[chaudh2s]

My Dassault Mirage 2000-5. Our latest upgraded Mirage's are similar to these.

[chaudh2s]

Dassault Falcon 6X 1:48 solid resin model.

[chaudh2s]

Unimog 406, Defender 90 and Scania Tractor Trailer.

[chaudh2s]

..and finally our beloved Rafale 1:48 solid resin model.

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by chaudh2s

My Dassault Mirage 2000-5. Our latest upgraded Mirage's are similar to these.

Originally Posted by chaudh2s

..and finally our beloved Rafale 1:48 solid resin model.

Those are some great models! What scale and brand are they and where did you procure them? Are they custom build models?

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by chaudh2s

My Dassault Mirage 2000-5. Our latest upgraded Mirage's are similar to these.

Originally Posted by chaudh2s

Dassault Falcon 6X 1:48 solid resin model.

Originally Posted by chaudh2s

..and finally our beloved Rafale 1:48 solid resin model.

Excellent models. Thank you for sharing and joining this niche club of aircraft model lovers in an ocean of car nuts. :-) All three are very well crafted.

A Dassault Falcon 7X (the tri-engine variant) was once in my fleet for years A6-EAG. I think I posted a model on it here once. Where business jets go the Dassault range has always been the most beautiful by far, not dumpy like Bombardier. though both had equally lousy A.S.S.

[V.Narayan]

Bristol Bulldog Fighter:: RAF, Inter-war years:: Make unknown, 1:72 scale

Wingspan about 5.5 inches; Length about 4 inches; average quality of detail & finish. Purchased at RAF Hendon's museum

This was one of the primary fighters of the RAF in the inter-war years. It entered service in 1929 and stayed on in secondary roles till 1937. It reflected the stagnation in fighter design of those years even when long range flying boats were making waves and leading aeronautical technology. The Bristol Bulldog in a way represented the limited improvements over late World War I aircraft that plagued all countries in the 1920s.

Powered by a 490 shp air-cooled radial piston engine it had a top speed of 178 mph or 155 knots/286 kmph and an endurance of about one hour. Armament had not changed since the last days of WW-I ie 2 x Vickers .303 light machine guns firing through the rotating propeller with the aid of an interrupter gear. It could also carry 4 x 20lbs bombs under the lower wings. To improve pilot vision the upper wings had a cut out in the centre and the lower wings had a shorter chord on the inner halves. The lack of a streamlined cowling over the radial engine is surprising. Interestingly cowling design was complex and subject to some serious research especially by the Americans and it wasn't till the early 1930s that they started sharing their patents by NACA. Because radial cowlings on fighters were large relative to the fuselage or wings they tended to disturb the airflow over the inner wings. Nothing in aeronautics is simple!

All in all it was a reliable machine, easy to maintain and built on a frame of rolled steel tubes and covered by taught canvas as was standard for that era.

The company that made these – Bristol Aeroplanes – was typical of the companies the were a part of the once great British aeronautical industry. Its other two famous products were the Bristol Beaufighter of WW2 and the Bristol Britannia passenger turboprop of the 1950s. The company was merged with British Aircraft Corporation in c.1959 as part of the consolidation of the industry in the UK to better compete with the Americans.

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Bristol Bulldog Fighter:: RAF, Inter-war years:: Make unknown, 1:72 scale

Looks decently detailed. Congratulations, another rare model added to your collection.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

C-97?

I am a civil airliner.
Hint: Later in life I also served as an air-to-air refueling tanker. My launch customer insisted on a hot and high take off ability from short strips thus taking the design focus away from fuel efficiency and largest possible passenger payload. That became my Achilles heal.

B-24 or B-25?

good try ; close; on the other side :-)

[kashesh]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

I am a civil airliner.

Boeing B-29 Superfortress?

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

good try ; close; on the other side :-)

He-111?

And the other one Boeing 707/KC-135

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

He-111?

And the other one Boeing 707/KC-135

yup the Heinkel He-111 and the Vickers Super VC-10

[V.Narayan]

Heinkel He-111, Medium bomber :: Luftwaffe, Eastern Front WW-II :: Corgi 1:72 model

Length ~9 inches; wingspan ~12 inches; good finish & detailing; in camouflage of the Eastern front winter

Who on this thread does not know the He-111. It was the leading medium bomber in 1939 across the world. It was faster in speed & climb than its closest rival the British Vickers Wellington, more maneuverable than other medium twins of 1939 while carrying the almost standard bombload of the time i.e. 2000 kgs internally.

The He-111 served on all fronts that the Luftwaffe fought as a medium bomber, a torpedo bomber, a recce aircraft, a glider tug, and a transport aircraft. A little over 6500 were built. From 1943 onwards the aircraft was getting outdated as a medium bomber. The fault lay in the German high command’s lack of foresight to develop the next generation of fast medium bombers and not with the He-111. Till the very end this rugged machine and its crews ploughed on valiantly against the overwhelming odds of Allied air superiority on both fronts.

In terms of design, it had an excellent field of view for the pilot including straight down. Armament comprised of 5 machines guns in the front, dorsal, ventral and two lateral positions. The bomb bay was in the centre with vertical stacking.

When it first flew in 1935 it was way ahead of its time while keeping in mind that in the period 1933 to 1960 aeronautical design was changing in leaps and bounds each year. In 1935 the RAF's most advanced fighter in service was the 360 kmph Hawker Fury, even the Gladiator bi-plane was 2 years in the future let alone the Hurricane or Spitfire. Its maiden flight preceded even the legendary Bf 109. Monoplane, enclosed cockpit, retractable landing gear, streamlined fuselage and 5 defensive gun positions was very advanced for the age. The only item initially missing were variable pitch propellers which came in before WW2 started. In 1935 the RAF were still flying the Handley Page Heyford bi-plane bombers of a bygone era. Even obsolete machines like the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley did not fly till 1936, a year later. Only the United States was planning along modern lines with the 4 engined B-17 Flying Fortress due to take to the skies 4 months later in July 1935.

Wing span: ~74 feet; Wing area: 943 sq feet

Length: 53 feet – that’s a shade shorter than a MiG-29! The crew area must have been a tight squeeze

Normal MTOW: ~12,000 kgs

Engines: Jumo Junkers inverted liquid cooled V-12 developing ~1300 shp each

Top speed: 440 kmph {240 knots}; later versions topped 475 kmph Ferry range: 2300 kms Radius with full bomb load: ~800 kms

Bomb load: normal ~2000 kgs in internal bomb bay or 1 torpedo. Upto 7 defensive machine guns in 5 positions.

The He-111 story had a twist in the tail. Spain had acquired a license to produce the He-111. That version was initially powered by the German Jumo but as it remained in production after WW-II it was redesigned to be powered by the Rolls Royce Merlins that had in WW2 powered the Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster, Mosquito etc. A twist of irony!! More still – the Spanish variant, which in looks and performance was identical to the German one, remained in slow production till 1956 and in service in secondary roles till 1973. Of all the Axis combat aircraft that served in WW-II the He-111 had the longest post war service life. Only the venerable, unbreakable Ju-52 transport lasted longer.

The green table representing the Russian landscape shows to good effect the value of the camouflage design.

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Heinkel He-111, Medium bomber :: Luftwaffe, Eastern Front WW-II :: Corgi 1:72 model

The He-111 story had a twist in the tail. Spain had acquired a license to produce the He-111. That version was initially powered by the German Jumo but as it remained in production after WW-II it was redesigned to be powered by the Rolls Royce Merlins that had in WW2 powered the Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster, Mosquito etc. A twist of irony!! More still – the Spanish variant, which in looks and performance was identical to the German one, remained in slow production till 1956 and in service in secondary roles till 1973. Of all the Axis combat aircraft that served in WW-II the He-111 had the longest post war service life. Only the venerable, unbreakable Ju-52 transport lasted longer.

Great addition to your WWII Axis powers collection. I thought this was the Fliegender Bleistift ("flying pencil") but after a bit of Googling I realised it was the Dornier Do 17.

I never knew it stayed in service so long after WWII, Spain has an interesting history of using WWII German aircraft. Another example is the Hispano Aviación HA-1109 and HA-1112 (licence-built versions of the Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2 ) which are used for many re-enactments in movies of the Air war over Europe. They first flew in 1954 and were used till 1965!

[V.Narayan]

Vickers VC10 Series 1101, British Airways :: Long range, first generation airliner :: JC Wings 1:200 metal diecast

Beautifully crafted and painted. Length~9.5"; Wingspan ~8.5". Comes with a wobbly stand that needs plasticine to jam it in place

The 4th of the 5 early four-engined long range, large capacity {for the era} jet airliner. It flew in 1962 and joined service with BOAC in 1964. It followed the superlative Boeing 707, the more prosaic Douglas DC-8, the fast and confused Convair 880/990 and was succeeded by the Soviet IL-62. Due to a troublesome home customer, BOAC, this was the least successful of the first generation airliners with only 54 being built. This was the last attempt by a national aeronautical industry outside the then two super powers to build a big jet airliner. After the VC10 and largely due to the economic lessons of scale it threw up Airbus Industrie was formed in 1969. IMHO the VC10 was by far the most beautiful of all the first generation airliners with that sweeping T-tail and perfect nose. The IL-62 and VC-10 were also the first and last time a four rear engine mounting was tried in a big civil airliner. It was tried to lower noise in the cabin. Today's passenger does not remember how noisy the turbojets were while remaining a great improvement over the pistons they replaced. Such rear engine layouts create centre of gravity issues as well as needing heavy structures in the tail to support those 4 heavy engines.

The VC10 focused on its ability to take off from short airstrips at the cost of number of payload {fare paying pax}. That put it at a disadvantage to the 707 and DC-8 in cost per pax-mile flown. The Series 1101 carried ~150 pax in a mixed class seating. The later extended fuselage Series 1150 carried ~175. Interestingly these were then considered high capacity. The fault was not with the VC10 but the design specs provided by BOAC. And in its twilight years the British aviation industry simply did not have the heft to take on the giant Americans.

The VC10 served on as an air-air refueling tanker-transport with the RAF till 2013 i.e. 51 years after its first flight. It goes down in history of one of the greats that could have been.

Enjoy the photos.




The narrow body, the T-tail and the four rear mounted engine pods showing up clearly in these photos.


Detailed view of the 4 Rolls Royce Conway engines an early low by-pass ratio turbofan.



The large wing which was the piece de resistance of this aircraft. In terms of excellence and advancement only the 707 and soon to come 727 wings compared. We can see the full length leading edge slats, spoilers for roll control and lift dumping, high lift fowler flaps and ailerons.



The underside and the landing gear


The JC Wings box. The paint scheme was a cross between the outgoing BOAC and the incoming British Airways. The blue cheat line was from BOAC and the tail from BA.



The real G-ARVM


The most beautiful lines of the VC10 Series 1101. Later a lengthened Series 1150 came with a larger pax capacity

Production numbers of the early 5 big jet airliners are as follows:

Boeing 707 .......... 1019 {not including military derivates or the KC-135 tanker transport
Douglas DC-8 ....... 556
Ilyushin IL-62 ....... 292
Convair 880/990 ... 102
Vickers VC10 ........ 54

The Boeing 707 sold more than all its competitors.

Originally Posted by Foxbat

Great addition to your WWII Axis powers collection.

I knew Kamerad Foxbat will approve.