Airlines: of Mexico
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On the 11/10/15 the Puffing Billy Railway operated a special train from Emerald to Belgrave for the AGM. Here 861 climbs the grade up to Menzies Creek.
An instructional version of the AGM-62 "Walleye" slung beneath a Douglas A4-F Skyhawk on the flight deck of the USS Midway CV-41 Museum in San Diego. Behind the "Walleye" are display versions of the Mk. 82 low-drag general purpose bomb with the Snake Eye tail retarding device used for low-altitude release.
The AGM-62 "Walleye" was an unpowered television-guided glide bomb. Introduced in 1963, the "Walleye" was the first of a family of precision-guided munitions designed to hit targets with minimal collateral damage. The "Walleye" was superseded by the AGM-65 "Maverick."
AGM-86 ALCM subsonic air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) built by Boeing and operated by the US Air Force.
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
National Air and Space Museum
Chantilly, VA
BOEING B-52H (61-0013) / BASE DE MORÓN (LEMO) SPAIN
A Bomber Task Force deployment of U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress aircraft, Airmen and support equipment from the 2nd Bomb Wing, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, arrived in the U.S. European Command area of responsibility to train with U.S. allies and partners on May 17, 2021.
The mission highlights the U.S. military’s ability to conduct integration training with partners and allies. This deployment of strategic bombers to Moron Air Base, Spain, helps exercise U.S. Air Forces in Europe’s capability to operate bombers out of a variety of forward operating locations.
The deployment is scheduled to include joint and allied training in the U.S. European Command theater and U.S. Africa Command theater to improve bomber interoperability.
Training with joint partners, allied nations and other units enables us to build enduring and strategic relationships necessary to confront a broad range of global challenges.
Bomber Task Force missions demonstrate the U.S.’ commitment to the collective defense of NATO and contribute to stability in the European theater. Our ability to quickly respond and assure allies and partners rests upon the fact that we are here, in Europe, forward and ready.
Members of Shine attended the 48th AGM, which were also attended by our Patrons, David proud and Danny Mills. After the formal businesses, attendees were able to enjoy the Shine Awards Ceremony. The day proved a great opportunity for members to meet Shine’s trustees, staff, and other members of the Shine community. Thank you to all who attended.
On the day of the Class 40 Preservation Society's AGM, 40145 was given an additional run on the first round trip of the East Lancs diesel diagram. Here the loco is being detached at Bury leaving 37418 to work solo for the rest of the turn.
+++ 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 AH-64 Apache originally started as the Model 77 developed by Hughes Helicopters for the United States Army's Advanced Attack Helicopter program to replace the AH-1 Cobra. The prototype YAH-64 was first flown on 30 September 1975. The U.S. Army selected the YAH-64 over the Bell YAH-63 in 1976, and later approved full production in 1982. After purchasing Hughes Helicopters in 1984, McDonnell Douglas continued AH-64 production and development. The helicopter was introduced to U.S. Army service in April 1986. The first production AH-64D Apache Longbow, an upgraded Apache variant, was delivered to the Army in March 1997. Production has been continued by Boeing Defense, Space & Security, and more than 2,000 AH-64s have been produced to date.
The Boeing AH-64 Apache is a four-blade, twin-turboshaft attack helicopter with a tailwheel-type landing gear arrangement and a tandem cockpit for a two-man crew. It features a nose-mounted sensor suite for target acquisition and night vision systems. It is armed with a 30 mm (1.18 in) M230 chain gun carried between the main landing gear, under the aircraft's forward fuselage. It has four hardpoints mounted on stub-wing pylons, typically carrying a mixture of AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and Hydra 70 rocket pods. The AH-64 has a large amount of systems redundancy to improve combat survivability.
The U.S. Army is the primary operator of the AH-64; it has also become the primary attack helicopter of multiple nations, including Greece, Japan, Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates; as well as being produced under license in the United Kingdom as the AgustaWestland Apache. American AH-64s have served in conflicts in Panama, the Persian Gulf, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Israel used the Apache in its military conflicts in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip; British and Dutch Apaches have seen deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Studies for a naval version of the Apache were begun during 1984 and since that time the McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Company has proposed several modified Apaches to both the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy. The navalized Apache was viewed as a replacement for the aging Bell AH-1 Sea Cobras that are in service with the Navy and Marines. With the introduction of a four-blade rotor system to the then current Marine Sea Cobra, the AH-1W, the Bell Cobra was believed to have reached the limit of its development. While older Sea Cobra airframes could be brought up to AH-1W standards, the Marines saw the need for a replacement for the Sea Cobra with some urgency.
The proposed Sea Apache (also known as the ‘Gray Thunder’) was intended for operations from smaller Navy ships such as frigates and cruisers and by the Marines from Amphibious Assault Ships (LHA) and smaller helicopter capable amphibious ships of a Marine Amphibious Ready Group (ARG). These ships would frequently operate outside the air cover of a carrier task group, so that the Sea Apache was also tasked with limited air defense duties and regarded as an offensive surface strike platform, with more capable weapons than the Army's version.
Since 1984, several design studies and formal proposals had evolved, with the Navy requesting changes in the Sea Apache configuration as it refined the aircraft's missions and roles. All in all the project went through no less than three stages, and each of these proposed navalized versions of the Apache differed in several ways from the standard Army AH-64A, although all three proposals had the same powerplants in common, two 1,723shp naval standard General Electric T700-GE-401 engines.
Also in common were increased corrosion preventive measures, improved electro-magnetic interference protection, a Doppler navigation system, upgraded brakes, additional tie down points, and a powered automatic rotor blade fold system.
Some of the missions envisioned by the Navy for the Sea Apache were:
- Escort for amphibious assault craft
- Anti-shipping strike
- Combat Air Patrol (CAP) with up to six Sidewinders
- Over the Horizon (OTH) targeting for surface ships
- Air support for SEAL special warfare teams
- Standoff surveillance
- Long range coastal patrol
Originally (designated “Stage 1”), the Sea Apache was to be a basic AH-64A airframe modified with a folding tail boom, a relocated tail wheel, a mast-mounted radar for surface/air search and attack, and provisions for Harpoon and Sidewinder missiles. Over time, however, the engineering studies and changing roles/missions requirements revealed that the Sea Apache's final configuration would have to be altered drastically.
One of the early problems encountered with navalizing the Apache was the narrow wheel base of the main landing gear. Engineering studies found that the standard Apache main wheel track was too narrow, causing the aircraft to be very unstable on the deck of a small ship. The roll of the deck in heavy seas, coupled with the aircraft's narrow wheel base and a relatively high center of gravity, could easily cause the Sea Apache to tip over. To solve this problem, McDonnell Douglas engineers redesigned the main landing gear, relocating it from the fuselage to the tips of the stub wings. The revised main landing gear was also retractable, with the gear retracting into streamlined housings (although the wheel itself remains uncovered) on the end of each reinforced stub wing. These housings also had provisions for mounting Sidewinder missile launcher rails.
The revised landing gear configuration was put forward in the second proposal (Stage 2) which also deleted the 30mm Chain Gun and its associated ammunition storage system. Furthermore, the Stage 2 Sea Apache featured a revised nose contour and replaced the TADS/PNVS with a nose mounted radar.
Extended fuselage side sponsons carried additional electronics and fuel cells. The sponsons themselves were smoothly faired into the fuselage to lower drag and extended almost to the tip of the nose. This aircraft was to also have provision for carrying two AIM-9L Sidewinder air-to-air missiles on short racks on the fuselage underside, a folding tail assembly and a retractable tail wheel.
This design had been refined still further, and the Stage 3 Sea Apache proposal had the side fuselage sponsons deleted and featured a larger nose radome intended to house an APG-65 Sea Search radar. This radar, developed from the multi-mode radar used on the F/A-18 Hornet fighter/attack aircraft, was compatible for both air-to-surface attack and air-to-air engagements. The forward fuselage was deepened to house additional fuel cells and the relocated avionics bays.
Projected armament included both the Harpoon or Penguin air-to-surface missiles (although the number of stations had been reduced to two) as primary weapons against surface targets, plus two Sidewinder air-to-air missiles for self-defense.
Additional weapons included Stinger, Sidearm, AMRAAM, and Hellfire missiles, as well as 127mm Zuni and 70mm FFAR rockets. Performance goals specified for the Sea Apache by the Navy at this stage included a 370km mission radius, and a four hour endurance on station. To extend the Sea Apache's time on station even further, an extendable in-flight refueling probe would be mounted on the starboard fuselage side below the cockpit. Consideration was also being given to installing the Canadian developed Bear Trap automatic haul-down landing system, which allowed operations during heavy sea states.
In 1989 the Navy gave serious consideration to the purchase of the Sea Apache once adequate funding was made available to finance prototype construction. The Navy desires the Sea Apache not only for its capabilities, but also because the aircraft would cost far less to acquire than to undertake the design of a totally new aircraft to replace the AH-1W in service.
It took until 1992 that the AH-64N, how the Sea Apache was now officially called, was given green lights and a total of seven prototypes were ordered (five for flight tests and in different configurations from Stage 2 and 3, plus two static airframes), and trials took another four years. During this time, one prototype was lost in a fatal crash and the overall budget for the new helicopter was slimmed down, so that the service aircraft became less drastically changed from the Army helicopter, and was eventually designated “Stage 2+”. It carried the Stage 3 avionics suite, but the performance goals became less ambitious, so that the deepened fuselage was not necessary anymore, improving aerodynamics and compensating a little for the reduced internal fuel capacity.
The first production AH-64Ns were delivered in 1998 and entered service on board of US Navy Wasp-class amphibious assault ships, e. g. the newly built USS Bataan (LHD-5), in 1999. Bataan was also one of many vessels in the Middle East region at the beginning of the Iraq war on or about 20 March 2003. After delivering her attack and transport helicopters, troops and vehicles she was employed as a "Harrier Carrier" with primary duties supporting two Marine AV-8B Harrier II squadrons along with USS Bonhomme Richard. USN AH-64Ns of the newly formed HLA-80 light attack helicopter squadron served successfully in the Combat Air Patrol (CAP) role, armed with AIM-120 AMRAAM and AIM-9L Sidewinders, as well as in the escort role for emergency medical care transports in the conflict region.
Until 2003, a total of 80 AH-64Ns were built, exclusively for the US Navy. The US Marines showed interest in the new helicopter, but budget restrictions forced the USMC to stay with its AH-1W helicopters and the AV-8B fleet. A proposed Marine Corps variant would retain the TADS/PNVS and Hellfire missile system, for use in the close air support role and for anti-shipping duties while escorting amphibious vessels. This variant would also relocate the radar dome back to the top of the rotor mast. Another option favored by the Marines was the capability to use the four tube TOW missile system as a back-up to the Hellfire missile system. But due to further budget restrictions, this variant that resembled the initial Stage 1 design of the AH-64N, never left the drawing board.
Further export ambitions received a blow when the British Army successfully deployed license-built AgustaWestland Apaches in 2003 upon the Royal Navy's HMS Ocean, a Landing Platform Helicopter, demonstrating that the land-based Army helicopter was quite capable of naval operations.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2 (pilot, and co-pilot/WSO)
Length: 58.17 ft (17.73 m) (with both rotors turning)
Fuselage length: 49 ft 5 in (15.06 m)
Rotor diameter: 48 ft 0 in (14.63 m)
Height: 12.7 ft (3.87 m)
Disc area: 1,809.5 ft² (168.11 m²)
Empty weight: 11,387 lb (5,165 kg)
Loaded weight: 17,650 lb (8,000 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 23,000 lb (10,433 kg)
Powerplant:
2× General Electric T700-GE-701C turboshaft engines, delivering 1,890 shp (1,409 kW) each,
driving a foldable 4 blade main rotor and a 4 blade tail rotor in non-orthogonal alignment
Performance:
Never exceed speed: 197 knots (227 mph, 365 km/h)
Maximum speed in level flight: 165 knots (190 mph, 306 km/h)
Cruise speed: 143 knots (165 mph, 265 km/h)
Range: 290 nmi (332 mi, 535 km) with two AGMs and four AAMs
Combat radius with two hours loitering time: 162 nmi (186 mi, 300 km)
Ferry range: 1,080 nmi (1,242 mi, 2,000 km)
Service ceiling: 21,000 ft (6,400 m) minimum loaded
Rate of climb: 2,500 ft/min (12.7 m/s)
Disc loading: 9.80 lb/ft² (47.9 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.18 hp/lb (0.31 kW/kg)
Armament:
No internal gun;
Four pylon stations on the stub wings; the inner pair under the wings can carry a wide range of
AGMs and AAMs, including AGM-84 Harpoon and AGM-119 Penguin against surface targets.
Alternatively, up to eight AGM-114 Hellfire missiles or pods with Hydra 70 70 mm, CRV7 70 mm,
and APKWS 70 mm air-to-ground rockets can be carried
Stations on each wingtip and under the fuselage can carry launch rails for up to four
AIM-120 AMRAAM and/or AIM-9 Sidewinder AAMs.
The kit and its assembly:
Another entry for the 2016 “In the Navy” group build at whatifmodellers.com, and to my surprise I was so far the only builder of this interesting “real” what-if project – even though the navalized Apache had been tackled by other modelers several times before.
The three design stages, plus USMC options, offer a wide range of potential builds – but I did not want to build a 1:1 copy of any of these. I wanted a sleek helicopter, purely armed with guided missiles, so I settled for “something between Stage 2 and 3”, or rather something that combines design elements from these:
- Nose radome (Stage 2)
- Recontoured upper fuselage (Stage 2 onwards)
- Retractable landing gear in wing tip pods & relocated tail wheel (Stage 2 onwards)
- Deleted sponsons (Stage 3), but also no deepened Stage 3 fuselage
A nice basis for my plan was Academy’s new AH-64 kit – it’s selling point in my case was the fact that it is the only kit that comes with separate sponson parts. Any other kit I know has them as integral part of the fuselage halves, so that Stage 1 would be fairly easy to build, Stage 2 challenging and Stage 3 a total re-sculpting of the forward fuselage. But in this case, the sponsons can simply be left away and a floor panel needs some modifications.
The thimble radome is an aftermarket resin piece, actually for a WWII FuG 240 Morgenstern radar on board of a Ju 88G night fighter. It simply replaces the original nose and it was blended into the fuselage through a 2C putty “plug”.
Stage 2 and 3 of the navalized Apache feature a higher upper deck around the rotor gear cover. On a 1:72 kit it’s not much, maybe 2mm, but recognizable to keen eyes. I scratched it through donation parts (including an air brake from an Airfix A-1 Skyraider…), styrene strips and some putty. The rotor mast was also extended by the same amount, compensating for the higher dorsal line. Subtle, but worked out fine.
I was a little uncertain concerning the stub wings. Stage 3 had a reduced span, and I found the OOB wings a little too small for the wingtip pods (scratched from styrene profiles and some 2C putty) with the landing gear. I eventually added 3mm depth to the wings through inserted styrene profiles – probably hard to recognize at all when hidden under paint, but proportions look IMHO more balanced, also with the missile ordnance on board and the longer nose. Any means to move the landing gear forward is helpful!
Work on struts and wheels started once the wings and the pods were in place, for a proper ground clearance. The struts are modified parts from the Academy kit, I just replaced the fat low-pressure main wheels for the land-based version with donations from a Hobby Boss MiG-15: similar diameter, but less wide and an interesting wheel hub cover.
For the retractable tail wheel, a well opening was cut of the tail boom and an interior plus covers added.
The whole tail wheel comes OOB from the kit, the struts were just re-arranged for a more vertical position in the well.
The ordnance comes from a Hasegawa US weapon set and encompasses a pair of AGM-119 Penguins, a pair of AIM-120 AMRAAM and a pair of AIM-9 Sidewinder, plus the missiles’ respective launch rails.
Anyway, nothing goes without trouble. In this case, disaster struck in the form of a cracked canopy while trying to dry-fit the clear part over the finished cockpit and fuselage. Sh!t.
I was lucky to have a spare AH-64A canopy at hand, from an early Italeri kit. While not as sharp in detail as the Academy part, the shape and outline of both pieces was almost identical, the Italeri part only turned out to be 2-3mm too short at its rear end, a gap that could be bridged with styrene strips, though.
Overall, the implantation called for some modifications around the cockpit opening, but for a donor part solution the result is thankfully pretty good, phew! When painting started, I was even more happier, because the putty work associated with the implantation turned out to be better than expected. On the downside, the donor part seems to bear a lot of micro-cracks – they are only visible from certain angles and in direct light, though, and once I discovered them the piece had already been blended into the fuselage, so I stuck with the solution.
Another final modification was a little rhinoplasty – I did not assess the amount of putty correctly that was needed to blend the radome with the rest of the fuselage, it added 4-5mm in length. The result, once the fuselage was completed and overall proportions clearer, looked a littel Pinocchio-esque, though. So, with a bleeding heart and shaky hands, I cut a 5mm disc out of the massive resin nose and fitted the two remaining parts together again, blending the cut and the differences in diameter with putty. This worked out fine, too, and I also used the opportunity to re-shape the radome’s underside a little, so that the whole outline would come closer to the Stage 2 sketches. Looks better, in the end.
Painting and markings:
I stuck to the livery many illustrations of this fictional helicopter show: a typical, all-gray low-viz scheme, similar to the USMC’s late AH-1 helicopters. Everything very straightforward and based on contemporary USN benchmarks.
Basic colors are FS 35237 for all upper surfaces and FS 36375 for the undersides – as a personal twist I added a third tone, FS 36320, to the flanks – after all, it’s a whif kit.
A light black ink wash and some dry-brushing on panels were used for weathering, as well as some grinded graphite around the engines and the stabilizers for exhaust soot stains.
The cockpit and visible parts of the rotor system became very dark gray (a mix of black and FS 36081), while the blades became neutral gray (FS 36173). The landing gear and its wells standard all-white in order to reveal leaks in the hydraulic system, as well as all six launch rails. The ordnance was painted according to the real world, I just chose a medium grey finish for the Penguins.
The decals were puzzled together from various sources, HLA-80 as a unit and its markings are purely fictional. The grey walkways are grey decal strips (TL Modellbau stuff).
Despite the canopy and nose trouble on the way, the result looks pretty good. O.K., my build does not match any of the three proposed design stages, but many characteristic details are there – and who knows how a real navalized AH-64 might finally have looked like?
The AGM-114 Hellfire is an air-to-surface missile (ASM) first developed for anti-armor use, but later models were developed for precision strikes against other target types, and have been used in a number of targeted killings of high-profile individuals. It was originally developed under the name Helicopter Launched, Fire and Forget Missile, which led to the colloquial name 'Hellfire' ultimately becoming the missile's formal name.
M36 Captive Flight Training Missile
The M36 is an inert device used for training the handling of the Hellfire. It includes an operational laser seeker.
AGM-65 Maverick, F/A-18A Hornet BuNo 163092 stbd side in the markings of the VX-9 Vampires, William B. McLean Laboratory, China Lake, CA.
AGM-122 Sidearm missile is a re-manufactured AIM-9C (SARAH) Sidewinder which had a semiactive radar seeker. China Lake Museum of Armament and Technology.
National Museum of the US Air Force
BOEING AGM-131A SRAM II
This missile is a short-range, self-guided nuclear weapon designed during the Cold War but canceled before production. The air-launched AGM-131 SRAM II (Short Range Attack Missile) had a range of 250 miles and carried a single warhead yield- ing 200 kilotons. Full-scale development began in 1987, and the SRAM Il was to be operational in 1993.
A main SRAM II feature was its warhead. Designed to be safer to store than earlier models, it used "insensitive high explosives" to trigger its nuclear reaction. These and other improvements reduced the danger of accidental plutonium dispersal in case the missile was involved in an aircraft fire or the SRAM II's rocket motor overheated. The SRAM II program, however, was ended in 1991 as part of a U.S. arms control initiative, and because of production problems with the missile's motor.