at 9,145 m)

Range: 920 mi combat, 2.175 ml ferry (1.480 km / 3.500 km)

Service ceiling: 43,000 ft (13,100 m)

Rate of climb: 3,120 ft/min (15.9 m/s)

Wing loading: 44.33 lb/ft² ()

Power/mass: 0.19 hp/lb (238 W/kg)

Armament:

8× .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns (3.400 rounds)

Up to 2,500 lb (1,134 kg) of bombs, drop tanks and/or 10× 5 in (127 mm) unguided rockets

The kit and its assembly:

I had the (X)P-47H on the agenda for some time, and even the respective MPM kit stashed away. But it took some time to start this project - one reason actually being the, well, crudeness of the MPM offering. Anyway, I wanted to build a service aircraft, and I wondered how this would have looked like, way beyond 1944? That brought me towards the late bubble canopy versions of the P-47D - and suddenly the idea was born to convert the XP-47H into a respective service aircraft which would not only carry the Chrysler XIV-2220-1 V16 engine, but also other improvements of the type. This eventually led to the decision to make this build a kitbash, as a spine implantation would be the easiest way to incorporate the lowered back - or so I thought...

I chose the ancient Heller P-47(N) as donation kit. Not because it was “good”, it just had the right ingredients and was cheap and easy to procure. What sounded like a simple plan turned into a twisted route to vague success. I took the front fuselage and the lower belly from the MPM kit, as well as the horizontal stabilizers and mated it with the upper and rear fuselage of the Heller Thunderbolt. This could have been easy, if both kits would not have had different fuselage diameters - the Heller kit is about 1mm too narrow, even though the length is fine. In order to compensate, I built two new fuselage halves from the salvaged pieces, and once these were stable and more or less sanded even, put together. Inside, the cockpit was taken from the Heller kit, but the seat comes from the MPM kit, and a pilot figure was added. Another problem is the fact that the MPM kit features engraved panel lines, while the Heller kit has old school, raised details and lots of rivets.

The propeller from the MPM kit is a joke, so I built a replacement from scratch - from a drop tank front half from an ancient Revell F4U, and the individual propeller blades were taken from an Italeri F4U. Inside the fuselage, a styrene tube was implanted which holds the new propeller on a metal axis, so it can spin freely.

Other personal mods include lowered flaps and the large cooler intake was opened, with foamed styrene placed inside which mimics some mesh. The same method was also used inside of the intercooler outlets (primarily in order to block any light from shining through). Inside of the landing gear wells I added some structure made from styrene profiles.

Another bigger challenge was the wing attachment - Heller and MPM kit differ considerably in this aspect, so that swapping parts is not easy. The MPM kit has the wing roots molded onto the fuselage halves, while the Heller wings are, more or less, directly attached to the fuselage. As a consequence the Heller wings hold the complete landing gear wells, while the MPM solution has divided sections. I decided to get rid of the MPM wing roots, about 3mm of material, and onto these stubs the Heller wings were attached. The landing gear came from the Heller kit, but the main wheels come from a (new) Revell Me 262 - both MPM and Heller parts are not recommended for serious use... Finally, the many exhausts and cooler flaps were either sanded away and replaced by scratched parts, or added - e. g. the vents behind the cockpit. While the Heller kit features bomb and missile hardpoints under the wings I decided to leave them away - this is supposed to be a fast interceptor, not a train-hunting plough.

Painting and markings:

As this was to be a very late WWII aircraft, NMF was certain, and I wanted to place the service P-47H into the European conflict theatre, where its speed would IMHO be best used against German jet threats. I wanted a colorful aircraft, though, and settled for a machine of the 358th FG. This group actually flew Thunderbolts in the 365-367th Squadrons, and I found several profiles of these gaudy things.

Common to all of them was an orange tail and a dark blue back, while the engine cowling would be decorated with a red front and the air outlets would carry bands in red, white and blue, with lots of tiny stars sprinkled upon. Furthermore, I found specimen with white cowlings behind the red front end, or even yellow cowlings. Pretty cool.

I tried to mimic this look. The model was basically painted with Aluminum Metallizer (Humbrol 27002) overall. The effect is really good, even without rubbing treatment. Some panels were contrasted with Aluminium Plate and Polished Steel Metallizer (Modelmaster), as well as with Aluminum (Humbrol 56, which is rather a metallic grey). The latter was also used on the landing gear. The anti-glare panel in front of the cockpit was painted with Olive Drab (ANA 613 from Modelmaster).

Since there is no air intake opening on the inline engine I decided to paint the spinner in bright red (Humbrol 19), and tried to incorporate the white and blue theme with stars decoration to the rest of the nose. As a convenient coincidence, I found decals from an Italeri B-66 in the stash: it features a version with dark blue jet air intake decorations in the right size, colors and style for what I had been looking for. So, instead of painting everything by hand I decided to incorporate this decal option.

The area behind the spinner was painted white and then the B-66 decals applied to the front flanks. The radiator air intake scoop had to be cut out, but the overall size and shape were a very good match. Even the transition into the blue spine and cockpit area worked well!

The tail was painted with Humbrol 18, later some shading with Humbrol 82 was added. The blue spine was done with a mix of Humbrol 104 and 15 (Oxford Blue and Midnight Blue) - not a perfect match for the B-66 decal colors, but after some dirt and weathering these differences would blur.

Cockpit interior was painted in Humbrol 159 (Khaki Drab) and Zinc Chromate Green from Model Master. The landing gear wells received a chrome yellow primer (Humbrol 225 - actually RAF Mid Stone but a perfect match for the task) finish.

For weathering the kit received a rubbing treatment with grinded graphite, which adds a dark, metallic shine and emphasizes the kit’s raised panel lines. Some dry painting with Aluminum was added, too, simulating chipped paint on the leading edges. I also added some oil stains around the engine, and serious soot stains at the exhaust.

Decals were, beyond the B-66 decoration, puzzled together. The aircraft' code 'CH-F[bar]' is another exotic twist, in two ways. The bar under the letter marks a second use of that code within the squadron, and as a difference from normal code placement (normally exclusively on the fuselage) I placed the aircraft's individual code letter on the fin, a practice on some P-51s and a consequence of the relatively large letter decals.

The nose art is a fictional puzzle, consisting of a Czech MiG-21 pin-up from the Pardubice '89 meeting. The “Ohio Express” tag comes from a Tamiya 1:100 F-105 Thunderchief. A neat combination that even matches the overall colors well!

As a final step, a coat of semi matt acrylic varnish was applied, with the exception of the anti glare panel, which became purely matt.

A better XP-47H? Hard to tell, since this kitbashing was a messy and rather crude work, so the overall finish does not look as good as I hoped for. But the lowered spine and the fin root extension adds to a fast look of this thing, more elegant (if that's possible in this case?) than the Razorback prototypes. I can't help, but the finished article looks like an Evel Knievel stunt vehicle? The red spinner looks a bit odd, but I'll leave it this way.

U.S. Senator E. J. (Jake) Garn (left), payload specialist; and Karol J. Bobko, mission commander, show a copy of a cartoon from the Doonesbury strip of Garry Trudeau. The senator had been the subject of a series of Trudeau's creations prior to 51-D. The single enlarged panel is autographed by the crewmembers.

NASA Media Usage Guidelines

Credit: NASA

Image Number: 51D-09-014

Date: April 16, 1985

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Yakovlev Yak-38 (Russian: Яковлева Як-38; NATO reporting name: "Forger") was the Soviet Naval Aviation's first and only operational VTOL strike fighter aircraft, in addition to being its first operational carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft. It was developed specifically for and served almost exclusively on the Kiev-class aircraft carriers.

Officially, all Ukrainian Yak-138 were scrapped until 1994, even though rumor has it that one or two airframes had been sold behind the scenes to China. In Russia only five specimen had survived, and since the spares situation was doubtful none could be kept in flying condition. One Yak-138 was eventually handed over to the Ulyanovsk Aircraft Museum, while the rest was either mothballed or scrapped, too. Unfortunately, the sole museum exhibit was lost in 1995 in a fire accident.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length (incl. pitot): 15.84 m (51 ft 10 1/2 in)

Wingspan: 8,17 m (26 ft 9 in)

Height: 4.19 m (14 ft 3 in)

Wing area: 24.18 m² (260.27 ft²)

Empty weight: 7,385 kg (16,281 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 11,300 kg (28,700 lb)

Powerplant:

1x Kuznetsov NK-32L-2 turbofan engine, rated at 137 kN (31,000 lbf)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1,176 km/h (730 mph; 635 knots) at sea level

Combat radius: 230 mi (200 nmi, 370 km) lo-lo-lo with 4,400 lb (2,000 kg) payload

Ferry range: 2,129 mi (1,850 nmi, 3,425 km)

Endurance: 1 hr 30 min (combat air patrol – 115 mi (185 km) from base)

Service ceiling: 51,200 ft (15,600 m)

Time to climb to 40,000 ft (12,200 m): 2 min 23 s

Armament:

1x GSh-23L 23mm machine cannon with 250 RPG under the fuselage

5 hardpoints with a total external capacity of

- 3.000 kg (6,600 lb) for C/STOL operations and

- 2.000 kg (4.400 lb) in VTOL mode

Provisions to carry combinations of various types of unguided rockets (up to 240 mm), anti-ship

or air-to-surface Kh-23 (AS-7 Kerry) missiles (together with a Delta N guidance pod), R-60,

R-60M (AA-8 Aphid) or R-73 (AA-11 Archer) air-to-air missiles; tactical nuclear bombs, general

purpose bombs of up to 500 kg (1.100 lb) caliber, or incendiary ZB-500 napalm tanks or up to

three PTB-800 drop tanks under the fuselage and the inner pair of wing pylons

The kit and its assembly:

Sixth contribution to the “Soviet” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com in early 2017, on pretty short notice since the GB had been coming to its end. This totally fictional aircraft was inspired CG illustrations that had been roaming the WWW for some time: a hybrid between a Yak-38 (mostly the tail section), mated with an AV-8B Harrier II (cockpit, wings, landing gear). This did not look bad at all, yet a bit weird, with lift engines added in front of the fin. Certainly not conformal with a good CG balance – but I liked the idea of a single-engine Forger. And actually, OKB Yakovlev had been considering this.

So, the basic idea was a Harrier/Yak-38 kitbash. But the more I thought about the concept, the more additional donor parts came into play. One major addition was the nose section from a MiG-27 – with its slanted nose it would offer the pilot an excellent field of view, and the aircraft would, as a front line attack plane like the Harrier, not carry a radar, so the Flogger’s nose shape was perfect.

Therefore, initial ingredients for the Yak-138 were:

- Rear fuselage, wings and tail from a Tsukuda Hobby/Kangnam/Revell Yak-38

- Mid-fuselage with air intakes and front vectoring nozzles from a Matchbox Sea Harrier

- Cockpit from an Academy MiG-27

Work started with the MiG-27 cockpit, which was more or less taken OOB (except for side consoles in the cockpit and different seat), and the Yak-38 the tail section, built in parallel. To my surprise the Forger fuselage was easier to combine with the Harrier than expected, even though the position of the right cuts took multiple measurements until I came up with a proper solution. Since the Harrier is overall shorter than the Yak-38, the latter’s fuselage had to be shortened. I retained the tail cone, the Forger’s vectoring nozzles and the landing gear wells – and a 2cm plug was taken out between them. Instead of the Harrier’s tandem landing gear arrangement with outriggers under the outer wings, this one was to receive a conventional landing gear for optional C/STOL operations with a higher ordnance load, so that the Yak-38 parts were a welcome basis. Once the fuselage’s underside was more or less complete, the upper rest of the Yak-38 fuselage could be cut to size and integrated into the lower half and the Harrier parts.

After the rear end was settled, the MiG-27 cockpit could be mounted to the front end, which was slightly shortened by 2-3mm (since the Flogger’s is markedly longer than the short Harrier nose). In order to change the overall look of the aircraft, I eventually dropped the Harrier intakes and decided to use the Flogger’s boxy air intakes instead. These are considerably smaller than the gaping Harrier holes, and blending the conflicting shapes into each other for a more or less consistent look took several PSR turns. But it worked, better than expected, and it changes the aircraft’s look effectively, so that almost anything Harrier-esque was gone.

Once the fuselage was completed, I realized that I could not use the Yak-38 wings anymore. They are already pretty small, but with the more voluminous Harrier and Flogger parts added to the aircraft, they’d just be too small!

What to do...? I checked the donor bank and – in order to add even more individual flavor – used a pair of double delta wings from a PM Model Su-15! But only the core of them was left after considerable modifications: The inner delta wing sections were cut off, as well as the tip sections and parts of the trailing edge (for a planform similar to the Yak-38’s wings). On the underside, the landing gear openings were filled up and wing tips from the Yak-38, with puffer jet nozzles, transplanted. The inner leading edges had to be re-sculpted, too. The Su-15 wing fences were kept - a welcome, very Soviet design detail.

A lot of work, but I think it paid out because of the individual shape and look of these “new” wings?

As a consequence of the new, bigger wings, the little Yak-38 stabilizers could not be used anymore, either. In order to keep the square wing shape, I used modified stabilizers from an Intech F-16C/D – their trailing edges were clipped, but the bigger span retained. Together with the characteristic OOB Yak-38 fin they work well, and all of the aerodynamic surfaces IMHO blend well into the overall design of the aircraft.

After the hull was complete, work on smaller things could start. Under the fuselage, a GSh-23-2 pod from a MiG-21 was added, as well as pylons from the Tsukuda Yak-38 under the wings and a donor part from the scrap box in ventral position.

The landing gear is a mix, too: the main struts come from the Yak-38, the balloon wheels from the Matchbox Harrier. The front landing gear comes from the Academy MiG-27, including the wheels with mudguards. It was just mounted in a fashion that it now retracts forward.

The Harrier vectoring nozzles were modified, too, the exhaust “grills” replaced by square, simple ducts, scratched from styrene profile and putty. Care was taken that the nozzles would remain moveable in the fuselage flanks – for later hover pictures. The Yak-38’s nozzles were retained, but since they can OOB only be mounted in a single, fixed position, I added a simple pin to each nozzle, together with two holes in the hull, so that positions can now be switched between hover and level flight.

All around the hull, finally some small details like pitots, blade antennae and air scoops were finally added, and the ordnance consists of a pair of unguided 57mm rocket pods and a pair of Kh-23 (AS-7 Kerry) guided missiles – the latter come from the Yak-38 kit, but they are very crude and their tail sections were modified in order to come (slightly) closer to reality.

Painting and markings:

As an aircraft of the Soviet Frontal Aviation in the late Eighties, I settled upon a typical, disruptive four-tone camouflage with blue undersides. Very conventional, but with an exotic VTOL model I thought that a subtle look would be appropriate – and also separate it from the Naval Yak-38 cousin.

Design benchmark is the scheme on a contemporary MiG-21bis from a Soviert Frontal Aviation unit, chosen because of the disruptive pattern. The tones are guesstimates, though, based on various similar aircraft in more or less weathered condition. I settled for:

- Humbrol 195 (Dark Satin Green)

- Humbrol 78 (RAF Interior Green)

- Modelmaster 2005 (Burnt Umber)

- Humbrol 119 (Light Earth)

- Humbrol 115 (Russian Blue) for the undersides

The cockpit was painted in Russian Cockpit Green, opf course. The landing gear and their respective wells in a mix of Aluminum and Khaki Drab (Humbrol 56 & 26), and the wheel discs became bright green (Humbrol 131). Several di-electric panels and antennae were painted in Humbrol 106 (RAF Ocean Grey).

The kit received a thin black ink wash, in order to emphasize the panel lines, and panel post-shading with subtly lighter tones of the basic colors. National markings, codes and emblems come from several aftermarket sheets, mostly from High Decal Line and Begemot.

After some soot stains (grinded graphite) had been added, the kit was sealed with matt acrlyic varnish (Italeri) and the ordnace added.

Messy work, but I am surprised how consistent and normal the resulting aircraft appears? From certain angles, my Yak-138 creation reminds a good deal of the stillborn Hawker P.1154 (no similarity intended, though), the SEPECAT Jaguar or rather exotic Soko J-22 Orao/IAR-93 Vultur fighter bomber. IMHO, there’s also some A-4 Skyhawk style to it, esp. in planview? Anyway, there’s still some good Yak-38 heritage recognizable, and the tactical Frontal Aviation paint scheme suits the aircraft well - looks like a serious mud mover.

STS042-203-024 (22-30 Jan. 1992) --- Astronaut David C. Hilmers (right), STS-42 mission specialist, assists European Space Agency (ESA) payload specialist Ulf Merbold with the visual stimulator experiment on the Space Shuttle Discovery's middeck. This particular test is part of an ongoing study of the Space Adaptation Syndrome (SAS). Seated in a stationary mini-sled, Merbold (or any other subject for this test) stares at an umbrella-shaped rotating dome with a pattern of colored dots on its interior. While observing the rotating dome, the subject turns a knob to indicate his perception of body rotation. The strength of circular vection is calculated by comparing the signals from the dome and the knob. The greater the false sense of circular vection, the more the subject is relying on visual information instead of otolith information.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was one of the largest and heaviest fighter aircraft in history to be powered by a single piston engine. It was heavily armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns, four per wing. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to eight tons, and in the fighter-bomber ground-attack roles could carry five-inch rockets or a significant bomb load of 2,500 pounds; it could carry over half the payload of the B-17 bomber on long-range missions (although the B-17 had a far greater range).

Twelve P-47H were lost in operational crashes with the 358th Group resulting in 11 deaths, two after VE Day, and two (44-21134 on 13 April 1945 and 44-21230 on 16 April 1945) were shot down in combat, both by ground fire.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 39 ft 2 in (11.96 m)

Wingspan: 40 ft 9 in (12.42 m)

Height: 14 ft 8 in (4.47 m)

Wing area: 300 ft² (27.87 m²)

Empty weight: 10,000 lb (4,535 kg)

Loaded weight: 13,300 lb (6,032 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 17,500 lb (7,938 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Chrysler XIV-2220-2 sixteen-cylinder inverted Vee liquid-cooled engine, rated at 2.450 hp.

Performance:

Maximum speed: 503 mph at 30,000 ft (810 km/h at 9,145 m)

Range: 920 mi combat, 2.175 ml ferry (1.480 km / 3.500 km)

Service ceiling: 43,000 ft (13,100 m)

Rate of climb: 3,120 ft/min (15.9 m/s)

Wing loading: 44.33 lb/ft² ()

Power/mass: 0.19 hp/lb (238 W/kg)

Armament:

8× .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns (3.400 rounds)

Up to 2,500 lb (1,134 kg) of bombs, drop tanks and/or 10× 5 in (127 mm) unguided rockets

The kit and its assembly:

I had the (X)P-47H on the agenda for some time, and even the respective MPM kit stashed away. But it took some time to start this project - one reason actually being the, well, crudeness of the MPM offering. Anyway, I wanted to build a service aircraft, and I wondered how this would have looked like, way beyond 1944? That brought me towards the late bubble canopy versions of the P-47D - and suddenly the idea was born to convert the XP-47H into a respective service aircraft which would not only carry the Chrysler XIV-2220-1 V16 engine, but also other improvements of the type. This eventually led to the decision to make this build a kitbash, as a spine implantation would be the easiest way to incorporate the lowered back - or so I thought...

I chose the ancient Heller P-47(N) as donation kit. Not because it was “good”, it just had the right ingredients and was cheap and easy to procure. What sounded like a simple plan turned into a twisted route to vague success. I took the front fuselage and the lower belly from the MPM kit, as well as the horizontal stabilizers and mated it with the upper and rear fuselage of the Heller Thunderbolt. This could have been easy, if both kits would not have had different fuselage diameters - the Heller kit is about 1mm too narrow, even though the length is fine. In order to compensate, I built two new fuselage halves from the salvaged pieces, and once these were stable and more or less sanded even, put together. Inside, the cockpit was taken from the Heller kit, but the seat comes from the MPM kit, and a pilot figure was added. Another problem is the fact that the MPM kit features engraved panel lines, while the Heller kit has old school, raised details and lots of rivets.

The propeller from the MPM kit is a joke, so I built a replacement from scratch - from a drop tank front half from an ancient Revell F4U, and the individual propeller blades were taken from an Italeri F4U. Inside the fuselage, a styrene tube was implanted which holds the new propeller on a metal axis, so it can spin freely.

Other personal mods include lowered flaps and the large cooler intake was opened, with foamed styrene placed inside which mimics some mesh. The same method was also used inside of the intercooler outlets (primarily in order to block any light from shining through). Inside of the landing gear wells I added some structure made from styrene profiles.

Another bigger challenge was the wing attachment - Heller and MPM kit differ considerably in this aspect, so that swapping parts is not easy. The MPM kit has the wing roots molded onto the fuselage halves, while the Heller wings are, more or less, directly attached to the fuselage. As a consequence the Heller wings hold the complete landing gear wells, while the MPM solution has divided sections. I decided to get rid of the MPM wing roots, about 3mm of material, and onto these stubs the Heller wings were attached. The landing gear came from the Heller kit, but the main wheels come from a (new) Revell Me 262 - both MPM and Heller parts are not recommended for serious use... Finally, the many exhausts and cooler flaps were either sanded away and replaced by scratched parts, or added - e. g. the vents behind the cockpit. While the Heller kit features bomb and missile hardpoints under the wings I decided to leave them away - this is supposed to be a fast interceptor, not a train-hunting plough.

Painting and markings:

As this was to be a very late WWII aircraft, NMF was certain, and I wanted to place the service P-47H into the European conflict theatre, where its speed would IMHO be best used against German jet threats. I wanted a colorful aircraft, though, and settled for a machine of the 358th FG. This group actually flew Thunderbolts in the 365-367th Squadrons, and I found several profiles of these gaudy things.

Common to all of them was an orange tail and a dark blue back, while the engine cowling would be decorated with a red front and the air outlets would carry bands in red, white and blue, with lots of tiny stars sprinkled upon. Furthermore, I found specimen with white cowlings behind the red front end, or even yellow cowlings. Pretty cool.

I tried to mimic this look. The model was basically painted with Aluminum Metallizer (Humbrol 27002) overall. The effect is really good, even without rubbing treatment. Some panels were contrasted with Aluminium Plate and Polished Steel Metallizer (Modelmaster), as well as with Aluminum (Humbrol 56, which is rather a metallic grey). The latter was also used on the landing gear. The anti-glare panel in front of the cockpit was painted with Olive Drab (ANA 613 from Modelmaster).

Since there is no air intake opening on the inline engine I decided to paint the spinner in bright red (Humbrol 19), and tried to incorporate the white and blue theme with stars decoration to the rest of the nose. As a convenient coincidence, I found decals from an Italeri B-66 in the stash: it features a version with dark blue jet air intake decorations in the right size, colors and style for what I had been looking for. So, instead of painting everything by hand I decided to incorporate this decal option.

The area behind the spinner was painted white and then the B-66 decals applied to the front flanks. The radiator air intake scoop had to be cut out, but the overall size and shape were a very good match. Even the transition into the blue spine and cockpit area worked well!

The tail was painted with Humbrol 18, later some shading with Humbrol 82 was added. The blue spine was done with a mix of Humbrol 104 and 15 (Oxford Blue and Midnight Blue) - not a perfect match for the B-66 decal colors, but after some dirt and weathering these differences would blur.

Cockpit interior was painted in Humbrol 159 (Khaki Drab) and Zinc Chromate Green from Model Master. The landing gear wells received a chrome yellow primer (Humbrol 225 - actually RAF Mid Stone but a perfect match for the task) finish.

For weathering the kit received a rubbing treatment with grinded graphite, which adds a dark, metallic shine and emphasizes the kit’s raised panel lines. Some dry painting with Aluminum was added, too, simulating chipped paint on the leading edges. I also added some oil stains around the engine, and serious soot stains at the exhaust.

Decals were, beyond the B-66 decoration, puzzled together. The aircraft' code 'CH-F[bar]' is another exotic twist, in two ways. The bar under the letter marks a second use of that code within the squadron, and as a difference from normal code placement (normally exclusively on the fuselage) I placed the aircraft's individual code letter on the fin, a practice on some P-51s and a consequence of the relatively large letter decals.

The nose art is a fictional puzzle, consisting of a Czech MiG-21 pin-up from the Pardubice '89 meeting. The “Ohio Express” tag comes from a Tamiya 1:100 F-105 Thunderchief. A neat combination that even matches the overall colors well!

As a final step, a coat of semi matt acrylic varnish was applied, with the exception of the anti glare panel, which became purely matt.

A better XP-47H? Hard to tell, since this kitbashing was a messy and rather crude work, so the overall finish does not look as good as I hoped for. But the lowered spine and the fin root extension adds to a fast look of this thing, more elegant (if that's possible in this case?) than the Razorback prototypes. I can't help, but the finished article looks like an Evel Knievel stunt vehicle? The red spinner looks a bit odd, but I'll leave it this way.

April 1, 2011

NASA technicians spun the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite up to just over 10 RPM in Goddard Space Flight Center’s High-Capacity Centrifuge facility March 31. At that speed, the spin exerted a lateral pressure of 2.4 G’s, or 2.4 times the force of gravity on the satellite.

Spin tests such as these are used to determine whether the forces of launch could adversely affect hardware we put into space, and to test spacecraft chassis design.

In this case, a combination of flight hardware parts and the so-called mass model were spun. The mass model simulates the final size, shape and weight distribution of the satellite and it’s component sensors, fuel, maneuvering thrusters, processing and control equipment.

GPM will study global rain, snow and ice to better understand our climate, weather, and hydrometeorological processes. For more on the GPM mission, visit gpm.gsfc.nasa.gov/.

Goddard’s 120-foot-diameter centrifuge can accelerate a 2.5-ton payload up to 30 Gs, well beyond the force experienced in a launch. The most intense roller-coasters in the world top out at about 5 Gs, and then only for brief moments. The 2.4 Gs experienced by GPM would be sufficient to prevent blood from flowing up into a person’s brain, inducing blackout if sustained.

Karl B. Hille

Photo Credit: NASA/GSFC/Rebecca Roth

To learn more about GPM go to: gpm.gsfc.nasa.gov/

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

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The Terex Titan, payload I believe around 350 tonnes, although someone local said 200.

There's a lot of open-cast coal-mining in the area.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was one of the largest and heaviest fighter aircraft in history to be powered by a single piston engine. It was heavily armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns, four per wing. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to eight tons, and in the fighter-bomber ground-attack roles could carry five-inch rockets or a significant bomb load of 2,500 pounds; it could carry over half the payload of the B-17 bomber on long-range missions (although the B-17 had a far greater range).

Twelve P-47H were lost in operational crashes with the 358th Group resulting in 11 deaths, two after VE Day, and two (44-21134 on 13 April 1945 and 44-21230 on 16 April 1945) were shot down in combat, both by ground fire.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 39 ft 2 in (11.96 m)

Wingspan: 40 ft 9 in (12.42 m)

Height: 14 ft 8 in (4.47 m)

Wing area: 300 ft² (27.87 m²)

Empty weight: 10,000 lb (4,535 kg)

Loaded weight: 13,300 lb (6,032 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 17,500 lb (7,938 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Chrysler XIV-2220-2 sixteen-cylinder inverted Vee liquid-cooled engine, rated at 2.450 hp.

Performance:

Maximum speed: 503 mph at 30,000 ft (810 km/h at 9,145 m)

Range: 920 mi combat, 2.175 ml ferry (1.480 km / 3.500 km)

Service ceiling: 43,000 ft (13,100 m)

Rate of climb: 3,120 ft/min (15.9 m/s)

Wing loading: 44.33 lb/ft² ()

Power/mass: 0.19 hp/lb (238 W/kg)

Armament:

8× .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns (3.400 rounds)

Up to 2,500 lb (1,134 kg) of bombs, drop tanks and/or 10× 5 in (127 mm) unguided rockets

The kit and its assembly:

I had the (X)P-47H on the agenda for some time, and even the respective MPM kit stashed away. But it took some time to start this project - one reason actually being the, well, crudeness of the MPM offering. Anyway, I wanted to build a service aircraft, and I wondered how this would have looked like, way beyond 1944? That brought me towards the late bubble canopy versions of the P-47D - and suddenly the idea was born to convert the XP-47H into a respective service aircraft which would not only carry the Chrysler XIV-2220-1 V16 engine, but also other improvements of the type. This eventually led to the decision to make this build a kitbash, as a spine implantation would be the easiest way to incorporate the lowered back - or so I thought...

I chose the ancient Heller P-47(N) as donation kit. Not because it was “good”, it just had the right ingredients and was cheap and easy to procure. What sounded like a simple plan turned into a twisted route to vague success. I took the front fuselage and the lower belly from the MPM kit, as well as the horizontal stabilizers and mated it with the upper and rear fuselage of the Heller Thunderbolt. This could have been easy, if both kits would not have had different fuselage diameters - the Heller kit is about 1mm too narrow, even though the length is fine. In order to compensate, I built two new fuselage halves from the salvaged pieces, and once these were stable and more or less sanded even, put together. Inside, the cockpit was taken from the Heller kit, but the seat comes from the MPM kit, and a pilot figure was added. Another problem is the fact that the MPM kit features engraved panel lines, while the Heller kit has old school, raised details and lots of rivets.

The propeller from the MPM kit is a joke, so I built a replacement from scratch - from a drop tank front half from an ancient Revell F4U, and the individual propeller blades were taken from an Italeri F4U. Inside the fuselage, a styrene tube was implanted which holds the new propeller on a metal axis, so it can spin freely.

Other personal mods include lowered flaps and the large cooler intake was opened, with foamed styrene placed inside which mimics some mesh. The same method was also used inside of the intercooler outlets (primarily in order to block any light from shining through). Inside of the landing gear wells I added some structure made from styrene profiles.

Another bigger challenge was the wing attachment - Heller and MPM kit differ considerably in this aspect, so that swapping parts is not easy. The MPM kit has the wing roots molded onto the fuselage halves, while the Heller wings are, more or less, directly attached to the fuselage. As a consequence the Heller wings hold the complete landing gear wells, while the MPM solution has divided sections. I decided to get rid of the MPM wing roots, about 3mm of material, and onto these stubs the Heller wings were attached. The landing gear came from the Heller kit, but the main wheels come from a (new) Revell Me 262 - both MPM and Heller parts are not recommended for serious use... Finally, the many exhausts and cooler flaps were either sanded away and replaced by scratched parts, or added - e. g. the vents behind the cockpit. While the Heller kit features bomb and missile hardpoints under the wings I decided to leave them away - this is supposed to be a fast interceptor, not a train-hunting plough.

Painting and markings:

As this was to be a very late WWII aircraft, NMF was certain, and I wanted to place the service P-47H into the European conflict theatre, where its speed would IMHO be best used against German jet threats. I wanted a colorful aircraft, though, and settled for a machine of the 358th FG. This group actually flew Thunderbolts in the 365-367th Squadrons, and I found several profiles of these gaudy things.

Common to all of them was an orange tail and a dark blue back, while the engine cowling would be decorated with a red front and the air outlets would carry bands in red, white and blue, with lots of tiny stars sprinkled upon. Furthermore, I found specimen with white cowlings behind the red front end, or even yellow cowlings. Pretty cool.

I tried to mimic this look. The model was basically painted with Aluminum Metallizer (Humbrol 27002) overall. The effect is really good, even without rubbing treatment. Some panels were contrasted with Aluminium Plate and Polished Steel Metallizer (Modelmaster), as well as with Aluminum (Humbrol 56, which is rather a metallic grey). The latter was also used on the landing gear. The anti-glare panel in front of the cockpit was painted with Olive Drab (ANA 613 from Modelmaster).

Since there is no air intake opening on the inline engine I decided to paint the spinner in bright red (Humbrol 19), and tried to incorporate the white and blue theme with stars decoration to the rest of the nose. As a convenient coincidence, I found decals from an Italeri B-66 in the stash: it features a version with dark blue jet air intake decorations in the right size, colors and style for what I had been looking for. So, instead of painting everything by hand I decided to incorporate this decal option.

The area behind the spinner was painted white and then the B-66 decals applied to the front flanks. The radiator air intake scoop had to be cut out, but the overall size and shape were a very good match. Even the transition into the blue spine and cockpit area worked well!

The tail was painted with Humbrol 18, later some shading with Humbrol 82 was added. The blue spine was done with a mix of Humbrol 104 and 15 (Oxford Blue and Midnight Blue) - not a perfect match for the B-66 decal colors, but after some dirt and weathering these differences would blur.

Cockpit interior was painted in Humbrol 159 (Khaki Drab) and Zinc Chromate Green from Model Master. The landing gear wells received a chrome yellow primer (Humbrol 225 - actually RAF Mid Stone but a perfect match for the task) finish.

For weathering the kit received a rubbing treatment with grinded graphite, which adds a dark, metallic shine and emphasizes the kit’s raised panel lines. Some dry painting with Aluminum was added, too, simulating chipped paint on the leading edges. I also added some oil stains around the engine, and serious soot stains at the exhaust.

Decals were, beyond the B-66 decoration, puzzled together. The aircraft' code 'CH-F[bar]' is another exotic twist, in two ways. The bar under the letter marks a second use of that code within the squadron, and as a difference from normal code placement (normally exclusively on the fuselage) I placed the aircraft's individual code letter on the fin, a practice on some P-51s and a consequence of the relatively large letter decals.

The nose art is a fictional puzzle, consisting of a Czech MiG-21 pin-up from the Pardubice '89 meeting. The “Ohio Express” tag comes from a Tamiya 1:100 F-105 Thunderchief. A neat combination that even matches the overall colors well!

As a final step, a coat of semi matt acrylic varnish was applied, with the exception of the anti glare panel, which became purely matt.

A better XP-47H? Hard to tell, since this kitbashing was a messy and rather crude work, so the overall finish does not look as good as I hoped for. But the lowered spine and the fin root extension adds to a fast look of this thing, more elegant (if that's possible in this case?) than the Razorback prototypes. I can't help, but the finished article looks like an Evel Knievel stunt vehicle? The red spinner looks a bit odd, but I'll leave it this way.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was one of the largest and heaviest fighter aircraft in history to be powered by a single piston engine. It was heavily armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns, four per wing. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to eight tons, and in the fighter-bomber ground-attack roles could carry five-inch rockets or a significant bomb load of 2,500 pounds; it could carry over half the payload of the B-17 bomber on long-range missions (although the B-17 had a far greater range).

Twelve P-47H were lost in operational crashes with the 358th Group resulting in 11 deaths, two after VE Day, and two (44-21134 on 13 April 1945 and 44-21230 on 16 April 1945) were shot down in combat, both by ground fire.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 39 ft 2 in (11.96 m)

Wingspan: 40 ft 9 in (12.42 m)

Height: 14 ft 8 in (4.47 m)

Wing area: 300 ft² (27.87 m²)

Empty weight: 10,000 lb (4,535 kg)

Loaded weight: 13,300 lb (6,032 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 17,500 lb (7,938 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Chrysler XIV-2220-2 sixteen-cylinder inverted Vee liquid-cooled engine, rated at 2.450 hp.

Performance:

Maximum speed: 503 mph at 30,000 ft (810 km/h at 9,145 m)

Range: 920 mi combat, 2.175 ml ferry (1.480 km / 3.500 km)

Service ceiling: 43,000 ft (13,100 m)

Rate of climb: 3,120 ft/min (15.9 m/s)

Wing loading: 44.33 lb/ft² ()

Power/mass: 0.19 hp/lb (238 W/kg)

Armament:

8× .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns (3.400 rounds)

Up to 2,500 lb (1,134 kg) of bombs, drop tanks and/or 10× 5 in (127 mm) unguided rockets

The kit and its assembly:

I had the (X)P-47H on the agenda for some time, and even the respective MPM kit stashed away. But it took some time to start this project - one reason actually being the, well, crudeness of the MPM offering. Anyway, I wanted to build a service aircraft, and I wondered how this would have looked like, way beyond 1944? That brought me towards the late bubble canopy versions of the P-47D - and suddenly the idea was born to convert the XP-47H into a respective service aircraft which would not only carry the Chrysler XIV-2220-1 V16 engine, but also other improvements of the type. This eventually led to the decision to make this build a kitbash, as a spine implantation would be the easiest way to incorporate the lowered back - or so I thought...

I chose the ancient Heller P-47(N) as donation kit. Not because it was “good”, it just had the right ingredients and was cheap and easy to procure. What sounded like a simple plan turned into a twisted route to vague success. I took the front fuselage and the lower belly from the MPM kit, as well as the horizontal stabilizers and mated it with the upper and rear fuselage of the Heller Thunderbolt. This could have been easy, if both kits would not have had different fuselage diameters - the Heller kit is about 1mm too narrow, even though the length is fine. In order to compensate, I built two new fuselage halves from the salvaged pieces, and once these were stable and more or less sanded even, put together. Inside, the cockpit was taken from the Heller kit, but the seat comes from the MPM kit, and a pilot figure was added. Another problem is the fact that the MPM kit features engraved panel lines, while the Heller kit has old school, raised details and lots of rivets.

The propeller from the MPM kit is a joke, so I built a replacement from scratch - from a drop tank front half from an ancient Revell F4U, and the individual propeller blades were taken from an Italeri F4U. Inside the fuselage, a styrene tube was implanted which holds the new propeller on a metal axis, so it can spin freely.

Other personal mods include lowered flaps and the large cooler intake was opened, with foamed styrene placed inside which mimics some mesh. The same method was also used inside of the intercooler outlets (primarily in order to block any light from shining through). Inside of the landing gear wells I added some structure made from styrene profiles.

Another bigger challenge was the wing attachment - Heller and MPM kit differ considerably in this aspect, so that swapping parts is not easy. The MPM kit has the wing roots molded onto the fuselage halves, while the Heller wings are, more or less, directly attached to the fuselage. As a consequence the Heller wings hold the complete landing gear wells, while the MPM solution has divided sections. I decided to get rid of the MPM wing roots, about 3mm of material, and onto these stubs the Heller wings were attached. The landing gear came from the Heller kit, but the main wheels come from a (new) Revell Me 262 - both MPM and Heller parts are not recommended for serious use... Finally, the many exhausts and cooler flaps were either sanded away and replaced by scratched parts, or added - e. g. the vents behind the cockpit. While the Heller kit features bomb and missile hardpoints under the wings I decided to leave them away - this is supposed to be a fast interceptor, not a train-hunting plough.

Painting and markings:

As this was to be a very late WWII aircraft, NMF was certain, and I wanted to place the service P-47H into the European conflict theatre, where its speed would IMHO be best used against German jet threats. I wanted a colorful aircraft, though, and settled for a machine of the 358th FG. This group actually flew Thunderbolts in the 365-367th Squadrons, and I found several profiles of these gaudy things.

Common to all of them was an orange tail and a dark blue back, while the engine cowling would be decorated with a red front and the air outlets would carry bands in red, white and blue, with lots of tiny stars sprinkled upon. Furthermore, I found specimen with white cowlings behind the red front end, or even yellow cowlings. Pretty cool.

I tried to mimic this look. The model was basically painted with Aluminum Metallizer (Humbrol 27002) overall. The effect is really good, even without rubbing treatment. Some panels were contrasted with Aluminium Plate and Polished Steel Metallizer (Modelmaster), as well as with Aluminum (Humbrol 56, which is rather a metallic grey). The latter was also used on the landing gear. The anti-glare panel in front of the cockpit was painted with Olive Drab (ANA 613 from Modelmaster).

Since there is no air intake opening on the inline engine I decided to paint the spinner in bright red (Humbrol 19), and tried to incorporate the white and blue theme with stars decoration to the rest of the nose. As a convenient coincidence, I found decals from an Italeri B-66 in the stash: it features a version with dark blue jet air intake decorations in the right size, colors and style for what I had been looking for. So, instead of painting everything by hand I decided to incorporate this decal option.

The area behind the spinner was painted white and then the B-66 decals applied to the front flanks. The radiator air intake scoop had to be cut out, but the overall size and shape were a very good match. Even the transition into the blue spine and cockpit area worked well!

The tail was painted with Humbrol 18, later some shading with Humbrol 82 was added. The blue spine was done with a mix of Humbrol 104 and 15 (Oxford Blue and Midnight Blue) - not a perfect match for the B-66 decal colors, but after some dirt and weathering these differences would blur.

Cockpit interior was painted in Humbrol 159 (Khaki Drab) and Zinc Chromate Green from Model Master. The landing gear wells received a chrome yellow primer (Humbrol 225 - actually RAF Mid Stone but a perfect match for the task) finish.

For weathering the kit received a rubbing treatment with grinded graphite, which adds a dark, metallic shine and emphasizes the kit’s raised panel lines. Some dry painting with Aluminum was added, too, simulating chipped paint on the leading edges. I also added some oil stains around the engine, and serious soot stains at the exhaust.

Decals were, beyond the B-66 decoration, puzzled together. The aircraft' code 'CH-F[bar]' is another exotic twist, in two ways. The bar under the letter marks a second use of that code within the squadron, and as a difference from normal code placement (normally exclusively on the fuselage) I placed the aircraft's individual code letter on the fin, a practice on some P-51s and a consequence of the relatively large letter decals.

The nose art is a fictional puzzle, consisting of a Czech MiG-21 pin-up from the Pardubice '89 meeting. The “Ohio Express” tag comes from a Tamiya 1:100 F-105 Thunderchief. A neat combination that even matches the overall colors well!

As a final step, a coat of semi matt acrylic varnish was applied, with the exception of the anti glare panel, which became purely matt.

A better XP-47H? Hard to tell, since this kitbashing was a messy and rather crude work, so the overall finish does not look as good as I hoped for. But the lowered spine and the fin root extension adds to a fast look of this thing, more elegant (if that's possible in this case?) than the Razorback prototypes. I can't help, but the finished article looks like an Evel Knievel stunt vehicle? The red spinner looks a bit odd, but I'll leave it this way.

Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida install the radiator for the Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo) instrument inside the Space Station Processing Facility on Sept. 25, 2020. MSolo will help analyze the chemical makeup of landing sites on the Moon, as well as study water on the lunar surface. The radiator will help keep the instrument’s temperature stable in the extreme heat and cold it will encounter. MSolo instruments are scheduled to launch on multiple robotic missions as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS), with the first of these missions exploring Lacus Mortis, a large crater on the near side of the Moon, beginning in 2021. MSolo also will be one of three instruments on the agency’s water-hunting Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, VIPER, scheduled to launch to the Moon’s South Pole in late 2023. Photo credit: NASA/Glenn Benson

NASA image use policy.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was one of the largest and heaviest fighter aircraft in history to be powered by a single piston engine. It was heavily armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns, four per wing. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to eight tons, and in the fighter-bomber ground-attack roles could carry five-inch rockets or a significant bomb load of 2,500 pounds; it could carry over half the payload of the B-17 bomber on long-range missions (although the B-17 had a far greater range).

Twelve P-47H were lost in operational crashes with the 358th Group resulting in 11 deaths, two after VE Day, and two (44-21134 on 13 April 1945 and 44-21230 on 16 April 1945) were shot down in combat, both by ground fire.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 39 ft 2 in (11.96 m)

Wingspan: 40 ft 9 in (12.42 m)

Height: 14 ft 8 in (4.47 m)

Wing area: 300 ft² (27.87 m²)

Empty weight: 10,000 lb (4,535 kg)

Loaded weight: 13,300 lb (6,032 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 17,500 lb (7,938 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Chrysler XIV-2220-2 sixteen-cylinder inverted Vee liquid-cooled engine, rated at 2.450 hp.

Performance:

Maximum speed: 503 mph at 30,000 ft (810 km/h at 9,145 m)

Range: 920 mi combat, 2.175 ml ferry (1.480 km / 3.500 km)

Service ceiling: 43,000 ft (13,100 m)

Rate of climb: 3,120 ft/min (15.9 m/s)

Wing loading: 44.33 lb/ft² ()

Power/mass: 0.19 hp/lb (238 W/kg)

Armament:

8× .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns (3.400 rounds)

Up to 2,500 lb (1,134 kg) of bombs, drop tanks and/or 10× 5 in (127 mm) unguided rockets

The kit and its assembly:

I had the (X)P-47H on the agenda for some time, and even the respective MPM kit stashed away. But it took some time to start this project - one reason actually being the, well, crudeness of the MPM offering. Anyway, I wanted to build a service aircraft, and I wondered how this would have looked like, way beyond 1944? That brought me towards the late bubble canopy versions of the P-47D - and suddenly the idea was born to convert the XP-47H into a respective service aircraft which would not only carry the Chrysler XIV-2220-1 V16 engine, but also other improvements of the type. This eventually led to the decision to make this build a kitbash, as a spine implantation would be the easiest way to incorporate the lowered back - or so I thought...

I chose the ancient Heller P-47(N) as donation kit. Not because it was “good”, it just had the right ingredients and was cheap and easy to procure. What sounded like a simple plan turned into a twisted route to vague success. I took the front fuselage and the lower belly from the MPM kit, as well as the horizontal stabilizers and mated it with the upper and rear fuselage of the Heller Thunderbolt. This could have been easy, if both kits would not have had different fuselage diameters - the Heller kit is about 1mm too narrow, even though the length is fine. In order to compensate, I built two new fuselage halves from the salvaged pieces, and once these were stable and more or less sanded even, put together. Inside, the cockpit was taken from the Heller kit, but the seat comes from the MPM kit, and a pilot figure was added. Another problem is the fact that the MPM kit features engraved panel lines, while the Heller kit has old school, raised details and lots of rivets.

The propeller from the MPM kit is a joke, so I built a replacement from scratch - from a drop tank front half from an ancient Revell F4U, and the individual propeller blades were taken from an Italeri F4U. Inside the fuselage, a styrene tube was implanted which holds the new propeller on a metal axis, so it can spin freely.

Other personal mods include lowered flaps and the large cooler intake was opened, with foamed styrene placed inside which mimics some mesh. The same method was also used inside of the intercooler outlets (primarily in order to block any light from shining through). Inside of the landing gear wells I added some structure made from styrene profiles.

Another bigger challenge was the wing attachment - Heller and MPM kit differ considerably in this aspect, so that swapping parts is not easy. The MPM kit has the wing roots molded onto the fuselage halves, while the Heller wings are, more or less, directly attached to the fuselage. As a consequence the Heller wings hold the complete landing gear wells, while the MPM solution has divided sections. I decided to get rid of the MPM wing roots, about 3mm of material, and onto these stubs the Heller wings were attached. The landing gear came from the Heller kit, but the main wheels come from a (new) Revell Me 262 - both MPM and Heller parts are not recommended for serious use... Finally, the many exhausts and cooler flaps were either sanded away and replaced by scratched parts, or added - e. g. the vents behind the cockpit. While the Heller kit features bomb and missile hardpoints under the wings I decided to leave them away - this is supposed to be a fast interceptor, not a train-hunting plough.

Painting and markings:

As this was to be a very late WWII aircraft, NMF was certain, and I wanted to place the service P-47H into the European conflict theatre, where its speed would IMHO be best used against German jet threats. I wanted a colorful aircraft, though, and settled for a machine of the 358th FG. This group actually flew Thunderbolts in the 365-367th Squadrons, and I found several profiles of these gaudy things.

Common to all of them was an orange tail and a dark blue back, while the engine cowling would be decorated with a red front and the air outlets would carry bands in red, white and blue, with lots of tiny stars sprinkled upon. Furthermore, I found specimen with white cowlings behind the red front end, or even yellow cowlings. Pretty cool.

I tried to mimic this look. The model was basically painted with Aluminum Metallizer (Humbrol 27002) overall. The effect is really good, even without rubbing treatment. Some panels were contrasted with Aluminium Plate and Polished Steel Metallizer (Modelmaster), as well as with Aluminum (Humbrol 56, which is rather a metallic grey). The latter was also used on the landing gear. The anti-glare panel in front of the cockpit was painted with Olive Drab (ANA 613 from Modelmaster).

Since there is no air intake opening on the inline engine I decided to paint the spinner in bright red (Humbrol 19), and tried to incorporate the white and blue theme with stars decoration to the rest of the nose. As a convenient coincidence, I found decals from an Italeri B-66 in the stash: it features a version with dark blue jet air intake decorations in the right size, colors and style for what I had been looking for. So, instead of painting everything by hand I decided to incorporate this decal option.

The area behind the spinner was painted white and then the B-66 decals applied to the front flanks. The radiator air intake scoop had to be cut out, but the overall size and shape were a very good match. Even the transition into the blue spine and cockpit area worked well!

The tail was painted with Humbrol 18, later some shading with Humbrol 82 was added. The blue spine was done with a mix of Humbrol 104 and 15 (Oxford Blue and Midnight Blue) - not a perfect match for the B-66 decal colors, but after some dirt and weathering these differences would blur.

Cockpit interior was painted in Humbrol 159 (Khaki Drab) and Zinc Chromate Green from Model Master. The landing gear wells received a chrome yellow primer (Humbrol 225 - actually RAF Mid Stone but a perfect match for the task) finish.

For weathering the kit received a rubbing treatment with grinded graphite, which adds a dark, metallic shine and emphasizes the kit’s raised panel lines. Some dry painting with Aluminum was added, too, simulating chipped paint on the leading edges. I also added some oil stains around the engine, and serious soot stains at the exhaust.

Decals were, beyond the B-66 decoration, puzzled together. The aircraft' code 'CH-F[bar]' is another exotic twist, in two ways. The bar under the letter marks a second use of that code within the squadron, and as a difference from normal code placement (normally exclusively on the fuselage) I placed the aircraft's individual code letter on the fin, a practice on some P-51s and a consequence of the relatively large letter decals.

The nose art is a fictional puzzle, consisting of a Czech MiG-21 pin-up from the Pardubice '89 meeting. The “Ohio Express” tag comes from a Tamiya 1:100 F-105 Thunderchief. A neat combination that even matches the overall colors well!

As a final step, a coat of semi matt acrylic varnish was applied, with the exception of the anti glare panel, which became purely matt.

A better XP-47H? Hard to tell, since this kitbashing was a messy and rather crude work, so the overall finish does not look as good as I hoped for. But the lowered spine and the fin root extension adds to a fast look of this thing, more elegant (if that's possible in this case?) than the Razorback prototypes. I can't help, but the finished article looks like an Evel Knievel stunt vehicle? The red spinner looks a bit odd, but I'll leave it this way.

Full payload

RAF Fairford 2011

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Yakovlev Yak-38 (Russian: Яковлева Як-38; NATO reporting name: "Forger") was the Soviet Naval Aviation's first and only operational VTOL strike fighter aircraft, in addition to being its first operational carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft. It was developed specifically for and served almost exclusively on the Kiev-class aircraft carriers.

Officially, all Ukrainian Yak-138 were scrapped until 1994, even though rumor has it that one or two airframes had been sold behind the scenes to China. In Russia only five specimen had survived, and since the spares situation was doubtful none could be kept in flying condition. One Yak-138 was eventually handed over to the Ulyanovsk Aircraft Museum, while the rest was either mothballed or scrapped, too. Unfortunately, the sole museum exhibit was lost in 1995 in a fire accident.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length (incl. pitot): 15.84 m (51 ft 10 1/2 in)

Wingspan: 8,17 m (26 ft 9 in)

Height: 4.19 m (14 ft 3 in)

Wing area: 24.18 m² (260.27 ft²)

Empty weight: 7,385 kg (16,281 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 11,300 kg (28,700 lb)

Powerplant:

1x Kuznetsov NK-32L-2 turbofan engine, rated at 137 kN (31,000 lbf)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1,176 km/h (730 mph; 635 knots) at sea level

Combat radius: 230 mi (200 nmi, 370 km) lo-lo-lo with 4,400 lb (2,000 kg) payload

Ferry range: 2,129 mi (1,850 nmi, 3,425 km)

Endurance: 1 hr 30 min (combat air patrol – 115 mi (185 km) from base)

Service ceiling: 51,200 ft (15,600 m)

Time to climb to 40,000 ft (12,200 m): 2 min 23 s

Armament:

1x GSh-23L 23mm machine cannon with 250 RPG under the fuselage

5 hardpoints with a total external capacity of

- 3.000 kg (6,600 lb) for C/STOL operations and

- 2.000 kg (4.400 lb) in VTOL mode

Provisions to carry combinations of various types of unguided rockets (up to 240 mm), anti-ship

or air-to-surface Kh-23 (AS-7 Kerry) missiles (together with a Delta N guidance pod), R-60,

R-60M (AA-8 Aphid) or R-73 (AA-11 Archer) air-to-air missiles; tactical nuclear bombs, general

purpose bombs of up to 500 kg (1.100 lb) caliber, or incendiary ZB-500 napalm tanks or up to

three PTB-800 drop tanks under the fuselage and the inner pair of wing pylons

The kit and its assembly:

Sixth contribution to the “Soviet” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com in early 2017, on pretty short notice since the GB had been coming to its end. This totally fictional aircraft was inspired CG illustrations that had been roaming the WWW for some time: a hybrid between a Yak-38 (mostly the tail section), mated with an AV-8B Harrier II (cockpit, wings, landing gear). This did not look bad at all, yet a bit weird, with lift engines added in front of the fin. Certainly not conformal with a good CG balance – but I liked the idea of a single-engine Forger. And actually, OKB Yakovlev had been considering this.

So, the basic idea was a Harrier/Yak-38 kitbash. But the more I thought about the concept, the more additional donor parts came into play. One major addition was the nose section from a MiG-27 – with its slanted nose it would offer the pilot an excellent field of view, and the aircraft would, as a front line attack plane like the Harrier, not carry a radar, so the Flogger’s nose shape was perfect.

Therefore, initial ingredients for the Yak-138 were:

- Rear fuselage, wings and tail from a Tsukuda Hobby/Kangnam/Revell Yak-38

- Mid-fuselage with air intakes and front vectoring nozzles from a Matchbox Sea Harrier

- Cockpit from an Academy MiG-27

Work started with the MiG-27 cockpit, which was more or less taken OOB (except for side consoles in the cockpit and different seat), and the Yak-38 the tail section, built in parallel. To my surprise the Forger fuselage was easier to combine with the Harrier than expected, even though the position of the right cuts took multiple measurements until I came up with a proper solution. Since the Harrier is overall shorter than the Yak-38, the latter’s fuselage had to be shortened. I retained the tail cone, the Forger’s vectoring nozzles and the landing gear wells – and a 2cm plug was taken out between them. Instead of the Harrier’s tandem landing gear arrangement with outriggers under the outer wings, this one was to receive a conventional landing gear for optional C/STOL operations with a higher ordnance load, so that the Yak-38 parts were a welcome basis. Once the fuselage’s underside was more or less complete, the upper rest of the Yak-38 fuselage could be cut to size and integrated into the lower half and the Harrier parts.

After the rear end was settled, the MiG-27 cockpit could be mounted to the front end, which was slightly shortened by 2-3mm (since the Flogger’s is markedly longer than the short Harrier nose). In order to change the overall look of the aircraft, I eventually dropped the Harrier intakes and decided to use the Flogger’s boxy air intakes instead. These are considerably smaller than the gaping Harrier holes, and blending the conflicting shapes into each other for a more or less consistent look took several PSR turns. But it worked, better than expected, and it changes the aircraft’s look effectively, so that almost anything Harrier-esque was gone.

Once the fuselage was completed, I realized that I could not use the Yak-38 wings anymore. They are already pretty small, but with the more voluminous Harrier and Flogger parts added to the aircraft, they’d just be too small!

What to do...? I checked the donor bank and – in order to add even more individual flavor – used a pair of double delta wings from a PM Model Su-15! But only the core of them was left after considerable modifications: The inner delta wing sections were cut off, as well as the tip sections and parts of the trailing edge (for a planform similar to the Yak-38’s wings). On the underside, the landing gear openings were filled up and wing tips from the Yak-38, with puffer jet nozzles, transplanted. The inner leading edges had to be re-sculpted, too. The Su-15 wing fences were kept - a welcome, very Soviet design detail.

A lot of work, but I think it paid out because of the individual shape and look of these “new” wings?

As a consequence of the new, bigger wings, the little Yak-38 stabilizers could not be used anymore, either. In order to keep the square wing shape, I used modified stabilizers from an Intech F-16C/D – their trailing edges were clipped, but the bigger span retained. Together with the characteristic OOB Yak-38 fin they work well, and all of the aerodynamic surfaces IMHO blend well into the overall design of the aircraft.

After the hull was complete, work on smaller things could start. Under the fuselage, a GSh-23-2 pod from a MiG-21 was added, as well as pylons from the Tsukuda Yak-38 under the wings and a donor part from the scrap box in ventral position.

The landing gear is a mix, too: the main struts come from the Yak-38, the balloon wheels from the Matchbox Harrier. The front landing gear comes from the Academy MiG-27, including the wheels with mudguards. It was just mounted in a fashion that it now retracts forward.

The Harrier vectoring nozzles were modified, too, the exhaust “grills” replaced by square, simple ducts, scratched from styrene profile and putty. Care was taken that the nozzles would remain moveable in the fuselage flanks – for later hover pictures. The Yak-38’s nozzles were retained, but since they can OOB only be mounted in a single, fixed position, I added a simple pin to each nozzle, together with two holes in the hull, so that positions can now be switched between hover and level flight.

All around the hull, finally some small details like pitots, blade antennae and air scoops were finally added, and the ordnance consists of a pair of unguided 57mm rocket pods and a pair of Kh-23 (AS-7 Kerry) guided missiles – the latter come from the Yak-38 kit, but they are very crude and their tail sections were modified in order to come (slightly) closer to reality.

Painting and markings:

As an aircraft of the Soviet Frontal Aviation in the late Eighties, I settled upon a typical, disruptive four-tone camouflage with blue undersides. Very conventional, but with an exotic VTOL model I thought that a subtle look would be appropriate – and also separate it from the Naval Yak-38 cousin.

Design benchmark is the scheme on a contemporary MiG-21bis from a Soviert Frontal Aviation unit, chosen because of the disruptive pattern. The tones are guesstimates, though, based on various similar aircraft in more or less weathered condition. I settled for:

- Humbrol 195 (Dark Satin Green)

- Humbrol 78 (RAF Interior Green)

- Modelmaster 2005 (Burnt Umber)

- Humbrol 119 (Light Earth)

- Humbrol 115 (Russian Blue) for the undersides

The cockpit was painted in Russian Cockpit Green, opf course. The landing gear and their respective wells in a mix of Aluminum and Khaki Drab (Humbrol 56 & 26), and the wheel discs became bright green (Humbrol 131). Several di-electric panels and antennae were painted in Humbrol 106 (RAF Ocean Grey).

The kit received a thin black ink wash, in order to emphasize the panel lines, and panel post-shading with subtly lighter tones of the basic colors. National markings, codes and emblems come from several aftermarket sheets, mostly from High Decal Line and Begemot.

After some soot stains (grinded graphite) had been added, the kit was sealed with matt acrlyic varnish (Italeri) and the ordnace added.

Messy work, but I am surprised how consistent and normal the resulting aircraft appears? From certain angles, my Yak-138 creation reminds a good deal of the stillborn Hawker P.1154 (no similarity intended, though), the SEPECAT Jaguar or rather exotic Soko J-22 Orao/IAR-93 Vultur fighter bomber. IMHO, there’s also some A-4 Skyhawk style to it, esp. in planview? Anyway, there’s still some good Yak-38 heritage recognizable, and the tactical Frontal Aviation paint scheme suits the aircraft well - looks like a serious mud mover.

Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida install the radiator for the Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo) instrument inside the Space Station Processing Facility on Sept. 25, 2020. MSolo will help analyze the chemical makeup of landing sites on the Moon, as well as study water on the lunar surface. The radiator will help keep the instrument’s temperature stable in the extreme heat and cold it will encounter. MSolo instruments are scheduled to launch on multiple robotic missions as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS), with the first of these missions exploring Lacus Mortis, a large crater on the near side of the Moon, beginning in 2021. MSolo also will be one of three instruments on the agency’s water-hunting Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, VIPER, scheduled to launch to the Moon’s South Pole in late 2023. Photo credit: NASA/Glenn Benson

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+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Yakovlev Yak-38 (Russian: Яковлева Як-38; NATO reporting name: "Forger") was the Soviet Naval Aviation's first and only operational VTOL strike fighter aircraft, in addition to being its first operational carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft. It was developed specifically for and served almost exclusively on the Kiev-class aircraft carriers.

Officially, all Ukrainian Yak-138 were scrapped until 1994, even though rumor has it that one or two airframes had been sold behind the scenes to China. In Russia only five specimen had survived, and since the spares situation was doubtful none could be kept in flying condition. One Yak-138 was eventually handed over to the Ulyanovsk Aircraft Museum, while the rest was either mothballed or scrapped, too. Unfortunately, the sole museum exhibit was lost in 1995 in a fire accident.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length (incl. pitot): 15.84 m (51 ft 10 1/2 in)

Wingspan: 8,17 m (26 ft 9 in)

Height: 4.19 m (14 ft 3 in)

Wing area: 24.18 m² (260.27 ft²)

Empty weight: 7,385 kg (16,281 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 11,300 kg (28,700 lb)

Powerplant:

1x Kuznetsov NK-32L-2 turbofan engine, rated at 137 kN (31,000 lbf)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1,176 km/h (730 mph; 635 knots) at sea level

Combat radius: 230 mi (200 nmi, 370 km) lo-lo-lo with 4,400 lb (2,000 kg) payload

Ferry range: 2,129 mi (1,850 nmi, 3,425 km)

Endurance: 1 hr 30 min (combat air patrol – 115 mi (185 km) from base)

Service ceiling: 51,200 ft (15,600 m)

Time to climb to 40,000 ft (12,200 m): 2 min 23 s

Armament:

1x GSh-23L 23mm machine cannon with 250 RPG under the fuselage

5 hardpoints with a total external capacity of

- 3.000 kg (6,600 lb) for C/STOL operations and

- 2.000 kg (4.400 lb) in VTOL mode

Provisions to carry combinations of various types of unguided rockets (up to 240 mm), anti-ship

or air-to-surface Kh-23 (AS-7 Kerry) missiles (together with a Delta N guidance pod), R-60,

R-60M (AA-8 Aphid) or R-73 (AA-11 Archer) air-to-air missiles; tactical nuclear bombs, general

purpose bombs of up to 500 kg (1.100 lb) caliber, or incendiary ZB-500 napalm tanks or up to

three PTB-800 drop tanks under the fuselage and the inner pair of wing pylons

The kit and its assembly:

Sixth contribution to the “Soviet” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com in early 2017, on pretty short notice since the GB had been coming to its end. This totally fictional aircraft was inspired CG illustrations that had been roaming the WWW for some time: a hybrid between a Yak-38 (mostly the tail section), mated with an AV-8B Harrier II (cockpit, wings, landing gear). This did not look bad at all, yet a bit weird, with lift engines added in front of the fin. Certainly not conformal with a good CG balance – but I liked the idea of a single-engine Forger. And actually, OKB Yakovlev had been considering this.

So, the basic idea was a Harrier/Yak-38 kitbash. But the more I thought about the concept, the more additional donor parts came into play. One major addition was the nose section from a MiG-27 – with its slanted nose it would offer the pilot an excellent field of view, and the aircraft would, as a front line attack plane like the Harrier, not carry a radar, so the Flogger’s nose shape was perfect.

Therefore, initial ingredients for the Yak-138 were:

- Rear fuselage, wings and tail from a Tsukuda Hobby/Kangnam/Revell Yak-38

- Mid-fuselage with air intakes and front vectoring nozzles from a Matchbox Sea Harrier

- Cockpit from an Academy MiG-27

Work started with the MiG-27 cockpit, which was more or less taken OOB (except for side consoles in the cockpit and different seat), and the Yak-38 the tail section, built in parallel. To my surprise the Forger fuselage was easier to combine with the Harrier than expected, even though the position of the right cuts took multiple measurements until I came up with a proper solution. Since the Harrier is overall shorter than the Yak-38, the latter’s fuselage had to be shortened. I retained the tail cone, the Forger’s vectoring nozzles and the landing gear wells – and a 2cm plug was taken out between them. Instead of the Harrier’s tandem landing gear arrangement with outriggers under the outer wings, this one was to receive a conventional landing gear for optional C/STOL operations with a higher ordnance load, so that the Yak-38 parts were a welcome basis. Once the fuselage’s underside was more or less complete, the upper rest of the Yak-38 fuselage could be cut to size and integrated into the lower half and the Harrier parts.

After the rear end was settled, the MiG-27 cockpit could be mounted to the front end, which was slightly shortened by 2-3mm (since the Flogger’s is markedly longer than the short Harrier nose). In order to change the overall look of the aircraft, I eventually dropped the Harrier intakes and decided to use the Flogger’s boxy air intakes instead. These are considerably smaller than the gaping Harrier holes, and blending the conflicting shapes into each other for a more or less consistent look took several PSR turns. But it worked, better than expected, and it changes the aircraft’s look effectively, so that almost anything Harrier-esque was gone.

Once the fuselage was completed, I realized that I could not use the Yak-38 wings anymore. They are already pretty small, but with the more voluminous Harrier and Flogger parts added to the aircraft, they’d just be too small!

What to do...? I checked the donor bank and – in order to add even more individual flavor – used a pair of double delta wings from a PM Model Su-15! But only the core of them was left after considerable modifications: The inner delta wing sections were cut off, as well as the tip sections and parts of the trailing edge (for a planform similar to the Yak-38’s wings). On the underside, the landing gear openings were filled up and wing tips from the Yak-38, with puffer jet nozzles, transplanted. The inner leading edges had to be re-sculpted, too. The Su-15 wing fences were kept - a welcome, very Soviet design detail.

A lot of work, but I think it paid out because of the individual shape and look of these “new” wings?

As a consequence of the new, bigger wings, the little Yak-38 stabilizers could not be used anymore, either. In order to keep the square wing shape, I used modified stabilizers from an Intech F-16C/D – their trailing edges were clipped, but the bigger span retained. Together with the characteristic OOB Yak-38 fin they work well, and all of the aerodynamic surfaces IMHO blend well into the overall design of the aircraft.

After the hull was complete, work on smaller things could start. Under the fuselage, a GSh-23-2 pod from a MiG-21 was added, as well as pylons from the Tsukuda Yak-38 under the wings and a donor part from the scrap box in ventral position.

The landing gear is a mix, too: the main struts come from the Yak-38, the balloon wheels from the Matchbox Harrier. The front landing gear comes from the Academy MiG-27, including the wheels with mudguards. It was just mounted in a fashion that it now retracts forward.

The Harrier vectoring nozzles were modified, too, the exhaust “grills” replaced by square, simple ducts, scratched from styrene profile and putty. Care was taken that the nozzles would remain moveable in the fuselage flanks – for later hover pictures. The Yak-38’s nozzles were retained, but since they can OOB only be mounted in a single, fixed position, I added a simple pin to each nozzle, together with two holes in the hull, so that positions can now be switched between hover and level flight.

All around the hull, finally some small details like pitots, blade antennae and air scoops were finally added, and the ordnance consists of a pair of unguided 57mm rocket pods and a pair of Kh-23 (AS-7 Kerry) guided missiles – the latter come from the Yak-38 kit, but they are very crude and their tail sections were modified in order to come (slightly) closer to reality.

Painting and markings:

As an aircraft of the Soviet Frontal Aviation in the late Eighties, I settled upon a typical, disruptive four-tone camouflage with blue undersides. Very conventional, but with an exotic VTOL model I thought that a subtle look would be appropriate – and also separate it from the Naval Yak-38 cousin.

Design benchmark is the scheme on a contemporary MiG-21bis from a Soviert Frontal Aviation unit, chosen because of the disruptive pattern. The tones are guesstimates, though, based on various similar aircraft in more or less weathered condition. I settled for:

- Humbrol 195 (Dark Satin Green)

- Humbrol 78 (RAF Interior Green)

- Modelmaster 2005 (Burnt Umber)

- Humbrol 119 (Light Earth)

- Humbrol 115 (Russian Blue) for the undersides

The cockpit was painted in Russian Cockpit Green, opf course. The landing gear and their respective wells in a mix of Aluminum and Khaki Drab (Humbrol 56 & 26), and the wheel discs became bright green (Humbrol 131). Several di-electric panels and antennae were painted in Humbrol 106 (RAF Ocean Grey).

The kit received a thin black ink wash, in order to emphasize the panel lines, and panel post-shading with subtly lighter tones of the basic colors. National markings, codes and emblems come from several aftermarket sheets, mostly from High Decal Line and Begemot.

After some soot stains (grinded graphite) had been added, the kit was sealed with matt acrlyic varnish (Italeri) and the ordnace added.

Messy work, but I am surprised how consistent and normal the resulting aircraft appears? From certain angles, my Yak-138 creation reminds a good deal of the stillborn Hawker P.1154 (no similarity intended, though), the SEPECAT Jaguar or rather exotic Soko J-22 Orao/IAR-93 Vultur fighter bomber. IMHO, there’s also some A-4 Skyhawk style to it, esp. in planview? Anyway, there’s still some good Yak-38 heritage recognizable, and the tactical Frontal Aviation paint scheme suits the aircraft well - looks like a serious mud mover.

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lunar lander is encapsulated inside SpaceX's rocket fairing ahead of its targeted liftoff for 1:11 a.m. EST Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1 will be the company's first flight to the Moon as part of the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services or CLPS initiative and Artemis campaign. Photo credit: SpaceX

NASA image use policy.

with ProTech Sno-Pusher

The Educational Launch of Nanosatellites 19 (ELaNa 19) payload has been encapsulated inside the Rocket Lab Electron rocket payload fairing on Dec. 1, 2018, at the company’s facility in New Zealand. The ELaNa 19 payload comprises 10 CubeSats selected through NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative. The liftoff marks the debut of the agency’s innovative Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS) effort. Managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, VCLS was developed to offer small payloads dedicated rides to space.

NASA image use policy.

The Space Shuttle orbiter is the spaceplane component of the Space Shuttle, a partially reusable orbital spacecraft system that was part of the discontinued Space Shuttle program. Operated from 1977 to 2011 by NASA, the U.S. space agency, this vehicle could carry astronauts and payloads into low Earth orbit, perform in-space operations, then re-enter the atmosphere and land as a glider, returning its crew and any on-board payload to the Earth.

Six orbiters were built for flight: Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. All were built in Palmdale, California, by the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Rockwell International company. The first orbiter, Enterprise, made its maiden flight in 1977. An unpowered glider, it was carried by a modified Boeing 747 airliner called the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and released for a series of atmospheric test flights and landings. Enterprise was partially disassembled and retired after completion of critical testing. The remaining orbiters were fully operational spacecraft, and were launched vertically as part of the Space Shuttle stack.

Columbia was the first space-worthy orbiter; it made its inaugural flight in 1981. Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis followed in 1983, 1984, and 1985 respectively. In 1986, Challenger was destroyed in an accident shortly after its 10th launch. Endeavour was built as Challenger's successor, and was first launched in 1992. In 2003, Columbia was destroyed during re-entry, leaving just three remaining orbiters. Discovery completed its final flight on March 9, 2011, and Endeavour completed its final flight on June 1, 2011. Atlantis completed the final Shuttle flight, STS-135, on July 21, 2011.

In addition to their crews and payloads, the reusable orbiter carried most of the Space Shuttle System's liquid-propellant rocket system, but both the liquid hydrogen fuel and the liquid oxygen oxidizer for its three main rocket engines were fed from an external cryogenic propellant tank. Additionally, two reusable solid rocket boosters (SRBs) provided additional thrust for approximately the first two minutes of launch. The orbiters themselves did carry hypergolic propellants for their Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters and Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines.

Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_orbiter" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_orbiter</a>

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Payload and his co-pilot don't want to end up in flames....

Astronaut Nancy J. Currie, STS-109 mission specialist, works with Payload and General Support Computers (PGSC) on the middeck of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

Credit: NASA

Inside a clean room in Building 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, technicians begin to install the first half of the Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL payload fairing around NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) on Aug. 22, 2018. ICON is being prepared for its launch on the Pegasus XL rocket, which is attached beneath the company's L-1011 Stargazer aircraft. Launch is scheduled for Oct. 26, from the Skid Strip at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. ICON will study the frontier of space - the dynamic zone high in Earth's atmosphere where terrestrial weather from below meets space weather above. The explorer will help determine the physics of Earth's space environment and pave the way for mitigating its effects on our technology, communications systems and society. Photo credit: NASA/Rodney Jones

NASA image use policy.

NROL-68 is mounted on top of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket ahead of launch for the National Reconnaissance Office. Photo Credit: United Launch Alliance

Technicians prepare to lift the Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) payload adapter separation systems canister, where it will go inside the payload adapter canister as part of launch preparations occurring inside Building 836 at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California on Sept. 1, 2022. LOFTID is the secondary payload on NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationâs (NOAA) Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2) satellite mission. JPSS-2 is the third satellite in the Joint Polar Satellite System series. It is scheduled to lift off from VSFB on Nov. 1 from Space Launch Complex-3. JPSS-2, which will be renamed NOAA-21 after reaching orbit, will join a constellation of JPSS satellites that orbit from the North to the South pole, circling Earth 14 times a day and providing a full view of the entire globe twice daily. Photo credit: USSF 30th Space Wing/Anthony Mendez

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Inside the Multi-Operations Support Building near the Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians put on Self-Contained Atmospheric Protective Ensemble (SCAPE) suits inside a changing room on Aug. 16, 2019. SCAPE technicians are practicing putting on the suits for a test simulation of loading propellants into a replicated test tank for Orion. Exploration Ground Systems is preparing for Artemis 1 with a series of hazardous hyper test events at the MPPF. After donning their suits, the technicians will complete a tanking to test the system before Orion arrives for processing. During preparations for launch, these teams will be responsible for loading the Orion vehicle with propellants prior to transportation to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where it will be secured atop the Space Launch System rocket. SCAPE suits are used in operations involving toxic propellants and are supplied with air either through a hardline or through a self-contained environmental control unit. Photo credit: NASA/Isaac Watson

NASA image use policy.

The N-1 was a heavy lift rocket intended to deliver payloads beyond low Earth orbit, acting as the Soviet counterpart to the NASA Saturn V rocket. This heavy lift booster had the capability of lifting very heavy loads into orbit, designed with manned extra-orbital travel in mind. Its first stage is the most powerful rocket stage ever built.

The N1-L3 version was developed to compete with the United States Apollo Saturn V to land a man on the Moon.

N1-L3 was under-funded and under-tested, and started development in October 1965, almost four years after the Saturn V. The project was badly derailed by the death of its chief designer Sergei Korolev in 1966. After four failed launch attempts, the program was suspended in 1974, and in 1976 was officially cancelled.

Though the A-4 Skyhawk was by no means outdated by 1962, the US Navy began work on a replacement with better range and heavier payload. The designs submitted would be necessarily heavier than the A-4, but this was not seen as much of a problem, nor was a lack of speed: the Navy was willing to trade subsonic performance for increased range and more bombs. Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) submitted a design based loosely on its successful F-8 Crusader fighter, which was enough to beat out three other designs, and it was ordered into production as the A-7A Corsair II, named for the successful Chance-Vought fighter of World War II.

Though the A-7 was based on the F-8, the two shared very little other than basic configuration: the A-7 was stubby and wide, and definitely subsonic as intended, though it initially used the same powerplant as the F-111 Aardvark. Turn performance was excellent, if acceleration was indifferent, but the centerpiece of the Corsair II was its integrated bomb delivery system. This included the APQ-116 radar, a heads-up display, traveling map display below the radarscope, and a digital computer. Ease of maintenance was also emphasized. With no problems encountered in flight testing, the A-7A entered fleet service in 1967.

It was immediately committed to fighting in Vietnam. Though A-7s would only see action in the tail end of Operation Rolling Thunder, they were to be used extensively in South Vietnam, due to their accuracy: A-7s were capable of putting ordnance within sixty feet of friendly troops, making it well-liked. The Navy liked the USAF's A-7D variant, and subsequently adopted it, with changes for naval operations, as the A-7E. This was to be the definitive model of the Corsair II, and surviving A-7As and A-7Bs were converted to E standard.

It was a mixed batch of A-7 models that finished the war in Vietnam: A-7Bs were mostly used in the suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) Wild Weasel role, and increasingly Corsair IIs were armed with precision weapons such as the AGM-62 Walleye, which proved capable enough to destroy the infamous Thanh Hoa Bridge—albeit temporarily—in 1972. The workhorse A-7 also struck targets in the Hanoi area extensively, making it second only to the B-52 in amount of ordnance dropped on the North Vietnamese capital. Navy A-7s from USS Coral Sea participated in the last combat missions of the Vietnam War, the Mayaguez rescue mission in May 1975. 98 Navy A-7s were shot down during the conflict.

Following the end of the Vietnam War, the A-7 replaced the A-4 in Navy light attack squadrons, standardizing on the A-7E. Aside from minor upgrades, this would remain the type used by Navy units for the duration of the Corsair II’s career. A-7s would go on to participate in every military operation undertaken by the United States in the 1980s—attacks on Lebanon and the invasion of Grenada in 1983, operations against Libya in 1985, during the “Tanker War” in the Persian Gulf in 1987, and finally in the First Gulf War in 1991. In these operations, the A-7 was able to use its pinpoint bombing ability to good use; in Libya and the Persian Gulf, Corsair IIs attacked and sank numerous Libyan and Iranian patrol boats with unguided bombs. It also was the Navy’s Wild Weasel of choice during the 1980s, using the Vietnam-era Shrike before upgrading to the far superior HARM.

In Operation Desert Storm, two A-7 squadrons from John F. Kennedy were used both to attack fixed targets with “iron” bombs and Walleyes in “tank plinking”—knocking out Iraqi tanks with precision weapons. Despite there being less than 30 A-7s in theater, these aircraft were able supplements to the USAF’s A-10s and F-111s.

The First Gulf War was the A-7’s swan song. The last squadrons gave up their Corsair IIs for F/A-18 Hornets by May 1991, ending nearly thirty years of operations. Some ex-Navy A-7s were passed on to Greece, Portugal, and Thailand, and some still remain in service with Thailand and Greece. Of the 1569 A-7s built, about half were Navy types, and today 20 former US Navy A-7s are on display as gate guards and museum pieces.

This is A-7A 152675, which entered service in 1969 with VA-56 ("Champions") aboard the USS Midway (CV-41); the aircraft would see combat over Vietnam. It may have remained with only VA-56 for its entire career, which was not particularly long: it was retired in 1977. It was then sold to the Portuguese Air Force in 1983 and used as a spares source for their A-7s. When the Palm Springs Air Museum acquired 152675 in July 2020, it was in terrible shape, little more than a wreck with just a vestige of its former Navy heritage.

When I first photographed this aircraft in May 2021, restoration work was about half completed. I got a chance to go back to Palm Springs in June 2023, and 152675 was finished. The markings seem a bit sparse for VA-82 ("Marauders"), so it may not be completely done.

This is a Mil V-12 prototype modified with more powerful engines, longer range and a larger payload. I also added a small rear defensive turret, which was common at the time.

More info and images here, please click!

I built this helicopter during the summer, I made a small trip to my summerhouse and using a small number of parts that I had there, I built this and another small aircraft.

The real aircraftMil V-12 / Mi-12 Homer Although only two examples of the Mil Mi-12 were built, both being V-12 prototypes, this giant machine is worthy of mention as the world's largest helicopter to have flown to date.

The Mil V-12 (Mi-12), which was allotted the NATO reporting name Homer, is currently the world's largest helicopter, but does not appear to have progressed past the development phase.

The origins of the V-12 lie with a 1965 Soviet air force requirement for a heavy-lift helicopter able to carry major missile components. These would be brought into remote missile site areas by fixed-wing aircraft, and then lifted from the airfield to the launch site by the new helicopter.

The two engines are located side-by-side with twin intakes, and drive five-bladed metal rotors. The left rotor rotates anti-clockwise and the right unit clockwise; the two units are connected by transverse shafting to ensure synchronization and the continued rotation of both units in the event of engine failure at either wingtip. The lower part of each cowling can be dropped to form a working platform for mechanics.

Fuel is housed in two cylindrical tanks mounted externally on the lower fuselage sides. The main units of the fixed tricycle undercarriage are supported by a plethora of struts bracing the wings and running from the lower fuselage, wings and engines.Although the V-12 could accommodate large numbers of passengers, tip-up seats are provided for only 50; the reason for this is that the type is intended mainly for heavy-lift work, with accommodation only for drilling crews, missile crews etc. The main freight hold has overhead rails for a moving crane which has four loading points, each rated at 2500kg, or can alternatively lift a single item of up to 10000kg. The bottom of the rear fuselage comprises an inbuilt loading ramp, with large clamshell doors forming the rear fuselage aft of this point.

Despite all of these achievements, the Soviet Air Force refused to accept the helicopter for state acceptance trials for many reasons, the main one being that the V-12's most important, intended mission no longer existed, e.g.., the rapid deployment of strategic ballistic missiles. In the meantime the military concept of deploying missiles had been altered since some of the missiles had proved disappointing and were phased out.

Info: www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/mi-12.php

Imperial Lego Air Force

Some years ago, the Imperial Lego Air Force needed a heavy lifter helicopter, capable of carrying one medium MBT or one medium range Strategic Nuclear Missile. Although vulnerable in the battlefield, the “Homer” was and still is a very important tool for the Imperial Lego Air Force, carrying 200 paratroopers with all their equipment a medium MBT.

Right now, the Imperial Legos are looking for a new helicopter to replace the Homer.

More info and images about the Imperial Lego Air Force, please click here!

General characteristics (Mil V-12 Prototype) - Wikipedia

Crew: 6 (pilot, copilot, flight engineer, electrician, navigator, radio operator)

Payload:

VTOL 25,000 kg (55,000 lb) or

STOL 30,000 kg (66,000 lb) ()

44,205.5 kg (88,636 lb) record

Length: 37.00 m (121 ft 4 in)

Rotor diameter: 2x 35.00 m (114 ft 10 in)

Height: 12.50 m (41 ft 0 in)

Loaded weight: 97,000 kg (213,850 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 105,000 kg (231,500 lb)

Powerplant: 4 × Soloviev D-25VF turboshaft, 4,048 kW (6,500 shp) each

Freight compartment: 28.15 m x 4.40 m x 4.40 m (92 ft 4 in x 14 ft 5 in x 14 ft 5 in)

Performance

Maximum speed: 260 km/h (140 kt)

Range: 500 km (310 miles)

Service ceiling: 3,500 m (11,500 ft)

Absolutely striking artwork depicting what I believe to be a North American Rockwell, Phase-B shuttle concept, specifically, the “161 C Configuration”, based on user flateric’s 4 June 2007 posting, at the following link:

www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/various-us-reusable-laun...

Credit: SECRET PROJECTS FORUM website

See also:

nss.org/the-space-shuttle-decision-chapter-8/

Credit: NSS website

And:

www.astronautix.com/s/shuttler134c.html

Credit: Astronautix website

I have no idea what it’s deploying, retrieving, or servicing…whether it’s a satellite, space station component…or some sort of space tug. Actually, who cares.

And check out the cool domed cupola sort of thing just forward of the payload bay doors. Possibly where the RMS (although I don't see such) operator sits? You can even see the outlines of the doors to the stowed air-breathing engines, to include being able to surmise that each pair are opposingly hinged. This is a masterpiece...both artwork & orbiter.

No signature, drat it. NAR…1970/71…hmm:

Henry Lozano Jr.?

Manuel E. Alvarez?

Bert Winthrop?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Air Force's AFSPC-11 mission, encapsulated inside a 5-meter payload fairing, is mated to its United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V booster inside the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) at Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex-41. Photo credit: United Launch Alliance

Signed in-person by John-David F. Bartoe, prime payload specialist, STS-51-F/Spacelab 2. I guess now I'll have to get Loren W. Acton (prime, bottom right) to sign this - Dianne K. Prinz died in 2002, 44th Space Congress, Cape Canaveral, Fla., 25 May 2016.

Bartoe flew as a civilian Navy payload specialist. A physicist by training, Bartoe was co-investigator on two solar physics investigations aboard Spacelab 2 that were designed to study features of the sun’s outer layers. In completing this flight, Bartoe traveled over 2.8 million miles in 126 Earth orbits and logged over 190 hours in space.

From 1966 to 1988, Bartoe worked as an astrophysicist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and published over 60 papers in the field of solar physics observations and instrumentation. He received his B.S. in physics from Lehigh University (1966) and his M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from Georgetown University (1974 and 1976).

In May 1999, Bartoe became Research Manager for the International Space Station (ISS) at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. He provides oversight for the Program Manager concerning the research capability, research hardware, and research plans of the ISS.

Prior to tha position, Bartoe was Director of Operations and Utilization in the Space Station Office of NASA Headquarters from 1990 to 1994. He also served as Chief Scientist for the Space Station from 1987 to 1990.

Sent to George Simon 7 April 2017; received 17 April 2017.

Simon was a U.S. Air Force Research scientist at the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory on August 9, 1978 when he was selected by NASA to be an astronaut. He was as a backup Space Shuttle Payload Specialist for the Spacelab 2 mission Mission 51F/Challenger), flown from July 29 to August 6, 1985.

Simon had devised one of the experiments performed during the mission, the Solar Optical Universe Polarimeter (SOUP). This observed the strength, structure, and evolution of magnetic fields in the sun's photosphere to determine the relationship between these magnetic elements and other solar features. Simon also served as communicator to the astronaut crew during that mission, ensuring the success of the SOUP experiment.

He was scheduled to fly aboard Sunlab 1, the follow-up mission to Spacelab 2, and according to written accounts scheduled for STS-71-O, a Columbia flight in 1987, however, that mission was postponed indefinitely following the Challenger accident.

The payload fairing containing the Orbital ATK Cygnus pressurized cargo module, secured on a KAMAG transporter, approaches the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Horizontal Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The payload will be hoisted up and mated to the ULA Atlas V rocket. The Orbital ATK CRS-7 commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to launch atop the Atlas V from pad 41. Cygnus will deliver 7,600 pounds of supplies, equipment and scientific research materials to the space station. Photo credit: NASA/Leif Heimbold

NASA image use policy.

From left, Meagan Jones, engineer, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, and Howard Hu, manager, Orion Program, looks at NASA’s Orion spacecraft following its arrival at the NASA’s Kennedy Multi-Payload Processing Facility in Florida on Thursday, April 30, 2026, for de-servicing operations on the spacecraft. The Orion spacecraft successfully splashed down on Friday, April 10, 2026, in the Pacific Ocean following its approximate 10-day journey around the Moon carrying NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen for the Artemis II test flight mission. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

NASA image use policy.

The primary payload for the ORS-3 mission is the U.S. Air Force STPSat-3 spacecraft. In addition, the rocket will deploy 28 cubesats and carry two non separating tertiary payloads. Among the cubesats being launched is TJ3Sat, the first satellite built by high school students to be launched into space. Orbital employees advised the students who designed and built TJ3Sat and the company provided technical and financial assistance to the program.

www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/MinotaurI_ORS-3/