[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

After many months I finally managed to bring the remaining 1:500 scale models bought many months ago to Hyderabad. Airport security at Lucknow, Delhi and Mumbai made me open up the boxes because they appeared suspicious in the X-ray machines (someone said they appear like bullets!).
East Line Ilyushin IL-76
Swissair Douglas DC-4
Recently before a flight I was talking to an Airbus A330 pilot and he said the A330-300 and the A340-300 were nearly the same apart from two extra engines. I was a bit skeptical but looking at these two models it seems it's true.

The IL-76 and DC-4 look great. Thank you for sharing your collection.

The A330 and A340 are indeed almost identical with the same fuselage, same wings, same interiors and even same pilot certification. Only fuel tank arrangements in the centre section of the fuselage was different with the A340 carrying greater fuel and having a higher MTOW. Airbus came up with this idea of a 4-engined airliner because it was designed in the era before 6-hour ETOPs and the extra fuel burn was considered an acceptable penalty for the added safety and legal right to fly long routes over water. Airbus also introduced a short body super long range version the A340-200 but it was not a commercial success. We are headed to a world of all twin fleets. The days of a variety of engine combinations and their positioning are disappearing. Interestingly the A330 later models took up the market the A340 was meant to serve.

Originally Posted by Foxbat

1:200 China Airlines Caravelle lll (Same one Narayan had posted earlier).
Next to a China Airlines L-1049 Constellation. Surprisingly the Constellation has a bigger wingspan and length.

Looks good. The Super Connie was the Queen of Airliners in the 1950s designed for L-O-N-G range and hence the size. The Caravelle was a short to medium range hopper hence the smaller size. The heavier an aircraft the larger its wing area [i.e. lift surface] needs to be which invariably leads to a longer wingspan for subsonic speeds or similar aspect ratios.

Caravelle & Super Connie - amongst the two most beautifully carved airliners of all times. I would add the A340 and B747 to the list too.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Caravelle & Super Connie - amongst the two most beautifully carved airliners of all times. I would add the A340 and B747 to the list too.

Absolutely! There are still some Connie's flying about. Not so sure about the Caravelle. Transavia used to operate them out of the then original Schiphol airport.

My old time favourite is the 747, but when it comes to grace alone, nothing beats the Connie.

When we lived in Kansas City we had one of the last surviving air worthy Connies nearby

https://www.airlinehistory.org/constellation/

The museum also had an original Connie SIM. They were busy trying to get it going again. Not sure if they ever managed. Would love to have a go at it!

Jeroen

[Foxbat]

1/72 Diecast Mig-15bis 30th Fighter-Bomber Reg. "Ostravsky," Czech Air Force, 1954 (NATO reporting name: Fagot)











Managed to find a picture of the real plane from a PDF file in Czech on the web.


The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-15; USAF/DoD designation: Type 14; NATO reporting name: Fagot) is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful jet fighters to incorporate swept wings to achieve high transonic speeds. In combat over Korea, it outclassed straight-winged jet day fighters, which were largely relegated to ground-attack roles, and was quickly countered by the similar American swept-wing North American F-86 Sabre. The MiG-15 is often mentioned, along with the F-86 Sabre, as the best fighter aircraft of the Korean War.

Chinese MiG-15s took part in the first jet-versus-jet dogfights during the Korean War. The swept-wing MiG-15 quickly proved superior to the first-generation, straight-wing jets of western air forces such as the F-80 and British Gloster Meteor, as well as piston-engined P-51 Mustangs and Vought F4U Corsairs with the MiG-15 of First Lieutenant Semyon Fyodorovich Khominich scoring the first jet-vs-jet victory in history when he bagged the F-80C of Frank Van Sickle, who died in the encounter (the USAF credits the loss to North Korean flak).[14] Only the F-86 Sabre was a match for the MiG-15.


Next to a F-14 it looks like a midget next to a basketball player , however in a gun only dogfight it would run circles around the Tomcat.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

1/72 Diecast Mig-15bis 30th Fighter-Bomber Reg. "Ostravsky," Czech Air Force, 1954 (NATO reporting name: Fagot)

OMG The MiG-15 itself. What a coup, Foxbat. The MiG-15 gave the West a seismic shock when it appeared over Korea. The next Soviet machine to stir their loins was, you guessed it, the Foxbat and finally the Flanker!! Congratulations on this catch.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

Next to a F-14 it looks like a midget next to a basketball player , however in a gun only dogfight it would run circles around the Tomcat.
[]

It does look absolutely minute next to the Tomcat. Mind you in a gun only dog fight you need to get the other guy into your sights first. The F14 could go vertical and punch through the soundbarrier without so much as breaking a sweat, although it would have to use it's afterburners.

I have always had a soft spot for the jet fighters of this era. I have sat in a Mig 15 once, (In the USA of all places, a few are still flown there). They are minute from a pilot's perspective as well. The only way I fitted into the cockpit was because I was only wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Rather than having a bulky parachute strapped on and a G-suit.

Its American counterpart, the F86 isn't much roomier, although a bit bigger, at least in appearances it looks a bit meatier.

Jeroen

[V.Narayan]

Historical tit-bits on the MiG-15

Inevitably, the history of the MiG-15 returns to its dogfights with Sabres, the rivalry that has come to define the air war in Korea. But the link between MiG and Sabre began in the WW2. Both drew inspiration from the concept produced in the frantic search for a weapon at the end of World War II, when Allied aircraft had achieved numerical superiority over the German force. Desperate, the Luftwaffe High Command held a contest. The winning entry in “The Emergency Fighter Competition” was submitted by Focke-Wulf head designer Dr Kurt Tank and designated TA-183; it was a concept for a single-engine jet with swept wings and a high T-tail.

In 1945, British troops entered the Focke-Wulf facility in Bad Eilsen and confiscated plans, models, and wind tunnel data, which they quickly shared with the Americans. And when Berlin collapsed, Soviet forces sifted through the home office of the German Air Ministry and scored a complete set of TA-183 blueprints and a treasure trove of wing research!.

Less than two years later, and within weeks of each other, the United States and the Soviet Union introduced single-engine jet fighters with wings swept, of both, to 35 degrees, stubby fuselages, straight through air intakes and T-tails. The Americans added the leading edge slats for superior low and slow control and the Soviets added the wing fences for greater control across a wide low speed range and deferring a stall.

Neither aircraft was a copy of Tank’s design. The raw aeronautical research, in combination with the limited availability of engines and the prevailing materials of the time, necessarily imposed the commonalities on the designs.

While the Russians had designed the airframe they did not have a suitable engine. The first operational MiG-15s would, surprisingly, be powered by British Rolls-Royce Nene engines—marvelously innovated and cluelessly supplied by the British. Keen to thaw Anglo-Soviet relations, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee invited Soviet scientists and engineers to the Rolls-Royce jet facility to learn how the superior British engines were made. Attlee further offered to license production to the USSR—after exacting a solemn promise that the engines would be utilized only for non-military purposes.

The offer stunned the Americans, who protested loudly. And the Soviets? Stalin himself couldn’t believe it. He said, "Who in their right mind would sell anything like this to us?” The presence, in the delegation, of Artem Mikoyan himself—the “Mi” in MiG—should have been a tip-off to what in fact ensued: The Rolls-Royce samples shipped to the USSR in 1946 were promptly installed into MiG-15 prototypes and successfully flight-tested. By the time the fighter was ready for mass production, the Soviets had reverse-engineered the Nene; their copy was designated the Klimov RD-45. When the British objected to the violation of their licensing agreement, the Russians just told them ‘Look, we incorporated a few changes. Now it qualifies as our own original design.’. To their credit the Russians did develop the Nene from a 2250 kgf engine to a ~2700 kgf one. And still later developed a after burning version which powered the MiG-17.

Thus the Nene designed by the legendary British Sir Stanley Hooker went on to power fighters on both sides of the iron curtain! – the American F9 Grumman Panther, the Russian MiG-15, the French Dassault Ouragan & the British Seahawk.

How did the MiG-15 compare to the F-86. Well that is another story for another time.

[FrozeninTime]

Soviet Union commerative stamp

Rapid soviet expansion soviet military in 1960s posed logistics issues. An 12 proved inadequate to meet the challenges. Soviet union needed a heavy military transport aircraft. Enter Antonov 22. The largest aircraft with turboprop engine. It not only solved logistics issue but gave a soviet union a strategic advantage due to it's long range and able to carry heavy payload

An 22 1:500

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by FrozeninTime

Rapid soviet expansion soviet military in 1960s posed logistics issues. An 12 proved inadequate to meet the challenges. Soviet union needed a heavy military transport aircraft. Enter Antonov 22. The largest aircraft with turboprop engine. It not only solved logistics issue but gave a soviet union a strategic advantage due to it's long range and able to carry heavy payload

An 22 1:500

Welcome back @FrozeninTime. That is a delightful model you have there. Please do post a few more photos. Don't leave us here with just this tantalizing teaser. The An-22's wing was a scaled up version of the wing of the An-12. In 1965 this, then the world's largest airplane, all but stopped the Paris airshow. 250 tonnes MTOW in the early 1960s design period was some achievement. How I wish we had a 1:200 or at the very least a 1:400 version. Great model.

[FrozeninTime]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Welcome back @FrozeninTime. That is a delightful model you have there. Please do post a few more photos. Don't leave us here with just this tantalizing teaser. .

@Narayan sir thanks. I will post detailed photos once I go home for holidays till then a small peak


Boeing 727 1:200 in Lufthansa livery

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by FrozeninTime

@Narayan sir thanks. I will post detailed photos once I go home for holidays till then a small peak
Boeing 727 1:200 in Lufthansa livery

Thank you. Looking forward to more. Both aircraft look beautiful.

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by FrozeninTime

@Narayan sir thanks. I will post detailed photos once I go home for holidays till then a small peak
Attachment 1822066

Boeing 727 1:200 in Lufthansa livery
Attachment 1822068

Pictures eagerly awaited of the 727
Please post more of your collection that we have not seen.

[Foxbat]

1:200 Diecast Lufthansa Focke-Wulf Fw 200 S-1 Condor, D-ACON









Substantially smaller than a Constellation.


The first non-stop flight between Berlin and New York by a heavier-than-air aircraft was flown by a prototype four-engine airliner. Under the command of Deutsche Luft Hansa Kapitän Alfred Henke, Brandenburg, a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 S-1 Condor, D-ACON, departed Flugplatz Berlin-Staaken, 6 kilometers west of Spandau, at about 7:30 p.m., on Wednesday, 10 August 1938.

The other members of the crew were Hauptmann Rudolf Freiherr von Moreau, of the Luftwaffe, co-pilot; Paul Dierberg, flight engineer; and Walter Kober, radio operator. There were no passengers on board.

Brandenburg flew a Great Circle course across the North Atlantic Ocean and landed at Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York at 1:50 p.m., local time, Thursday, 11 August. The distance flown was 6371.302 kilometers (3,958.944 miles). The total duration of the flight was 24 hours, 56 minutes, 12 seconds.

Taking off from Floyd Bennett Field before 9:30 a.m., on Saturday, 13 August, Brandenburg was flown to Flughafen Berlin-Templehof. With more favorable winds on the eastbound flight, the 6,392 kilometer distance (3,972 miles) was covered in 19 hours, 56 minutes, with an average speed of 321 kilometers per hour

The real plane.



Interior seems to be pretty comfy for 1938.


D-ACON was the prototype Condor, designated Fw 200 V1, Werk-Nr. 2000. It had first flown at Neulander Feld, site of the Focke-Wulf plant in Bremen, 27 July 1937. The test pilot was Kurt Waldemar Tank, an aeronautical engineer and the airplane’s designer.


D-ACON made a series of long distance flights to demonstrate its potential.
On 6 December 1938, while on approach to Manila, capital city of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, all four of D-ACON’s engines stopped. Unable to reach the airfield, the Condor was ditched in Manila Bay. All aboard were quickly rescued. The cause of the engines failing was fuel starvation. One source states that the crew had selected the wrong tanks. Another source says that a fuel line had broken. A third cites a fuel pump failure.




I ordered this on eBay from a seller in Germany and I noticed the Swastikas on the tail fin in the images had been photoshopped off(probably due to German legal rules) but they remain on the model. For some reason the seller also sent me this small bottle of herb liquor as a gift I suppose!



Not sure where to keep a plane of this era in my collection so for now placed it with a model from the same country and same period.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

I ordered this on eBay from a seller in Germany and I noticed the Swastikas on the tail fin in the images had been photoshopped off(probably due to German legal rules) but they remain on the model.

Very complex even today, Swastikas in Germany! Broadly speaking only allowed for educational purposes and in conetext of historical art. So for instance, in most war movies they are allowed to be shown.

I believe there is an ongoing debate if this should be extended to for instance video games.

Remains difficult for all Nazi symbols especially in German

Jeroen

[V.Narayan]

^^^^
^^^^
Foxbat you lucky so-and-so. That is one rare acquisition of a truly truly historic aircraft. The Condor was the first modern long-range airliner. It wasn't till the DC-7C almost 18 years later that a reliable, non-stop Atlantic crossing East-West became normal. Retain the swastika. It is a part of history even though for occupied Europe it was a scourge. Your civilian model out shines my military one. It looks handsome. Imagine how big and modern the Condor would have seemed in 1938.

Off topic: While Germany atoned I wonder when the British will even express lament for the literally tens of millions who dies in India from their famines and enforced cash crop policies.

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Off topic: While Germany atoned I wonder when the British will even express lament for the literally tens of millions who dies in India from their famines and enforced cash crop policies.

History is written by the victors, thats the problem. The British overlook their murderous rule of various colonies where they probably murdered many times more people than the Germans while at the same time they forced repatriations from the Germans after both the world wars. They are quick to shame Germany for its Nazi past while at the same time they are proud of their colonial past.

The Indian Education is also part of this false impression of history, these atrocities by the British are hardly discussed in English Medium Boards, while they have chapters on "Benefits of British Rule in India" !

Most European countries had colonies in which they brutally subjugated the indigenous people and did next to nothing to atone for their sins.

Good to see France take a small step:
http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2018/n...ican-artifact/