Love, Love, Love her!!

Alessandra went on a little cruise with us today to the chalk cliff coast on the island Rügen.

 

Fashion credits: Outfit made by Frau E

DISCLAIMER

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

 

The Chinese J-7FS was a direct descendant of the J-7E. The Chengdu J-7 itself has a long heritage of development, even though it is originally a Soviet design, a license-built MiG-21F, which has its roots in the mid 50ies.

 

It took China long way to develop and produce a true supersonic fighter aircraft: in March, 1964, Shenyang Aircraft Factory began the first domestic production of the J-7 jet fighter. However, the mass production of the aircraft, which had been developed through Soviet help, license production and reverse-engineering, was severely hindered by an unexpected problem—the Cultural Revolution. This incident and its consequences resulted in poor initial quality and slow progress.

 

This, in turn, resulted in full scale production only coming about in the 1980s, by which time the J-7 design was showing its age. However, through the years the J-7 saw constant development and refinement in China, and the J-7FS was one of the many directions the simple, basic design went in order to imporve performance and to keep it up to date.

 

The J-7FS was designed in the late 90ies as a dedicated interceptor, and as a lighter option than the twin-engined J-8 fighter of indigenous design. Main task was to incorporate a true air-to-air radar with surveillance capabilities, since the J-7 only featured a rader-based range finder in the central shock cone of the air intake.

 

Fitting a more capable radar required a larger radome, which meant either a bigger central shock cone (as in the 2nd generation MiG-21 fighters) or a totally new nose and air intake arrangement. The accordingly modified J-7FS saw first daylight as a technology demonstration aircraft built by CAC. Its most prominent feature was a redesigned under-chin inlet, reminiscent of the F-8 or A-7 nose, which provided air for a WP-13IIS engine. Above the air intake, a fixed conical radome offered space for a bigger radar dish. “139 Red”, how the first aircraft was coded, first flew in June 1998, starting a 22-month test program. Two prototypes were built, but only the first aircraft was to fly – the second machine was only used for static tests.

 

"139 Red" soon saw major progress in design and equipment: it received a new double-delta wing which nearly doubled internal fuel capacity and improved performance, a modified fin, a more potent WP-13F turbojet engine, and a new 600 mm slot antenna planar array radar using coherent technology to achieve scan, look-down and shoot-down capabilities.

The revamped aircraft also received a sand/green camouflage paint scheme, less flashy than the original white/red livery. The new wing, which was also introduced on the J-7E, made the aircraft 45% more maneuverable than the MiG-21F-like J/F-7M, while the take-off and landing distance is reduced to 600 meters, in comparison to the 1.000 meter take-off distance and 900 meter landing distance of earlier versions of the J-7.

 

The production J-7FS which was ready for service in summer 2000 featured even more changes and novelties: the J-7FS incorporated HOTAS, which has since become standard on other late J-7 versions, too. This version is also the first of J-7 series to be later upgraded with helmet mounted sights (HMS). However, it is reported that the helmet mounted sight is not compatible with radars, and air-to-air missiles must be independently controlled by either HMS or radar, but not both.

 

The serial production radome now had an ogival shape with an even larger base diameter, and for additional avionics such as weapon management, global positioning and flight data recording systems, the production J-7FS featured a bulged spine, reminiscent of the 3rd generation MiG-21 (or the respective Chengdu J-7C, a reverse-engineered MiG-21MF). The aircraft was even able to carry medium range AAMs, e .g. the Chinese PL-11 missile, a license-built Selenia Aspide AAM from Italia, itself a modernized descendant of the venerable AIM-7 Sparrow. Another feature which set the FS version apart was the ventral, twin-barreled Type 23-III gun instead of the single-barelled 30mm cannon at the flank.

 

The role of the J-7FS in the People's Liberation Army was to provide local air defense and tactical air superiority, even though it certainly was only a stop-gap until the introduction of the much more potent Chengdu J-10, which started to enter PLAAF service in 2005 after a long development time. With its more powerful radar the J-7FS was supposed to act as a kind of mini AWACS platform, guiding groups of less potent J-7Es to potential targets. It is known that the J-7FS’s new radar had a range greater than 50 km and could track up to eight targets simultaneously. The aircraft's overall performance is expected to be similar to early F-16 variants.

 

The number of built specimen is uncertain, but it is supposed to be less than 100, probably even less than 50. It is rumored that the type had also been offered to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka around 2001, but was not bought.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 14.885 m (Overall) (48 ft 10 in)

Wingspan: 8.32 m (27 ft 3½ in)

Height: 4.11 m (13 ft 5½ in)

Wing area: 24.88 m² (267.8 ft²)

Aspect ratio: 2.8:1

Empty weight: 5,292 kg (11.667 lb)

Loaded weight: 7,540 kg (16.620 lb)

Max. take-off weight: 9.100 kg (20.062 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1 × Guizhou Liyang WP-13F(C) afterburning turbojet with 44.1 kN (9.914 lb) dry thrust and 66.7 kN (14.650 lb) with afterburner:

 

Performance

Maximum speed: Mach 2.0, 2,200 km/h (1.189 knots, 1.375 mph)

Stall speed: 210 km/h (114 knots, 131 mph) IAS

Combat radius: 850 km (459 nmi, 528 mi) (air superiority, two AAMs and three drop tanks)

Ferry range: 2,200 km (1.187 nmi, 1.367 mi)

Service ceiling: 17,500 m (57.420 ft)

Rate of climb: 195 m/s (38.386 ft/min)

 

Armament:

1× twin-barreled Type 23-III 23mm (0.9") cannon with 250 rounds under the fuselage;

5× hardpoints (4× under-wing, 1× centerline under-fuselage) with a capacity of 2,000 kg maximum (up to 500 kg each); Ordnance primarily comprises air-to-air missiles, including PL-2, PL-5, PL-7, PL-8, PL-9 and PL-11 AAMs, but in a secondary CAS role various rocket pods an unguided bombs of up to 500kg caliber could be carried

  

The kit and its assembly:

This whif is based on the real world J-7FS, which actually flew but never made it beyond the technical demonstrator stage. However, I found the air intake design with its raked shape and the pointed radome interesting, and since I had a crappy Matchbox MiG-21MF with misprinted decals in store I decided to use that kit for a whif conversion. There’s even a resin kit of the first J-7FS (still with the standard delta wing, though, and horribly expensive) available, but I wanted to create a more advanced what-if model, if the type had somehow entered service.

 

The kit saw major modification all around the fuselage: the wing tips were clipped and scratch-built ends for the J-7E double delta wing shape attached. The shape is certainly not correct, but it's IMHO the impression that counts. The MiG-21MF's deep fin was replaced by a donation part from an F-16 – the 2nd J-7FS already featured a distinctive kink at the fin’s top which made it already look rather F-16ish, and the taller and more slender fin suits the MiG-21 well.

 

A brake parachute housing with a disctinctive, blunt end was added just above the jet exhaust, and some antennae and pitots were added in order to enhance the bleak Matchbox kit a little. The Type 23-III cannon was sculpted from a piece of sprue, just like the brake parachute housing.

 

The nose section/radome is the front half of an F-18 drop tank. An oval, tapered piece of styrene was implanted as the raked intake lip, trying to copy the look of the real thing according to the few pictures I had at hand. I also added a central splitter in the air intake, which houses the front wheel bay.

 

Some putty work was necessary to blend the new nose into the front fuselage, as well as the dorsal spine into the new fin, but that turned out to be easier than expected.

 

The jet exhaust originally is just a vertical "plate" in the MiG-21's tail. I opened it and implanted a new cover inside of the fuselage, in a deeper position. For some more detail I also added a (simple) jet nozzle, IIRC it is a leftover part from a Matchbox Jaguar kit, probably 30 years old... Not much, but it defininitively enhances the rear view of the machine.

 

The original cockpit only consists of a bulky seat and the pilot figure, and the clear canopy is clear but horribly thick. Hence, I decided to keep the cockpit closed, but nevertheless I added a floor and some side panels, and used an Airfix pilot figure.

 

The missile ordnance comes from the scrap box, reflecting “modern” Chinese air-to-air weaponry: two PL-7 (Matra Magic AAMs from an Italeri NATO weapons kit) on the outer and two PL-11 (two Aspide missiles from the same set ) on the inner wing hardpoints. All wing hardpoints come from MiG-21F kits, one pair is from the Academy kit, the other from the vintage Hasegawa kit, both have the launch rails molded into the weapon pylon. The drop tank is a typical Chinese item - it resembles the Russian/soviet PTB-490 drop tank, but has a more blunt nose and smaller fins - it comes from a FC-1 kit from Trumpeter.

  

Paintings and markings:

Since it is an air superiority aircraft, I wanted an appropriate livery, but not the dull overall grey of contemporary PLAAF fighters. But I found some weird real life paint schemes which inspired the final camouflage.

Since the plane was not supposed to look too American through FS tones I rather used 'other' colors for a wraparound scheme. The basic tone is Testors 2123 (Russian Underside Blue), and from above a darker contrast color was added, Humbrol 230 (PRU Blue). Both tones have a greenish/teal hue, which complements each other well. Together they create a pretty distinctive look, though, esp. with the red and yellow insignia and codes. IMHO these colors suit the fighter well.

 

The kit received a light black ink wash and some dry painting with lighter blue-grey shades (Humbrol 87 and 128), but no weathering, since modern Chinese aircraft tend to look pretty clean and pristine.

 

The decals were puzzled together from the scrap box, IIRC the insignia originally they belong to a Il-28 Trumpeter kit. The 5 digit code comes from a Revell MiG-29 and the number itself is based on the information published in the 2010 book “Chinese Air Power” by Yefim Gordon und Dmitriy Komissarov, where the Chinese code system is explained – I hope that it is more or less authentic ;)

  

So, all in all a rather simple kit conversion, and certainly not a creative masterpiece. To be honest, the similarity with the real thing is just at first glance - but since it is whif world, I am fine with the outcome. ^^

Baibai

 

The practice of offering incense to the Taoist altar is called Baibai. As the incense burns, smoke rises, and ashes fall. The ashes represent impure air that sinks; the smoke, pure air that rises. So the offering represents the separation of pure from impure - the refinement and purification of internal energies. It also symbolizes the human body as being the meeting-place of Heaven and Earth: as the smoke rises, and the ashes fall, we make a connection with both earth and sky.

This new truck is a refinement of the idea. Designed to deliver front loader bins to new customers.

Top and bottom outer panels finished, though they could probably use some refinement.

Aihachi was sold into the life of a geisha as a young girl from an impoverished fishing village, but became a shamisen player of distinction and a woman of refinement, while never forgetting her humble beginnings. Though not wealthy, she gave freely of her earnings to poor children.

 

She became a minarai (watching apprentice) with the Suekichi okiya (geisha house) of the Maruyama hanamachi (geisha district) in Nagasaki at the age of 10, debuting as ‘Aihachi’ at the age of 17 in the autumn of 1890, she unexpectedly became a meigi (famous geisha) around the age of 20 or 21.

 

In February 1931, she recorded ten folk songs that were popular during the Edo period, for the Victor record label, including “Burabura-bushi” a typical folk song of Nagasaki, which has since became known as the national folk song of Nagasaki. The film, "Nagasaki burabura-bushi" (The Nagasaki stroll about song), based on a Naoki Prize winning novel by well-known songwriter Rei Nakanishi, loosely recounts her life story.

 

In this photograph, Aihachi is wearing a superb Yukata (Cotton Kimono) with a Hagoromo (Celestial Feather Robe) motif. The Maruyama district has long been known for its fabulous kimonos. A famous saying in Old Japan was: “I wish I could have a beautiful courtesan of Shimabara [Kyoto] with the dashing spirit of a Yoshiwara [Tokyo] woman, wearing the gorgeous apparel of Maruyama [Nagasaki], at a sumptuous ageya of Shinmachi [Osaka].”

 

Landscape of oil refinery industry with oil storage tank and pulution environment

Turkish cuisine could be described as a fusion and refinement of Turkic, Arabic, Greek and Persian cuisines. It’s based mainly on meat and vegetables. While the generous use of spices has declined since Ottoman times, it remains a fragrant and aromatic cuisine, with thyme, mint, allspice, pepper, cumin, cinnamon and tomato paste all featured prominently. Vegetables dishes are typically prepared with meat. Eggplant is used in many popular recipes, including karniyarik and islim kebabi. Fried eggplant is a summertime favorite, and vegetables cooked in olive oil are very common. (wikipedia) Türk mutfağının klasik ürünleri yaprak sarma, bamya, taze fasulye, tas kebabı, patlıcan-biber kızartma, haşlama, incik kebabı, kurufasulye, fırın köfte, patlıcan kebabı, izmir köfte, tavuk fırın, patates kızartması, ıspanak, pilav, patates püresi, et sote. ISTANBUL (2008)

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

  

Some background:

The РТАК-30 attack vintoplan (also known as vintokryl) owed its existence to the Mil Mi-30 plane/helicopter project that originated in 1972. The Mil Mi-30 was conceived as a transport aircraft that could hold up to 19 passengers or two tons of cargo, and its purpose was to replace the Mi-8 and Mi-17 Helicopters in both civil and military roles. With vertical takeoff through a pair of tiltrotor engine pods on the wing tips (similar in layout to the later V-22 Osprey) and the ability to fly like a normal plane, the Mil Mi-30 had a clear advantage over the older models.

 

Since the vintoplan concept was a completely new field of research and engineering, a dedicated design bureau was installed in the mid-Seventies at the Rostov-na-Donu helicopter factory, where most helicopters from the Mil design bureau were produced, under the title Ростов Тилт Ротор Авиационная Компания (Rostov Tilt Rotor Aircraft Company), or РТАК (RTRA), for short.

 

The vintoplan project lingered for some time, with basic research being conducted concerning aerodynamics, rotor design and flight control systems. Many findings later found their way into conventional planes and helicopters. At the beginning of the 1980s, the project had progressed far enough that the vintoplan received official backing so that РТАК scientists and Mil helicopter engineers assembled and tested several layouts and components for this complicated aircraft type.

At that time the Mil Mi-30 vintoplan was expected to use a single TV3-117 Turbo Shaft Engine with a four-bladed propeller rotors on each of its two pairs of stub wings of almost equal span. The engine was still installed in the fuselage and the proprotors driven by long shafts.

 

However, while being a very clean design, this original layout revealed several problems concerning aeroelasticity, dynamics of construction, characteristics for the converter apparatuses, aerodynamics and flight dynamics. In the course of further development stages and attempts to rectify the technical issues, the vintoplan layout went through several revisions. The layout shifted consequently from having 4 smaller engines in rotating pods on two pairs of stub wings through three engines with rotating nacelles on the front wings and a fixed, horizontal rotor over the tail and finally back to only 2 engines (much like the initial concept), but this time mounted in rotating nacelles on the wing tips and a canard stabilizer layout.

 

In August 1981 the Commission of the Presidium of the USSR Council of Ministers on weapons eventually issued a decree on the development of a flyworthy Mil Mi-30 vintoplan prototype. Shortly afterwards the military approved of the vintoplan, too, but desired bigger, more powerful engines in order to improve performance and weight capacity. In the course of the ensuing project refinement, the weight capacity was raised to 3-5 tons and the passenger limit to 32. In parallel, the modified type was also foreseen for civil operations as a short range feederliner, potentially replacing Yak-40 and An-24 airliners in Aeroflot service.

In 1982, РТАК took the interest from the military and proposed a dedicated attack vintoplan, based on former research and existing components of the original transport variant. This project was accepted by MAP and received the separate designation РТАК-30. However, despite having some close technical relations to the Mi-30 transport (primarily the engine nacelles, their rotation mechanism and the flight control systems), the РТАК-30 was a completely different aircraft. The timing was good, though, and the proposal was met with much interest, since the innovative vintoplan concept was to compete against traditional helicopters: the design work on the dedicated Mi-28 and Ka-50 attack helicopters had just started at that time, too, so that РТАК received green lights for the construction of five prototypes: four flyworthy machines plus one more for static ground tests.

 

The РТАК-30 was based on one of the early Mi-30 layouts and it combined two pairs of mid-set wings with different wing spans with a tall tail fin that ensured directional stability. Each wing carried a rotating engine nacelle with a so-called proprotor on its tip, each with three high aspect ratio blades. The proprotors were handed (i.e. revolved in opposite directions) in order to minimize torque effects and improve handling, esp. in the hover. The front and back pair of engines were cross-linked among each other on a common driveshaft, eliminating engine-out asymmetric thrust problems during V/STOL operations. In the event of the failure of one engine, it would automatically disconnect through torque spring clutches and both propellers on a pair of wings would be driven by the remaining engine.

Four engines were chosen because, despite the weight and complexity penalty, this extra power was expected to be required in order to achieve a performance that was markedly superior to a conventional helicopter like the Mi-24, the primary Soviet attack helicopter of that era the РТАК-30 was supposed to replace. It was also expected that the rotating nacelles could also be used to improve agility in level flight through a mild form of vectored thrust.

 

The РТАК-30’s streamlined fuselage provided ample space for avionics, fuel, a fully retractable tricycle landing gear and a two man crew in an armored side-by-side cockpit with ejection seats. The windshield was able to withstand 12.7–14.5 mm caliber bullets, the titanium cockpit tub could take hits from 20 mm cannon. An autonomous power unit (APU) was housed in the fuselage, too, making operations of the aircraft independent from ground support.

While the РТАК-30 was not intended for use as a transport, the fuselage was spacious enough to have a small compartment between the front wings spars, capable of carrying up to three people. The purpose of this was the rescue of downed helicopter crews, as a cargo hold esp. for transfer flights and as additional space for future mission equipment or extra fuel.

In vertical flight, the РТАК-30’s tiltrotor system used controls very similar to a twin or tandem-rotor helicopter. Yaw was controlled by tilting its rotors in opposite directions. Roll was provided through differential power or thrust, supported by ailerons on the rear wings. Pitch was provided through rotor cyclic or nacelle tilt and further aerodynamic surfaces on both pairs of wings. Vertical motion was controlled with conventional rotor blade pitch and a control similar to a fixed-wing engine control called a thrust control lever (TCL). The rotor heads had elastomeric bearings and the proprotor blades were made from composite materials, which could sustain 30 mm shells.

 

The РТАК-30 featured a helmet-mounted display for the pilot, a very modern development at its time. The pilot designated targets for the navigator/weapons officer, who proceeded to fire the weapons required to fulfill that particular task. The integrated surveillance and fire control system had two optical channels providing wide and narrow fields of view, a narrow-field-of-view optical television channel, and a laser rangefinder. The system could move within 110 degrees in azimuth and from +13 to −40 degrees in elevation and was placed in a spherical dome on top of the fuselage, just behind the cockpit.

 

The aircraft carried one automatic 2A42 30 mm internal gun, mounted semi-rigidly fixed near the center of the fuselage, movable only slightly in elevation and azimuth. The arrangement was also regarded as being more practical than a classic free-turning turret mount for the aircraft’s considerably higher flight speed than a normal helicopter. As a side effect, the semi-rigid mounting improved the cannon's accuracy, giving the 30 mm a longer practical range and better hit ratio at medium ranges. Ammunition supply was 460 rounds, with separate compartments for high-fragmentation, explosive incendiary, or armor-piercing rounds. The type of ammunition could be selected by the pilot during flight.

The gunner can select one of two rates of full automatic fire, low at 200 to 300 rds/min and high at 550 to 800 rds/min. The effective range when engaging ground targets such as light armored vehicles is 1,500 m, while soft-skinned targets can be engaged out to 4,000 m. Air targets can be engaged flying at low altitudes of up to 2,000 m and up to a slant range of 2,500 m.

 

A substantial range of weapons could be carried on four hardpoints under the front wings, plus three more under the fuselage, for a total ordnance of up to 2,500 kg (with reduced internal fuel). The РТАК-30‘s main armament comprised up to 24 laser-guided Vikhr missiles with a maximum range of some 8 km. These tube-launched missiles could be used against ground and aerial targets. A search and tracking radar was housed in a thimble radome on the РТАК-30’s nose and their laser guidance system (mounted in a separate turret under the radome) was reported to be virtually jam-proof. The system furthermore featured automatic guidance to the target, enabling evasive action immediately after missile launch. Alternatively, the system was also compatible with Ataka laser-guided anti-tank missiles.

Other weapon options included laser- or TV-guided Kh-25 missiles as well as iron bombs and napalm tanks of up to 500 kg (1.100 lb) caliber and several rocket pods, including the S-13 and S-8 rockets. The "dumb" rocket pods could be upgraded to laser guidance with the proposed Ugroza system. Against helicopters and aircraft the РТАК-30 could carry up to four R-60 and/or R-73 IR-guided AAMs. Drop tanks and gun pods could be carried, too.

 

When the РТАК-30's proprotors were perpendicular to the motion in the high-speed portions of the flight regime, the aircraft demonstrated a relatively high maximum speed: over 300 knots/560 km/h top speed were achieved during state acceptance trials in 1987, as well as sustained cruise speeds of 250 knots/460 km/h, which was almost twice as fast as a conventional helicopter. Furthermore, the РТАК-30’s tiltrotors and stub wings provided the aircraft with a substantially greater cruise altitude capability than conventional helicopters: during the prototypes’ tests the machines easily reached 6,000 m / 20,000 ft or more, whereas helicopters typically do not exceed 3,000 m / 10,000 ft altitude.

 

Flight tests in general and flight control system refinement in specific lasted until late 1988, and while the vintoplan concept proved to be sound, the technical and practical problems persisted. The aircraft was complex and heavy, and pilots found the machine to be hazardous to land, due to its low ground clearance. Due to structural limits the machine could also never be brought to its expected agility limits

During that time the Soviet Union’s internal tensions rose and more and more hampered the РТАК-30’s development. During this time, two of the prototypes were lost (the 1st and 4th machine) in accidents, and in 1989 only two machines were left in flightworthy condition (the 5th airframe had been set aside for structural ground tests). Nevertheless, the РТАК-30 made its public debut at the Paris Air Show in June 1989 (the 3rd prototype, coded “33 Yellow”), together with the Mi-28A, but was only shown in static display and did not take part in any flight show. After that, the aircraft received the NATO ASCC code "Hemlock" and caused serious concern in Western military headquarters, since the РТАК-30 had the potential to dominate the European battlefield.

 

And this was just about to happen: Despite the РТАК-30’s development problems, the innovative attack vintoplan was included in the Soviet Union’s 5-year plan for 1989-1995, and the vehicle was eventually expected to enter service in 1996. However, due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dwindling economics, neither the РТАК-30 nor its civil Mil Mi-30 sister did soar out in the new age of technology. In 1990 the whole program was stopped and both surviving РТАК-30 prototypes were mothballed – one (the 3rd prototype) was disassembled and its components brought to the Rostov-na-Donu Mil plant, while the other, prototype No. 1, is rumored to be stored at the Central Russian Air Force Museum in Monino, to be restored to a public exhibition piece some day.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: Two (pilot, copilot/WSO) plus space for up to three passengers or cargo

Length: 45 ft 7 1/2 in (13,93 m)

Rotor diameter: 20 ft 9 in (6,33 m)

Wingspan incl. engine nacelles: 42 ft 8 1/4 in (13,03 m)

Total width with rotors: 58 ft 8 1/2 in (17,93 m)

Height: 17 ft (5,18 m) at top of tailfin

Disc area: 4x 297 ft² (27,65 m²)

Wing area: 342.2 ft² (36,72 m²)

Empty weight: 8,500 kg (18,740 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 12,000 kg (26,500 lb)

 

Powerplant:

4× Klimov VK-2500PS-03 turboshaft turbines, 2,400 hp (1.765 kW) each

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 275 knots (509 km/h, 316 mph) at sea level

305 kn (565 km/h; 351 mph) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m)

Cruise speed: 241 kn (277 mph, 446 km/h) at sea level

Stall speed: 110 kn (126 mph, 204 km/h) in airplane mode

Range: 879 nmi (1,011 mi, 1,627 km)

Combat radius: 390 nmi (426 mi, 722 km)

Ferry range: 1,940 nmi (2,230 mi, 3,590 km) with auxiliary external fuel tanks

Service ceiling: 25,000 ft (7,620 m)

Rate of climb: 2,320–4,000 ft/min (11.8 m/s)

Glide ratio: 4.5:1

Disc loading: 20.9 lb/ft² at 47,500 lb GW (102.23 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.259 hp/lb (427 W/kg)

 

Armament:

1× 30 mm (1.18 in) 2A42 multi-purpose autocannon with 450 rounds

7 external hardpoints for a maximum ordnance of 2.500 kg (5.500 lb)

  

The kit and its assembly:

This exotic, fictional aircraft-thing is a contribution to the “The Flying Machines of Unconventional Means” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com in early 2019. While the propulsion system itself is not that unconventional, I deemed the quadrocopter concept (which had already been on my agenda for a while) to be suitable for a worthy submission.

The Mil Mi-30 tiltrotor aircraft, mentioned in the background above, was a real project – but my alternative combat vintoplan design is purely speculative.

 

I had already stashed away some donor parts, primarily two sets of tiltrotor backpacks for 1:144 Gundam mecha from Bandai, which had been released recently. While these looked a little toy-like, these parts had the charm of coming with handed propellers and stub wings that would allow the engine nacelles to swivel.

The search for a suitable fuselage turned out to be a more complex safari than expected. My initial choice was the spoofy Italeri Mi-28 kit (I initially wanted a staggered tandem cockpit), but it turned out to be much too big for what I wanted to achieve. Then I tested a “real” Mi-28 (Dragon) and a Ka-50 (Italeri), but both failed for different reasons – the Mi-28 was too slender, while the Ka-50 had the right size – but converting it for my build would have been VERY complicated, because the engine nacelles would have to go and the fuselage shape between the cockpit and the fuselage section around the original engines and stub wings would be hard to adapt. I eventually bought an Italeri Ka-52 two-seater as fuselage donor.

 

In order to mount the four engines to the fuselage I’d need two pairs of wings of appropriate span – and I found a pair of 1:100 A-10 wings as well as the wings from an 1:72 PZL Iskra (not perfect, but the most suitable donor parts I could find in the junkyard). On the tips of these wings, the swiveling joints for the engine nacelles from the Bandai set were glued. While mounting the rear wings was not too difficult (just the Ka-52’s OOB stabilizers had to go), the front pair of wings was more complex. The reason: the Ka-52’s engines had to go and their attachment points, which are actually shallow recesses on the kit, had to be faired over first. Instead of filling everything with putty I decided to cover the areas with 0.5mm styrene sheet first, and then do cosmetic PSR work. This worked quite well and also included a cover for the Ka-52’s original rotor mast mount. Onto these new flanks the pair of front wings was attached, in a mid position – a conceptual mistake…

 

The cockpit was taken OOB and the aircraft’s nose received an additional thimble radome, reminiscent of the Mi-28’s arrangement. The radome itself was created from a German 500 kg WWII bomb.

 

At this stage, the mid-wing mistake reared its ugly head – it had two painful consequences which I had not fully thought through. Problem #1: the engine nacelles turned out to be too long. When rotated into a vertical position, they’d potentially hit the ground! Furthermore, the ground clearance was very low – and I decided to skip the Ka-52’s OOB landing gear in favor of a heavier and esp. longer alternative, a full landing gear set from an Italeri MiG-37 “Ferret E” stealth fighter, which itself resembles a MiG-23/27 landing gear. Due to the expected higher speeds of the vintoplan I gave the landing gear full covers (partly scratched, plus some donor parts from an Academy MiG-27). It took some trials to get the new landing gear into the right position and a suitable stance – but it worked. With this benchmark I was also able to modify the engine nacelles, shortening their rear ends. They were still very (too!) close to the ground, but at least the model would not sit on them!

However, the more complete the model became, the more design flaws turned up. Another mistake is that the front and rear rotors slightly overlap when in vertical position – something that would be unthinkable in real life…

 

With all major components in place, however, detail work could proceed. This included the completion of the cockpit and the sensor turrets, the Ka-52 cannon and finally the ordnance. Due to the large rotors, any armament had to be concentrated around the fuselage, outside of the propeller discs. For this reason (and in order to prevent the rear engines to ingest exhaust gases from the front engines in level flight), I gave the front wings a slightly larger span, so that four underwing pylons could be fitted, plus a pair of underfuselage hardpoints.

The ordnance was puzzled together from the Italeri Ka-52 and from an ESCI Ka-34 (the fake Ka-50) kit.

  

Painting and markings:

With such an exotic aircraft, I rather wanted a conservative livery and opted for a typical Soviet tactical four-tone scheme from the Eighties – the idea was to build a prototype aircraft from the state acceptance trials period, not a flashy demonstrator. The scheme and the (guesstimated) colors were transferred from a Soviet air force MiG-21bis of that era, and it consists of a reddish light brown (Humbrol 119, Light Earth), a light, yellowish green (Humbrol 159, Khaki Drab), a bluish dark green (Humbrol 195, Dark Satin Green, a.k.a. RAL 6020 Chromdioxidgrün) and a dark brown (Humbrol 170, Brown Bess). For the undersides’ typical bluish grey I chose Humbrol 145 (FS 35237, Gray Blue), which is slightly lighter and less greenish than the typical Soviet tones. A light black ink wash was applied and some light post-shading was done in order to create panels that are structurally not there, augmented by some pencil lines.

 

The cockpit became light blue (Humbrol 89), with medium gray dashboard and consoles. The ejection seats received bright yellow seatbelts and bright blue pads – a detail seen on a Mi-28 cockpit picture.

Some dielectric fairings like the fin tip were painted in bright medium green (Humbrol 101), while some other antenna fairings were painted in pale yellow (Humbrol 71).

The landing gear struts and the interior of the wells became Aluminum Metalic (Humbrol 56), the wheels dark green discs (Humbrol 30).

 

The decals were puzzled together from various sources, including some Begemot sheets. Most of the stencils came from the Ka-52 OOB sheet, and generic decal sheet material was used to mark the walkways or the rotor tips and leading edges.

 

Only some light weathering was done to the leading edges of the wings, and then the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

  

A complex kitbashing project, and it revealed some pitfalls in the course of making. However, the result looks menacing and still convincing, esp. in flight – even though the picture editing, with four artificially rotating proprotors, was probably more tedious than building the model itself!

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

  

Some background:

The origins of the Ethiopian Air Force have been traced to (then Ras) Haile Selassie witnessing a show of the British Royal Air Force in November 1922, in Aden. Having never seen an airplane before, he was captivated by this demonstration of their power and abilities, and spontaneously asked if he could go up in one of the biplanes, proclaiming that it was "very fitting that he, as regent of Abyssinia should be the first Abyssinian to take flight in an aeroplane." As a result of this experience, he afterwards advocated the development of the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force. This small air arm began with the delivery of a Potez 25-A2 to the capital Addis Ababa on 18 August 1929. The Ethiopian Air Force was organized by Mishka Babitchef, the first Ethiopian pilot, who was of Russian descent. A Junkers W 33c followed on 5 September.

 

On 31 March 1930, three of the biplanes from Ethiopia's air arm played a dramatic role in a battle between Haile Selassie (not yet crowned Emperor) and conservative forces seeking to oust him. During the Battle of Anchem, biplanes were effectively used to give Haile Selassie's forces the upper hand.

 

A few transport aircraft were also acquired during 1934–35 for ambulance work. The air force was commanded by Colonel John Robinson (African-American, took command May 1935), recruited by Haile Selassie, and who remained until the Italian conquest of Ethiopia, when the small air arm ceased to exist.

 

After the liberation of Ethiopia, the country started reorganizing the embryonic air force that had existed prior to the Italian invasion, commanded by Colonel John Robinson (African-American). In 1944, a group of World War II African-American veterans set up a flying school at Lideta airport in Addis Ababa. The nation acquired a few aircraft through military aid from the United States and United Kingdom and the school had some 75 students by 1946. As neither the United States nor the United Kingdom were initially interested in providing further military assistance, Ethiopia turned to Sweden to help create a modern air arm. Sweden agreed to support, and Carl Gustaf von Rosen was appointed as the chief instructor of the newly re-formed Imperial Ethiopian Air Force (IEAF).

 

The Swedish contingent played a critical role in setting up a solid foundation. It sent Safir trainers and B-17A light bombers from Sweden, and the Ethiopian government acquired C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft from the United States to equip the flight training, bomber, and transport squadrons, respectively. In 1951, the IEAF formed its first fighter/attack squadron by acquiring Fairey Firefly fighters from the United Kingdom, later augmented with more aircraft of this type procured from Canada. One year later a fighter/reconnaissance squadron was founded, equipped with former British Supermarine Spitfire Mk. 18s.

 

The Mk. 18 was a refinement of the Griffon-powered Mk XIV from WWII. It was identical in most respects including engine (the Griffon 65) and cockpit enhancements, but it had from the start a bubble canopy for a better field of view for the pilot. It carried an additional 31-gallon fuel tank in the rear fuselage which extended range to about 610 miles (980 km) on internal fuel and the type had a revised, stronger wing structure. Its handling was nearly identical to the Mk. XIV and so it was not put through any performance tests before production started. But despite this sped-up development phase, the Mk. 18 missed the war and it was only built for a short period.

The Spitfire Mk. 18 was, like the earlier Mk. XIV, produced in pure fighter (F. Mk. 18) and armed fighter reconnaissance variants (FR. Mk. 18) which only differed through ventral camera ports and/or lateral camera windows at port and starboard as well as the respective camera mounts behind the cockpit. The Mk. 18 was delivered with standard elliptical wings, but some aircraft, especially the reconnaissance machines, were outfitted with clipped wing tips for better handling at low altitude.

Some 300 F. Mk. 18s and FR. Mk. 18s were built until 1946, but it was not until January 1947 that an RAF unit, 60 Squadron operating from RAF Seletar, Singapore, was re-equipped with the new variant, and other squadrons in the Far East and Middle East would receive them, too. In RAF service the Mk. 18s saw little action apart from some involvement against guerrillas in the Malayan Emergency. Beyond Ethiopia, who bought twenty retired RAF machines with few flying hours from surplus stock based in Iraq (formerly operated by RAF No. 6, 8 and 73 Squadron), the Royal Indian Air Force purchased 20 ex-RAF Mk. 18s, too.

 

Beyond these initial procurements, Ethiopia’s quest for an up-to-date air arm continued. In 1953, a military agreement between the United States and Ethiopia was signed for a military assistance program. Its aim was to provide Ethiopia with a capable military force for defensive purposes. The IEAF benefited immensely from the program. The US Air Force sent a team of officers and NCOs to assess the force and provide recommendations as part of the Military Advisory and Assistance Group undertaking the comprehensive study of the Ethiopian military and possible threats that it had to counter. The IEAF was to be restructured organizationally and adopt US-style operating procedures, and emphasis was given to building up IEAF's training institutions. Several Ethiopian personnel were sent to the US for training, including 25 Ethiopian pilots for jet training, and many more were trained locally by US Defense personnel. In 1957, the first three of several T-33A jet trainers were supplied, but the vintage piston engine combat aircraft still played a central role and became involved in the smoldering conflict with Somalia, which eventually escalated into the Ogaden War.

 

After its independence in 1960, Somalia started making claims to all of its precolonial territories that were occupied by France, Ethiopia and the British. However, majority of the land claimed was in Ethiopia which made it Somalia's main target. After failing to get support within the Organization of African Unity, Somalia declared war on Ethiopia in 1964. The Somali forces launched their attack at Togochale, a border town east of Jijiga, but the Ethiopians were no match to the comparatively well-equipped air forces of Somalia and suffered heavy losses. The brief conflict provided the IEAF with valuable experience, though. Lessons learned included the need for heavy bombers, an air defense complex, a secure and reliable communication system, and better coordination with ground forces. As a result, Canberra bombers and air defense radars were acquired from Great Britain and the US, respectively. F-86F fighters from the USA followed in 1960 and during the next year T-28s were acquired for advanced training. This influx of equipment and training made the IEAF, in the opinion of historian Bahru Zewde, "the most prestigious show-piece of American aid in Ethiopia. It was also reputedly the most modern and efficient unit of the armed forces."

 

In 1964, the neighboring Somalis began receiving large quantities of weaponry, ground equipment, and MiG-17 fighters from the Soviet Union. In response, the US started delivering the supersonic F-5A jet fighters in 1965 to counter this new threat. Careful not to escalate the situation further, the USA delivered the F-5As without providing major weapon systems for the aircraft, the ability to use air-to-air missiles. This deal, however, marked the start of the eventual retirement of the IEAF’s remaining early first-line propeller aircraft, even though some Fireflies and Spitfire FR. Mk. 18s soldiered on into the Seventies and were among the last vintage WWII fighters that were still in operation worldwide.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 32 ft 8 in (9,96 m)

Wingspan: 36 ft 10 in (11,23 m) with full span elliptical tips

Height: 10 ft (3,05 m)

Wing area: 242.1 sq ft (22,49 m²)

Airfoil: NACA 2213 (root), NACA 2209.4 (tip)

Empty weight: 6,578 lb (2.984 kg)

Gross weight: 7,923 lb (3.594 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 8,400 lb (3.810 kg)

 

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce Griffon 65 supercharged V12 with 2,050 hp (1,530 kW) at 8,000 ft (2.438 m),

driving a 5-bladed Jablo-Rotol propeller

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 441 mph (710 km/h, 383 kn) in FS supercharger gear at 29,500 ft.

391 mph in MS supercharger gear at 5,500 ft.

Combat range: 610 mi (960 km, 520 nmi)

Ferry range: 1,240 mi (2.000 km, 1,085 nmi)

Service ceiling: 43,500 ft (13.300 m)

Rate of climb: 5,040 ft/min (25,6 m/s) in MS supercharger gear at 2,100 ft.

3,550 ft/min in FS supercharger gear at 22,100 ft.

Time to altitude: 7 mins to 22,000 ft (at max weight)

Wing loading: 32.72 lb/sq ft (159,8 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.24

 

Armament:

2× 20 mm (0.787-in) Hispano Mk II cannon, 120 RPG

2× 0.50 in (12,7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns, 250 RPG

Ventral and underwing hardpoints for alternative loads of:

● 2× 250 lb G.P. Mk.IV bombs (500 lb total)

● 3× 250 lb G.P. Mk.IV bombs (750 lb total)

● 1× 500 lb G.P. Mk.IV bomb (500 lb total)

● 1× 500 lb G.P. Mk.IV bomb + 2 x 250 lb G.P. Mk.IV bombs (1,000 lb total)

● 8× RP-3 rockets

● 1x 90 gal. drop tank

  

The kit and its assembly:

This exotic what-if Spitfire was inspired by a F-5A decal sheet that I had recently bought, which featured – among many others – markings for an Ethiopian aircraft. That made me remember the odd Fairey Fireflies in desert camouflage and I wondered what other aircraft could have been operated by Ethiopia, too? One candidate was the Saab J29 Tunnan (because Sweden provided massive support to build and equip the Ethiopian Air Force), but then stumbled upon an MPM Spitfire Mk. 18 in the Stash™ that had been lingering there for years because I had bought it long ago as a part of a cheap lot, so that I had no concrete ideas for it so far. While I favored the J29 idea (esp. as a recce variant, possible with the Heller kit) I eventually used the opportunity to build the Spitfire, and it would, as an FR. Mk. 18, also become a late submission to the “Reconnaissance and Surveillance” group build at whatifmodellers.com in Sep. 2021.

 

That said, the simple but nicely detailed MPM kit from 1993 with a vacu canopy (actually two, one as a generous spare part should something go wrong…) and PE parts for cockpit and landing gear was basically built OOB. However, it is a typical short-run kit, so it bears some traps and surprises. What’s positive: very fine (even though somewhat soft) engraved surface details all over hull and wings as well as molded structures on the cockpit walls.

But this is countered by a wide range of weak or at least challenging points. For instance, the kit lacks ANY locator pins, the sprues are very thick, there’s flash and some parts like the machine guns or the propeller (with all five blades molded onto the spinner) are very rough in shape. PE parts are used everywhere: inside of the cockpit (you can build either a simple IP version of an almost fully-photo-etched alternative – I did a mix of both), the landing gear wells or the radiators, which are otherwise massive IP parts with a blurry interior and poor fit under the wings. The PE parts, however, are crisp and rather thick, so that they can be easily cut off from their blank and handled, and they fit surprisingly well, too.

Wings and fin each consist of two complete halves, so that they are quite massive, especially their trailing edges. Confusingly, the stabilizers come with pins - but there are no openings for them in the fuselage to hold or align them. The wheels are similar: there are pins on the legs, but no holes in the wheels themselves… Once the stabilizers are mounted in place you realize that they do not align with the fuselage shape: the visual axis through the rudders is “swept backwards” and needs further adjustments. The carburetor intake is molded into the lower wing section and the fuselage halves, and since it pointlessly consists of three thick-walled sections that do not align well, this calls for some serious PSR or even a total replacement (which I unfortunately did not have at hand). The wing roots on the fuselage do not match the wings well, either: they are much too wide for the assembled wing section, so that they had to be cut down (almost 1mm per side!) and the resulting inconsistencies had to be PSRed, too.

 

You see, the kit itself bears already a lot of challenges and work, and beyond this basic stuff I made some other amendments. Most importantly, I replaced the original and rather crude single-piece propeller with a leftover alternative from a Special Hobby Griffon-powered Spitfire, which fits well and looks MUCH better. It was mounted with the help of my standard metal-axis-in-a-styrene-tube-adapter construction. This revealed, however, that the front wall behind the spinner is not perfectly aligned with the propeller axis: there’s a noticeable gap that had to be filled with putty during the final assembly stages.

The ventral camera ports as well as the round openings on both flanks were drilled open and later received windows created with Humbrol ClearFix.

Due to the makeshift cockpit opening and the only vaguely fitting vacu canopy I decided to leave the cockpit closed, but added a (Matchbox) pilot figure with chopped-off legs to fit into the seat and vivify the model. The canopy itself was attached with superglue and later PSRed into the spine.

  

Painting and markings:

The more entertaining part of the build. I wanted to give this Spitfire a mix of desert camouflage, as seen on the Fireflies or the Saab B17 bombers, and, as a recce aircraft of British origin, classic PRU Blue.

The two-tone camouflage on the upper surfaces consists of RAF Dark Earth (Humbrol 29) and Light Stone (Humbrol 121), inspired by color photographs from contemporary Ethiopian aircraft – there’s a very helpful Air Enthusiast magazine article about the IEAF Fireflies (that can be accessed online under issuu.com/mtaye/docs/the_long_life_of_ethiopian_fairey_fi...). The undersides were painted with ModelMaster 2061, and the aircraft received a high waterline just under the cockpit and an all-blue fin – an interesting contrast, esp. with the colorful IEAF roundels and similar to the Royal Navy post-war scheme, just with different colors.

Even though the IEAF apparently added red spinners to the Fireflies, I kept it camouflaged on the model. No distractions.

 

The cockpit interior was painted with RAF Cockpit Green (Humbrol 78, according to pictures of real Mk. 18 cockpits – the typical RAF post-WWII black interior must have been introduced later?), as well as the landing gear wells. The inside of the main gear covers was painted in Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 165), as if this ex-RAF aircraft from Iraq had only been re-painted externally. The pilot received – using references from the aforementioned IEAF Firefly article – a pale greyish-beige jumpsuit, a dark skin, and I even tried to add a black beard for more authenticity.

 

As usual, the model received an overall washing with black ink and some post-panel shading. Some light weathering was done with dry-brushed light grey on the wings’ leading edges – IEAF aircraft seem to have been kept in very good shape during the Fifties. Therefore, only minimal exhaust stains were added to the flanks and no gun soot to the wings.

 

Decals were kept simple, just the IEAF roundels and three-digit tactical codes on the fin and under the exhaust stubs, all coming from the inspiring F-5 sheet.

  

The finished IEAF Spitfire FR. Mk. 18 does not look spectacular – but I like the mix of a contrast desert camouflage with the deep PRU Blue and the high waterline, which IMHO also underlines the Spitfire’s elegant lines. The colorful Ethiopian roundels are an interesting contrast, too. Somehow this model almost looks like a creation for/from a Tintin comic, even though unintentionally?

The MPM kit, however, turned out to be a so-so affair. It would be unfair to call it bad, because it is a very good representation of the aircraft it depicts, and it comes with ample detail. It is a typical short-run kit, though, and therefore nothing for beginners or people who are faint at heart. There are certainly better Griffon-Spitfire kits around, but I am quite happy that I eventually found a good use for this rather comatose case from The Stash™. And I like the outcome, despite its flaws and weaknesses.

The introduction and success in 1935 of the Type 57 range was two years later to be enhanced with further refinements and the option of the supercharged Type 57 C model. This gave the dedicated Bugatti clientele the option of an additional 25 horsepower over the 135 horsepower standard carburettor model. The engine was a beautifully made gear-driven double-overhead-cam in-line eight, representing a conservative summation of all the vast Bugatti experiences with Grand Prix, sports and touring cars. The Type 57 was very much the brain child of Jean Bugatti, working together with senior Bugatti design engineers Pichetto and Domboy. Ettore Bugatti himself during this 1930s period was focused on the railcar project for the French government. Bugatti was able to offer its discerning clientele a car for all occasions, where a chassis could still be purchased and sent to a coachbuilder of choice, or one of the factory-designed cars could be purchased, with the likes of the Galibier conduite interieure (with 4 doors), Ventoux coach (2-door coupé) and Stelvio cabriolet - the 4-seater drophead version, clearly the most desirable of those three models.

 

During the later thirties, there was a small selection of supercharged eight cylinder "grande routière" touring cars, such as the Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 and the Mercedes-Benz 540K range, but it was the Type 57 C supercharged that remained the thoroughbred - through its elegance and style in both design and construction, its superb handling, and its precise steering, gearbox and brakes. The Type 57 C, of which just 95 examples were produced - made its first appearance in 1937. It gave Bugatti clients the opportunity to sample a supercharged 160 horsepower engine against the normally aspirated 135 horsepower unit. It was the true connoisseur requiring superb sports performance that was attracted to the 57 C, one of them Captain Woolf Barnato of Bentley fame, who chose a Type 57 C Gangloff Stelvio as his last automobile.

 

This particular car, the Type 57 C Stelvio chassis no. 57597, was sent in chassis form to Gangloff in Colmar during December 1937, to be fitted with the rare round tail design also seen in similar shape on Atalante and the late-design integral-mounted headlamps in the front wings. On February 1st 1938 57597 was delivered to Mr. d'Aubarede of Lyon and his brother, first registered 4090 PF9 in France. During WW2 it was reportedly requisitioned by the German government but returned to Lyon after the war ended. From the sixties onwards, 57597 lived in America - a.o. with cardiologist Dr. Richard Roger of Beverly Hills, Gary Tiscornia of Tucson and Bob Pond of Palm Springs, restored by Bugatti authority Bunny Phillips.

 

Chassis number : 57597

Engine number : originally 18 C, currently 82 C from 57809

Gangloff number : 145

Colour : black over blue turquoise

Hood : beige

Unto Refinement

Love, Love, Love her!!

A big success by any standard both in and out of competition, the Lancia Stratos was developed as a homologation Special for European rallying. After production ceased it became a cult car and is now highly priced as the ‘modern classis' it is. Conceived strictly for rallying, the Lancia Stratos however makes an exciting road car, though it is very far from GT standards in both luxury and refinement.

 

The concept vehicle responsible for providing the inspiration for the Lancia Stratos Rally car is the Lancia (Bertone) Stratos. The Stratos featured a 1584 cc V4 DOHC with 115 bhp horsepower at 200 rpm. Designed by Marcello Gandini, the same designer responsible for the Lamborghini Countach and Lamborghini Miura, the Stratos concept was a development of the Bertone designed Alfa Romeo Carabo concept from 1968. The Carabo concept was also a Gandini creation.

 

First revealed at the Turin Motor Show in October of 1970, the Lancia Stratos HF prototype was a styling exercise for Bertone. A futuristic design, the Stratos featured a wedge shaped profile that stood just 33 inches from the ground. Since the vehicle was so low, conventional doors could not be used and instead one accessed the interior of the Stratos by a hinged windscreen. Drivers had to flip up the windscreen and walk into the vehicle. Once inside, visibility was quite restricted since the front windscreen was narrow. The cockpit of the Lancia Stratos was designed specifically for fast forest flying.

 

The body design was predictably minimal to hold down weight and bulk with its most distinctive features being semi-concealed A-pillars and a door beltline that sharply upswept to the top of the daylight opening. The shape of the resulting unbroken expanse of glass gave the tunnelback roof the appearance of a futuristic crash helmet.

 

The main body structure was steel, like the chassis, and weight-saving fiberglass was used for tilt-up nose and tail sections. A small box above and behind the powertrain was where cargo space was held. Bins were also molded into the interior door panels for storing helmets.

 

The same engine utilized on the Lancia 1600 HF Fulvia was used on the Bertone designed Lancia Stratos Zero prototype. A triangular shaped panel hinged upwards to allow access to the mid-mounted engine. Developed for rallying purposes, the legendary Lancia Stratos was unveiled in 1974. The production vehicle Stratos was powered by a 2.4 liter mid-mounted V6 from the Ferrari Dino.

 

Like no other Lancia before or after, the Lancia Stratos was a shock that left enthusiasts and rally fans breathless. For almost a decade the Stratos streaked across the rally landscape much like a brilliant comet, while discarding past principles, it also fearlessly represented something undeniably new. A phenomenal rally car, the Lancia Stratos set an example to every other car manufacturer in the world. The first viable purpose-built rally car ever built, the Stratos was probably the last purpose-built rally car.

 

Created by the Bertone coachbuilding company, the Stratos was both radical, yet fully functional. Fiorio realized that for Lancia to continue to compete in the World Rally Championship, the Fulvia HF would need a much more powerful replacement. A the time, four-wheel drive was not an option, so a mid-engined configuration seemed ideal. To reinforce Fiori's convictions, the Bertone show car was featured soon after with a mid-engine Fulvia V4.

 

The introduction of the Ford mid-engine purpose-built GT70 rally car at the 1971Brussels Motor Show was what truly inspired the impetus behind the Stratos proect. It was after this appearance that Lancia's general manager, Pierugo Gobbato contacted Nuccio Bertone. Though the GT70 was actually never put in production by Ford, it was this that sparked the inspiration of the Lancia Stratos.

 

As always, there was a minimum production requirement, 500 units for the Lancia Stratos. This was an awkward figure that would necessitate funds for at least semi-permanent tooling as well as design and development. This was a job well suited to the Italian industry. Fiorio masterminded the project, and he envisioned a short, wide coupe with transverse midships drivetrain. Bertone was immediately contracted to style the vehicle and built its unit body/chassis structure.

 

43 months passed in between the time of conception to the actual birth of the Lancia Stratos. The vehicle was developed to take over and make Lancia the outright world rally champ. The Stratos was both short and wide, with a wheelbase of only 7 feet 1.8 inches, the width of the vehicle was only 5 feet 8.9 inches. Weighing only 1958 lbs, the Stratos was only 3 feet 7.9 inches high. Able to easily exceed 140 mph, the Stratos featured 190 horsepower in roadgoing trim.

 

Having studied every possible powerteam in the Fiat/Lancia group, Fiorio secured 2.4 liter V-6s and 5-speed transaxles from Ferrari, which was an ideal chouse as they'd be installed exactly as the Dino 246. All-independent suspension, rack-and-pinion steering and four-wheel disc brakes were all specifically designed for the Lancia Stratos.

 

After 1978 the Stratos was officially retired and no longer was officially entered by the Lancia factory, the vehicle was still going strong. The Lancia team was headed by by Sandro Munari who won its first event as a homologated entry in October of 1974. Mun ari entered alone 40 events with the Lancia Stratos and won 14. The Stratos also won the World Rally Championship in 1974, 1975, and 1976 and remained competitive for another four years. The final major win came in 1979 when a Lancia Stratos entered by the Monaco importer won the famed Monte Carlo Rally. Finally the factory retired the Stratos.

 

By Jessica Donaldson

 

[Text from ConceptCarz.com]

 

www.conceptcarz.com/z21737/Lancia-Stratos-HF.aspx

 

This Lego miniland-scale Lancia Stratos Rally Racer has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 100th Build Challenge - our Centenary, titled 'One Hundred Ways to Win!'. In this challenge, a list of 100 challenges is available, kept by the admins. Individuals wishing to enter, request a number from 1-100 (so long as it has not already been requested) - and the admins assign the individual build challenge associated with that number.

 

In the case of admins entering models - they request that a general LUGNuts member assigns a number - and the admin must build to that challenge number.

 

In this case, the number 78 was chosen for me, corresponding to the challenge: '78.Any vehicle from the year you were born'. I was born in 1972, the year that the first Stratos rally cars were built, entering in the Rally Championship as Group 5 (un-homologated) entries.

 

The road cars required to homologate for Group 4 were built through 1973 to 1978.

 

As can be seen in some of the images here, not only does the car open and close (a real challenge when you look at the chassis), but it also uses the Lego Group RC Rollerskate - so it can zoom around under its own power.

 

The 76mm CSR (Charge, Super Rapid-o) based heavily on the Italian/spanish Otobreda system, but with further refinements to the breach and barrel, due to higher pressures. New safety features include a Halon gas anti-flash system for the magazine, and a refined autoloader. The ready use magazine contains 54 rounds. Maximum rate of fire is 125rpm and includes a water cooling system for the barrel.

As standard, the equivalent of "Charge Super" (overpressure loads) for maximum velocity and range are carried. The magazine holds 1025rounds. Smart ammunition will be introduced when enough fun has been had with regular HE/AP/Cannister

 

The VLS contains 12 cells for "Sea Snatch" or "Sea Fart" (yes, fart) "Sea Clunge" is still under development and is heavily over budget.

Bruxelles

Porst 55mm f1.2

Crayon and ink.

 

Michael Lenson spent his earliest years in Galich, a city of 20,000 on the western steppes of the Ural mountains, about 180 miles northeast of Moscow. Then in 1911, Lenson's parents, seven brothers and one sister left Russia and emigrated to New York. They all lived in the back of his father's tailor shop until they could afford to take a tenement apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

 

In the school years that followed, all the brothers took up professions with the exception of Michael, who spent afternoons sketching at the Metropolitan Museum and taking art classes. In 1920, he enrolled in the National Academy of Design and later recalled . . .

 

"I was a student. I was doing whatever I could to pick up a dollar, just like everyone else . . . We all roosted in a little place on 116th Street and Third Avenue, one of those condemned wooden houses where . . . you'd wake up in the morning with snow on your blanket. It came in through the clapboards."

 

Lenson's roommates were the painters Louis Guglielmi (1906-1956) and Gregorio Prestopino (1907-1984), both of whom went on to notable careers. At age 25, Lenson was working nights in the Post Office, airbrushing pictures of shoes for catalogs by day, and becoming despondent. No big break had come his way.

 

All that changed in 1928, when he won the $10,000 Chaloner Foundation Prize and left to study in Europe for four years. Years later, he told me, "I thought Presto [Prestopino] would win the Chaloner that year, not me. He had taken second place the year before and I figured it was a forgone conclusion."

 

Of all his experiences abroad, Lenson most valued the training he got at the Slade School of Art in London where he ". . . sat at a drafting table month after month, drawing and drawing like a madman, using nothing but needle-sharp, hard-leaded pencils." Those months refined Lenson's basic talent for drawing and made him a truly extraordinary draftsman.

 

In London, Lenson met the English muralists Colin and Pauline Gill, who taught him some mural-painting basics such as "sounding out" a wall, filling in hollow areas and applying primer. These skills would help him when he joined the WPA after his return home.

 

Paris became his home for most of his time in Europe. He studied at the Academie des Beaux-Arts and exhibited his works in the Summer and Spring Salons, the Goupil Gallery and other venues. He saw Ravel conduct, heard Chaliapin sing and, because Lenson was a handsome man, escorted some glamourous women, including the expatriate American concert pianist Henrietta Schuman. Lenson's full-length formal portrait of her, now apparently lost, was reproduced in the American magazine Town and Country.

 

When Lenson returned to America in 1932, he felt ready to attract notice and approval in the art world. His first one-man show at Caz Delbo Gallery in 1933 won encouraging reviews. On April 30, 1933, the distinguished Times critic Howard Devree wrote . . .

 

"One of these newcomers was Michael Lenson, winner of the Chaloner Paris Prize some years ago - a young man With his thirtieth year still well ahead, whose work belies his youth. After several years spent chiefly in France and Spain, he stands at the beginning of a very promising career, without close allegiance to any of the great names or schools. Yet in the best sense of the word he is traditional."

 

"Lenson is preoccupied with certain problems of color and form. The best of his things strike a good working balance between the two. His figure studies . . . show him at his best. His still life is restrained both in color and form, refinement without academism. The portraits show sympathy with old masters of the French school and yet are thoroughly modern. His land-scapes are well worked out and lighted, if not quite as free as they will become. His later things give evidence of growing freedom in the use of clear, rich color and of gathering power of simplification."

 

In the Post, Margaret Breuning wrote that ". . . all the work has an integrity and soundness which warrant a belief in the artist's future performance."

 

Lenson continued to advance his career, exhibiting in group shows at the Museum of Modern Art in 1935 and the Corcoran retrospectives of 1935 and 1938. Yet few collectors were buying paintings in those bleak depression years. Lenson was hard-pressed to get his work shown widely or earn a living. That's when he discovered the WPA.

 

In 1936, he arrived at Halsey Street in Newark and joined the projects, where his exceptional abilities attracted notice and a big assignment. His first major project, in 1936, was "The History of New Jersey," a large mural (75 feet by 16 feet, now destroyed) for the Essex Mountain Sanitorium in Verona, New Jersey.

 

Over the next seven years, Lenson painted some of New Jersey's most remarkable works of public art, including "History of the Enlightenment of Man" (Weequahic High School, Newark, extant) the immense multi-panel "History of Newark" (Newark City Hall, extant) as well as smaller works around the state. In 1939, Lenson won a Federal Arts Project competition and painted "Mining," still to be seen at the Post Office in Mount Hope, West Virginia. In his remarkable design for this mural, Lenson took great pains to depict the very type of men (central Europeans, African-Americans) who were working in local mines at the time.

 

In addition to mounting the scaffolds to paint, Lenson was also an administrator for the New Jersey projects and supervised the design and installation of many more murals around the state. ("They decided I was supervisory material and made me Assistant State Supervisor in charge of the Mural and Easel Division.") Fortunately for us, the Archives of American Art's Oral History Project interviewed Lenson in 1963. We therefore have a detailed account of his activities as both painter and administrator for the projects.

 

One thrilling experience for Lenson was to design and paint "New Jersey Agriculture and Industry," enormous murals for the New Jersey Pavilion at the 1939 Worlds Fair. Lenson and his crew had little more than a month to complete the project. Would the murals be ready in time? Lenson used opaque projectors to quickly transfer the design onto canvas and devised other shortcuts. Reporters from New Jersey and New York papers visited, flash bulbs crackled, and Lenson and his crew became temporary celebrities before the public eye. The deadline was met, the murals were installed. And now, like so many works of the era, they are lost.

 

Lenson never let his mural activities pull him away from easel painting. He continued to paint and exhibit widely. (For a list of exhibitions, visit the Friends of Michael Lenson Website at www.michaellenson.org) Yet after the depression came and went, Lenson's career was interrupted by two more sizeable obstacles. First came World War II. (Lenson registered for service but was never called because of his age.) Then, when the war ended and he thought his career would regain momentum, the New York art world became infatuated with European abstractionism.

 

Lenson, who refused to abandon the refined realism he had perfected, kept painting realist paintings, and watched his career falter. Lenson, who valued Tolstoy's dictum that art should serve a human purpose, resisted abstraction until the end. Now, more than 30 years after his death, people have regained the perspective to value what he accomplished on the projects and in his beloved studio in Nutley, New Jersey, where he painted every day until his death in 1971 at the age of 68.

 

Lenson is also remembered for his skills as teacher and critic. He taught painting at Rutgers University and at the Montclair Art Museum for many years. He was art critic of the Newark Sunday News for 16 years where his weekly "Realm of Art" column won him praise from scholar William Gerdts as "New Jersey's most distinguished art critic."

  

by Barry Lenson (the artist's son)

Purse is from Vanessa Perrin Refinement, Shoes from The Vogue.

~Dirk Bogarde

 

Monochromatic Month is almost over! Only 5 days left! There's still time to join the colorless fun! :)

 

Tip: One of the qualities I love most about black & white photography is the feel of refinement a monochromatic palette conveys. In addition to that sense of polish, there's also an ambiance and timeless style you seldom find in color photos (this is why B&W is a popular choice for weddings). Regardless of your subject matter, try shooting in monochrome and you'll see not only does it add intimacy and immediacy—it brings the moment closer.

 

Happy Monday! Thank you all for your continued feedback & support!

 

Macro Mondays (4.25.11): "Creamy"

 

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM

Aperture: f/1.8

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 200

Lighting: Ambient

Polarizer/Filter: None

Exposure: 1/40

RAW File Processing: Lightroom 3

 

Go ahead, ask.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

© Steven Brisson. Do not use without permission.

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n° 57 of 100

Chassis n° ZA9H12EAYYSF76077

 

Bonhams

Les Grandes Marques du Monde à Paris

The Grand Palais Éphémère

Place Joffre

Parijs - Paris

Frankrijk - France

February 2023

 

Estimated : € 2.300.000 - 2.700.000

Unsold

 

"It's a car with its own personality – or rather its own split personality. Beyond refinement and ease of use is a demon with one eye open waiting for its turn, a car that is scintillatingly fast and hugely demanding, a car that can thrill and terrify in equal measure, a supercar in every sense of the word." – evo.

 

One of the more fascinating aspects of the modern motoring scene is the recent emergence of the small independent supercar manufacturer, many of which have gone from relative obscurity to the status of household names in just a few short years, usually on the back of a product range offering hitherto almost unimaginable levels of performance. Whereas at one time established manufacturers such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, and Aston Martin only had one another to worry about, they now have to contend with the likes of Koenigsegg, De Tomaso and, of course, Pagani.

 

Succeeding the Zonda, Pagani's latest offering is the Huayra, a mid-engined coupé hailed by Top Gear magazine as 'Hypercar of the Year 2012'. Horacio Pagani was no newcomer to the world of automotive engineering when he built the first Zonda in 1999, for the Argentine-born industrial design graduate had been working with Lamborghini since the mid-1980s, developing the Countach and Diablo road cars and assisting with the Italian manufacturer's Formula 1 engine programme. The Zonda C12 debuted in coupé form at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show, its maker freely acknowledging that its styling had been inspired by the Mercedes-Benz Group C 'Silver Arrow' sports-racers. Mercedes-Benz's influence was more than just skin deep, for the German firm's AMG performance division was responsible for the Zonda's 6.0-litre V12 engine, which was mounted longitudinally amidships in the predominantly carbon fibre body tub. With some 408 horsepower on tap, the C12 was always going to be quick, but performance figures of 0-60mph in 4.2 seconds and 0-100 in 8.2 were simply staggering plus, of course, that all important 200mph (or thereabouts) top speed.

 

Seemingly small from the outside yet endowed with a comfortable cabin, the C12 provided the basis for a host of derivatives, which emerged from Pagani's factory at San Cesario sul Panaro near Modena (where else?) in strictly limited numbers over the next 11 years.

 

Its successor, the Huayra - named after a wind god of the South American Quechua people - made its public debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2011. Once again, AMG provided the engine, on this occasion a twin-turbocharged 6.0-litre V12 producing a mighty 620bhp and a titanic 737lb/ft of torque. A mind-boggling top speed of around 238mph (383km/h) was claimed for the Huayra, with the 0-60mph dash accomplished in a neck-snapping 2.8 seconds. Power reaches the road via a transversely-mounted Xtrac seven-speed sequential semi-automatic transmission, while the stupendous performance is kept in check by Brembo carbon ceramic disc brakes featuring four-pot callipers all round. It is worthwhile noting the Horacio Pagani chose to stick with a conventional single clutch rather than the more complex and heavier twin-clutch technology favoured by some rivals, reasoning that the considerable saving in weight would result in a better balanced car.

 

The most significant difference between the Huayra and its Zonda predecessor is the former's use of active aerodynamic aids. These consist of variable front ride height and moveable spoilers at front and rear, their deployment being managed by a dedicated control unit to minimise drag or maximise downforce as required. Under hard braking, the rear spoiler flaps function as an air brake, the front ride height being increased at the same time to counteract weight transfer to the front wheels and thus maintain stability. Cleverly, this system is also used to limit body roll when cornering by raising the 'inside' flaps to generate increased down force on that side only. As had been the case with the Zonda, an open roadster and various limited edition variants followed.

 

Testing a Huayra in 2013, evo magazine found that even before the ignition key had been turned, the experience of just sitting in the cockpit was almost overwhelming. 'Inside a leather, carbonfibre and aluminium cocoon of obsession, every detail agonised over and beautifully thought out, every material used sympathetically and expertly integrated into this stunning sculpture. The driving position is superb.' Needless to say, the driving experience did not disappoint: 'the engine is just phenomenally powerful and when it's delivering the full 737lb/ft of torque, it scrambles your brain. This is the sort of performance that doesn't dull even with prolonged exposure'.

 

Pagani's agreement with AMG limited the supply of engines to 100 units, restricting production to only 100 cars, thus guaranteeing the Huayra's instant exclusivity and future collectible status.

 

Number '57' of the 100 Huayra Roadsters built, this car was delivered new to Denmark and registered in July 2020. The car had been ordered and specified by a Danish car collector, who took delivery but never drove it. He then sold the car to another Danish collector, in whose hands it has covered fewer than 800 kilometres.

West Covina and Torrance, California

A ready-to-use block of hand-refined wild clay collected from near my home in South Yorkshire, England UK. The clay was first dried out, then slaked down in clean water and sieved to remove impurities. It was then dried to a workable consistency on a plaster slab before being wedged to remove any air pockets.

The clay could have been refined further by levigation but that would have made the clay susceptible to warping and shrinkage when fired. This clay has high iron content and will fire to a rich terracotta colour. It will be used to make ceramic bonsai pots.

www.stevegreaves.com

www.theeggeryplace.com/

Introduced in 1985, the Turbo R continued the modern 'Blower Bentley' theme that had commenced three years previously with the Mulsanne Turbo, but with the added refinement of suspension better suited to the car's increased performance. Outwardly, the R differed by virtue of its cast-alloy wheels shod with low-profile Pirelli tyres, while inside there was a revised fascia with tachometer included amongst the comprehensive instrumentation. In a break with tradition, power figures were made public, revealing that the engine produced a maximum of 320 bhp and a staggering 475 lb/ft of torque. Few cars were - or are - better suited to fast long-distance touring.

 

This particular Turbo R was delivered new to Achilli Motors SPA in Milan, Italy in March 1990. Circa 1992, the Bentley was exported to Japan, returning to the UK in 2007. It was serviced on arrival by Peter Jarvis at 67.000 km (December 2007) and again at 70.000 km (June 2015). Bentley Edinburgh serviced the car in June 2016 (at 70.801 km) since when it has only been driven some 4.000 kilometres. This collectible modern Bentley is offered with its service booklet, owner's handbook, sundry invoices for parts, UK V5C registration documents, and some expired MoT certificates.

 

Les Grandes Marques du Monde au Grand Palais

Bonhams

Sold for € 17.250

Estimated : € 20.000 - 30.000

 

Parijs - Paris

Frankrijk - France

February 2017

Maker: John Burke (1843-1900)

Born: UK

Active: Afghanistan/India

Medium: carbon print

Size: 8 3/4" x 7"

Location: Afghanistan

 

Object No. 2016.661

Shelf: A-16

 

Publication: Henry Hardy Cole's Archaeological Survey of India report, 'Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir,' (1869)

 

Other Collections: The British Library

 

Notes: This general view of the west façade, with a measuring scale and a figure posed in the foreground, is reproduced in Henry Hardy Cole's Archaeological Survey of India report, 'Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir,' (1869), in which he wrote, 'The Temple of Sankara Gaureshwara is elaborately carved, and some of the deatails are are as a sharp and clear as when first cut. The degree of elaboration in the porch-like projections and interior carvings...The repetition of the pediments one above the other, together with the highly decorated pillars in the porches, all prove that the style of building practised in Kashmir since the erection of the Jyeshteswara Temple, had in the progress of time followed the natural tendency for greater elaboration.' Modern Patan, located about 27 kms from Srinagar, is the site of Shankarapattana which was founded by Shankaravarman of Kashmir's Utpala dynasty (ruled 883-902) as his capital. By this time Kashmir had become a great centre of the Shaivite religion and philosophy. Like his predessor Avantivarman, Shankaravarman built two temples of which only the ruins remain, the Sankaragaurishwara Temple and the Sugandhesha Temple. Both dedicated to Shiva, they are seen as a late flowering of Kashmiri temple architecture. The former is named after the ruler and the latter is said to be named after his queen. They are built to much the same plan as earlier temples but their stones display a greater refinement and precision of cutting and carving.

 

To view our archive organized by themes and subjects, visit: OUR COLLECTIONS

 

For information about reproducing this image, visit: THE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY ARCHIVE

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

  

Some background:

Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer of the World War II era. They were primarily a repair and overhaul shop, but also a construction shop for other companies' designs, notably the Supermarine Seafire. But the company also undertook contract work for the Air Ministry, Lord Rootes, Shorts and Armstrong Siddeley worth £1.5 million, and undertook design and development work.

 

The Marlin torpedo bomber was designed by Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft to Admiralty Specification O.5/43 as a replacement for the carrier-based Fairey Barracuda in the torpedo/dive bomber role for the new Malta Class ships. Cunliffe-Owen’s engineers had been convinced that a state-of-the-art torpedo bomber would have to be a fast and agile aircraft, so the airframe’s dimensions remained as compact as possible – and in fact the resulting aircraft was not bigger than the Barracuda, even though it was more massive in order to make room for an internal bomb bay. Much attention was given to aerodynamic and weight refinements, so that the aircraft – despite its considerable size – would still perform well with a single engine.

The primary choice fell on the Bristol Centaurus and the aircraft was expected to achieve 370 mph (600 km/h) top speed. Other engines with a similar output, e .g. the R-2800 and R-3350 from the USA as well as the British, air-cooled Exe 45 24 cylinder inline engine, were considered, too. However, the American export engines had been reserved for domestic use and the Exe was, at the time of the aircraft’s design, still far from being a reliable engine in the 3.000 hp class.

 

The Cunliffe-Owen Marlin was a conservative two-seat, mid monoplane aircraft design. As the Marlin was intended for carrier service, it came complete with hinged wing sections to allow for folding, as well as an arrester hook and a sturdy landing gear. The wings had a pronounced inverted gull wing design, so that the wings’ main spars could be positioned between the bomb bay and the cockpit floor and the landing gear struts could be kept as short as possible.

 

Even though the new Malta Class ships would allow bigger aircraft to be stored and deployed, the Cunliffe-Owen design team was cautious and tried to keep the aircraft as compact as possible – also with hindsight to the aircraft’s overall performance. In order to achieve this goal and set the Marlin apart from its Fairey and Supermarine contenders, the designers decided at a very early stage to limit the biggest size driver: the internal bomb bay. On the Marlin, it was not to be long enough to carry an 18” torpedo internally. The effects were dramatic: the Spearfish, for instance, had a wingspan of more than 60 ft (18m) and had a MTOW of more than 10 tons, while the Marlin had only a wing span of less than 50 ft and weighed only 25% less.

 

Instead of carrying the torpedo internally, a ventral arrangement, offset to port, allowed for the external carrying of a single 18” torpedo under the fuselage or of up to two 1.000 lb bombs in tandem. Alternatively, a single 1.000 lb bomb could be carried internally on a swing arm that would clear the bomb in a dive from the propeller arc. When dropped in free fall, up to four 500 lb. bombs or four 450 lb (205 kg) depth charges could be carried internally. Other options included a photo camera pallet for reconnaissance duties and/or auxiliary fuel tanks.

Hardpoints under the outer wings allowed the carriage of more iron bombs, mines or depth charges of up to 500 lb caliber, 90 gal drop tanks, or up to sixteen unguided 3” missiles for attack purposes. The Marlin’s total ordnance load was 3,000 lb (1,361 kg).

Additionally, two forward-firing, fixed 20mm cannons were mounted in the leading wing edges while a defensive, remote-controlled Frazer-Nash FN95 dorsal barbette with two 0.5” (12.7 mm) machine guns was mounted behind the rear cockpit position for defense, being operated by the navigator.

 

In August 1943, Cunliffe-Owen received an order for two Marlin T.1 prototypes. The first prototype, serial number RA359, was constructed at Cunliffe-Owen's Southampton Airport factory and first flew on 5 July 1945. The second prototype did not fly until late 1946 and was earmarked for the integration of a surface-search radar.

 

Test pilot and naval aviator Captain Eric Brown evaluated the first prototype at the Royal Navy Carrier Trials Unit at RNAS Ford, Sussex, and found "the controls in cruising flight were relatively heavy, but the aircraft responded well to stick input, and it is fast – despite its ponderous looks.” The Marlin also lacked any sort of stall warning, which would have been a problem in operational use as the stall and approach speeds were fairly close. For the landing, the aircraft proved quite docile, though.

The later prototype had, as an interim measure, ailerons boosted by hydraulic power and artificial feel to the stick from a spring. But during tests Brown found that "the second prototype was much less the pleasant aircraft to fly as the stick continually hunted either side of neutral and there was no build-up of stick force with increase in speed." Several improvements had to be made to the airframe, but no major flaws were discovered. In addition, the flaps were to be enlarged and lateral control was to be provided by spoilers with small "feeler" ailerons.

 

In the meantime, the strategic developments in the Pacific theatre of operations had changed. In 1945 the original order of four Malta Class ships from 1943 for the Royal Navy had been cancelled, even before they were laid down, and with this cancellation the Fleet Air Arm no longer had a requirement for new torpedo bombers. The whole program was cancelled, including the Marlin’s main competitor, the Fairey Spearfish, which was only built as a prototype.

 

However, the Marlin’s good performance so far and its relatively compact dimensions and high performance saved it from complete cancellation. The type was now regarded rather as an attack aircraft that would complement the Hawker Sea Fury fighter, another late WWII design. Some refinements like a new exhaust system and a fully retractable tail wheel were integrated into the serial production and the updated type’s designation was changed into SR.2 in order to reflect its changed role. The torpedo bomber capability was kept, even though only as a secondary role.

 

Originally, production orders for 150 aircraft were placed to be built at Southhampton, starting in late 1944. The first ten aircraft were still finished to the T.1 specification and used a Bristol Centaurus IX 18-cylinder radial engine, 2,520 hp (1,880 kW) radial engine. Then production switched to the TR.2, but instead of fulfilling the complete order, just a scant 114 TR.2 production aircraft, all outfitted with a 2,825 hp (2,107 kW) Centaurus 57 engine, followed. Some were outfitted with an ASV Mk.XV surface-search radar, mounted in a pod under the outer starboard wing, but all of them came too late to see any action in the Pacific.

 

After the Second World War, the Marlin remained in front line service with the Fleet Air Arm until the mid-1950s, but soon after World War II, anti-aircraft defenses were sufficiently improved to render aerial torpedo attacks suicidal. Lightweight aerial torpedoes were disposed or adapted to small attack boat usage, and the only significant employment of aerial torpedoes was in anti-submarine warfare.

Nevertheless, British Marlins got actively involved in several battles. For instance, the type carried out anti-shipping patrols and ground strikes off various aircraft carriers in the Korean War, and the Royal Navy successfully disabled the Hwacheon Dam in May 1951 with aerial torpedoes launched from Marlin fighter bombers - this raid constituted the last time globally that an aerial torpedo was used against a surface target, and was the only time torpedoes were used in the Korean War. The Marlin also served in the ground-attack role during the Malayan Emergency between 1951 and 1953.

 

The Marlin’s FAA front line career ended in late 1954 with the introduction of the Fairey Gannet. By that time, Cunliffe-Owen had already been, due to huge losses in the Post-War civil aviation market, dissolved since 1947.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: two

Length: 39 ft 7 1/2 in (12.10 m)

Wingspan: 47 ft 3 in (14.40 m)

Height: 13 ft 4.5 in (4.07 m)

Wing area: 35.40 m² (381.041 ft²)

Empty weight: 10,547 lb (4,794 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 16,616 lb (7,553 kg)

Fuel capacity: 409 imperial gallons (1,860 l; 491 US gal)

 

Powerplant:

1× Bristol Centaurus 57 18-cylinder radial engine, 2,825 hp (2,107 kW)

driving a 5-bladed Rotol VH 65, 14 ft (4.3 m) diameter propeller

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 540 km/h (293 kn, 335 mph)

Maximum range: 900 mi (783 nmi, 1,450 km)

Combat radius: 349 mi (303 nmi; 562 km)

Service ceiling: 31,600 ft (9,630 m)

Rate of climb: 2,600 ft/min (13 m/s)

Time to altitude: 7.75 minutes to 10,000 feet (3,048 m)

Wing loading: 158.9 kg/m² (32.5 lb/ft²)

Power/mass: 240 W/kg (0.147 hp/lb)

 

Armament:

2× 20 mm (0.79 in) Hispano autocannon in the outer wings

2× 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in a dorsal, remote-controlled

Frazer-Nash FN95 barbette

1× 1,850 lb (840 kg) 18” Mk. VXII torpedo or 2 × 2,000 lb (910 kg) bombs under the fuselage,

or up to 2.000 lb of bombs in an internal bomb bay

Alternatively, up to 16× RP-3 rocket projectiles, bombs or 2× 90 gal (408 l) drop tanks

on underwing hardpoints; total ordnance load of up to 3,000 lb (1,361 kg)

  

The kit and its assembly:

This converted Aichi B7A2 was inspired by a whiffy Royal Navy skin for this type for a flight simulator, found at warthunder.com and created/posted by a user called byacki. The aircraft was otherwise unchanged, but the result looked so convincing that I earmarked the idea for a hardware build.

This time has come now: the 2018 “RAF Centenary” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com was a neat occasion to tackle the project, since I already had stashed away a Fujimi kit for this build.

 

In fact, Cunliffe-Owen submitted a competitive proposal for the Spearfish’s requirement, but details concerning the respective aircraft remain obscure, so that the B7A2 fills this gap well. The Fujimi kit itself is VERY nice, well detailed and goes together like a charm. In order to stay true to the original inspiration I did not change much, but the Fairey Spearfish of the late WWII era had some influence.

 

First of all, the engine was changed into a Bristol Centaurus – a very simple rhinoplasty, since the B7A2’s front fuselage diameter turned out to be ideal for this swap! The original nose was cut off just in front of the exhaust stubs, and a Centaurus from a PM Model Sea Fury was mounted in its place – even though it had to be “squashed” a little in order to fit properly (achieved through the use of a screw clamp and 2C putty inside to stabilize the new shape). Inside of the new cowling, a styrene tube was added for the new five blade propeller, also form a Sea Fury, which received a metal axis.

 

Another addition is the gun barbette, a common feature among Admiralty Specification O.5/43 designs (the Fairey Spearfish carried one, too). I was lucky to find a leftover chin turret from an Airfix B-17G in the pile, which fitted well in shape and size. The casing ejector openings were faired over and then the turret was mounted upside down in a round opening at the end of the cockpit section. Cockpit floor and canopy were modified accordingly and the result does not look bad at all! Inside of the cockpit the OOB bucket seats were replaced by bigger alternatives – the Fujimi parts look like 1:100 scale!

 

The OOB torpedo was retained and I added some unguided 3” rockets under the aircraft’s wings, left over from my recent Sea Hawk trainer build. Another addition is a radar pod under the port side wing (a modified cardboard drop tank from a WWII P-51D), and the main wheels were changed – from a Matchbox Me 262, because they feature more details than the OOB parts. The tail wheel was modified, too: instead of the B7A2’s fixed wheel, I implanted the front wheel from a PZL Iskra and added covers, for a retractable arrangement.

  

Painting and markings:

Well, a conservative choice, and since I wanted to stay true to the original CG design, I stuck to classic RN colors in the form of Extra Dark Sea Grey (Humbrol 123) for the upper surfaces and Sky (Tamiya XF-76 IJN Green Grey, which is a very similar, yet slightly darker tone) for the undersides, with a high waterline. A personal twist came through Korean War era “invasion stripes”, which were carried for easy identification esp. by propeller-driven aircraft in order to avoid friendly AA fire from the ground. The stripes were created after basic painting with white and black generic decal sheet material (TL Modellbau): large white bands (32 mm wide) as foundation, with single black bands (each 6.4 mm wide) added on top. Application around the radar pod and on the slightly tapered fuselage was a bit tricky, but IMHO still easier than trying to mask and paint the stripes.

Other markings were puzzled together from a PrintScale Fairey Firefly sheet, from different Korean War era aircraft.

 

As per usual, the kit received a light black ink wash in order to emphasize the engraved surface details, and then the panels were highlighted through dry-brushing. Lightly chipped paint was simulated with dry-brushed silver and light grey, and gun and exhaust soot were created with grinded graphite.

Finally, everything was sealed under a mix of Italeri’s matt and semi-gloss acrylic varnishes, for a sheen finish.

  

I am astonished how natural the Japanese B7A2 from late WWII looks in Royal Navy colors – even without my minor modifications the aircraft would look very convincing, even as a post-war design. It’s really an elegant machine, despite its bulk and size!

The Centaurus with its five blade propeller, the missiles under the wings and the gun barbette just add some more muscle and post-war credibility. I could also imagine this elegant aircraft in WWII Luftwaffe markings, maybe with an engine swap (BMW 801 or Jumo 213 power egg), too?

It is a little cramped to be honest, and is hardly the zenith of refinement, oh and the wheels squeek and parallel parking is a nightmare because there is no steering but I like it.

Bored again. ;-)

When Amtrak started operations on May 1, 1971, it initially relied on an inherited and aging fleet of GG1 electric locomotives for its electrified passenger service. Looking to replace the GG1's, Amtrak ordered 26 new electric locomotives from General Electric of Erie, PA in 1973. These were classified as E60, were built between 1974 and 1976 and assigned road numbers between 950 and 976 (though later the 14 units remaining with Amtrak were re-numbered within the 600-621 range -- not all numbers being used).

 

This was Amtrak’s first new electric locomotive purchase and coincided with orders for new diesel-electrics from both General Electric and General Motors. The order was split between 15 class E60CP units with steam generators for older passenger equipment, and 11 E60CH units with newer Head-End Power (HEP) generators for the newly ordered Amfleet and rebuilt Heritage Fleet equipment.

 

The E60’s, like Amtrak’s first diesels, were based on existing locomotives designed for freight service. They feature a boxy, dual-cab car body and ride on a pair of three-axle trucks. Their as-built weight of 387,000 lbs. was more than double the optimum weight for passenger service and contributed to poor running during testing. The locomotives had a tendency to yaw sideways when accelerating, placing high stress on the rails. The Federal Railroad Administration refused to allow the E60’s to operate at the intended 120 mph after they derailed twice during testing.

 

After numerous refinements and additional tests, the locomotives entered passenger service at slightly reduced speeds. However, they encountered new problems when turning on the tight radius return loops at Sunnyside yard, New York. The locomotives had been designed for close coupling with passenger equipment…so close that the diaphragms on their coaches would sheer the headlights off of their nose. All headlights were subsequently moved above the cab windows.

 

By 1984, with the arrival of new AEM7 electrics, most of the E60 fleet went into storage (accompanying the GG1’s they were meant to replace). Ten units (958-963, 967, 971-973) were sold to New Jersey Transit in 1984. Two additional units, 966 and 968 were sold to the Navajo Mine Railroad (the current status of these locomotives is not known). The remainder of the fleet (then numbered between 600-612 and 620-621, with not all sequential numbers used) spent the next two decades in and out of storage lines, being reactivated during peak seasons or during the overhaul of AEM7’s. When returned to service, they were used mainly on heavy, long-distance trains (the Crescent, Silver Meteor, Broadway, etc.) and special movements including circus and mail trains, or maintenance of way runs. In 1998, some were upgraded to E60MA’s, to haul heavy long-distance trains between New York and Washington.

 

By 2003 only a handful of E60's remained on Amtrak. These were scheduled for overhaul and new cab-signal equipment to permit 120 mph running, comparable to the rest of Amtrak's fleet. None of these overhauls were fully completed when word was passed down to scrap the entire fleet.

 

No. 603, however, was literally within 24 hours of being tested for return to service when the final order to scrap was issued. The locomotive has been equipped with the new cab signal system, and is mechanically sound. It retains much of its original equipment and configuration.

 

No. 603 is believed to have been built in June 1976. Unlike those units delivered with steam heat, the 603 was never modified, retaining its original underbody. 603 also retains the original doors and windows, which had been replaced on several other units. For these reasons, this unit was selected for preservation at the Museum.

 

www.rrmuseumpa.org/about/roster/e60.shtml

Bonhams

Les Grandes Marques du Monde à Paris

The Grand Palais Éphémère

Place Joffre

Parijs - Paris

Frankrijk - France

February 2023

 

Estimated : € 200.000 - 240.000

Sold for $ 207.000

 

Described by former Aston Martin Chairman Victor Gauntlett as "a stylish thoroughbred, beautifully built, luxurious, fast and immensely safe," the V8 was built in several variants, one of the more exclusive being the Volante Convertible. Introduced in response to customer demand for such a car, the Volante first appeared in June 1978. Arguably the ultimate in soft-top luxury, the newcomer boasted a lined, power-operated top which, when erected, endowed the walnut embellished interior with all the solidity and refinement associated with the saloon version. Although its open-car aerodynamics meant that top speed suffered with the top down, the Volante's 150mph maximum nevertheless ranked it among the world's fastest convertibles.

 

The V8 Volante received the same periodic upgrades and refinements as the saloon version, adopting BBS wheels in 1983 and switching to Weber-Marelli fuel injection – and a flatter bonnet – in 1986. V8 Volante and Vantage Volante chassis numbers ran from '15001' to '15849', a total of 849 cars. The last V8 Volantes were built in 1989.

 

According to copies of Aston Martin's factory build records, this elegant V8 Volante was hand built at Aston Martin's Newport Pagnell plant during the spring of 1989, and was among the last 80 cars produced in the final year of production. The car received the final inspections in March 1989 and was then shipped from the UK to the USA. The car was of left-hand-drive configuration and was equipped with the desirable ZF five-speed manual transmission. The Volante was finished in British Racing Green with a fawn leather interior, beige carpeting and a fawn Everflex convertible top, just as it appears today. It is believed that this car was among just 13 V8 Volantes produced for the United States market in 1989, not all of which would have had the desirable ZF manual ZF transmission.

 

The new V8 Volante was delivered to its first owner, a Mr A M Pilaro of Southampton, NY through the Greenwich, Connecticut-based Aston Martin agency, Miller Motors. The car is believed to have remained with this first owner until 2016, being kept in excellent original condition. The CARFAX report issued for the Volante has recorded the mileage since new, and many New York State inspections are logged on the report.

 

The current vendor purchased the Aston at Bonhams' Amelia Island sale in March 2017. At that time we said the following: "Today this highly original Aston Martin shows less than 17,500 miles on the odometer, a figure that is indeed believed to be original. A major service was recently performed by Aston Martin of Long Island, NY. A solid and very well cared for car; close inspection of the Aston Martin V8 Volante reveals mostly original finishes throughout. The luxurious cabin presents beautifully, with the original interior and wood finishes intact. The dash pad and steering wheel are neatly colour-coded in green, matching the car's exterior. A set of custom luggage can be found in the trunk, also trimmed in green. The exterior looks magnificent, with sparkling chrome and brightwork, and the original BBS alloy wheels in place."

 

Our vendor paid the shipping costs back to Europe and paid the necessary EU duties. The owner then spent some £38,000 with respected marque specialist Chris Shenton on various works including the installation of the aesthetically more appealing EU-specification chromed bumpers (bills on file).

 

As a desirably equipped example built in the final year of the V8 Volante production run, this immaculate Aston Martin features all the refinements accumulated during the V8's evolution and must be considered among the best examples currently available. A set of AML fitted luggage is included in the sale.

Based with Air Mobility Command's 305th AMW at McGuire AFB, New Jersey, US Air Force

Lockheed C-141C 'SOL II' Starlifter 65-9401 smokes her way down the approach to Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia on February 9th 2001.

 

The 'SOL II' variant was the ultimate model of this 1960's stalwart.

 

Some 280 odd Starlifters were in operational use with the USAF giving the service a new hi-speed global reach over the previous piston-powered 1940's and '50's designed fleets that were then in use.

 

In the late 70's, by adding 'plugs' forward and aft of the wings, the original C-141A model was stretched to give additional fleet capacity, becoming the B model. The final 'C' model had a new 'glass' cockpit and other refinements including various bulbous nose-mounted sensors for low-level night flying.

 

After several decades of sterling service, all of the Starlifters were eventually replaced by the C-17A Globemaster III.

 

A handful survive in museums but the bulk of the fleet were retired to AMARC where their fate was fairly swift at the hands of the scrapman.

 

Scanned 35mm Transparency

1969 U.S. people excitedly anticipated that these kinds of buildings were starting points for their architectural futures. They looked forward to observing progressions and refinements of this style in increasingly numerous examples in the long years ahead.

 

The YMCA banner on the building next door is an intrusion upon my enjoyment. More and more I find I dislike young male Christians for their insistent impositions.

 

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In downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, on May 25th, 2009, at the southeast corner of 1st Street Northwest and Marble Avenue Northwest.

 

The building is from 1969 according to the Bernalillo County property records website, parcel ID 101405833618743602.

 

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Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names terms:

• Albuquerque (7013267)

• Bernalillo (county) (2001428)

 

Art & Architecture Thesaurus terms:

• curved (300010305)

• Modern Movement (300121793)

• office buildings (300007043)

• planters (containers) (300237566)

• stucco (300014966)

• tile (material) (300010676)

• white (color) (300129784)

 

Wikidata items:

• 25 May 2009 (Q12966017)

• 1960s in architecture (Q11185676)

• 1969 in architecture (Q2812513)

• Central New Mexico (Q5061505)

• Downtown Albuquerque (Q5303346)

• May 25 (Q2585)

• May 2009 (Q236764)

• streetcorner (Q17106091)

 

Library of Congress Subject Headings:

• Commercial buildings—New Mexico (sh2018000485)

'' I love how photographs that capture the moment can store the memories with clarity which the heart and mind might sometimes blur ''

  

I wanted to do a short series of photographs that represent in different ways my most important and successful images from my time here on FLICKR and also with GETTY IMAGES, who are my worldwide agents. These photographs might be in the selections for a number of reasons, but each has played a significant part in my photographic journey and represent personal memories, some not having been seen for a while.

  

(23) THERE IS A SKY, WHICH IS ALL MEN'S TOGETHER (EURIPIDES)

  

Taken on an outstandingly beautiful and serene evening in the magic of the Golden hour around sunset on my last vacation over to Vancouver Island in 2019 with my wife to see our family, this photograph and the accompanying shots taken that evening have become some of my most successful images to date.

  

My wife and I had had nipped in for an ice cream takeaway at the local Dairy Queen in Sidney, I had my usual, the Skor blitz which is a gazillion calories of cream goodness smashed to pieces with dime bars (Skor in Canada), and sitting down in front of the Television it occurred to me that on such a gorgeous evening we should be somewhere taking in the scenery. We jumped into my sister in law's Buick Enclave 3.6L 288bhp 7 seater SUV and headed down to a much loved spot, off the 17a West Saanich Road, from the shoreline of Patricia Bay near beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Patricia Bay is a body of salt water that extends East from the Saanich Inlet and forms part of the North Saanich shoreline in British Columbia.

  

The bay was named after Princess Patricia of Connaught, daughter of the Duke of Connaught who was Governor General in 1912.

  

My wife and I set up our cameras, both tripod mounted, me with my much loved Nikon D850 (still to date the finest professional camera I have ever had the pleasure of using and owning), a Nikon MC-DC2 cable release and Nikon GP-1 GPS module fitted, and my much loved Lee SW150 filter holder and filters put to full use. I switched from the Lee 100 series to the SW150 series when the fitting kit came out for the Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF lens, and then the adapter rings in a variety of sizes, 77mm, 95mm and 105mm covering my needs that allowed the filter holder to be used on all of my lenses. I then built up a collection of filters that fitted my needs, a set of three soft resin neutral density graduated filters, a three stop reverse neutral density graduated glass filter for sunrise and sunsets, a 5 stop little stopper, a 10 stop big stopper and a superb glass circular polarizer as well as a field bag and other accessories.

  

I was using the wonderful Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR lens that came with my D850 as a kit, a lens that doesn't receive a lot of love in certain quarters, but one which has become a trusted old friend to me during the last three years. It replaced my earlier version adding a constant f/4 aperture and many refinements that made it a great companion to the D850. We sat on a large piece of driftwood and took photographs with the sunset fast approaching and the light changing by the second, and then two people launched in a canoe from the shore and simply made my evening's shooting as they entered my frame and added a certain something to the beauty and tranquility of the scene.

  

There was total silence in the slowly fading light, just the sounds of Canada geese, birds and the laughter and wooden paddles hitting the water from the couple in the canoe. Serenity in a nutshell!

  

This is when I am at my happiest, the Golden hour, the discipline of ever changing light and the need to alter settings, shots that are technically more demanding and difficult and the feeling of getting it right and faithfully capturing the beauty that your eyes are witnessing. For an hour we captured frames until 19:45hrs when the light faded away, and we sat there a while longer on the driftwood until our eyes could barely make any details out on the horizon. We then packed up and headed back home. Priceless moments and memories.

  

The Nikon D850 was and is a game changer for me, a simply incredible camera that put at my disposal over 45 megapixels, 130MB NEF files, and the chance to crop into an image and still end up with clarity and sharpness in the detail. I loved my old D800 which was a beast to master and so unforgiving of any errors in set up and execution, but the D850 is just so user friendly and so much more capable of delivering astounding results. I won't even make the jump to mirrorless until something comes along that is clearly better, and maybe not even then, so much has this fabulous camera impacted on my photographic enjoyment.

  

We arrived back in England on September 28th after our one month adventure, this being one of the first photographs that I processed, being published by Getty images two days later. This photograph has sold several times, featured on Flickr Explore where it became my 143rd photograph to be featured and reached number 27 and also became one of my most expensive sales when a Corporate company in Canada purchased it at a high resolution for display in their premises. It also features high in my Flickr stats.

  

All of the photographs that I processed from this sunset shoot have been published by Getty Images and gone on to commercial success, making it both a wonderful memory of a few gorgeous golden hours, and also probably my most successful photoshoot to date.

  

©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2019 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Five metres, at 19:18pm on Sunday 21st September 2019 around sunset off the 17a West Saanich Road, from the shoreline of Patricia Bay near beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

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Nikon D850. Focal length 120mm Shutter speed 1/125s Aperture f/16.0 iso1100 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3D- tracking. AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode - Aperture priority exposure. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Auto. White balance: Natural light auto. Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Distortion control on. Picture control: Auto. High ISO NR on. Vignette control: normal. Active D-lighting Auto.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 77mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 0.3 (1 stop) ND Grad soft resin. Lee SW150 0.9 reverse neutral grad.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Nikon EN-EL15a battery.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod 3 Sections (Payload: 5.6kgs). Manfrotto 327RC2 Light Duty Grip Ball Magnesium Tripod Head (Payload: 5.5kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Jessops Tripod bag.Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release cable.

  

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LATITUDE: N 50d 41m 32.50s

LONGITUDE: W 120d 22m 22.70s

ALTITUDE: 345.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 92.3MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 34.60MB

     

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PROCESSING POWER:

  

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18) LF 1.00

  

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.3.1 11/07/2019). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

Bird eye view, landscape of oil refiery plant, and chemical plant in Thailand, oil tank, oil storage, and pipeline

Bonhams

Les Grandes Marques du Monde à Paris

The Grand Palais Éphémère

Place Joffre

Parijs - Paris

Frankrijk - France

February 2023

 

Estimated : € 200.000 - 240.000

Sold for $ 207.000

 

Described by former Aston Martin Chairman Victor Gauntlett as "a stylish thoroughbred, beautifully built, luxurious, fast and immensely safe," the V8 was built in several variants, one of the more exclusive being the Volante Convertible. Introduced in response to customer demand for such a car, the Volante first appeared in June 1978. Arguably the ultimate in soft-top luxury, the newcomer boasted a lined, power-operated top which, when erected, endowed the walnut embellished interior with all the solidity and refinement associated with the saloon version. Although its open-car aerodynamics meant that top speed suffered with the top down, the Volante's 150mph maximum nevertheless ranked it among the world's fastest convertibles.

 

The V8 Volante received the same periodic upgrades and refinements as the saloon version, adopting BBS wheels in 1983 and switching to Weber-Marelli fuel injection – and a flatter bonnet – in 1986. V8 Volante and Vantage Volante chassis numbers ran from '15001' to '15849', a total of 849 cars. The last V8 Volantes were built in 1989.

 

According to copies of Aston Martin's factory build records, this elegant V8 Volante was hand built at Aston Martin's Newport Pagnell plant during the spring of 1989, and was among the last 80 cars produced in the final year of production. The car received the final inspections in March 1989 and was then shipped from the UK to the USA. The car was of left-hand-drive configuration and was equipped with the desirable ZF five-speed manual transmission. The Volante was finished in British Racing Green with a fawn leather interior, beige carpeting and a fawn Everflex convertible top, just as it appears today. It is believed that this car was among just 13 V8 Volantes produced for the United States market in 1989, not all of which would have had the desirable ZF manual ZF transmission.

 

The new V8 Volante was delivered to its first owner, a Mr A M Pilaro of Southampton, NY through the Greenwich, Connecticut-based Aston Martin agency, Miller Motors. The car is believed to have remained with this first owner until 2016, being kept in excellent original condition. The CARFAX report issued for the Volante has recorded the mileage since new, and many New York State inspections are logged on the report.

 

The current vendor purchased the Aston at Bonhams' Amelia Island sale in March 2017. At that time we said the following: "Today this highly original Aston Martin shows less than 17,500 miles on the odometer, a figure that is indeed believed to be original. A major service was recently performed by Aston Martin of Long Island, NY. A solid and very well cared for car; close inspection of the Aston Martin V8 Volante reveals mostly original finishes throughout. The luxurious cabin presents beautifully, with the original interior and wood finishes intact. The dash pad and steering wheel are neatly colour-coded in green, matching the car's exterior. A set of custom luggage can be found in the trunk, also trimmed in green. The exterior looks magnificent, with sparkling chrome and brightwork, and the original BBS alloy wheels in place."

 

Our vendor paid the shipping costs back to Europe and paid the necessary EU duties. The owner then spent some £38,000 with respected marque specialist Chris Shenton on various works including the installation of the aesthetically more appealing EU-specification chromed bumpers (bills on file).

 

As a desirably equipped example built in the final year of the V8 Volante production run, this immaculate Aston Martin features all the refinements accumulated during the V8's evolution and must be considered among the best examples currently available. A set of AML fitted luggage is included in the sale.

+++ 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 Hawker Cyclone was an evolutionary successor to the successful Hawker Typhoon and Tempest fighters and fighter-bombers of the Second World War. The Cyclone's design process was initiated in September 1942 by Sydney Camm, one of Hawker's foremost aircraft designers, to meet the Royal Air Force’s requirement for a lightweight Tempest Mk.II and V replacement.

The project, tentatively designated Tempest Mk. VIII, was formalised in January 1943 when the Air Ministry issued Specification F.2/42 around the "Tempest Light Fighter".This was followed up by Specification F.2/43, issued in May 1943, which required a high rate of climb of not less than 4,500 ft/min (23 m/s) from ground level to 20,000 feet (6,096 m), good fighting manoeu rability and a maximum speed of at least 450 mph (724 km/h) at 22,000 feet (6,705 m). The armament was to be four 20mm Hispano V cannon with a total capacity of 600 rounds, plus the capability of carrying two bombs each up to 1,000 pounds (454 kg). In April 1943, Hawker had also received Specification N.7/43 from the Admiralty, who sought a navalized version of the developing aircraft, what eventually led to the Hawker Sea Fury, which was a completely new aircraft, which only shared the general outlines of the Tempest.

 

The Royal Air Force was looking for a quicker solution, and Camm started working on a new laminar flow wing, which would further improve the Tempest’s speed. Further refinements were done to other aerodynamic components, too, like the radiator, since the Tempest V’s liquid-cooled Napier Sabre engine was to be used. After some experiments with new arrangements, an annular radiator directly behind the propeller was chosen – certainly inspired by fast German aircraft like the Fw 190D and developed by Napier.

 

A total of three prototypes were ordered; the first one was powered by a Napier Sabre IIA liquid-cooled H-24 sleeve-valve engine, generating 2,180 hp (1,625 kW), but the second and any following aircraft carried the more powerful Sabre V with 2,340 hp, driving a Rotol four-blade propeller. Later aircraft were even to carry the Napier Sabre VII, which was capable of developing 3,400–4,000 hp (2,535–2,983 kW) and pushing the top speed to 485 mph (780 km/h) and more. The third airframe was just a static test structure. However, since the differences between the Tempest and the new aircraft had become almost as big as to its predecessor, the Typhoon, the new type received its own name Cyclone.

 

The first Cyclone Mk. I to fly, on 30 August 1944, was NV950, and it became clear soon that the modifications would improve the Cyclone’s top speed vs. the Tempest by almost 30 mph (50 km/h), but the new components would also require a longer testing period than expected. The annular radiator frequently failed and overheated, and the new, slender wings caused directional stability problems so that the complete tail section had to be re-designed. This troubling phase took more than 6 months, so that eventual service aircraft would only be ready in mid-1945 – too late for any serious impact in the conflict.

 

However, since the Hawker Fury, the land-based variant of the Sea Fury, which had been developed from the Tempest for the Royal Navy in parallel, had been cancelled, the Royal Air Force still ordered 150 Cyclone fighters (F Mk. I), of which one third would also carry cameras and other reconnaissance equipment (as Cyclone FR Mk.II). Due to the end of hostilities in late 1945, this order immediately lost priority. Consequently, the first production Cyclone fighters were delivered in summer 1946 – and in the meantime, jet fighters had rendered the piston-powered fighters obsolete, at least in RAF service. As a consequence, all Cyclones were handed over to friendly Commonwealth nations and their nascent air forces, e. g. India, Thailand or Burma. India received its first Cyclones in late 1947, just when the Kashmir conflict with Pakistan entered a hot phase. The machines became quickly involved in this conflict from early 1948 onwards.

 

Cyclones played an important role in the strikes against hostiles at Pir Badesar and the dominating Pir Kalewa. The taking of Ramgarh fort and Pt. 6944 on the west flank of Bhimbar Gali was to be a classic close support action with Indian forces carrying out a final bayonet charge against the enemy trenches whilst RIAF Cyclones and Tempests strafed and rocketed the trenches at close quarters. On a chance reconnaissance, enemy airfields were located at Gilgit and 40 NMs south, at Chilas. Cyclones flew several strikes against the landing strips in Oct and Nov 48, cratering & damaging both and destroying several hangars, barracks and radio installations. This attack destroyed Pakistani plans to build an offensive air capability in the North. Already, with Tempests and Cyclones prowling the valleys, Pakistani re-supply by Dakotas had been limited to hazardous night flying through the valleys.

 

After the end of hostilities in late 1948 and the ensuing independence, the Cyclone squadrons settled into their peace time stations. However, constant engine troubles (particularly the radiator) continued to claim aircraft and lives and the skill required to land the Cyclone because of its high approach speed continued to cause several write offs. The arrival of the jet-engined Vampire were the first signs of the Cyclone’s demise. As the IAF began a rapid expansion to an all jet force, several Tempest and Cyclone squadrons began converting to Vampires, 7 Squadron being the first in Dec 49. By this time it had already been decided that the piston-engine fighters would be relegated to the fighter lead-in role to train pilots for the new jet fighters. A conversion training flight was set up at Ambala in Sep 49 with Spitfire T Mk IXs, XVIIIs and Tempests to provide 16 hrs/six weeks of supervised Tempest training. This unit eventually moved to Hakimpet two years later and operated till the end of 1952. Some Cyclone FR Mk. IIs remained in front line service until 1954, though.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 35 ft 5 3/4 in (10.83 m)

Wingspan: 42 ft 5 1/2 in (12.96 m)

Height (tail down): 15 ft 6 3/4 in (4.75 m)

Wing area: 302 ft² (28 m²)

Empty weight: 9,250 lb (4,195 kg)

Loaded weight: 11,400 lb (5,176 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 13,640 lb (6,190 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Napier Sabre V liquid-cooled H-24 sleeve-valve engine with 2,340 hp (1,683 kW)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 460 mph (740 km/h) 18,400 ft (5,608 m),

Range: 740 mi (1,190 km)

1,530 mi (2,462 km) with two 90 gal (409 l) drop tanks

Service ceiling: 36,500 ft (11,125 m)

Rate of climb: 4,700 ft/min (23.9 m/s)

Wing loading: 37.75 lb/ft² (184.86 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.21 hp/lb (0.31 kW/kg)

 

Armament:

4× 20 mm (.79 in) Mark V Hispano cannons, 200 RPG

2× underwing hardpoints for 500 lb (227 kg) or 1,000 lb (454 kg) bombs

or 2 × 45 gal (205 l) or 2 × 90 gal (409 l) drop tanks

plus 6× 3” (76.2 mm) RP-3 rockets

  

The kit and its assembly:

Another episode in the series “Things to make and do with Supermarine Attacker wings”. And what started as a simple switch of wings eventually turned into a major kitbashing, since the model evolved from a modded Tempest into something more complex and conclusive.

 

The initial spark was the idea of a Hawker alternative to Supermarine’s Spiteful and Seafang developments – especially with their slender laminar flow wings. Wouldn’t a Hawker alternative make sense?

 

Said and done, I dug out a NOVO Attacker kit and a Matchbox Tempest, and started measuring – and the wing transplantation appeared feasible! I made the cut on the Tempest wing just outside of the oil cooler, and the Attacker wings were then attached to these stubs – after some gaps for the landing gear wells had been cut into the massive lower wing halves. The stunt went more smoothly than expected, the only cosmetic flaw is that the guns went pretty far outboard, but that’s negligible.

 

But the different wings were not enough. I had recently seen in a book a picture of a Tempest (NV 768) with an experimental annular radiator for the Sabre engine (looking like a streamlined Tempest II), and wondered if this arrangement would have been the aerodynamically more efficient solution than the bulbous chin radiator of the Tempest V and VI? I decided to integrate this feature into my build, too, even though not as a copy of the real-world arrangement. The whole nose section, even though based on the OOB Mk. V nose, was scratched and re-sculpted with lots of putty. The radiator intake comes from a FROG He 219, with the front end opened and a fan from a Matchbox Fw 190 placed inside, as well as a styrene tube for the new propeller. The latter was scratched, too, from a Matchbox He 70 spinner and single blades from an Italeri F4U, plus a metal axis. The exhaust stubs were taken OOB, but their attachment slits had to be re-engraved into the new and almost massive nose section.

 

Once the wings and the nose became more concrete, I found that the Tempest’s original rounded tail surfaces would not match with the new, square wings. Therefore I replaced the stabilizers with donations from a Heller F-84G and modified the fin with a new, square tip (from an Intech Fw 190D) and got rid of the fin fillet – both just small modifications, but they change the Tempest’s profile thoroughly.

 

In order to underline the aircraft’s new, sleek lines, I left away any ordnance – but instead I added some camera fairings: one under the rear fuselage or a pair of vertical/oblique cameras, and another camera window portside for a horizontal camera. The openings were drilled, and, after painting, the kit the camera windows were created with Humbrol Clearfix.

  

Painting and markings:

Somehow I thought that this aircraft had to carry Indian markings – and I had a set of standard Chakra Wheels from the late Forties period in my stash. The camouflage is, typical for early IAF machines of British origin, RAF standard, with Dark Green and Ocean Grey from above and Medium Sea Grey from below. I just used the more brownish pst-war RAF Dark Green tone (Humbrol 163), coupled with the rather light Ocean Grey from Modelmaster (2057). The underside became Humbrol 165. All interior surfaces were painted with RAF Interior Green, nothing fancy. The only colorful addition is the saffron-colored spinner, in an attempt to match the fin flash’s tone.

 

As a standard measure, the kit received a black ink wash and some panel post-shading with lighter tones – only subtly, since the machine was not to look too weathered and beaten, just used from its Kashmir involvements.

 

The national markings come from a Printscale Airspeed Oxford sheet, the tactical code with alternating white and black letters, depending on the underground (the sky fuselage band comes from a Matchbox Brewster Buffalo), was puzzled together from single letters from TL Modellbau – both seen on different contemporary RIAF aircraft.

As another, small individual detail I gave the machine a tactical code letter on the fuselage, and the small tiger emblems under the cockpit were home-printed from the official IAF No. 1 Squadron badge.

  

Despite the massive modifications this one is a relatively subtle result, all the changes become only visible at a second glance. A sleek aircraft, and from certain angley the Cyclone looks like an A-1 Skyraider on a diet?

 

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

  

Some background:

The РТАК-30 attack vintoplan (also known as vintokryl) owed its existence to the Mil Mi-30 plane/helicopter project that originated in 1972. The Mil Mi-30 was conceived as a transport aircraft that could hold up to 19 passengers or two tons of cargo, and its purpose was to replace the Mi-8 and Mi-17 Helicopters in both civil and military roles. With vertical takeoff through a pair of tiltrotor engine pods on the wing tips (similar in layout to the later V-22 Osprey) and the ability to fly like a normal plane, the Mil Mi-30 had a clear advantage over the older models.

 

Since the vintoplan concept was a completely new field of research and engineering, a dedicated design bureau was installed in the mid-Seventies at the Rostov-na-Donu helicopter factory, where most helicopters from the Mil design bureau were produced, under the title Ростов Тилт Ротор Авиационная Компания (Rostov Tilt Rotor Aircraft Company), or РТАК (RTRA), for short.

 

The vintoplan project lingered for some time, with basic research being conducted concerning aerodynamics, rotor design and flight control systems. Many findings later found their way into conventional planes and helicopters. At the beginning of the 1980s, the project had progressed far enough that the vintoplan received official backing so that РТАК scientists and Mil helicopter engineers assembled and tested several layouts and components for this complicated aircraft type.

At that time the Mil Mi-30 vintoplan was expected to use a single TV3-117 Turbo Shaft Engine with a four-bladed propeller rotors on each of its two pairs of stub wings of almost equal span. The engine was still installed in the fuselage and the proprotors driven by long shafts.

 

However, while being a very clean design, this original layout revealed several problems concerning aeroelasticity, dynamics of construction, characteristics for the converter apparatuses, aerodynamics and flight dynamics. In the course of further development stages and attempts to rectify the technical issues, the vintoplan layout went through several revisions. The layout shifted consequently from having 4 smaller engines in rotating pods on two pairs of stub wings through three engines with rotating nacelles on the front wings and a fixed, horizontal rotor over the tail and finally back to only 2 engines (much like the initial concept), but this time mounted in rotating nacelles on the wing tips and a canard stabilizer layout.

 

In August 1981 the Commission of the Presidium of the USSR Council of Ministers on weapons eventually issued a decree on the development of a flyworthy Mil Mi-30 vintoplan prototype. Shortly afterwards the military approved of the vintoplan, too, but desired bigger, more powerful engines in order to improve performance and weight capacity. In the course of the ensuing project refinement, the weight capacity was raised to 3-5 tons and the passenger limit to 32. In parallel, the modified type was also foreseen for civil operations as a short range feederliner, potentially replacing Yak-40 and An-24 airliners in Aeroflot service.

In 1982, РТАК took the interest from the military and proposed a dedicated attack vintoplan, based on former research and existing components of the original transport variant. This project was accepted by MAP and received the separate designation РТАК-30. However, despite having some close technical relations to the Mi-30 transport (primarily the engine nacelles, their rotation mechanism and the flight control systems), the РТАК-30 was a completely different aircraft. The timing was good, though, and the proposal was met with much interest, since the innovative vintoplan concept was to compete against traditional helicopters: the design work on the dedicated Mi-28 and Ka-50 attack helicopters had just started at that time, too, so that РТАК received green lights for the construction of five prototypes: four flyworthy machines plus one more for static ground tests.

 

The РТАК-30 was based on one of the early Mi-30 layouts and it combined two pairs of mid-set wings with different wing spans with a tall tail fin that ensured directional stability. Each wing carried a rotating engine nacelle with a so-called proprotor on its tip, each with three high aspect ratio blades. The proprotors were handed (i.e. revolved in opposite directions) in order to minimize torque effects and improve handling, esp. in the hover. The front and back pair of engines were cross-linked among each other on a common driveshaft, eliminating engine-out asymmetric thrust problems during V/STOL operations. In the event of the failure of one engine, it would automatically disconnect through torque spring clutches and both propellers on a pair of wings would be driven by the remaining engine.

Four engines were chosen because, despite the weight and complexity penalty, this extra power was expected to be required in order to achieve a performance that was markedly superior to a conventional helicopter like the Mi-24, the primary Soviet attack helicopter of that era the РТАК-30 was supposed to replace. It was also expected that the rotating nacelles could also be used to improve agility in level flight through a mild form of vectored thrust.

 

The РТАК-30’s streamlined fuselage provided ample space for avionics, fuel, a fully retractable tricycle landing gear and a two man crew in an armored side-by-side cockpit with ejection seats. The windshield was able to withstand 12.7–14.5 mm caliber bullets, the titanium cockpit tub could take hits from 20 mm cannon. An autonomous power unit (APU) was housed in the fuselage, too, making operations of the aircraft independent from ground support.

While the РТАК-30 was not intended for use as a transport, the fuselage was spacious enough to have a small compartment between the front wings spars, capable of carrying up to three people. The purpose of this was the rescue of downed helicopter crews, as a cargo hold esp. for transfer flights and as additional space for future mission equipment or extra fuel.

In vertical flight, the РТАК-30’s tiltrotor system used controls very similar to a twin or tandem-rotor helicopter. Yaw was controlled by tilting its rotors in opposite directions. Roll was provided through differential power or thrust, supported by ailerons on the rear wings. Pitch was provided through rotor cyclic or nacelle tilt and further aerodynamic surfaces on both pairs of wings. Vertical motion was controlled with conventional rotor blade pitch and a control similar to a fixed-wing engine control called a thrust control lever (TCL). The rotor heads had elastomeric bearings and the proprotor blades were made from composite materials, which could sustain 30 mm shells.

 

The РТАК-30 featured a helmet-mounted display for the pilot, a very modern development at its time. The pilot designated targets for the navigator/weapons officer, who proceeded to fire the weapons required to fulfill that particular task. The integrated surveillance and fire control system had two optical channels providing wide and narrow fields of view, a narrow-field-of-view optical television channel, and a laser rangefinder. The system could move within 110 degrees in azimuth and from +13 to −40 degrees in elevation and was placed in a spherical dome on top of the fuselage, just behind the cockpit.

 

The aircraft carried one automatic 2A42 30 mm internal gun, mounted semi-rigidly fixed near the center of the fuselage, movable only slightly in elevation and azimuth. The arrangement was also regarded as being more practical than a classic free-turning turret mount for the aircraft’s considerably higher flight speed than a normal helicopter. As a side effect, the semi-rigid mounting improved the cannon's accuracy, giving the 30 mm a longer practical range and better hit ratio at medium ranges. Ammunition supply was 460 rounds, with separate compartments for high-fragmentation, explosive incendiary, or armor-piercing rounds. The type of ammunition could be selected by the pilot during flight.

The gunner can select one of two rates of full automatic fire, low at 200 to 300 rds/min and high at 550 to 800 rds/min. The effective range when engaging ground targets such as light armored vehicles is 1,500 m, while soft-skinned targets can be engaged out to 4,000 m. Air targets can be engaged flying at low altitudes of up to 2,000 m and up to a slant range of 2,500 m.

 

A substantial range of weapons could be carried on four hardpoints under the front wings, plus three more under the fuselage, for a total ordnance of up to 2,500 kg (with reduced internal fuel). The РТАК-30‘s main armament comprised up to 24 laser-guided Vikhr missiles with a maximum range of some 8 km. These tube-launched missiles could be used against ground and aerial targets. A search and tracking radar was housed in a thimble radome on the РТАК-30’s nose and their laser guidance system (mounted in a separate turret under the radome) was reported to be virtually jam-proof. The system furthermore featured automatic guidance to the target, enabling evasive action immediately after missile launch. Alternatively, the system was also compatible with Ataka laser-guided anti-tank missiles.

Other weapon options included laser- or TV-guided Kh-25 missiles as well as iron bombs and napalm tanks of up to 500 kg (1.100 lb) caliber and several rocket pods, including the S-13 and S-8 rockets. The "dumb" rocket pods could be upgraded to laser guidance with the proposed Ugroza system. Against helicopters and aircraft the РТАК-30 could carry up to four R-60 and/or R-73 IR-guided AAMs. Drop tanks and gun pods could be carried, too.

 

When the РТАК-30's proprotors were perpendicular to the motion in the high-speed portions of the flight regime, the aircraft demonstrated a relatively high maximum speed: over 300 knots/560 km/h top speed were achieved during state acceptance trials in 1987, as well as sustained cruise speeds of 250 knots/460 km/h, which was almost twice as fast as a conventional helicopter. Furthermore, the РТАК-30’s tiltrotors and stub wings provided the aircraft with a substantially greater cruise altitude capability than conventional helicopters: during the prototypes’ tests the machines easily reached 6,000 m / 20,000 ft or more, whereas helicopters typically do not exceed 3,000 m / 10,000 ft altitude.

 

Flight tests in general and flight control system refinement in specific lasted until late 1988, and while the vintoplan concept proved to be sound, the technical and practical problems persisted. The aircraft was complex and heavy, and pilots found the machine to be hazardous to land, due to its low ground clearance. Due to structural limits the machine could also never be brought to its expected agility limits

During that time the Soviet Union’s internal tensions rose and more and more hampered the РТАК-30’s development. During this time, two of the prototypes were lost (the 1st and 4th machine) in accidents, and in 1989 only two machines were left in flightworthy condition (the 5th airframe had been set aside for structural ground tests). Nevertheless, the РТАК-30 made its public debut at the Paris Air Show in June 1989 (the 3rd prototype, coded “33 Yellow”), together with the Mi-28A, but was only shown in static display and did not take part in any flight show. After that, the aircraft received the NATO ASCC code "Hemlock" and caused serious concern in Western military headquarters, since the РТАК-30 had the potential to dominate the European battlefield.

 

And this was just about to happen: Despite the РТАК-30’s development problems, the innovative attack vintoplan was included in the Soviet Union’s 5-year plan for 1989-1995, and the vehicle was eventually expected to enter service in 1996. However, due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dwindling economics, neither the РТАК-30 nor its civil Mil Mi-30 sister did soar out in the new age of technology. In 1990 the whole program was stopped and both surviving РТАК-30 prototypes were mothballed – one (the 3rd prototype) was disassembled and its components brought to the Rostov-na-Donu Mil plant, while the other, prototype No. 1, is rumored to be stored at the Central Russian Air Force Museum in Monino, to be restored to a public exhibition piece some day.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: Two (pilot, copilot/WSO) plus space for up to three passengers or cargo

Length: 45 ft 7 1/2 in (13,93 m)

Rotor diameter: 20 ft 9 in (6,33 m)

Wingspan incl. engine nacelles: 42 ft 8 1/4 in (13,03 m)

Total width with rotors: 58 ft 8 1/2 in (17,93 m)

Height: 17 ft (5,18 m) at top of tailfin

Disc area: 4x 297 ft² (27,65 m²)

Wing area: 342.2 ft² (36,72 m²)

Empty weight: 8,500 kg (18,740 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 12,000 kg (26,500 lb)

 

Powerplant:

4× Klimov VK-2500PS-03 turboshaft turbines, 2,400 hp (1.765 kW) each

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 275 knots (509 km/h, 316 mph) at sea level

305 kn (565 km/h; 351 mph) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m)

Cruise speed: 241 kn (277 mph, 446 km/h) at sea level

Stall speed: 110 kn (126 mph, 204 km/h) in airplane mode

Range: 879 nmi (1,011 mi, 1,627 km)

Combat radius: 390 nmi (426 mi, 722 km)

Ferry range: 1,940 nmi (2,230 mi, 3,590 km) with auxiliary external fuel tanks

Service ceiling: 25,000 ft (7,620 m)

Rate of climb: 2,320–4,000 ft/min (11.8 m/s)

Glide ratio: 4.5:1

Disc loading: 20.9 lb/ft² at 47,500 lb GW (102.23 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.259 hp/lb (427 W/kg)

 

Armament:

1× 30 mm (1.18 in) 2A42 multi-purpose autocannon with 450 rounds

7 external hardpoints for a maximum ordnance of 2.500 kg (5.500 lb)

  

The kit and its assembly:

This exotic, fictional aircraft-thing is a contribution to the “The Flying Machines of Unconventional Means” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com in early 2019. While the propulsion system itself is not that unconventional, I deemed the quadrocopter concept (which had already been on my agenda for a while) to be suitable for a worthy submission.

The Mil Mi-30 tiltrotor aircraft, mentioned in the background above, was a real project – but my alternative combat vintoplan design is purely speculative.

 

I had already stashed away some donor parts, primarily two sets of tiltrotor backpacks for 1:144 Gundam mecha from Bandai, which had been released recently. While these looked a little toy-like, these parts had the charm of coming with handed propellers and stub wings that would allow the engine nacelles to swivel.

The search for a suitable fuselage turned out to be a more complex safari than expected. My initial choice was the spoofy Italeri Mi-28 kit (I initially wanted a staggered tandem cockpit), but it turned out to be much too big for what I wanted to achieve. Then I tested a “real” Mi-28 (Dragon) and a Ka-50 (Italeri), but both failed for different reasons – the Mi-28 was too slender, while the Ka-50 had the right size – but converting it for my build would have been VERY complicated, because the engine nacelles would have to go and the fuselage shape between the cockpit and the fuselage section around the original engines and stub wings would be hard to adapt. I eventually bought an Italeri Ka-52 two-seater as fuselage donor.

 

In order to mount the four engines to the fuselage I’d need two pairs of wings of appropriate span – and I found a pair of 1:100 A-10 wings as well as the wings from an 1:72 PZL Iskra (not perfect, but the most suitable donor parts I could find in the junkyard). On the tips of these wings, the swiveling joints for the engine nacelles from the Bandai set were glued. While mounting the rear wings was not too difficult (just the Ka-52’s OOB stabilizers had to go), the front pair of wings was more complex. The reason: the Ka-52’s engines had to go and their attachment points, which are actually shallow recesses on the kit, had to be faired over first. Instead of filling everything with putty I decided to cover the areas with 0.5mm styrene sheet first, and then do cosmetic PSR work. This worked quite well and also included a cover for the Ka-52’s original rotor mast mount. Onto these new flanks the pair of front wings was attached, in a mid position – a conceptual mistake…

 

The cockpit was taken OOB and the aircraft’s nose received an additional thimble radome, reminiscent of the Mi-28’s arrangement. The radome itself was created from a German 500 kg WWII bomb.

 

At this stage, the mid-wing mistake reared its ugly head – it had two painful consequences which I had not fully thought through. Problem #1: the engine nacelles turned out to be too long. When rotated into a vertical position, they’d potentially hit the ground! Furthermore, the ground clearance was very low – and I decided to skip the Ka-52’s OOB landing gear in favor of a heavier and esp. longer alternative, a full landing gear set from an Italeri MiG-37 “Ferret E” stealth fighter, which itself resembles a MiG-23/27 landing gear. Due to the expected higher speeds of the vintoplan I gave the landing gear full covers (partly scratched, plus some donor parts from an Academy MiG-27). It took some trials to get the new landing gear into the right position and a suitable stance – but it worked. With this benchmark I was also able to modify the engine nacelles, shortening their rear ends. They were still very (too!) close to the ground, but at least the model would not sit on them!

However, the more complete the model became, the more design flaws turned up. Another mistake is that the front and rear rotors slightly overlap when in vertical position – something that would be unthinkable in real life…

 

With all major components in place, however, detail work could proceed. This included the completion of the cockpit and the sensor turrets, the Ka-52 cannon and finally the ordnance. Due to the large rotors, any armament had to be concentrated around the fuselage, outside of the propeller discs. For this reason (and in order to prevent the rear engines to ingest exhaust gases from the front engines in level flight), I gave the front wings a slightly larger span, so that four underwing pylons could be fitted, plus a pair of underfuselage hardpoints.

The ordnance was puzzled together from the Italeri Ka-52 and from an ESCI Ka-34 (the fake Ka-50) kit.

  

Painting and markings:

With such an exotic aircraft, I rather wanted a conservative livery and opted for a typical Soviet tactical four-tone scheme from the Eighties – the idea was to build a prototype aircraft from the state acceptance trials period, not a flashy demonstrator. The scheme and the (guesstimated) colors were transferred from a Soviet air force MiG-21bis of that era, and it consists of a reddish light brown (Humbrol 119, Light Earth), a light, yellowish green (Humbrol 159, Khaki Drab), a bluish dark green (Humbrol 195, Dark Satin Green, a.k.a. RAL 6020 Chromdioxidgrün) and a dark brown (Humbrol 170, Brown Bess). For the undersides’ typical bluish grey I chose Humbrol 145 (FS 35237, Gray Blue), which is slightly lighter and less greenish than the typical Soviet tones. A light black ink wash was applied and some light post-shading was done in order to create panels that are structurally not there, augmented by some pencil lines.

 

The cockpit became light blue (Humbrol 89), with medium gray dashboard and consoles. The ejection seats received bright yellow seatbelts and bright blue pads – a detail seen on a Mi-28 cockpit picture.

Some dielectric fairings like the fin tip were painted in bright medium green (Humbrol 101), while some other antenna fairings were painted in pale yellow (Humbrol 71).

The landing gear struts and the interior of the wells became Aluminum Metalic (Humbrol 56), the wheels dark green discs (Humbrol 30).

 

The decals were puzzled together from various sources, including some Begemot sheets. Most of the stencils came from the Ka-52 OOB sheet, and generic decal sheet material was used to mark the walkways or the rotor tips and leading edges.

 

Only some light weathering was done to the leading edges of the wings, and then the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

  

A complex kitbashing project, and it revealed some pitfalls in the course of making. However, the result looks menacing and still convincing, esp. in flight – even though the picture editing, with four artificially rotating proprotors, was probably more tedious than building the model itself!

743 Lyons Dentifrice

'Used by people of refinement for over a quarter of a century.'

'Sold Everywhere.' 1892

This is a refinement of the earlier Kowa Six. The wiki would benefit if someone familiar with this model could expand on its brief camera-wiki entry.