Just to correct myself, it was actually built for Distillers- BAe Systems bought it back in 1986.

G-BWWW is a 1983-built British Aerospace Jetstream 3102 (c/n 614) used primarily as a flying testbed by BAe (later BAE Systems) since 1986, based at Warton. It has been instrumental in testing unmanned aircraft technologies, achieving over 800 miles of unmanned flight in 2008, and testing automatic weather avoidance systems as part of the ASTRAEA program.

Key Historical Details

Built: 1983, Type: Jetstream 31/32.

Operator: BAE Systems (previously British Aerospace).

Role: Primarily a research and development aircraft, testing avionics, autonomous systems, and advanced technology.

Milestone: Conducted autonomous, unmanned flights without human intervention in 2008.

Status: Active. Often noted as a high-tech test platform in the 2000s and 2010s, often appearing at airshows like RIAT for exhibition of its research capabilities.

Aircraft Data

Registration: G-BWWW

Type: BAe Jetstream 3102

Constructor Number (c/n): 614

Engine: Garrett TPE331 turboprops

File:BAe Jetstream 3102 G-BWWW (9523694717).jpg

Feb 13, 2026 — Summary. ... Built in 1983, this Jetstream has been used by BAe (now BAE SYSTEMS) since 1986 as a flying testbed. It has been used...

Wikimedia Commons

G-BWWW - BAe Jetstream 31 [614] - Flightradar24

Flight history for aircraft - G-BWWW * AIRCRAFT BAe Jetstream 31. * AIRLINE BAe Systems. * OPERATOR -

Flightradar24

G-BWWW - Wings on Film Wiki - Fandom

History. Built in 1983. Used as a flying test bed for the ASTRAEA (Autonomous Systems Technology Related Airborne Evaluation & Ass...

Fandom

History ✈ G-BWWW

FlightAware

Consolidated PBY Catalina and Boeing B-17 Fortress at the New England Air Museum, 1989. Both aircraft show the damage of the Oct. 3rd, 1981 tornado that hit the bradley Air Museum.

Scan from a 35mm slide.

The B-17G was manufactured by Lockheed-Vega and delivered to the Army Air Force as 44-85734. Esperado Mining Company of Altus, Oklahoma bought it as scrap on June 25, 1947 and sold it to Pratt and Whitney Engines of Hartford, Connecticut for $2,700 on November 19, 1947. It was registered as N5111N and modified to carry a turbo-prop engine on its nose. Pratt and Whitney T34 and T64 engines were tested on this airplane. It was donated to the Bradley Air Museum of Windsor Locks, Connecticut on June 16, 1967. A tornado struck the museum on October 3, 1979 and inflicted major damage on the five-engined testbed. Tom Reilly Vintage Aircraft of Kissimee, Florida acquired the wreckage in 1987, but it remained stored at Windsor Locks until 1992. The Randsburg Corp of Portland, Oregon registered it as N817BR on July 13, 1999. Don Brooks and the Liberty Foundation of Atlanta, Georgia acquired it in 2003, registered it as N390TH, and restored it to airworthy condition. It made its first flight after restoration on December 8, 2004. It flew as 42-97849, Liberty Belle. On June 14, 2011, Liberty Belle experienced an in-flight fire that resulted in a forced landing in a farmer's field. Although the B-17 was only slightly damaged, it was consumed by the fire before any fire trucks could reach the scene.

The Catalina is PBY-5A/BuNo. 33966, delivered to the USCG in 1943. Registered N3936A it was withdrawn from use in 1955. Remained at the Bradley, then New England Air Museum up to 1989, then it was sold to the Fantasy of Flight Museum, Polk City, Fla.

N793VS was a highly modified Convair C-131. First flown in 1970 it undertook some 2,500 flgihts over 40+yrs of service. The "total in flight simulator" system gave engineers valuable information into flight characteristics of a host of aircraft. Its first progam was on the B-1A in 1971. Its last flight was on the 7th November 2008.

Testbed 80, Derby, UK

default

+++ 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 Northrop Grumman-IAI F-24 is the latest reincarnation of the USAF "Lightweight Fighter Program" which dates back to the 1950ies and started with the development of Northrop's F-5 "Freedom Fighter".

International interest for the F-24A is already there: in late 2013 Grumman stated that initial talks have been made with various countries, and potential export candidates from 2015 on are Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Finland, Norway, Australia and Japan.

General F-24A characteristics:

Crew: 1 pilot

Length: 47 ft 4 in (14.4 m)

Wingspan: 27 ft 11.9 in / 8.53 m; with wingtip missiles (26 ft 8 in/ 8.13 m; without wingtip missiles)

Height: 13 ft 10 in (4.20 m)

Wing area: 36.55 m² (392 ft²)

Empty weight: 13.150 lb (5.090 kg)

Loaded weight: 15.480 lb (6.830 kg)

Max. take-off weight: 27.530 lb (12.500 kg)

Powerplant

1× General Electric F404-GE-402 turbofan with a dry thrust of 11,000 lbf (48.9 kN) and 17,750 lbf (79.2 kN) with afterburner

Performance

Maximum speed: Mach 2+

Combat radius: 300 nmi (345 mi, 556 km); for hi-lo-hi mission with 2 × 330 US gal (1,250 L) drop tanks

Ferry range: 1,490 nmi (1715 mi, 2759 km); with 3 × 330 US gal (1,250 L) drop tanks

Service ceiling: 55,000 ft (16,800 m)

Rate of climb: 52,800 ft/min (255 m/s)

Wing loading: 70.0 lb/ft² (342 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 1.09 (1.35 with loaded weight & 50% fuel)

Armament

1× 20 mm (0.787 in) M199A1 3-barreled Gatling cannon in the lower fuselage with 400 RPG

Eleven external hardpoints (two wingtip tails, six underwing hardpoints, three underfuselage hardpoints) and a total capacity of 11.000 lb (4.994 kg) of missiles (incl. AIM 9 Sidewinder and AIM 120 AMRAAM), bombs, rockets, ECM pods and drop tanks for extended range.

The kit and its assembly:

A spontaneous project. This major kitbash was inspired by fellow user nighthunter at whatifmodelers.com, who came up with a profile of a mashed-up US fighter, created “out of boredom”. The original idea was called F-21C, and it was to be a domestic successor to the IAI Kfirs which had been used by the US as aggressor aircraft in USN and USMC service for a few years.

As a weird(?) coincidence I had many of the necessary ingredients for this fictional aircraft in store, even though some parts and details were later changed. This model here is an interpretation of the original design. The idea was spun further, and the available parts that finally went into the model also had some influence on design and background.

I thank nighthunter for sharing the early ideas, inviting me to take the design to the hardware stage (sort of…) and adapting my feedback into new design sketches, too, which, in return, inspired the model building process.

Well, what went into this thing? To cook up a F-24 à la Dizzyfugu you just need (all in 1:72):

● Fuselage from a Hasegawa X-29, including the cockpit and the landing gear

● Fin and nose cone from an Italeri F-16A

● Inner wings from a (vintage) Hasegawa MiG-21F

● Outer wings from a F-4 (probably a J, Hasegawa or Fujimi)

The wing construction deviates from nighthunter’s original idea. The favorite ingredients would have been F-16XL or simple Mirage III wings, but I found the composite wing to be more attractive and “different”. The big F-16XL wings, despite their benefit of a unique shape, might also have created scale/size problems with a F-20 style fuselage? So I built hybrid wings: The MiG-21 landing gear wells were filled with putty and the F-4 outer wings simply glued onto the MiG inner wing sections, which were simply cut down in span. It sounds like an unlikely combo, but these parts fit together almost perfectly! In order to hide the F-4 origins I modified them to carry wingtip launch rails, though, which were also part of nighthunter’s original design.

The AAW technology detail mentioned in the background came in handy as it explains the complicated wing shape and the fact that the landing gear retracts into the fuselage, not into the wings, which would have been more plausible… Anyway, there’s still room for a simpler export version, with Mirage III or Kfir C.2/7 wings, and maybe canards?

Using the X-29 as basis also made fitting the new wings onto the area-ruled fuselage pretty easy, as I could use the wing root parts from the X-29 to bridge the gap. The original, forward-swept wings were just cut away, and the remains used as consoles for the new hybrid delta wings. Took some SERIOUS putty work, but the result is IMHO fine.

The bigger/square X-29 air intakes were taken over, and they change the look of the aircraft, making it look less F-5-ish than a true F-20 fuselage. For the same reason I kept the large fairing at the fin base, combining it with a bigger F-16 tail, though, as a counter-balance to the new, bigger wings. Again, the F-16 fin was/is part of nighthunter’s idea, so the model stays true to the original concept.

For the same reason I omitted the original X-29 nose, which is rather pointy, sports vanes and a large sensor boom. The F-16 nose was a plausible choice, as the AN/APG-80 is also carried by late Fighting Falcons, and its shape fits well, too.

All around the hull, some small details like radar warning sensors, pitots and air scoops were added. Not really necessary, but such thing add IMHO to the overall impression of such a fictional aircraft beyond the prototype stage.

Cockpit and landing gear were taken OOB, I just added a pilot figure and slightly modified the seat.

The ordnance was puzzled together from the scrap box, the AIM-9Ls come from the same F-4 kit which donated its outer wings, the AIM-120s come from an Italeri NATO weapons kit. The drop tanks belong to an F-16.

Painting and markings:

At first I considered an F-24I in IAF markings, or even a Japanese aircraft, but then reverted to one of nighthunter’s initial, simple ideas: an USAF aircraft in the “Hill II” paint scheme (F-16 style), made up from three shades of gray (FS 36118, 36270 and 36375) with low-viz markings and stencils. Dutch/Turkish NF-5A/Bs in the “Hill II” scheme were used as design benchmarks, too. It’s a simple livery, but on this delta wing aircraft it looks pretty interesting. I used enamels, what I had at hand: Humbrol 127 and 126, and Modelmaster's 1723.

A light black ink wash was applied, in order to em,phasize the engraved panel lines, in contrast to that, panels were manually highlighted through dry-brushed, lighter shades of gray (Humbrol 27, 166 and 167).

“Hill II” also adds to a generic, realistic touch for this whif. Doing an exotic air force thing is rather easy, but creating a convincing whif for a huge military machinery like the USAF’s takes more subtlety, I think.

The cockpit was painted in medium Gray (Dark Gull Grey, FS 36231, Humbrol 140), as well as the radome. The landing gear and the air intakes were painted white. The radome was painted with Revell 47 and dry-brushed with Humbrol 140.

Decals were puzzled together from various USAF aircraft, including sheets from an Airfix F-117, an Italeri F-15E and even an Academy OV-10D.

Tadah: a hardware tribute to an idea, born from boredom - and the aircraft does not look even bad at all? What I wanted to achieve was to make the F-24 neither look like a F-20, nor a Saab Gripen clone, as the latter comes close in overall shape, size and design.

In use at Papplewick Pumping Station on steaming days to convey visitors to an underground reservoir, is this Optare Alero. It is one of the original prototypes built in 1999 and registered X230 LWU, but donated by Optare to the Papplewick trust in 2006 and no longer used on the highway.

It gave me my first and probably last ride in an Alero and I have to say it was an interesting experience.

Airbus A380-861

MSN 004 [Engine Alliance testbed]

F-WWDD 'VNO' ['#A380' 'iflyA380.com' decals]

iflya380.com/

Airbus S.A.S.

Copyright © 2016 A380spotter. All rights reserved.

www.farnborough.com

After the success of the A-20 Havoc, Douglas Aircraft began design of a successor, with an eye towards an aircraft that also would be able to replace the North American B-25 Mitchell and Martin B-26 Marauder as well. Using the A-20 as a model and drawing on experience with the deHavilland Mosquito as well, famed aircraft designer Edward Heinemann came up with a light bomber design that could be flown by a single pilot. Though similar to the Havoc, the XA-26 Invader had a slightly wider fuselage, larger tail, and laminar-flow wings for better stability in dives. Since Douglas could build on the A-20’s success, testing went smoothly and the US Army Air Force was suitably impressed by its maiden flight in July 1942.

By this time, however, units in the Pacific had demonstrated the lethality of purpose-built low-level attack aircraft with massive forward armament, so the USAAF asked Douglas to develop the A-26 into a strafer as well. Douglas responded with two variants: the A-26B, with a solid gun nose that could carry anything from machine guns to a 75mm antitank gun, and the A-26C, with a glass nose for medium-altitude bombing. The noses themselves could be quickly exchanged to switch A-26Bs to A-26C bombers, and vice-versa. As in the A-20, a crew of three was provided, with the flight crew (the pilot and navigator/bombardier) forward and the gunner in a separate compartment in the rear, controlling both the remote dorsal and ventral turrets. A-26Cs could carry two guns in the nose, but these were deleted in production variants for four wing-mounted machine guns, which were also included in A-26Bs.

Douglas’ commitment to building transport aircraft and the modification of the XA-26A to the B/C dual variant delayed introduction to service until September 1944 in Europe, by which time the A-26 would be operating from newly-liberated bases in France and Italy. Though it arrived late, the A-26s in Europe saw significant action in the Battle of the Bulge and the final drive into Germany, operating mostly as medium bombers and occasionally as night interdiction aircraft. It showed enough potential that, much as Douglas had hoped, it replaced the A-20, B-25, and B-26 in USAAF service, remaining in postwar production.

Though the A-26 had seen World War II service, most of its combat record would be after that war—namely in Korea. The 3rd Bombardment Group, based in Japan in June 1950, saw its A-26s rapidly deployed for Korean service, and undertook the first US Air Force attack on North Korea itself. The A-26 force was quickly augmented by aircraft deployed from the United States, and these undertook bombing sorties in the battles to hold the Pusan Perimeter and in the Inchon invasion. As the Korean War became a stalemate, and due to the interdiction campaign happening in North Korea, Communist forces were forced to resupply mostly at night, and the USAF A-26s in theater were switched to night interdiction operations. These were extremely dangerous in the mountainous Korean Peninsula, to say nothing of the danger from ground fire. Usually, A-26s would operate in hunter-killer teams, with one aircraft using a wing-mounted searchlight to illuminate a target while the other made its attack. A-26s also bookended the Korean War by becoming the last USAF aircraft to attack targets in North Korea, just before the armistice was signed.

By the time of American involvement in Southeast Asia, the A-26 had been redesignated B-26 (this had happened during the Korean War, but it was generally referred to by its former designation). RB-26Cs were among the first USAF aircraft deployed to the area, in 1960, first seeing service under Operation Farm Gate, supporting Royal Laotian Army forces against Pathet Lao guerillas. Later, Farm Gate was expanded to South Vietnam as well and B-26C bombers were deployed for service as well—despite their age, the Invaders were liked for their easy handling and long loiter times, both valuable and necessary in counterinsurgency warfare. (The USAF was not the first nation to use Invaders in Vietnam—the French had used them during the siege of Dien Bien Phu in 1954.)

Age caught up to the force by 1965, and after a number of fatal crashes caused by metal fatigue, the B-26 force was grounded. They were then modified to A-26K Counter-Invaders, with new engines, reinforced structure, and wingtip fuel tanks (and further confusing the matter by readopting the attack designation). Returning to Vietnam in 1966, A-26Ks would remain in service until 1970, gradually replaced by gunship AC-130s, and turned in an excellent performance in the counterinsurgency role. The last A-26 did not leave USAF service until 1972.

A total of 2452 Invaders had been built, and besides its American and French service, others were used in African colonial wars (namely in Angola and Nigeria) and by Indonesia in its invasion of East Timor in 1976, the last time A-26s were used in combat. The CIA also used them in covert operations, especially in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. A good number of A-26s were sold as surplus after the Vietnam War and were subsequently converted to firefighting aircraft. Though most of these have been retired in recent years, it ensured that there would be significant numbers of flyable Invaders left. Today, 96 aircraft remain in museums and in private collections.

A high school in southern Phoenix, Arizona seems an odd spot to find an A-26, but that is where 41-39221 ended up. Delivered around 1944 to the USAAF, it remained in service with the postwar USAF, and was likely retired in the mid-1950s. 41-39221 was purchased in 1963 by the Southern Natural Gas Company of Birmingham, Alabama as an executive transport. This was likely when it was converted to an On-Mark Marksman. The Marksman conversion was a major alteration to the standard A-26 airframe, removing all military vestiges, changing the interior wing spar to a circular one to improve passenger comfort, a larger rudder, pressurizing the aircraft, adding loading stairs through the former bomb bay, and streamlining the upper fuselage. The nose was extended to accomodate luggage, while the cockpit windows were replaced by those from a DC-6. The result was an almost completely new aircraft. Only eight aircraft were converted.

41-39221 flew as an executive transport until 1979, when it was bought by the Garrett AiResearch Company; the nose section was swapped out for various turboprops as a testbed. It flew with Garrett and Allied Signal until 1992, when 41-39221 was finally retired and grounded. It was then donated to South Mountain High School's aerospace technology program, and placed on display at the front entrance.

I had been meaning to photograph 41-39221 for quite awhile, but it wasn't until a very hot June 2022 (hot even by Phoenix standards) that I finally got the opportunity. The aircraft is well-maintained, though the "N26GT" registration is spurious; the catspaw on the tail references South Mountain's mascot.

There are only two of the On-Mark Marksmen left, and without even meaning to, I got to see both of them within the space of a week.

Airbus A380-861

MSN 004 [Engine Alliance testbed]

F-WWDD 'VNO' ['#A380' 'iflyA380.com' decals]

iflya380.com/

Airbus S.A.S.

Copyright © 2016 A380spotter. All rights reserved.

www.farnborough.com

Martin-Baker's wonderful Gloster Meteor T.7(Mod) Test-bed pair resplendent in the static display at Yeovilton's 2017 Air Day

First flown in WWII, the Meteor was our first jet fighter and this pair of half a century old vintage 'Meatboxes' are based at Chalgrove in Oxfordshire.

Used for live-firing development work by MB on their range of Military Ejector Seats, 'Dayglo' encrusted WL419, aka G-JSMA and black with a gold stripe WA638, aka G-JWMA, have their rear cockpits modified to carry the 'test cell' with the black and white photographic calibration marks painted below

For more, see:

www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2017-06-20/vintag...

IMG_1931

The unique Leyland Atlantean AN69 chassis started life in 1975 as a test bed for the 'quiet pack' requested by London Transport which was subsequently used on the Fleetline B20 chassis supplied to them.

The chassis passed to Fishwick, Leyland who then had it bodied by Eastern Coach Works at Lowestoft before entering service with fleetnumber 23 and registration GRN 895W in February 1981.

Now preserved, it shows the unusual engine bustle compared to the more usual type found on Atlantean chassis.

A surprise visit for Gulfstream's new G400 testbed aircraft. This visit to YVR from home base in Savannah, Georgia was for the Canadian Business Aviation Association's 2025 conference. It is also the first time the G400 has been on public display, let alone left the USA.

CWO 516K is a battery electric bus built in 1971 by Crompton Morrison on an adapted Leyland 900FG chassis and bodied by Willowbrook. Initially used as a testbed and demonstrator, it was acquired by SYPTE in 1975 and used intermittently on the Inner Circle in Doncaster. Withdrawn in 1979, it lingered in the training centre for several years until passing to a Barnsley dealer.

Marana Pinal Air Park 28th December 2008

Airbus Industrie Airbus A340-311 F-WWAI TLS 21-09-10 - now used as a testbed for A350 components.

In 1972 Volvo Presented its rolling safety laboratory, the VESC. It was meant to work as both an experimental vehicle and as a testbed for future safety features, such as anti-lock brakes, airbags and telescopic action bumpers. The front end of the car remained almost unchanged into the 240/260 models of 1974. Technical features based on the 140 series.

Volvo Museum

Arendals Skans

405 08 Göteborg

Sweden

July 2012

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Zieten

Eric BANNWARTH collection

Bell P-63A Kingcobra s/n 42-69606 Vee-tailed testbed, circa 1943.

USS Texas (BB-35) is a museum ship and former United States Navy New York-class battleship. She was launched on 18 May 1912 and commissioned on 12 March 1914.

Texas served in Mexican waters following the 'Tampico Incident' but saw no action there, and made numerous sorties into the North Sea during World War I without engaging the enemy, though she did fire in anger for the first time when shooting medium-caliber guns at supposed submarines (no evidence exists that suggests these were anything more than waves). In World War II, Texas escorted war convoys across the Atlantic and later shelled Vichy French forces in the North African Landings and German-held beaches in the Normandy Landings before being transferred to the Pacific Theater late in 1944 to provide naval gunfire support during the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. She was the only Allied battleship that took part in all four of these amphibious landings. Texas was decommissioned in 1948, having earned a total of five battle stars for service in World War II.

Texas was also a technological testbed: the first US battleship to mount anti-aircraft guns, the first US warship to control gunfire with directors and range-keepers, the first US battleship to launch an aircraft, and one of the first US Navy warships to receive production radar.

Texas was the first US battleship to become a permanent museum ship." -- Wikipedia

Boeing 737-505

cn: 24651 / ln: 1842

ff: 06-04-1990

19-04-1990 LN-BRD Braathens SAFE, config Y125, ans the 2nd 735. Delivered in "Sommerflyet" colours with the first flower decoration earlier shown in 1988 with N197JQ.

10-1990 LN-BRD repainted to stadard BU colours and named "Harald Gille"

23-03-1998 LN-BRD Braathens ASA tfd

1999 LN-BRD repainted into the new blue BU colours, still config Y125, "Harald Gille"

winter 2002/2003 repainted into the final BU colours, "Harald Gille"

01-04-2005 LN-BRD SAS Braathens tfd, "Harald Gille" reconfig CY120, operated in full ex BU colours

01-06-2007 LN-BRD SAS Norge tfd still "Harald Gille"

24-07-2007 VP-BRP Aeroflot-Nord, config CY110

(Leased from Aerco)

01-12-2009 VP-BRP Nordavia tfd, config Y110, /leased from (AerCo)

2016 reconfig Y132

12-03-2019 wfu

20-03-2019 VP-BRP Smartavia tfd, config Y135, (leased from AerCo)

19-10-2020 wfu

02-12-2020 stored at Staunton Shenandoah Valley Regional, USA (KSHD / SHD)

07-12-2020 N735T Dynamic Aivation, testbed

30-06-2023 stored at Wichita McConnell Air Forece Base (KIAB / IAB)

03-04-2024 entered service as testbed again

Seen parking at gate 10 in September 1990, with a B737-205 at gate 12 and a B737-405 at gate 16 seen behind.

Scanned from original slide

Airbus A220-300

[Bombardier Aerospace 'CSeries' CS300 (BD-500-1A11)]

MSN 55002

C-FFDO [Airbus S.A.S. livery]

C Series Aircraft Limited Partnership (CSALP)

Copyright © 2018 A380spotter. All rights reserved.

Ships passing through the narrow Portsmouth Harbour entrance.

Outgoing is XV Patrick Blackett (X01) an experimental ship used by the Royal Navy as a testbed for new technologies, including unmanned underwater vehicles and unmanned surface vehicles.

Her namesake is Patrick Blackett, a Royal Navy veteran and Nobel Prize-winning British physicist.

Incoming is ABP Pilot Boat MV MAYFLOWER

On the far left of the image, the War Memorial at Southsea is prominent

1967 Daimler Sovereign 4.2

Lot 1 (Kempton Park Racecourse, 18th October 2006)

Sold for £5,738

(including buyers premium)

Lot details

Registration No: PGV102E

Chassis No: 1A32348DN

Mot Expiry: April 2007

Introduced in 1966, the Daimler Sovereign was a more luxurious version of the contemporaneous Jaguar 420. Differentiated from its badge-engineered sibling by means of a different grille and better standard equipment, it otherwise shared the same four-door monocoque bodyshell equipped with all-round independent coil-sprung suspension, disc brakes and a detuned version (245bhp vs. 265bhp) of the Jaguar MKX's 4235cc DOHC straight-six engine. In many ways a testbed for the forthcoming Jaguar XJ6's styling and mechanical layout, the Daimler Sovereign remained in production until 1969 by which time some 5,829 are thought to have been made. Among the rarest of the Browns Lane designed Daimlers, the Sovereign is a highly underrated motorcar.

Finished in British Racing Green with suede green leather upholstery, this particular example is described by the vendor as being in "very good" overall condition. Reportedly "a very rare manual (overdrive) matching numbers original colour car with Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust Certificate", 'PGV 102E' is further understood to have been begun life in the Channel Islands where it was used for "diplomatic service until returning to the UK during 1976". Apparently treated to refurbished front / rear subframes (new mountings, suspension bushes, bearings, universal joints, wheel bearings etc), an overhauled steering box, rebuilt differential, reconditioned callipers and new brake discs by its previous keeper, the Daimler has also benefited from replacement carpets / headlining and dashboard relacquering. Indeed, the car is thought to have had "some £4,000 recently spent on it". Though, we are informed that "no receipts are available as the owner purchased parts at Jaguar Spares Days and carried out the work himself". Boasting "new wire wheel hubs / spinners, tyres that have done less than 2,000 miles, power steering and a period Motorola radio (in working order)", 'PGV 102E' is said to "drive well with good oil pressure". Believed but not warranted to have covered 59,000 miles from new, this pampered Daimler is offered for sale with MOT certificate valid until April 2007 and historic class (free) road tax until March 2007.

www.handh.co.uk/auction/lot/1-1967-daimler-sovereign-42/?...

Some background:

The VF-1 was developed by Stonewell/Bellcom/Shinnakasu for the U.N. Spacy by using alien Overtechnology obtained from the SDF-1 Macross alien spaceship. Its production was preceded by an aerodynamic proving version of its airframe, the VF-X. Unlike all later VF vehicles, the VF-X (sometimes referred to as VF-X1) was strictly a conventional/non-transformable jet aircraft, even though it incorporated many structural components and several key technologies that were vital for the transformable VF-1’s successful development that ran in parallel. Therefore, the VF-X was never intended as an air superiority fighter, but rather a flight-capable analogue test bed and proof of concept for the VF-1’s basic layout and major components. In this role, however, the VF-X made vital contributions to systems’ development that were later incorporated into the VF-1’s serial production and sped the program up considerably.

The fighter remained active in many second line units and continued to show its worthiness years later, e. g. through Milia Jenius who would use her old VF-1 fighter in defense of the colonization fleet - 35 years after the type's service introduction.

General characteristics:

Accommodation: One pilot in a Marty & Beck Mk-7 zero/zero ejection seat

Length 14.23 meters

Wingspan 14.78 meters (at 20° minimum sweep)

Height 3.84 meters

Empty weight: 13.25 metric tons

Standard T-O mass: 18.5 metric tons

Power Plant:

2x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry/P&W/Roice FF-2001 thermonuclear reaction turbine engines, output 650 MW each, rated at 11,500 kg in standard or in overboost (225.63 kN x 2)

4 x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry NBS-1 high-thrust vernier thrusters (1 x counter reverse vernier thruster nozzle mounted on the side of each leg nacelle/air intake, 1 x wing thruster roll control system on each wingtip);

Performance:

Top speed: Mach 2.71 at 10,000 m; Mach 3.87 at 30,000+ m

Thrust-to-weight ratio: empty 3.47; standard T-O 2.49; maximum T-O 1.24

Armament:

None installed, but the VF-X had 4x underwing hard points for a wide variety of ordnance, plus a ventral hardpoint for a Howard GU-11 55 mm three-barrel Gatling gun pod with 200 RPG, fired at 1,200 rds/min or other stores like test instruments

The model and its assembly:

Another submission to the “Prototypes” group build at whatifmodelers.com in July 2020. Being a VF-1 fan (and have built maybe twenty o these simple Arii kits), adding a VF-X was, more or less, a must – even more so because I had a suitable Valkyrie Fighter kit at hand for the conversion. As a side note, I have actually built something quite similar from a VF-1D many years ago: a fictional, non-transformable advanced trainer, without knowing about the VF-X at all.

Thanks to the “Macross - Perfect Memory” source book, the differences between the transformable VF-1 and its early testbed were easy to identify:

- Fixed legs with faired ducts from the intakes on (thighs)

- Ankle recesses disappeared

- Less and slightly different panel lines on the back and on the nose

- ventral head unit deleted and a respective fairing installed instead

- Levelled underside (shoulder fairings of the folded arms were cut down)

- Leg attachment points on the nose deleted

- No small, circular vernier thrusters all around the hull

- Some new/different venting grills (created mostly with 0.5mm black decal stripes)

Beyond the changes, the VF-1A was basically built OOB. Thankfully, the VF-X already features the later VF-1’s vectored thrust nozzles/feet, so that no changes had to be made in this respect. A pilot figure was added to the cockpit for the beauty pics, and after the flight scenes had been shot, the canopy remained open on a swing arm for static display. For the same reason, the model was built with the landing gear extended.

As a test aircraft, the underwing pylons and their AMM-1 ordnance were left away and the attachment points hidden with putty. I also omitted the ventral gun pod and left the aircraft clean. However, for the flight scene pictures, I implanted an adapter for a display holder made from wire.

In order to emphasize the test vehicle character of the VF-X, I gave the model a scratched spin recovery parachute installation between the fins, using a real world F-22 testbed as benchmark. It consists of styrene profiles, quite a delicate construction. For the same reason I gave the VF-X a long sensor boom on the nose, which changes the Valkyrie’s look, too. Finally, some small blade antennae were added to the nose and to the spine behind the cockpit.

Painting and markings:

To be honest, I have no idea if there was only a single VF-X prototype in the Macross universe, or more. Just one appears in the TV series in episode #33, and lack of suitable information and my personal lack of Japanese language proficiency prevents any deeper research. However, this would not keep me from inventing a personal interpretation of the canonical VF-X, especially because I do not really like the original livery from the TV series: an overall light grey with some simple black trim and “TEST” written on the (fixed) legs. Yamato did an 1:60 scale toy of the VF-X, but it was/is just a VF-1 with a ventral fairing; they added some shading to the basic grey – but this does not make the aircraft more attractive, IMHO.

When I looked at the original conceptual drawing of the VF-X in the “Macross - Perfect Memory” source book, however, I was immediately reminded of the F-15 prototypes from the Seventies (and this program used a total of twelve machines!). These featured originally a light grey (FS 36375?) overall base, to which bright dayglo orange markings on wings, fins and fuselage were soon added – in a very similar pattern to the VF-X. I think the VF-X livery was actually inspired by this, the time frame matches well with the production of the Macross TV series, too, and that’s what I adapted for my model.

In order to come close to the F-15 prototype livery, I gave “my” VF-X an overall basic coat of RAL 7047 “Telegrau 4”, one of German Telekom’s corporate colors and a very pale grey that can easily be mistaken for white when you do not have a contrast reference.

The cockpit received a medium grey finish, the ejection seat became black with brown cushions; the pilot figure is a 1:100 seated passenger from an architecture supplies, painted like an early VF-1 pilot in a white/blue suit. The jet nozzles/feet were painted with Revell 91 (Iron) and later treated with grinded graphite for a more metallic finish. The landing gear became classic white (I used Revell 301, which is a very pure tone, as contrast to the RAL 7047 on the hull), the air intake ducts and the internal sections of the VG wings were painted with dark grey (Revell 77).

For some diversity I took inspiration from the Yamato VF-X toy and added slightly darker (Humbrol 166, RAF Light Aircraft Grey) areas to the hull and the legs. Next, the panel lines were emphasized through a thinned black ink wash, but I did no panel post shading so that the VF-X would not look too dirty or worn.

Onto this basis I applied the orange dayglo markings. On the wings and fins, these were painted – they were applied with spray paint from a rattle can, involving lots of masking. The leading edges on wings and fins were created with grey decal sheet material, too. At this stage, some surface details and more fake panel lines were added with a soft pencil.

The orange cheatline under the cockpit is a personal addition; I found that some more orange had to be added to the nose for visual balance, and I eventually went for the simple, trimmed stripe (TL Modellbau material) instead of trying to apply decal sheet material around the jagged air intakes (F-15 prototype style). The black “TEST”, “VFX” and “U.N. Spacy” markings were designed at the computer and printed on clear inkjet decal paper. Even though the “real” VF-X does not feature the UNS “kite” insignia, I decided to add them to the model. These come from the OOB sheet, which also provided most (slightly yellowed) stencils.

Finally, the model was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).

A rather different VF-1 project (and it is – to my astonishment – #28 in my 1:100 VF-1 Fighter mode collection!!!), with more changes to the basic model kit than one might expect at first sight. VF-X and VF-1 differ considerably from each other, despite identical outlines! However, I like the outcome, and I think that going a different route from the canonical grey/black livery paid out, the bright orange markings really make this VF-X stand out, and it looks IMHO more like a testbed than the “real” aircraft from the TV series.

The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' only operational jet aircraft during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, pioneered by Sir Frank Whittle and his company, Power Jets Ltd. Development of the aircraft itself began in 1940, although work on the engines had been under way since 1936. The Meteor first flew in 1943 and commenced operations on 27 July 1944 with No. 616 Squadron RAF. Nicknamed the "Meatbox", the Meteor was not a sophisticated aircraft in its aerodynamics, but proved to be a successful combat fighter.

Several major variants of the Meteor incorporated technological advances during the 1940s and 1950s. Thousands of Meteors were built to fly with the RAF and other air forces and remained in use for several decades. The Meteor saw limited action in the Second World War. Meteors of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) provided a significant contribution in the Korean War. Several other operators such as Argentina, Egypt and Israel flew Meteors in later regional conflicts. Specialised variants of the Meteor were developed for use in photo-reconnaissance and as night fighters.

The Meteor was also used for research and development purposes and to break several aviation records. On 7 November 1945, the first official air speed record by a jet aircraft was set by a Meteor F.3 of 606 miles per hour (975 km/h). In 1946, this record was broken when a Meteor F.4 reached a speed of 616 mph (991 km/h). Other performance-related records were broken in categories including flight time endurance, rate of climb, and speed. On 20 September 1945, a heavily modified Meteor I, powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent turbine engines driving propellers, became the first turboprop aircraft to fly. On 10 February 1954, a specially adapted Meteor F.8, the "Meteor Prone Pilot", which placed the pilot into a prone position to counteract inertial forces, took its first flight.

In the 1950s, the Meteor became increasingly obsolete as more nations introduced jet fighters, many of these newcomers having adopted a swept wing instead of the Meteor's conventional straight wing; in RAF service, the Meteor was replaced by newer types such as the Hawker Hunter and Gloster Javelin. As of 2013, two Meteors, WL419 and WA638, remain in active service with the Martin-Baker company as ejection seat testbeds.

F-WMIL at LFBO/TLS

C-FETB - Boeing B-720-023B - Pratt & Whitney Canada Inc.

at CFB Trenton Airbase (YTR) on display within the National Air Force Museum

c/n 18.024 - built in 1960 for American Airlines -

operated by MEA between 1971 and 1985 as OD-AFQ -

operated by Pratt & Whitney Canada as a flying engine testbed between 1986 and 2010.

C-FETB was the 720 flying test bed operated by Pratt & Whitney Canada until 2010.

It was equipped to test a variety of engines, for example:

A large turbofan could take the place of the inside / inner engine underneath the right/starboard wing.

A small turbofan could be mounted on the right/starboard side of the forward fuselage.

A turboprop could be mounted in the nose.

The following engine types were tested on C-FETB:

- the International Aero Engines (IAE) V2500 turbofan

- the Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D turbofan

- the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW300 turbofan

- the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW500 turbofan

- the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW600 turbofan

- the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop

- the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW100 turboprop

One of 154 model 720s manufactured by Boeing between 1959 and 1967,

C-FETB was the single remaining operational 720 in the world. On May 9, 2012, the aircraft made its final flight, travelling from Saint-Hubert to CFB Trenton – the last flight ever of a 720.

Eager to preserve this historically significant test bed, Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC) and the Canada Aviation and Space Museum (CASM) came to an agreement that saw the 720 went on indefinite loan to the National Air Force Museum of Canada, in Trenton, Ontario.

Unfortunately the red colour is fading away quickly during the harsh Canadian conditions

The aircraft received a new radome to house the Combat Talon avionics package, which included a Terrain Following/Terrain Avoidance radar, a Doppler radar/GPS tie-in to the aircraft’s inertial navigation system, and a defensive countermeasures suite. Many of these features would be carried over to the MC-130H Combat Talon II.

In this image, the XFC-130H (serial number: 74-1683) takes off for flight testing. XFC-130H was the aircraft’vs official designation during development and testing. After the test aircraft failed (see the next image for details), the remaining airframes were stripped of their rocket modifications. Aircraft 74-2065 returned to airlift duties; however, aircraft 74-1686 retained its Operation Credible Sport STOL modifications and was sent to Robins AFB in Georgia. In July 1981, it was designated the YMC-130H and became the testbed for the MC-130H Combat Talon II’s development under the Credible Sport II project. Phase I was conducted between 24 August and 11 November 1981, testing minor modifications to improve aerodynamics, STOL performance, handling characteristics, and avionics.

Phase II testing began on 15 June 1982 and continued through October 1982. It was determined that the final configuration resulted in significant improvements in design, avionics, and equipment and that the Combat Talon II design was ready for production. The 1st Special Operations Wing attempted to transfer the testbed to operational duty as an interim Combat Talon II until production models became available, but Tactical Airlift Command disagreed. The cost of returning the YMC-130H to stock airlift configuration was more than its value, and it never flew again. In 1988, the aircraft was placed on display at the Museum of Aviation at Robins AFB in Georgia, and in 2018, it was moved to the Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Glenville, New York.

used as a Pratt and Whitney Canada testbed aircraft

KLAX (Los Angeles International Airport) - 18 AUG 2015

Raytheon "Voodoo One" N289MT on the taxiway after landing on RWY 25L.

British Railways Built in July 1962, the last of the AL3 Electric locomotives ( Later Class 83 ).

E3100 had been a test bed with silicon rectifiers and transductors, this being the first step towards thyristor control and was geared specifically to be a passenger locomotive - unlike the first 14 members of the AL3 build which made it unique and lead to the AL3/1 classification.

After TOPS renumbering it became British Rail 83 015 and was withdrawn February 1989.

It was scrapped in April 1993 at MC Metals Glasgow.

Date and location of this photo is unkown although it has to be the West Coast.

Seems to be passing a green liveried DMU / EMU at a station?

1 of the Class 83 locomotives was preserved.

KLAX (Los Angeles International Airport) - 20 FEB 2012

"Voodoo One" on short final to RWY 25L.

Former names of the aircraft include "Amorous Angie" and "Sweet Steph".

This little guy has been on my shelf for about 5 months, finally decided to show it to the world! An upgrade to Ragnar Skallagrim's custom Hussar the "Huginn".

The experimental Wight pack is an attempt by Valhallan Industries to testbed a concept. Have a frame reap the benefits of the wonder element aurachalcum without having to replace critical frame systems as it is costly and time consuming.

In this example, the Huginn is outfitted with small aura generators which allow it to power a new thruster array, a pair of fire linked pulse vulcans, and some additional missiles. Most notably is the Huginn's new Variable Response Beam Emission Weapon System (VRBEWS for short). This "swiss army knife" weapon has multiple configurations for quick adaptability to tactical needs. A rifle for long range combat, a beam saber for CQC, and a variety of polearm type weapons.

Ragnar's pilot testing of these new applications has proven quite successful. Though there are no plans to mass produce the costly prototype equipment. Valhallan Industries is quick at work to streamline the technology.

c/n 18384/237. Just landed at Phoenix. Used as an engine testbed. New to TWA as N795TW in 1961. To Northwest Orient as N733US in 1962 then to Maersk Air as OY-APZ in 1972. Leased to Trans European Airways as OO-TYA from 1979 to 1980 and returned as OY-APZ. To Conair of Scandinavia in 1981, then Allied-Signal as N720GT in 1987. To Honeywell as N720H in 2000. Scrapped at Phoenix in 2008.

Photograph above:

MV PATRICK BLACKETT (IMO: 9762302) arriving at HM Naval Base, Portsmouth this afternoon. The vessel is a Offshore Supply Ship that was built in 2022 (newbuilding) and is sailing under the flag of the United Kingdom. Her carrying capacity is 150t DWT and her current draught is reported to be 2.3 metres. Her length overall (LOA) is 40 metres and her width is 8 metres. Royal Marine and Royal Navy personnel can be seen aboard her today and lots of Royal Marine personnel were about to welcome her to Portsmouth.

Photograph Source: Digital Expression UK

NEWS;

Royal Navy's new advanced technology testbed 'XV Patrick Blackett' arrived at HM Naval Base, Portsmouth this afternoon. It is reported that the vessel is due to have her Commissioning Ceremony on Friday.

WHO WAS PATRICK BLACKETT?

Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, Baron Blackett OM CH FRS

(18 November 1897 – 13 July 1974) was a British experimental physicist known for his work on cloud chambers, cosmic rays, and paleo-magnetism, winning the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1948. In 1925 he became the first person to prove that radioactivity could cause the nuclear transmutation of one chemical element to another. He also made a major contribution in World War II advising on military strategy and developing operational research. His left-wing views saw an outlet in third world development and in influencing policy in the Labour Government of the 1960s

Early life and education

Blackett was born in Kensington, London, the son of Arthur Stuart Blackett, a stockbroker, and his wife Caroline Maynard. His younger sister was the psychoanalyst Marion Milner. His paternal grandfather Rev. Henry Blackett, brother of Edmund Blackett the Australian architect, was for many years vicar of Croydon. His maternal grandfather Charles Maynard was an officer in the Royal Artillery at the time of the Indian Mutiny. The Blackett family lived successively at Kensington, Kenley, Woking and Guildford, Surrey, where Blackett went to preparatory school. His main hobbies were model aeroplanes and crystal radio. When he went for interview for entrance to the Royal Naval College, Osborne, Isle of Wight, Charles Rolls had completed his cross-channel flight the previous day and Blackett who had tracked the flight on his crystal set was able to expound lengthily on the subject. He was accepted and spent two years there before moving on to Dartmouth where he was "usually head of his class".

In August 1914 on the outbreak of World War I Blackett was assigned to active service as a midshipman. He was transferred to the Cape Verde Islands on HMS Carnarvon and was present at the Battle of the Falkland Islands. He was then transferred to HMS Barham and saw much action at the Battle of Jutland. While on HMS Barham, Blackett was co-inventor of a gunnery device on which the Admiralty took out a patent. In 1916 he applied to join the RNAS but his application was refused. In October that year he became a sub-lieutenant on HMS P17 on Dover patrol, and in July 1917 he was posted to HMS Sturgeon in the Harwich Force under Admiral Tyrwhitt. Blackett was particularly concerned by the poor quality of gunnery in the force compared with that of the enemy and of his own previous experience, and started to read science textbooks. He was promoted to lieutenant in May 1918, but had decided to leave the Navy. Then, in January 1919, the Admiralty sent the officers whose training had been interrupted by the war to the University of Cambridge for a course of general duties. On his first night at Magdalene College, Cambridge, he met Kingsley Martin and Geoffrey Webb, later recalling that he had never before, in his naval training, heard intellectual conversation. Blackett was impressed by the prestigious Cavendish Laboratory, and left the Navy to study mathematics and physics at Cambridge.

Career and research

After graduating from Magdalene College in 1921, Blackett spent ten years working at the Cavendish Laboratory as an experimental physicist with Ernest Rutherford and in 1923 became a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, a position he held until 1933.

Rutherford had found out that the nucleus of the nitrogen atom could be disintegrated by firing fast alpha particles into nitrogen. He asked Blackett to use a cloud chamber to find visible tracks of this disintegration, and by 1925, he had taken 23,000 photographs showing 415,000 tracks of ionized particles. Eight of these were forked, and this showed that the nitrogen atom-alpha particle combination had formed an atom of fluorine, which then disintegrated into an isotope of oxygen 17 and a proton. Blackett published the results of his experiments in 1925. He thus became the first person to deliberately transmute one element into another.

Blackett spent some time in 1924–1925 at Göttingen, Germany, working with James Franck on atomic spectra. In 1932, working with Giuseppe Occhialini, he devised a system of Geiger counters which took photographs only when a cosmic ray particle traversed the chamber. They found 500 tracks of high energy cosmic ray particles in 700 automatic exposures. In 1933, Blackett discovered fourteen tracks which confirmed the existence of the positron and revealed the now instantly recognisable opposing spiral traces of positron/electron pair production. This work and that on annihilation radiation made him one of the first and leading experts on anti-matter.

That year he moved to Birkbeck, University of London, as professor of Physics for four years. Then in 1937 he went to the Victoria University of Manchester where he was elected to the Lang-worthy Professorship and created a major international research laboratory. The Blackett Memorial Hall and Blackett lecture theatre at the University of Manchester were named after him.

In 1947, Blackett introduced a theory to account for the Earth's magnetic field as a function of its rotation, with the hope that it would unify both the electromagnetic force and the force of gravity. He spent a number of years developing high-quality magnetometers to test his theory, and eventually found it to be without merit. His work on the subject, however, led him into the field of geophysics, where he eventually helped process data relating to paleo-magnetism and helped to provide strong evidence for continental drift.

In 1948 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, for his investigation of cosmic rays using his invention of the counter-controlled cloud chamber.

Blackett was appointed head of the Physics Department of Imperial College London in 1953 and retired in July 1963. The Physics department building of Imperial College, the Blackett Laboratory is named in his honour.

In 1957 Blackett gave the presidential address ("Technology and World Advancement") to the British Association meeting in Dublin. In 1965 he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. He chose the subject "Continental Drift"

World War II and operational research

In 1935 Blackett was invited to join the Aeronautical Research Committee chaired by Sir Henry Tizard. The committee was effective pressing for the early installation of Radar for air defence. In the early part of World War II, Blackett served on various committees and spent time at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Farnborough, where he made a major contribution to the design of the Mark XIV bomb sight which allowed bombs to be released without a level bombing run beforehand. In 1940–41 Blackett served on the MAUD Committee which concluded that an atomic bomb was feasible. He disagreed with the committee's conclusion that Britain could produce an atomic bomb by 1943, and recommended that the project should be discussed with the Americans. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1933 and awarded its Royal Medal in 1940.

In August 1940 Blackett became scientific adviser to Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Pile, Commander in Chief of Anti-Aircraft Command and thus began the work that resulted in the field of study known as operational research (OR). He was director of Operational Research with the Admiralty from 1942 to 1945, and his work with E. J. Williams improved the survival odds of convoys, presented counter-intuitive but correct recommendations for the armour-plating of aircraft and achieved many other successes. His aim, he said, was to find numbers on which to base strategy, not gusts of emotion. During the war he criticised the assumptions in Lord Cherwell's de-housing paper and sided with Tizard who argued that fewer resources should go to RAF Bomber Command for the area bombing offensive and more to the other armed forces, as his studies had shown the ineffectiveness of the bombing strategies, as opposed to the importance of fighting of the German U-boats, which were heavily affecting the war effort with their sinking of merchant ships. In this opinion he chafed against the existing military authority and was cut out of various circles of communications. However, after the war, the Allied Strategic Bombing Survey proved Blackett correct.

Politics

Blackett became friends with Kingsley Martin, later editor of the New Statesman, while an undergraduate and became committed to the left. Politically he identified himself as a socialist, and often campaigned on behalf of the Labour Party. In the late 1940s, Blackett became known for his radical political opinions, which included his belief that Britain ought not develop atomic weapons. He was considered too far to the left for the Labour Government 1945–1951 to employ, and he returned to academic life. His internationalism found expression in his strong support for India. There in 1947 he met Jawaharlal Nehru, who sought his advice on the research and development needs of the Indian armed forces and for the next 20 years he was a frequent visitor and advisor on military and civil science. These visits deepened his concern for the underprivileged and the poor. He was convinced that the problem could be solved by applying science and technology and he used his scientific prestige to try to persuade scientists that one of their first duties was to use their skill to ensure a decent life for all mankind. Before underdevelopment became a popular issue he proposed in a presidential address to the British Association that Britain should devote 1% of its national income to the economic improvement of the third world and he was later one of the prime movers in the foundation of the Overseas Development Institute. He was the senior member of a group of scientists which met regularly to discuss scientific and technological policy during the 13 years when the Labour Party was out of office, and this group became influential when Harold Wilson became leader of the Party. Blackett's ideas led directly to the creation of the Ministry of Technology as soon as the Wilson government was formed and he insisted that the first priority was revival of the computer industry. He did not enter open politics, but worked for a year as a civil servant. He remained deputy chairman of the Minister's Advisory Council throughout the administration's life, and was also personal scientific adviser to the Minister.

+++ 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 Northrop Grumman-IAI F-24 is the latest reincarnation of the USAF "Lightweight Fighter Program" which dates back to the 1950ies and started with the development of Northrop's F-5 "Freedom Fighter".

International interest for the F-24A is already there: in late 2013 Grumman stated that initial talks have been made with various countries, and potential export candidates from 2015 on are Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Finland, Norway, Australia and Japan.

General F-24A characteristics:

Crew: 1 pilot

Length: 47 ft 4 in (14.4 m)

Wingspan: 27 ft 11.9 in / 8.53 m; with wingtip missiles (26 ft 8 in/ 8.13 m; without wingtip missiles)

Height: 13 ft 10 in (4.20 m)

Wing area: 36.55 m² (392 ft²)

Empty weight: 13.150 lb (5.090 kg)

Loaded weight: 15.480 lb (6.830 kg)

Max. take-off weight: 27.530 lb (12.500 kg)

Powerplant

1× General Electric F404-GE-402 turbofan with a dry thrust of 11,000 lbf (48.9 kN) and 17,750 lbf (79.2 kN) with afterburner

Performance

Maximum speed: Mach 2+

Combat radius: 300 nmi (345 mi, 556 km); for hi-lo-hi mission with 2 × 330 US gal (1,250 L) drop tanks

Ferry range: 1,490 nmi (1715 mi, 2759 km); with 3 × 330 US gal (1,250 L) drop tanks

Service ceiling: 55,000 ft (16,800 m)

Rate of climb: 52,800 ft/min (255 m/s)

Wing loading: 70.0 lb/ft² (342 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 1.09 (1.35 with loaded weight & 50% fuel)

Armament

1× 20 mm (0.787 in) M199A1 3-barreled Gatling cannon in the lower fuselage with 400 RPG

Eleven external hardpoints (two wingtip tails, six underwing hardpoints, three underfuselage hardpoints) and a total capacity of 11.000 lb (4.994 kg) of missiles (incl. AIM 9 Sidewinder and AIM 120 AMRAAM), bombs, rockets, ECM pods and drop tanks for extended range.

The kit and its assembly:

A spontaneous project. This major kitbash was inspired by fellow user nighthunter at whatifmodelers.com, who came up with a profile of a mashed-up US fighter, created “out of boredom”. The original idea was called F-21C, and it was to be a domestic successor to the IAI Kfirs which had been used by the US as aggressor aircraft in USN and USMC service for a few years.

As a weird(?) coincidence I had many of the necessary ingredients for this fictional aircraft in store, even though some parts and details were later changed. This model here is an interpretation of the original design. The idea was spun further, and the available parts that finally went into the model also had some influence on design and background.

I thank nighthunter for sharing the early ideas, inviting me to take the design to the hardware stage (sort of…) and adapting my feedback into new design sketches, too, which, in return, inspired the model building process.

Well, what went into this thing? To cook up a F-24 à la Dizzyfugu you just need (all in 1:72):

● Fuselage from a Hasegawa X-29, including the cockpit and the landing gear

● Fin and nose cone from an Italeri F-16A

● Inner wings from a (vintage) Hasegawa MiG-21F

● Outer wings from a F-4 (probably a J, Hasegawa or Fujimi)

The wing construction deviates from nighthunter’s original idea. The favorite ingredients would have been F-16XL or simple Mirage III wings, but I found the composite wing to be more attractive and “different”. The big F-16XL wings, despite their benefit of a unique shape, might also have created scale/size problems with a F-20 style fuselage? So I built hybrid wings: The MiG-21 landing gear wells were filled with putty and the F-4 outer wings simply glued onto the MiG inner wing sections, which were simply cut down in span. It sounds like an unlikely combo, but these parts fit together almost perfectly! In order to hide the F-4 origins I modified them to carry wingtip launch rails, though, which were also part of nighthunter’s original design.

The AAW technology detail mentioned in the background came in handy as it explains the complicated wing shape and the fact that the landing gear retracts into the fuselage, not into the wings, which would have been more plausible… Anyway, there’s still room for a simpler export version, with Mirage III or Kfir C.2/7 wings, and maybe canards?

Using the X-29 as basis also made fitting the new wings onto the area-ruled fuselage pretty easy, as I could use the wing root parts from the X-29 to bridge the gap. The original, forward-swept wings were just cut away, and the remains used as consoles for the new hybrid delta wings. Took some SERIOUS putty work, but the result is IMHO fine.

The bigger/square X-29 air intakes were taken over, and they change the look of the aircraft, making it look less F-5-ish than a true F-20 fuselage. For the same reason I kept the large fairing at the fin base, combining it with a bigger F-16 tail, though, as a counter-balance to the new, bigger wings. Again, the F-16 fin was/is part of nighthunter’s idea, so the model stays true to the original concept.

For the same reason I omitted the original X-29 nose, which is rather pointy, sports vanes and a large sensor boom. The F-16 nose was a plausible choice, as the AN/APG-80 is also carried by late Fighting Falcons, and its shape fits well, too.

All around the hull, some small details like radar warning sensors, pitots and air scoops were added. Not really necessary, but such thing add IMHO to the overall impression of such a fictional aircraft beyond the prototype stage.

Cockpit and landing gear were taken OOB, I just added a pilot figure and slightly modified the seat.

The ordnance was puzzled together from the scrap box, the AIM-9Ls come from the same F-4 kit which donated its outer wings, the AIM-120s come from an Italeri NATO weapons kit. The drop tanks belong to an F-16.

Painting and markings:

At first I considered an F-24I in IAF markings, or even a Japanese aircraft, but then reverted to one of nighthunter’s initial, simple ideas: an USAF aircraft in the “Hill II” paint scheme (F-16 style), made up from three shades of gray (FS 36118, 36270 and 36375) with low-viz markings and stencils. Dutch/Turkish NF-5A/Bs in the “Hill II” scheme were used as design benchmarks, too. It’s a simple livery, but on this delta wing aircraft it looks pretty interesting. I used enamels, what I had at hand: Humbrol 127 and 126, and Modelmaster's 1723.

A light black ink wash was applied, in order to em,phasize the engraved panel lines, in contrast to that, panels were manually highlighted through dry-brushed, lighter shades of gray (Humbrol 27, 166 and 167).

“Hill II” also adds to a generic, realistic touch for this whif. Doing an exotic air force thing is rather easy, but creating a convincing whif for a huge military machinery like the USAF’s takes more subtlety, I think.

The cockpit was painted in medium Gray (Dark Gull Grey, FS 36231, Humbrol 140), as well as the radome. The landing gear and the air intakes were painted white. The radome was painted with Revell 47 and dry-brushed with Humbrol 140.

Decals were puzzled together from various USAF aircraft, including sheets from an Airfix F-117, an Italeri F-15E and even an Academy OV-10D.

Tadah: a hardware tribute to an idea, born from boredom - and the aircraft does not look even bad at all? What I wanted to achieve was to make the F-24 neither look like a F-20, nor a Saab Gripen clone, as the latter comes close in overall shape, size and design.

PictionID:43723279 - Title:Boeing B-47 (55-2104; c/n 44450) USN MASDC 13May75 [Peter B.Lewis via RJF] - Catalog:17 - Filename:17.S_000161.tif- -----Image from the René Francillon Photo Archive. This images is from a 35mm slide. Having had his interest in aviation sparked by being at the receiving end of B-24s bombing occupied France when he was 7-yr old, René Francillon turned aviation into both his vocation and avocation. Most of his professional career was in the United States, working for major aircraft manufacturers and airport planning/design companies. All along, he kept developing a second career as an aviation historian, an activity that led him to author more than 50 books and 400 articles published in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and elsewhere. Far from “hanging on his spurs,” he plans to remain active as an author well into his eighties.-------PLEASE TAG this image with any information you know about it, so that we can permanently store this data with the original image file in our Digital Asset Management System.--------------SOURCE INSTITUTION: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive

The Project Gunship II aircraft was a substantial improvement over the original AC-47s. Seven additional airframes were converted to the "Plain Jane" configuration in 1968. One AC-130A (serial number: 55-0011) was equipped by the Gunship System Program Office at Wright-Patterson AFB with the "Suprise Package" upgrade of two 40 mm Bofors cannons in place of the aft pair of 20 mm Vulcans, General Electric ASQ-145 Low-Level Light TV 9 (LLLTV) and a Konrad AVQ-18 laser designator/rangefinder, and a new AYK-9 digital fire control computer. This became the AC-130A “Pave Pronto” configuration prototype and testbed for the avionics and armament for the AC-130E.

In this image, the “Surprise Package” prototype (serial number: 55-0011), nicknamed (cunningly) "Surprise Package" and later "Night Stalker" when upgraded to the Pave Pronto configuration, conducts tests of its new weapons systems. This aircraft flew with the 4413th Combat Crew Training Squadron (4413th CCTS), the 415th Special Operations Training Squadron (415th SOTS), the 16th Special Operations Squadron (16th SOS), and finally the 711th SOS before being retired on 15 November 1994. The new 40 mm Bofors L/60 cannons are in the rear where the Vulcans used to be. Note the ASQ-145 in the forward entry door. It is still flying with the ramp down!

Wellington prototype trolleybus of March 2003, No. 301, is viewed at the Lyall Bay trolleybus terminus at Hungerford Rd. on Saturday, 16 August 2003, during an enthusiasts outing along with Volvo 264 and the Omnibus Society's preserved WCT 119, which must now be facing an uncertain future at the Society's site at Gracefield in Wellington's Hutt Valley since the abandonment of the Wellington system at the end of October 2017.

Nos. 301 (of 8 March 2003), 302 and 303 were the only three Wellington scratch built Designline-bodied trolleybuses to sport the Stagecoach livery. Has Designline B39D bodywork.

By the early 2000s, active consideration was being given to fleet renewal in light of the then aging Volvo B58 trolleybuses. Bus design and electronics had both moved on a lot since the early 1980s. To test out new technologies, two prototypes were developed. One, Volvo 264, became a testbed for new electrical equipment. The other (Designline 301, delivered in 2003) was used to test new chassis and body design ideas, while using donor electrical equipment, steering and the rear axle from Volvo 206 with its worm drive gear arrangement. [A worm drive is a gear arrangement in which a worm (which is a gear in the form of a screw) meshes with a worm gear (which is similar in appearance to a spur gear). The two elements are also called the worm screw and worm wheel. The terminology is often confused by imprecise use of the term worm gear to refer to the worm, the worm gear, or the worm drive as a unit. Like other gear arrangements, a worm drive can reduce rotational speed or transmit higher torque. A worm is an example of a screw, one of the six simple machines. One of the major advantages of worm gear drive units are that they can transfer motion in 90 degrees.]

Test results were sufficiently positive that two further Designline-built prototypes (Nos. 302 and 303) were ordered. Their chassis and bodies were similar to those of No. 301, but they were fined brand new Brazilian control gear. Delivered in 2005, they entered service with Stagecoach.

However, later that year, the Scottish company sold its New Zealand interests to local investment firm, Infratil. Infratil set up a subsidiary, NZ Bus, to run its new acquisition, and quickly introduced separate branded liveries for various operations.

The trolleybuses came under yellow and black "GO Wellington" branding, arguably the most attractive standard colour scheme applied to the city's trolleybuses, certainly since the start of the all-over red livery in the mid-1950s.

Prototypes 302 and 303 proved successful, and a production order was placed with Designline for 57 technically similar, but longer vehicles, fined with tag axles. These were delivered 2007-2009, replacing all the Volvos. All three Designline-built prototypes also remained in service, giving a total contemporary fleet of 60 vehicles.

The comparative overall stability of the route structure since 1987, and the delivery of a completely new fleet of vehicles within me last decade, seemed all very positive. But sadly, despite the fleet upgrade, and the environmental advantages of electric traction, the system's closure in 2017 saw the Designline fleet only having a short life span.

Coventry 29th August 2015.

787-8 Dreamliner Testbed. Broken up at KPAE April 2018

What you're looking at here is the Rolls Royce Camargue, very much the Rolls Royce that time forgot. What can you even say about it? It's one of the most iconic automotive failures in history, and certainly a car that Rolls Royce fans are always very quick to wince at when I mention it at RREC conventions.

So where did this curious car come from? To truly understand this mighty machine you need to go back to 1969, where a massive change in the image and style of the world was starting to hold sway. In the world of autos, the curvature of the 1950's and early 60's was giving way to the angles of the 1970's, the decade that gave us the 'Wedge' sportsers and boxy saloon cars.

Rolls Royce, who at this point were building three cars, the Phantom VI, the Silver Shadow, and the Silver Shadow Two-Door Saloon (later to be known as the Corniche), were looking for a new design that would drastically alter its image from that of the Shadow. Originally, the intention was to use their new brainchild to replace the Two-Door Saloon, but due to financial difficulty within the Rolls Royce company, later followed by bankruptcy after the RB211 Jet Engine project, the company chose instead to save costs and rebrand it as the Corniche instead.

For their new car, Rolls Royce chose not to have it designed in-house like previous models, but went for the first time to Pininfarina of Italy. Throughout the remainder of 1969 the company toyed with many sketches, until in 1970 a final design was chosen and given the go by the Rolls Royce management, with the intention for a launch in either late 1972 or early 1973. Within the company, the project was dubbed "Delta", but was later changed to DY20, with ‘D’ signifying Delta, ‘Y’ signifying it was based on the SY (Silver Shadow) platform, and '20' shortened from 120 which was the car’s wheelbase of 120 inches.

But as mentioned, following the amount of money poured into the new Rolls Royce RB211 Jet Engine Project for the Lockheed Tristar, the company was bankrupt as of the 4th February 1971. The result was that the Motor Car Division, whose future now rested in the hands of the Official Receiver, had to look closely at all aspects of the business. This led to the splitting of the Rolls Royce company, with Rolls Royce Motors Ltd. being founded and placed under the ownership of Vickers, whilst the bankrupt Rolls Royce Ltd. was nationalised.

During this turbulent period, the DY20 project was closely scrutinised and the Receiver gave the go-ahead to commence the project, but following a critical review of the engineering specification for the car, a decision was taken to delay the launch date until 1975.

With development continuing, HJ Mulliner Park Ward, who already built the bodies for the Corniche, were chosen to manufacture the bodies of the DY20 project. In the summer of 1972, the first prototype D1 was released and tested heavily to maintain the standard of reliable excellence that Rolls Royce had been known for. At first the car's initial reception was warm, with people noting that it looked far more futuristic than the Shadow on which it was heavily based. Aside from sharing the same running gear, platform, Rolls Royce V8 engine and a majority of the internal features as the Shadow, the car was endearing in that it was fitted with a new and highly sophisticated bi-level automatic air conditioning system that at that time was the very first car in the world to have such a unit fitted. It was declared that this feature alone was more expensive than a British Leyland Mini! Another change was an instrument board, which many commented wouldn't have looked out of place on the flight deck of a Boeing 747!

Throughout 1972 and 73 more prototypes continued to be released and tested, with Rolls Royce giving paramount assistance to HJ Mulliner Park Ward's staff as they rigorously put these cars together. On the 18 January 1973 the body of the first production prototype, assigned D3, was attached to the front and rear sub frame assemblies on the normal Silver Shadow production line with maximum security in place and, following the production line assembly, the car was delivered to the experimental department to begin a period of intensive development work.

From May 1973 and all through 1974 production increased but still subject to extreme security. The production sequence was shared between MPW and Crewe. Once the body had been produced in the London factory and despatched to Crewe it was ‘finished painted’, attached to the front and rear sub frames and sent in a part built state back to MPW for all trim, general finishing and testing to take place at Hythe Road.

In January 1975, the car was officially launched in Catania, Sicily, and christened the name Camargue, an area situated in the delta of the River Rhône in France. Following a very successful press launch, the car was unveiled to the world on 5 March 1975 and the price quoted was £29,250, which made it the most expensive production car in the world ever at that time. Today, this figure translates out to £272,000. To put the price in perspective with other Rolls-Royce models at the time the Corniche saloon car cost £19,013 and the “Flagship of the Fleet” Phantom VI only cost £21,352!

The car was launched in the United States a year later after delays in fitting the cars with US Specification running gear meant that production didn't begin until August 1975. The cost of these cars in the US was $147,000, which today is about $588,000.

So, after a turbulent development mired in bankruptcy, a complicated building strategy and a delayed launch in America, did Rolls Royce's gamble with an audaciously designed car pay off?

Not in the slightest!

Purists recoiled at the sight of the angular corners and straight lines, with its big round headlights and chunky panels that made it look less like a Rolls Royce and more like a Lincoln Continental. They argued that for much, much less, owners could buy a Corniche or a Shadow which looked twice as good and performed just as well. This was then added to by the fuel crisis of the late 1970's, upon which that 6.75L Rolls Royce V8 soaking up petrol at a gallon every 15 miles looked deeply undesirable.

In all, only 531 of these cars were ever produced during its 11 year lifetime, but with a few variations. In 1985 a specialist hunting car called the Sbarro was reengineered for an Arabian aristocrat, whilst in 1979 two Camargues were used as testbeds for developments that would later find their way into the Silver Spirit/Spur range, including headlights and other features. In 1985 a single Bentley Camargue was also built, identical except for the changed badge and Grille, although many aftermarket conversions are known to exist. The last two cars rolled off the production line on Christmas Eve 1986 bound for Japan, at a price of £83,000.

Today, the Rolls Royce Camargue is a very, very rare car, and you would be hard pressed to find them routinely. In the United States a few continue to roam the countryside, with around 200 of the cars being exported there. Reception of these cars sadly continues to be very critical, with the car often topping people's lists for worst car ever made or ugliest car ever made. Although James May is one of a few people who defend this car, dubbing it "like that pug-faced but well-dressed bloke down the pub", for the most part all people can do is laugh at this car, laugh for the fact that it didn't sell, didn't look good and went through so much trouble to design and build that it was just a rushed embarrassment for the Rolls Royce company.

The reputation of these cars is so bad that in spite of its rarity, owners can't even give these things away, with most that I've seen going for as little as £20,000. But a word of advice, stop laughing, and buy their car! £20,000 for a two-door luxury saloon, a pedigree Rolls Royce, and one that once held the distinction of being the world's most expensive production car, you not only get this car for the cost of an equivalent Ford or Vauxhall, but you also make a saving on the original price tag of £252,000, that's over a quarter of a million pounds!

Me personally, I absolutely adore these cars! Indeed they're not as pretty as other Rollers, but I consider this a car that you not only have to feel sorry for, considering the background troubles that trailed its development from the start, but one that you have to admire as well. I feel that it's a car that's stood the test of time, a bit of automotive history from the 1970's that shows how reckless and ambitious we were with our car construction, like the Aston Martin Lagonda, brash in the extreme, but lovable all the same.

In fact if I had £20,000 right now I'd gladly go out and buy one, not only because I'd be saving a fortune, but also because it's a very personable little car, the kind of car you can't take your eyes off of, the car you could really give a name and love forever.

I'd name mine Christie! :D

The slightly woebegone prototype Brown Boveri Gas Turbine locomotive 18000 which spent its working life hauling express passenger trains from Paddington before being withdrawn in late 1960. The machine, as is perhaps inevitable with prototypes, proved neither reliable nor cheap to run. After withdrawal the locomotive was kept at Swindon Works for four years before being repatriated to mainland europe where the gas turbine was removed and the locomotive used as a testbed for experiments on rail-wheel interaction. Once these experiments were concluded the locomotive was put on display in Vienna in 1975 and was eventually secured for preservation in the UK in the early 1990s initially being stored at Crewe.

Although there is no realistic possibility of re-instating the original type of power unit, it is still good to see that the locomotive is safely in preservation. Externally, some repairs are needed, to be followed by a repaint to the original livery of black and silver. Internally, there is a good deal of conservation to be undertaken. The intention is to use 18000 as the focal point of a display relating to the post WW2 business plan for the 1950s, published by the GWR under the title 'NEXT STATION', of which the new gas turbine electric locomotive was an important part. (With thanks to the Didcot Railway Centre website for the above information).