IPMS Exhibition 10.5.2009

The first F-8U was the last American fighter with guns as the primary weapon while the RF-8 photo-reconnaissance variant operated longer in U.S. service than any of the fighter versions. RF-8s played a crucial role in the Cuban Missile Crisis, providing essential low-level photographs impossible to acquire by other means and US Naval Reserve units continued to operate the RF-8 until 1987.

The Vought F8U Crusader was designed by a team led by John Russell Clark in response to a US Navy Requirement issued in September 1952 for a fighter aircraft with a top speed of Mach 1.2 at 30,000 ft with a climb rate of 25,000 ft / min , and a landing speed of no more than 100 mph. Korean War experience had demonstrated that .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns were no longer sufficient and as the result the new fighter was to carry a 20 mm (0.79 in) cannon.

Unusually for a fighter, the Vought contender design had not only a high-mounted wing - which allowed for short and light landing gear - but also a variable-incidence wing which pivoted by 7° out of the fuselage on takeoff and landing. This afforded increased lift due to a greater angle of attack without compromising forward visibility because the fuselage stayed level.Simultaneously, the lift was augmented by leading-edge slats drooping by 25° and inboard flaps extending to 30°. The rest of the aircraft took advantage of contemporary aerodynamic innovations with area ruled fuselage, all-moving stabilators, dog-tooth notching at the wing folds for improved yaw stability, and liberal use of titanium in the airframe. Power came from the Pratt & Whitney J57 afterburning turbojet and the armament, as specified by the Navy, consisted of four 20 mm (.79 in) cannon, a retractable tray with 32 unguided Mighty Mouse folded-fin rockets, and cheek pylons for two AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles.

Major competition came from Grumman with the F-11 Tiger, McDonnell with upgraded twin-engine F3H Demon (which would eventually become the F-4 Phantom II), and North American with their F-100 Super Sabre adopted for carrier use and dubbed the Super Fury.

However in May 1953, John Russell Clark's design was declared a winner and in June, Vought received an order for three XF8U-1 prototypes (after adoption of the unified designation system in September 1962, the F8U became the F-8).

The first prototype flew on 25 March 1955 with John Konrad at the controls. The aircraft exceeded the speed of sound during its maiden flight and the development was so trouble-free that the second prototype, along with the first production F8U-1, flew on the same day, 30 September 1955. On 4 April 1956, the F8U-1 performed its first catapult launch from USS Forrestal.

Prototype XF8U-1s were evaluated by VX-3 beginning in late 1956, with few problems noted. Weapons development was conducted at NAF China Lake and a China Lake F8U-1 set a U.S. National speed record in August 1956 when Commander "Duke" Windsor set, broke, and reset a new Level Flight Speed Record of 1,015.428 mph on 21 August 1956 beating the previous record of 822 mph (1,323 km/h) set by a USAF F-100 . However, the W orld Air Speed Record of 1,132 mph (1,822 km/h), set by the British Fairey Delta 2 on 10 March 1956 was not broken.

The first fleet squadron to fly the Crusader was VF-32 at Naval Air Station Cecil Field Florida, in 1957, deploying to the Mediterranean late that year aboard the USS Saratoga and becoming known as the "Swordsmen" in keeping with the Crusader theme. The Pacific Fleet received the first Crusaders at NAS Moffett Field in Northern California when the VF-154 "Grandslammers" (named in honor of the new 1,000 mph jets & subsequently renamed the "Black Knights") began their F-8 operations. Later in 1957, in San DiegoVMF-122 accepted the first Marine Corps Crusaders.

In 1962, the United States Defense Department standardized military aircraft designations generally along Air Force lines. Consequently, the F8U became the F-8, with the original F8U-1 redesignated F-8A.

The Crusader became the ultimate carrier borne "day fighter". At the time, U.S. Navy carrier air wings had gone through a series of day and night fighter aircraft due to rapid advances in engine and avionics. Some squadrons operated aircraft for very short periods before being equipped with a newer higher performance aircraft. The Crusader was the first post-Korean War aircraft to have a relatively long tenure with the fleet and - like the contemporary USAF F-105 Thunderchief - might have stayed in service longer if not for the Vietnam war and resulting attrition from combat and operational losses.

The unarmed photo Crusader was operated aboard carriers as a detachment from either VFP-62 or VFP-63 to provide photo reconnaissance capability. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, RF-8s flew extremely hazardous low-level photo reconnaissance missions over Cuba.

The Crusader was not an easy aircraft to fly, and often unforgiving in carrier landings where it suffered from yaw instability and the castoring nose wheel. It earned a reputation as an 'ensign killer' during its early service introduction, although the aircraft did possess some amazing capabilities, as proven when several hapless Crusader pilots took off from Da Nang with the wings folded. The Crusader was capable of flying in this state, though the pilot would be required to lose weight by ejecting stores and fuel, and then return to the carrier.

When conflict erupted in the skies over North Vietnam, it was U.S. Navy Crusaders that first tangled with Vietnam People's Air Force MiGs in April 1965. Although the VPAF claimed the downing of a Crusader, all aircraft returned safely. At the time, the Crusader was the best dogfighter the United States had against the nimble North Vietnamese MiGs.

In the same way that the Royal Air Force moved on from Armstrong Whitworth built Meteor Night Fighters to the Gloster Javelin, the US Navy had evolved its "night fighter" role in the air wing to an all-weather interceptor, the F4 Phantom II. Equipped to engage incoming bombers at long range with missiles as their sole air-to-air weapons, manoeuvrability was not emphasized in the McDonnell Douglas design.

Some experts believed that the era of the dogfight was over as air-to-air missiles would knock down adversaries well before they could get close enough to engage in dog fighting. As aerial combat ensued over North Vietnam from 1965 to 1968, it became apparent that the dogfight was not over and the F-8 Crusader and a community trained to prevail in air-to-air combat was a key ingredient to success. In the longer term, the US Navy introduced its "Top Gun" programme of fighter pilot training made famous by the Tom Cruise film of the same name.

Despite the "last gunfighter" moniker, the F-8s achieved only four victories with their cannon — the remainder were accomplished with AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles - partly due to the propensity of the 20 mm (.79 in) Colt Mk 12 cannon's feeding mechanism to jam under G-loading during high-speed dog fighting manoeuvres. Nonetheless, the Crusader would be credited with the best kill ratio of any American type in the Vietnam conflict - 19:3. Of the 19 aircraft shot down during aerial combat, 16 were swept wing Mig-17s and three were delta winged MiG 21s. Approximately 170 F8 Crusaders would be lost to all causes during the war with both ship-based US Navy units and land-based USMC squadrons also bombing communist forces in both North and South Vietnam.

Interestingly, just as American involvement in Vietnam had followed the withdrawal of France as its colonial master, so the F8 Crusader found an export customer in the French Navy. And following the cancellation of the Hawker P1154 Short Takeoff / Vertical Landing fighter for the Royal Navy in 1963 a Chance-Vought Crusader was flown to Britain for inspection by RAF and Royal Navy top brass as a possible De Havilland Sea Vixen and even English Electric Lightning replacement.

Had a two seat development of this high-winged supersonic fighter been selected, it would have been built for British - and possible export use - by Short Brothers & Harland Ltd in Belfast equipped with a reheated Rolls Royce RB 168 Spey engine and British electronics, air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons. Mr H.G. Conway, Joint Managing Director of Shorts, estimated that an order of 50 units could result in each aircraft being built for £ 357 000 - half the cost of the rival McDonnell Douglas Phantom II - and be ready in just two years.

As it was however, the Phantom - albeit also powered by Rolls Royce Spey engines - prevailed in RAF and RN service and the Crusader jobs at Shorts never materialised.
On the basis that - as William Cobbett once said - "one cannot agitate a man with a full stomach" perhaps the Troubles in Ulster would have taken a different form if there had been more jobs and wealth creation available there in the late 1960s?

The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II was a two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor fighter / fighter-bomber originally developed for the U.S. Navy and later serving with the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and, as can be seen in the image below, the air force of Spain.

First entering service in 1960, the Phantom continued to form a major part of U.S. military air power throughout the 1970s and 1980s, being gradually replaced by more modern aircraft such as the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon in the U.S. Air Force; the F-14 Tomcat and F/A-18 Hornet in the U.S. Navy and the F/A-18 in the U.S. Marine Corps. It remained in use by the USAF in the reconnaissance and Wild Weasel ( radar suppression ) roles in the 1991 Gulf War finally leaving the inventory in 1996 apart from use as an unmanned target.

Phantom production ran from 1958 to 1981, with a total of 5,195 built.This extensive run makes it the second most-produced Western jet fighter, behind the North American F-86 Sabre at just under 10,000 examples.

A superlative aircraft, the Phantom could climb vertically at supersonic speeds and specially equipped examples photographed the initial launch stages of American space shots – the only plane flying that could do so. Fully laden, the Phantom weighed twice as much as a DC-3 Dakota and iIts external payloads of bombs, rockets, missiles, napalm and cannon pods could weigh up to eight tons, which was 3 tons more than a WW2 Flying Fortress could carry. The fuel alone weighed more than the all-up weight of a Hawker Hunter.

The model nearest the camera above is McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II (Build Number 153088) of U.S. Navy Air Test and Evaluation Squadron VX-4 based at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California during 1976. Unusually, this F-4J is fitted with an infra-red seeker under the radar cone normally only used on the F-4B/N.

Following the cancellation of the British Aircraft Corporation's TSR2, the United Kingdom bought versions based on the USN F-4J for use with the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. The main differences were the use of the British built Rolls Royce Spey engines and of British-made avionics. The RN and RAF versions were given the designation F-4K and F-4M respectively, and entered service as the Phantom FG.1 (fighter / ground attack) and Phantom FGR.2 (fighter / ground attack/ reconnaissance).

Although the Spey was a more powerful engine than the Phantom's existing General Electric turbines it was also bigger. As a result the "British Phantoms" were bigger than their all-American ancestors and the resulting less aerodynamic shape took back almost all the advantage of the extra pounds of thrust.

Another distinctive feature of the Royal Navy Phantoms was the long nosewheel leg. This was to provide a sharper angle of attack when being catapulted off HMS Ark Royal - an aircraft carrier much smaller than the latest American nuclear-powered flat-tops. The long legs were shortened when "Ark" was decommissioned in the 1970s and the Navy's Phantoms transferred to the RAF.

After the1982 Falklands conflict, 15 upgraded ex-USN F-4Js, known as the F-4J(UK) entered RAF service to compensate for one interceptor squadron redeployed to the South Atlantic islands.

Around 15 RAF squadrons received various marks of Phantom, many of them based in Germany. The first to be equipped was 6 Squadron at RAF Leuchars in July 1969 while Leuchars based 43 Squadron continued to fly Phantom FG1s for a remarkable twenty years, arriving in September 1969 and departing in July 1989.

The interceptor Phantoms were replaced by the Panavia Tornado F3 from the late 1980s onwards, and the last British Phantoms were retired in October 1992 when 74 Squadron disbanded.

The Spanish Air Force acquired its first batch of ex-USAF F-4C Phantoms in 1971 under the "Peace Alfa" program. Designated C.12, the aircraft were retired in 1989. Shortly afterwards, the Spanish Air Force received a number of ex-USAF RF-4Cs, designated CR.12 and identifiable by the longer nose with square camera ports. In 1995–1996, these aircraft received extensive avionics upgrades and 12-64 - in more muted two tone grey camouflage - visited the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford, Gloucestershire in July 1996.

Spain retired its RF-4s - as operated by Torrejon based 123 Squadron - in 2002, an event celebrated in the markings of 12-64 seen below. Particularly of note is the lack of the usual Spanish AF tail markings of a black cross on a white background.

In contrast the Mil Mi-2 is a single pilot, light transport twin turbine type helicopter with a three bladed main rotor (48 ft diameter) and two bladed tail rotor system, making it at first glance similar to the Bristol Type 171 Sycamore.

Intended to replace the earlier Mi-1 and known by NATO as the Hoplite, the Mi-2 can be used for transport of up to eight passengers or an equivalent amount of internal or external freight, for training ( with the option of twin cockpit controls ), reconnaissance and rescue tasks as well as providing close air support with 57mm rockets or laying a smoke screen in front of armoured fighting vehicles.

The first prototype Mi-2 flew in September 1961 but from 1964, further development, production and sales of this type was passed over to the Polish PZL Swidnik aircraft factory. Several thousand of these aircraft were built from 1966 to 1985. The flight control system is a positive, mechanical linkage with hydraulic boost to a conventional set of helicopter controls and the Mi-2 is powered by two 400 shp GTD-350 engines.

By 2005 more than 1,500 Mi-2 helicopters were in operation in different parts of the world and nearly all of them had reached the end of their service life and were in need of an overhaul. However, the cost of refurbishing a Mi-2 being several dozen times lower than the price of a new foreign-made light helicopter of a similar category, the Mil OKB and the Swidnik plant took the decision to start work with a view to restoring, improving and upgrading the existing fleet of Mi-2 helicopters. The first stage of this work envisaged increasing reliability and improving the performance, as well as ensuring good quality repairs. The next step includes a programme of increasing the helicopters’ service life and fitting them with more lightweight and up-to-date equipment, some of them using composite materials.

Initially specified prior to the outbreak of the Second World War the British Army General Staff designation A20 was to be the replacement for the Matilda II and Valentine infantry tanks. In accordance with British Infantry Tank doctrine and based on the expected needs of World War I style trench warfare, the tank was required to be capable of navigating shell-.cratered ground, demolishing infantry obstacles (such as barbed wire) and attacking fixed enemy defences. For these purposes, great speed and heavy armament was not required

The task of design and construction of the A20 was given to Belfast based shipbuilders Harland and Wolff who completed four prototypes by June 1940. The vehicle was armed with two 2-pounder guns each located in a side sponson and plans existed for an additional third gun in a central turret. Indeed one of the Harland and Wolff prototypes was built with a Matilda turret and the Ulster firm was also responsible for the side escape hatches which featured on all marks of Churchill.

Even by this point the sponson idea had fallen out in favour of turret and hull mounted guns. The A20 designs were short-lived however, as at roughly the same time the emergency evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk occurred. With France conquered, the scenario of trench warfare in Northern Europe was no longer applicable and the design was revised by Dr. H.E. Merritt, director of Tank Design at Woolwich Arsenal, based on the combat witnessed in Poland and France. These new specifications, for the A22 or Infantry Tank Mark IV, were given to Vauxhall in June 1940.

With German invasion looking imminent and the United Kingdom having lost most of its military vehicles in the evacuation from France, the War Office specified that the A22 must begin production within the year. By July 1940 the design was complete and by December of that year the first prototypes were completed; it was in June 1941, almost exactly a year as specified, that the first Churchill tanks began rolling off the production line.

The hull of the Churchill tank was made up of simple flat plates initially bolted but later welded together. It was split into four compartments: the drivers position at the front, then the fighting compartment including the turret, the engine compartment and then finally the gearbox compartment.

The suspension was fitted under the two large "panniers" on either side of the hull - the track running over the top. There were eleven bogies either side, each carrying two 10-inch wheels. Only nine of the bogies normally took the vehicle weight, the front coming into play when the vehicle nosed into the ground or against an obstacle, the rear acting in part as a track tensioner. Due to the number of wheels, the tank could survive losing several without much in the way of adverse affects as well as traversing steeper terrain obstacles. As the tracks ran around the panniers, escape hatches in the side could be incorporated into the design. These were retained throughout the revisions of the Churchill and were of particularly use when the Churchill was adopted as an armoured recovery vehicle.

The Vauxhall designed twin engines were connected through a common crankshaft feeding a regenerative transmission steered by a tiller bar rather than levers or steering wheel. The Churchill was also the first tank to utilize the Merritt-Brown gear-box, which allowed the tank to be steered by changing the relative speeds of the two tracks; this effect was more pronounced as the gears were lowered, allowing the tank to fully turn on its own axis while in neutral.

Each tank was delivered with a document from the manufacturer which stated that it had great confidence in the fundamental design of the tank but that the model had been put into production without time for proper honing and that improvements would be made in time:

"All those things which we know are not as they should be will be put right....Fighting vehicles are urgently required, and instructions have been received to proceed with the vehicle as it is rather than hold up production"

This hasty development had not come without cost though, as there had been little in the way of testing and the Churchill was plagued with mechanical faults. Most apparent was the Churchill's underpowered and unreliable engine, a situation made far worse by the engine's lack of accessibility.

Another serious shortcoming of the tank was the 2 pounder 40 millimetre gun in its cast, round turret fitted with a Vickers Tank Periscope MK IV. This relatively weak gun was augmented by the addition of a 3 inch howitzer in the hull ( or the turret in the case of the Mk IICS ) to deliver a high explosive shell - albeit not on howitzer type trajectories.. This enabled the tank to deliver a useful HE round while retaining the antitank capabilities of the 2-pounder. However, like other multi-gun tanks, such as the French Char B, it was limited by a poor fire arc. The entire tank had to be turned to aim of the hull gun. The Mk II dispensed with the howitzer and replaced it with a bow machine gun.

These flaws contributed to the tank's poor performance in its first combat outing, the disastrous Dieppe Raid in August, 1942. In fact the poor performance of the Churchill nearly caused production to be ceased in favour of the upcoming Cromwell tank.

The Churchill was saved though by the emergence of the much improved Mk III which appeared in March 1942 and first saw operational use during the Second Battle of El Alamein in October of that year.

In this 'second chance' a select group of five Mk III's, known collectively as 'King Force' went into battle. All were heavily shelled by German anti-tank guns but all bar one Mk III returned with little damage. One tank was said to have been struck up to 80 times.

The Mk III was easily distinguished by a new turret design carrying a 57mm calibre 6 pounder gun and in one encounter the updated Churchill tank even eliminated a heavy German Tiger I tank when the shell becoming lodged in between the Tiger's turret and turret ring. The crew abandoned the Tiger, which was subsequently captured and is on display at Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset. In the following Tunisia and Italian campaigns, the Mk III and its immediate successors continued to prove their usefulness.

The Churchill Mk III underwent field modification in North Africa with several tanks being fitted with the 75 mm gun salvaged from destroyed M4 Shermans. These "NA75" variants were used in Italy and although the 75 mm gun was inferior as an anti-tank weapon to the 6-pounder it proved better as an all-around gun and was soon made standard on successive versions.

The second major improvement in the Churchill's design, the Mk VII ( pictured in colour above and below ) first saw operational use in the Battle of Normandy in 1944. The Mk VII improved on the already heavy armour of the Churchill with a wider chassis and the 75 mm gun ( installed in a custom made fabricated turret ) that had been introduced on the Mk VI. The new size, armour and firepower of the Churchill Mk VII combined with its existing long wheelbase and multiple bogie suspension was instrumental to its success in helping VIII Corps capturing Hill 309 in Normandy as part of Operation Bluecoat between 30 and 31 July 1944.

It was primarily the Mark VII Churchill, also known as the A22F, which served through the remainder of war and was redesignated as A42 in 1945.

The armour on the Churchill, often considered its most important trait, was originally specified to a minimum of 16 mm and a maximum of 102 mm; this was increased with the Mk VII to a range from 25 mm to 152 mm. Though this armour was considerably thicker than its rivals -including the German Tiger tank, but not the Tiger II - it was not sloped, reducing its effectiveness. Earlier models were given extra armour by the expedient of welding extra plates on.

Because the engines on the Churchill were never upgraded, the tank became increasingly slower as additional armour and armament was equipped and weight increased; while the Mks I to VI weighed 36 tons, the Mk VII weighed 40 tons. This caused a reduction in maximum speed of the tank from its original 26 km/h down to 20.5 km/h. The engines also suffered from many mechanical problems.

The Churchill's relatively small turret also prevented the use of weapons much larger than the 75 mm gun. Although the Churchill's thick armour could withstand several hits from any German AT gun, even some from the famous 88, the guns often lacked punch to fight back effectively. While earlier Churchills could outgun many German medium tanks, like the Panzer IV's short-barrel version and the Panzer III's 50 mm gun with its 6 pounder, the later Churchill variants were armed with a general purpose 75 mm gun while Germans had 75 mm high-velocity cannons as their main armament.

The Churchill was also quite notable for its versatility and was utilized in numerous specialist roles. Additionally, in tests conducted in the Madang by the Australian Army in mid-1944, at the request of the British War Office, the Churchill was tested against the M4 Sherman and found it to be, overall, a superior tank for jungle warfare.

The Soviet Union received a total of 301 of Churchill Mk. III and Mk. IV types as part of the Lend-Lease program and the tank remained in the service of the British Army until 1952 with one bridgelayer variant remaining in service well into the 1970s.

The Irish Army took delivery of four Churchill Mk VI tanks in 1948. They were rented from the British War Office as trials vehicles until 1954, when they were purchased outright. This purchase was despite the fact that the supply and transport corps workshops, who maintained them, had reported that spares had all but run out. Experiments were carried out involving replacing the existing Bedford engine with a Rolls Royce Merlin engine salvaged from an Air Corps Seafire. The experiment was not a success, although the reasons are not recorded. By 1967 only one Churchill remained serviceable, and by 1969 all were retired. One remains preserved in the Curragh Camp. The Churchill was an unusual choice for the Irish Army, as the most of the country at that time consisted of narrow roads and small fields with hedges and ditches restricting movements by armoured vehicles. In general, the Irish Army has always relied upon lighter, more manoeuvrable armoured vehicles, such as the Panhard AML and FV101 Scorpion of modern times.

The Ju 287 was intended to provide the Luftwaffe with a bomber that could avoid interception by outrunning enemy fighters. The swept-forward wing was suggested by the project's head designer, Dr Hans Wocke, as a way of providing extra lift at low airspeeds - necessary because of the poor responsiveness of early turbojets at the vulnerable times of take-off and landing.

The first prototype was intended to evaluate the concept, and was cobbled together from the fuselage of a Heinkel He 177, the tail of a Junkers Ju 388, main undercarriage from a Junkers Ju 352, and nosewheels taken from crashed B-24 Liberators. Two of the Jumo 004 engines were hung under the wings, with the other two mounted in nacelles added to the sides of the forward fuselage. Flight tests began on 8 August 1944, with the aircraft displaying extremely good handling characteristics, as well as revealing some of the problems of the forward-swept wing under some flight conditions.

Tests also suggested that the aircraft would benefit from concentrating more engine mass under the wings, a feature that was to be incorporated on the subsequent prototypes. These were to have been powered by Heinkel HeS 011 engines, but because of the development problems experienced with that motor, the BMW 003 was selected in its place. The second and third prototypes were to have six of these engines, the former with a cluster of three under each wing, the latter with two under each wing and one on each side of the fuselage, as the first prototype had. These machines were to have all-new, purpose designed fuselages, and the third prototype was also to carry armament and serve as the development aircraft for a production version.

Before the second prototype was complete, though, the Junkers factory was over-run. Wocke and his staff, along with the two prototype aircraft, were taken to the Soviet Union. There, the second prototype (returned to its original Junkers in-house designation, EF-131) was eventually finished and flown on 23 May 1947, but by that time, jet development had already overtaken the Ju 287. A final much-enlarged derivative, the EF 140 was tested in prototype form in 1949 but soon abandoned.

Home	EXHIBITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL PLASTIC MODELLING SOCIETY GLOUCESTER BRANCH CHURCHDOWN COMMUNITY CENTRE SUNDAY 10 MAY 2009




	INTRODUCTION

	Occasional diversions to Stratford Park Leisure Centre in Stroud notwithstanding, the annual exhibition of the Gloucester Branch of the International Plastic Modelling Society has long been a spring Sunday fixture at Churchdown Community Centre, Parton Road, GL3 2JH. As at the twice yearly exhibitions of the Cheltenham GWR Modeller's Group, a small entry fee yields access to purveyors of refreshments, model kits, accessories, paints, tools, books, artwork and other media. However, in place of layouts defined in a programme the attendance of IPMS Gloucester Branch members - and those of other plastic modelling societies from as far afield as Oxfordshire and the West Midlands - guarantees a smorgasbord of aircraft, ships, road vehicles and other exhibits in a variety of scales. Some of these truly stand alone while others are grouped in themes - like the 1/72 scale Grumman F-14 Tomcats and McDonnell Douglas F4 Phantom IIs seen alongside other US Navy aircraft on the table pictured above. Although there were too many exhibits for each one to be individually described, this feature focuses on some of the more remarkable items that caught both my attention and my camera lens on Sunday 10 May 2009.

	THE FLEET'S IN!



	Looking down from the Community Centre stage across the main hall tables, the United States Navy seemed to be a recurring theme, as exemplified by the Vought Cutlass ( above ) and Vought F8 Crusader and Bicentennial marked McDonnell Douglas F4 Phantom II pictured together below.

	VOUGHT F7U CUTLASS

	The Cutlass was Vought's winning entry in a U.S. Navy competition opened on 1 June 1945 for a carrier-capable day fighter able to fly at 600 mph at 40,000 feet. The design featured broad chord , low aspect ratio swept wings, with twin wing-mounted tail fins either side of a short fuselage. The cockpit was situated well forward to provide good visibility for the pilot during aircraft carrier approaches. The design was given the Vought company type number of V-346 and the US Navy designation F7U. Pitch and roll control was provided by elevons, or "ailevators" as Vought called these surfaces at the time, and slats were fitted to the entire span of the leading edge. All controls were hydraulically-powered although the very long nose wheel strut required for high angle of attack takeoffs was rather weak, and collapse could seriously jeopardize the pilot's safety. The F7U was also largely let down by its afterburning - yet underpowered - Westinghouse turbojets, an engine which some pilots wryly observed put out less heat than the same company's toasters . Naval aviators referred to the F7U as the "gutless cutlass" or, in kinder moments, as the "praying mantis" Three prototypes were ordered in 1946, with the first example flying on 29 September 1948, piloted by Vought's Chief Test Pilot, J. Robert Baker at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station. Baker died while flying the same aircraft a few weeks later when he lost control and crashed although during testing one of the prototypes reached a maximum speed of 625 mph. Production orders were placed for the F7U-1 in a specification very close to the prototypes, and further developed F7U-2 and F7U-3 versions with more powerful engines. Because of development problems with the powerplant, however, the F7U-2 would never be built, while the F7U-3 would incorporate many refinements suggested by tests of the F7U-1. The first 16 F7U-3s had non-afterburning Allison J35-29 engines which could flame out due to rain. The -3 with its Westinghouse J46-WE-8B turbojets would eventually become the definitive production version, with 288 aircraft equipping 13 U.S. Navy squadrons. The US Navy's Blue Angels aerobatics team flew two F7U-1 Cutlasses as a side act during their 1953 show season in an effort to promote the new aircraft, but did not use them as part of their regular formation act. Both the pilots and ground crews found the aircraft generally unsatisfactory and it was apparent that the type was still experiencing teething troubles. During the Blue Angel's first appearance in 1953 pilot Edward "Whitey" Feightner, the former program manager for the F7U, experienced a total loss of hydraulics on a full afterburner takeoff and steep climb. While trying to gain enough altitude for ejection he was able to stay with the aircraft until the back up system came on. He clipped trees on the end of the runway, causing the left engine to flame out. With hydraulic fluid streaming back in a bright flame, he made a hard turn and got the plane back on the runway, much to the excitement of the crowd. Later, while travelling to the airshow at Glenview Airport in Chicago, Blue Angel's pilot Lt Harley MacKnight, experienced an engine flameout in his Cutlass, forcing him to make an emergency landing. Traveling with him, "Whitey" Feightner was redirected to make his landing at Chicago's former Orchard Airpark, which had been expanded and renamed O'Hare Airport. The runway had just been completed and was covered with peach baskets to prevent aircraft from landing until it was opened. Lt. Feightner was told to ignore the baskets and land on the new runway. As a result, LT Feightner's F7U became the first aircraft to land on the new runway for Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Following these incidents the two F7U were deemed unsuitable for demonstration flying and were flown to Naval Air Station Memphis, where they were abandoned to become aircraft maintenance instructional airframes for the Naval Technical Training Center. Further Cutlass development stopped once Vought's replacement - the F8U Crusader - flew on 25 March 1955. An example of the Crusader was seen below - with a rainbow tail and numbered "4OU" on the nose - behind the Bicentennial marked McDonnell Douglas F4 Phantom II at the IPMS exhibition. Immediately below however is a picture of die cast Vought F8 Crusader 150 336 from the Jet Age Reserve Model Collection included here to show the variable incidence wing at full upward pivot. Note, too, the under wing bomb load typical of many carrier launched raids against Viet Cong and Viet Minh forces .

	VOUGHT F-8 CRUSADER



	The first F-8U was the last American fighter with guns as the primary weapon while the RF-8 photo-reconnaissance variant operated longer in U.S. service than any of the fighter versions. RF-8s played a crucial role in the Cuban Missile Crisis, providing essential low-level photographs impossible to acquire by other means and US Naval Reserve units continued to operate the RF-8 until 1987. The Vought F8U Crusader was designed by a team led by John Russell Clark in response to a US Navy Requirement issued in September 1952 for a fighter aircraft with a top speed of Mach 1.2 at 30,000 ft with a climb rate of 25,000 ft / min , and a landing speed of no more than 100 mph. Korean War experience had demonstrated that .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns were no longer sufficient and as the result the new fighter was to carry a 20 mm (0.79 in) cannon. Unusually for a fighter, the Vought contender design had not only a high-mounted wing - which allowed for short and light landing gear - but also a variable-incidence wing which pivoted by 7° out of the fuselage on takeoff and landing. This afforded increased lift due to a greater angle of attack without compromising forward visibility because the fuselage stayed level.Simultaneously, the lift was augmented by leading-edge slats drooping by 25° and inboard flaps extending to 30°. The rest of the aircraft took advantage of contemporary aerodynamic innovations with area ruled fuselage, all-moving stabilators, dog-tooth notching at the wing folds for improved yaw stability, and liberal use of titanium in the airframe. Power came from the Pratt & Whitney J57 afterburning turbojet and the armament, as specified by the Navy, consisted of four 20 mm (.79 in) cannon, a retractable tray with 32 unguided Mighty Mouse folded-fin rockets, and cheek pylons for two AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. Major competition came from Grumman with the F-11 Tiger, McDonnell with upgraded twin-engine F3H Demon (which would eventually become the F-4 Phantom II), and North American with their F-100 Super Sabre adopted for carrier use and dubbed the Super Fury. However in May 1953, John Russell Clark's design was declared a winner and in June, Vought received an order for three XF8U-1 prototypes (after adoption of the unified designation system in September 1962, the F8U became the F-8). The first prototype flew on 25 March 1955 with John Konrad at the controls. The aircraft exceeded the speed of sound during its maiden flight and the development was so trouble-free that the second prototype, along with the first production F8U-1, flew on the same day, 30 September 1955. On 4 April 1956, the F8U-1 performed its first catapult launch from USS Forrestal. Prototype XF8U-1s were evaluated by VX-3 beginning in late 1956, with few problems noted. Weapons development was conducted at NAF China Lake and a China Lake F8U-1 set a U.S. National speed record in August 1956 when Commander "Duke" Windsor set, broke, and reset a new Level Flight Speed Record of 1,015.428 mph on 21 August 1956 beating the previous record of 822 mph (1,323 km/h) set by a USAF F-100 . However, the W orld Air Speed Record of 1,132 mph (1,822 km/h), set by the British Fairey Delta 2 on 10 March 1956 was not broken. The first fleet squadron to fly the Crusader was VF-32 at Naval Air Station Cecil Field Florida, in 1957, deploying to the Mediterranean late that year aboard the USS Saratoga and becoming known as the "Swordsmen" in keeping with the Crusader theme. The Pacific Fleet received the first Crusaders at NAS Moffett Field in Northern California when the VF-154 "Grandslammers" (named in honor of the new 1,000 mph jets & subsequently renamed the "Black Knights") began their F-8 operations. Later in 1957, in San DiegoVMF-122 accepted the first Marine Corps Crusaders. In 1962, the United States Defense Department standardized military aircraft designations generally along Air Force lines. Consequently, the F8U became the F-8, with the original F8U-1 redesignated F-8A. The Crusader became the ultimate carrier borne "day fighter". At the time, U.S. Navy carrier air wings had gone through a series of day and night fighter aircraft due to rapid advances in engine and avionics. Some squadrons operated aircraft for very short periods before being equipped with a newer higher performance aircraft. The Crusader was the first post-Korean War aircraft to have a relatively long tenure with the fleet and - like the contemporary USAF F-105 Thunderchief - might have stayed in service longer if not for the Vietnam war and resulting attrition from combat and operational losses. The unarmed photo Crusader was operated aboard carriers as a detachment from either VFP-62 or VFP-63 to provide photo reconnaissance capability. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, RF-8s flew extremely hazardous low-level photo reconnaissance missions over Cuba. The Crusader was not an easy aircraft to fly, and often unforgiving in carrier landings where it suffered from yaw instability and the castoring nose wheel. It earned a reputation as an 'ensign killer' during its early service introduction, although the aircraft did possess some amazing capabilities, as proven when several hapless Crusader pilots took off from Da Nang with the wings folded. The Crusader was capable of flying in this state, though the pilot would be required to lose weight by ejecting stores and fuel, and then return to the carrier. When conflict erupted in the skies over North Vietnam, it was U.S. Navy Crusaders that first tangled with Vietnam People's Air Force MiGs in April 1965. Although the VPAF claimed the downing of a Crusader, all aircraft returned safely. At the time, the Crusader was the best dogfighter the United States had against the nimble North Vietnamese MiGs. In the same way that the Royal Air Force moved on from Armstrong Whitworth built Meteor Night Fighters to the Gloster Javelin, the US Navy had evolved its "night fighter" role in the air wing to an all-weather interceptor, the F4 Phantom II. Equipped to engage incoming bombers at long range with missiles as their sole air-to-air weapons, manoeuvrability was not emphasized in the McDonnell Douglas design. Some experts believed that the era of the dogfight was over as air-to-air missiles would knock down adversaries well before they could get close enough to engage in dog fighting. As aerial combat ensued over North Vietnam from 1965 to 1968, it became apparent that the dogfight was not over and the F-8 Crusader and a community trained to prevail in air-to-air combat was a key ingredient to success. In the longer term, the US Navy introduced its "Top Gun" programme of fighter pilot training made famous by the Tom Cruise film of the same name. Despite the "last gunfighter" moniker, the F-8s achieved only four victories with their cannon — the remainder were accomplished with AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles - partly due to the propensity of the 20 mm (.79 in) Colt Mk 12 cannon's feeding mechanism to jam under G-loading during high-speed dog fighting manoeuvres. Nonetheless, the Crusader would be credited with the best kill ratio of any American type in the Vietnam conflict - 19:3. Of the 19 aircraft shot down during aerial combat, 16 were swept wing Mig-17s and three were delta winged MiG 21s. Approximately 170 F8 Crusaders would be lost to all causes during the war with both ship-based US Navy units and land-based USMC squadrons also bombing communist forces in both North and South Vietnam. Interestingly, just as American involvement in Vietnam had followed the withdrawal of France as its colonial master, so the F8 Crusader found an export customer in the French Navy. And following the cancellation of the Hawker P1154 Short Takeoff / Vertical Landing fighter for the Royal Navy in 1963 a Chance-Vought Crusader was flown to Britain for inspection by RAF and Royal Navy top brass as a possible De Havilland Sea Vixen and even English Electric Lightning replacement. Had a two seat development of this high-winged supersonic fighter been selected, it would have been built for British - and possible export use - by Short Brothers & Harland Ltd in Belfast equipped with a reheated Rolls Royce RB 168 Spey engine and British electronics, air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons. Mr H.G. Conway, Joint Managing Director of Shorts, estimated that an order of 50 units could result in each aircraft being built for £ 357 000 - half the cost of the rival McDonnell Douglas Phantom II - and be ready in just two years. As it was however, the Phantom - albeit also powered by Rolls Royce Spey engines - prevailed in RAF and RN service and the Crusader jobs at Shorts never materialised. On the basis that - as William Cobbett once said - "one cannot agitate a man with a full stomach" perhaps the Troubles in Ulster would have taken a different form if there had been more jobs and wealth creation available there in the late 1960s?



	MCDONNELL DOUGLAS PHANTOM II

	The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II was a two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor fighter / fighter-bomber originally developed for the U.S. Navy and later serving with the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and, as can be seen in the image below, the air force of Spain. First entering service in 1960, the Phantom continued to form a major part of U.S. military air power throughout the 1970s and 1980s, being gradually replaced by more modern aircraft such as the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon in the U.S. Air Force; the F-14 Tomcat and F/A-18 Hornet in the U.S. Navy and the F/A-18 in the U.S. Marine Corps. It remained in use by the USAF in the reconnaissance and Wild Weasel ( radar suppression ) roles in the 1991 Gulf War finally leaving the inventory in 1996 apart from use as an unmanned target. Phantom production ran from 1958 to 1981, with a total of 5,195 built.This extensive run makes it the second most-produced Western jet fighter, behind the North American F-86 Sabre at just under 10,000 examples. A superlative aircraft, the Phantom could climb vertically at supersonic speeds and specially equipped examples photographed the initial launch stages of American space shots – the only plane flying that could do so. Fully laden, the Phantom weighed twice as much as a DC-3 Dakota and iIts external payloads of bombs, rockets, missiles, napalm and cannon pods could weigh up to eight tons, which was 3 tons more than a WW2 Flying Fortress could carry. The fuel alone weighed more than the all-up weight of a Hawker Hunter. The model nearest the camera above is McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II (Build Number 153088) of U.S. Navy Air Test and Evaluation Squadron VX-4 based at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California during 1976. Unusually, this F-4J is fitted with an infra-red seeker under the radar cone normally only used on the F-4B/N. Following the cancellation of the British Aircraft Corporation's TSR2, the United Kingdom bought versions based on the USN F-4J for use with the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. The main differences were the use of the British built Rolls Royce Spey engines and of British-made avionics. The RN and RAF versions were given the designation F-4K and F-4M respectively, and entered service as the Phantom FG.1 (fighter / ground attack) and Phantom FGR.2 (fighter / ground attack/ reconnaissance). Although the Spey was a more powerful engine than the Phantom's existing General Electric turbines it was also bigger. As a result the "British Phantoms" were bigger than their all-American ancestors and the resulting less aerodynamic shape took back almost all the advantage of the extra pounds of thrust. Another distinctive feature of the Royal Navy Phantoms was the long nosewheel leg. This was to provide a sharper angle of attack when being catapulted off HMS Ark Royal - an aircraft carrier much smaller than the latest American nuclear-powered flat-tops. The long legs were shortened when "Ark" was decommissioned in the 1970s and the Navy's Phantoms transferred to the RAF. After the1982 Falklands conflict, 15 upgraded ex-USN F-4Js, known as the F-4J(UK) entered RAF service to compensate for one interceptor squadron redeployed to the South Atlantic islands. Around 15 RAF squadrons received various marks of Phantom, many of them based in Germany. The first to be equipped was 6 Squadron at RAF Leuchars in July 1969 while Leuchars based 43 Squadron continued to fly Phantom FG1s for a remarkable twenty years, arriving in September 1969 and departing in July 1989. The interceptor Phantoms were replaced by the Panavia Tornado F3 from the late 1980s onwards, and the last British Phantoms were retired in October 1992 when 74 Squadron disbanded. The Spanish Air Force acquired its first batch of ex-USAF F-4C Phantoms in 1971 under the "Peace Alfa" program. Designated C.12, the aircraft were retired in 1989. Shortly afterwards, the Spanish Air Force received a number of ex-USAF RF-4Cs, designated CR.12 and identifiable by the longer nose with square camera ports. In 1995–1996, these aircraft received extensive avionics upgrades and 12-64 - in more muted two tone grey camouflage - visited the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford, Gloucestershire in July 1996. Spain retired its RF-4s - as operated by Torrejon based 123 Squadron - in 2002, an event celebrated in the markings of 12-64 seen below. Particularly of note is the lack of the usual Spanish AF tail markings of a black cross on a white background.





	Just when I thought I'd never see a Phantom fly again what should approach Fairford on 16 July 2009 but the Greek RF-4E in the YouTube clip above. I was on Cheltenham Station at the time waiting for the arrival of 70013 "Oliver Cromwell" and nobody else could believe they were seeing the distinctive planform - and smoky trail - either!

	THE STARFIGHTER PUT OUT TO GRASS





	The caption on this Luftwaffe marked Lockheed F104G Starfighter - built from the 1/72 Academy kit by Deanflyer read "This was built as an attempt to portray a badly neglected museum exhibit.. note the faded markings, flat tyres, padlocked canopy, gaffer tape repairs and guano on the fin. The base was made from a picture frame using railway scenic materials and fencing." All a harder task than building a nice, clean model - as per kit instructions - to represent the Starfighter in service!



	The F-104G (Lockheed Model 683-10-19) was the European-built version of the Starfighter, designed for the air forces of the USA's NATO allies. Externally, the F-104G looked quite similar to the earlier F-104C day fighter( depicted above in this Corgi die cast model from the Jet Age Reserve Model Collection), but differed in being a multi-role, all-weather aircraft rather than a daylight strike fighter. The F-104G featured an Autonetics F15A-41B NASARR (North American Search and Ranging Radar) fire control system optimized in two basic air-to-ground and air-to-air modes. In the air-to-air mode, it provided radar search, acquisition, and automatic tracking of aerial targets to make it possible to to carry out head-on attacks with automatic missile release. The NASAAR acted in conjunction with the director-type gunsight for the M-61 Vulcan cannon giving the pilot an optical line-of-sight indication after the NASARR had computed the required lead angle. The weapons sight incorporated a basic infrared facility with common optics developed by Lockheed, which gave the aircraft some nocturnal capability. For air-to-ground modes, the NASAAR provided the pilot with range information for visual bombing computation, ground mapping for all-weather bombing and navigation, contour mapping for navigation, and terrain avoidance for low-level combat missions. The caged sight could also be used as an aiming reference for visual dive-bombing. The F-104G was also equipped with a Litton LN-3 inertial navigator which provided the pilot with continuous optical indication of direction and distance to a preselected target. The F-104G was one or the first combat aircraft to make use of such a system. However, the LN-3 was to encounter major development problems in meeting its specified design goals. The fuselage, wing, and empennage were strengthened to enable the aircraft to carry an increased offensive weapons load and to handle the stresses of low-altitude combat missions flown at high speeds. A total of 36 new forgings were needed to reinforce the fuselage mainframes, wing fittings and beams, fuselage longerons, joints, and tail frames, empennage beams and ribs, plus some fuselage skins. Some reinforcement was made to the trailing-edge flap fittings to allow partial deflections of up to 15 degrees during combat manoeuvres, allowing reductions of up to 33 percent in turning radius at altitudes of 5 000 feet. Like the F-104C, seven hardpoints were fitted to the F-104G--one on the fuselage centreline, two under the wings, and two at the wingtips--enabling up to 4000 pounds of external stores to be carried. The internal fuel tankage was revised to increase the total load from 1624 to 1784 US gallons. The length of the fuselage of the F-104G was the same as that of the earlier versions, but the F-104G had the enlarged and broader vertical tail of the F-104B/D two-seater, which provided a considerable improvement in longitudinal stability at high Mach numbers. In addition, the F-104G was equipped with the fully-powered rudder of the F-104B/D. With the extra area, the irreversible hydraulically-powered rudder of the F-104G provided both directional control and yaw damping, eliminating the separate yaw damper tab of the earlier Starfighters. and providing the characteristic rudder overhang, first seen on the F-104B/D, above the afterburner nozzle. The tailplane servo-mechanism was modified to afford increased hinge movement as demanded by the increased control power required by low-altitude operations at increased gross weights. and the amount of power for the horizontal stabilizer control system booster was increased. The hinge and operating controls were contained within the empennage contours, avoiding external fairings. The F-104G had a slightly higher maximum takeoff weight than the F-104C. In order to cope with the extra weight and the higher landing speeds, larger wheels were fitted. The wheel brakes were improved and were made fully powered and equipped with anti-skid capability. The tail braking parachute increased in diameter from 16 to 18 feet. The Lockheed C-2 rocket-boosted upward-firing ejector seat was standard for the F-104G, and was cleared for use at all altitudes down to ground level at speeds between 90 knots and 550 knots. The engine of the F-104G was the General Electric J79-GE-11A, rated at 10,000 lb dry and 15,600 lb thrust with afterburning. The J79 engines were coproduced under license by MAN-Turbo in Germany, Fabrique Nationale in Belgium and by Fiat in Italy. A F-104A-15-LO (serial number 56-0770) was modified by Lockheed with the bigger tail surfaces to become the aerodynamic prototype of the F-104G, although it lacked the internal airframe strengthing and many of the internal systems of the definitive F-104G. It flew for the first time at Palmdale, California on September 1, 1960. It was intended as the prototype CF-104, and flew in Royal Canadian Air Force colours. The first true F-104G (Werke Number 2001) was flown by Lockheed for the first time on October 5, 1960, and was the first of the initial German order for 66 examples. Production deliveries started in May of 1961. European production sites were clustered into four groups, based generally on geographical location. The South Group included Dornier at Munich, Heinkel at Speyer, Messerschmitt at Augsburg (later reorganized as Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm, or MBB), and Siebel at Donauworth, plus BMW at Koblenz for J79 production. The North Group included the Dutch companies Fokker at Schipol and Dordrech and Aviolanda at Papendrecht, plus the German companies Focke Wulf at Bremen, Hamburger Flugzeugbau in Hamburg and Weserflugzeugbau at Einswarden. The West Group consisted of SABCA (Societe Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aeronautiques) and Fairey S.A. of Belgium, which operated a joint facility at Gosselies near Charleroi, along with Fabrique Nationale in Brussels for J79 production. The Italian Group consisted of Fiat at Turin as the prime contractor, with Aerfer-Macchi, Piaggio, SACA, and SIAI-Marchetti as subcontractors. Canadair in Canada was contracted to supply 121 sets of wings, aft fuselage, and tail assemblies to the FRG and the Netherlands, and 40 sets to Lockheed. Lockheed itself remained heavily involved in the license production programs, and supplied small numbers of complete F-104Gs along with knock-down kits of parts to the licensees to help them in the launch of their own individual programs. In addition, Lockheed built the first 66 F-104Gs for the Luftwaffe and built 84 for USAF Mutual Aid contracts. The initial production schedule called for 210 aircraft to be built by the South Group, 350 by the North Group, 188 by the West Group, and 199 by the Italian group. There was lot of cross-flow of components, parts, and even complete airplanes between the various Groups. The Luftwaffe eventually received 700 single seaters from five different nations. In order to assure early service introduction, it was agreed that Lockheed was to build the initial lot of F-104Gs while the European consortium got up to speed. Lockheed eventually built 139 F-104Gs, which were delivered to the air forces of Germany, Greece, Norway, and Turkey, plus pattern aircraft delivered to manufacturers in Belgium and Italy. In addition, Lockheed also built a number of two-seat TF-104G combat trainers. The first Lockheed-built F-104G flew on June 7, 1960. The South Group's first F-104G took to the skies on October 5, 1960. The South Group of companies eventually built 210 aircraft, all of them destined for the West German Luftwaffe and South Group Starfighters were identified by construction numbers in the 7000 range. The West Group's first F-104G flew on August 3, 1961. West Group Starfighters were identified by construction numbers in the range 9002 to 9189 and went both to the Force Aerienne Belge and to the Luftwaffe. The North Group's first F-104G flew on November 11, 1961. The North Group eventually built 231 aircraft for the Koninklijke Luchtmacht (Royal Netherlands Air Force) as well as the Luftwaffe. The North Group F-104Gs were identified by construction numbers between 8001 and 8350. F-104Gs were produced in parallel with RF-104Gs. The Italian Group flew its first Starfighter on June 9, 1962, and delivered 169 aircraft to Dutch, German, and Italian air forces. The F-104Gs built by the Italian Group (with Fiat as major contractor) had company numbers in the range between 6502 and 6700. F-104Gs were interspersed with RF-104Gs on the line. Once the European F-104G program was well underway, the USAF ordered 140 F-104Gs to be built by Canadair for various NATO nations under the MAP program. They were intended for Norway, Denmark, Greece, Turkey, and Spain. They followed the Canadian-built CF-104s off the production line. Canadair-built F-104Gs differed from European-built versions primarily in the type of NASARR installed--the F-15AM-11 which was optimized for both air-to-air and air-to-ground modes. Canadair-built F-104Gs were identified by construction numbers in the range between 6001 and 6140. The first of these Canadair-built F-104Gs (c/n 6001, USAF serial number 62-12302) made its maiden flight on July 30, 1963, and deliveries to NATO began before the end of the year. The ejector seat initially fitted was the Lockheed Model C-2 upward-firing seat, but beginning in 1967 it was replaced by a Martin-Baker Mk GQ7(F) "zero-zero" ejector seat. When the F-104G program finally ended with the delivery of the last example by MBB in 1973, 1122 aircraft had been built, representing nearly 44 percent of Starfighter production. Some of the F-104Gs built were purchased with MAP funds and were assigned USAF serial numbers for record-keeping purposes even though they never carried USAF insignia. In addition, many F-104Gs owned by the West German Luftwaffe actually operated at training bases in the USA where they sported USAF insignia and carried USAF serial numbers.

	DOUGLAS THOR MISSILE IN RAF MARKINGS







	The caption on this 4mm model read: The Subject Douglas Thor IRBM on transporter trailer towed by Leyland Hippo tractor. 20 RAF Squadrons ( 77, 82, 97,98, 102, 104, 106, 107, 113, 130, 142, 144, 150, 218, 220, 223, 226, 240, 254 and 269 ) operated a total of 60 of these nuclear armed Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs) from bases is eastern England between 1958 and 1963. These missiles were liquid fuelled and were withdrawn because the resulting long reaction time made them vulnerable to pre emptive strikes. The Model BW Models white metal and vacuform kit with markings from spares box. I was particularly drawn to this Douglas Thor model not only because of the rarely depicted subject matter but because it was displayed next to an Airspeed Horsa glider, Hawker Hunter jet and Bristol Beaufighter and Westland Whirlwind twin engined propeller fighters: all available for comparison in 1/72 scale and together showing the advances made in less than 30 years of the mid 20th Century. The Thor was the first Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) deployed by the U.S. armed forces. Although its military career was relatively short, its descendants are still in use as space launch vehicles. Development began in 1954 with USAF studies regarding a 1500 mile range single stage ballistic missile to complement the long-range ICBM. Soviet ballistic missile progress resulted in a decision in 1955 to develop an IRBM, to be named Thor, as quickly as possible. Using existing components (the Rocketdyne S-3D liquid-fuel rocket motor from the Army's SM-78/PGM-19 Jupiter IRBM, and the inertial guidance unit and Mk.2 re-entry vehicle from the SM-65D/CGM-16D Atlas), and requiring the missile to be air-transportable by C-124 Globemaster transport aircraft, the basic design and overall dimensions of the Thor were quickly determined. Go-ahead for development was given in September 1955, and in December 1955, Douglas was selected as prime contractor for the SM-75 Thor IRBM. Because of the many existing components development was extremely quick, and production of test missiles began as soon as the drawings were completed in August 1956. Testing of the XSM-75 missile began in December 1956, but the first launch attempts all failed - sometimes in spectacular explosions. The first successful flight finally occurred in September 1957. Unlike the later production missiles, the first XSM-75s had small stabilizing fins at the base of the rocket.



	The caption on this Daily Express Giles cartoon of 1 April 1958 read "Polishing rockets on a U.S. base isn't my idea of celebrating the 40th anniversary of the R.A.F." Karl Giles probably hadn't seen a real Thor at the time.

	After the Soviet Sputnik launch in October 1957, the IRBM program was again accelerated, and Thor was ordered into full production in November 1957. In the next month, the first flight with a fully operational guidance system succeeded. All operational SM-75 missiles were stationed in Great Britain beginning in September 1958. Deployment was completed in June 1960 with 60 missiles at five bases including RAF Hemswell in Lincolnshire. By then, the Royal Air Force had taken over the operation of the Thor bases and missiles and one unarmed Thor from each base was sent with its crew to Vandenburg Air Force Base in California for a combat training launch on the Pacific range there. The SM-75 was powered by a single Rocketdyne S-3D (designated LR79-NA by the USAF) fuelled by kerosene and liquid oxygen. The complete main propulsion system was designated as MB-3. Two small Rocketdyne LR101 vernier engines were used for fine-tuning thrust and directional control. The Thor could carry a 1.45 megaton W-49 thermonuclear warhead and the all-inertial guidance unit achieved an accuracy of somewhere between 1000 ft and 2 miles Circular Error Probability. To protect them from conventional attacks and the weather, the missiles were stored horizontally in soft shelters at the base. After the launch order, the missile would be raised into the vertical, for fuelling and launch. This resulted in an overall reaction time of about 10 minutes - better than the US Army Atlas IRBM ( 15 minutes when stored in a "coffin" silo ) and much better than the Soviet R7 ICBM ( 24 hours ) - although still more than twice as long as the four minute warning that NATO radar was expected to offer of an incoming Soviet first missile strike. During 1962, the Thor was used in a series of exo-atmospheric nuclear tests (called "Starfish", "Bluegill", and "Kingfish"), including the explosion of a 1.4 megaton device ( equivalent to 1 400 000 tons of TNT ) at an altitude of 280 miles. Also in 1962, the USAF already started to plan the retirement of the SM-75 IRBM. The intended replacements were the GAM-87/AGM-48 Skybolt ALBM (Air-Launched Ballistic Missile), which was later cancelled, and the Navy's UGM-27 Polaris SLBM (Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile). The first Thor was removed from base in November 1962, and by September 1963, all Thors had been deactivated and moved back to the USA. Production of Thor IRBMs totaled about 225, with a peak deployment level of 60 missiles. In June 1963, shortly before its retirement in the UK, all Thor missiles were redesignated in the PGM-17 series: XSM-75 Thors becoming XPGM-17A, SM-75 items becoming PGM17A and unarmed training missiles changing from USM-75 to PTM-17A The final chapter in the military career of the Thor was its use as an anti-satellite weapon. In February 1962 the USAF had started Program 437 to provide for a nuclear ASAT (anti-satellite) capability. Unarmed tests of Thors as ASAT missiles began in February 1964, and by September 1964 the ASAT Thor was declared operational. From that time until the retirement in December 1972, the ADC (Air Defense Command) always had two Thor ASAT launchers on 24h alert. The designation of the Thor in the ASAT role was apparently still PGM-17A, although a redesignation to PIM-17A would have been appropriate. After retirement as an IRBM, disarmed PGM-17As, as well as new-built Thors, were used by the USAF as space launch vehicles under the basic designation of SLV-2. The Thor was developed by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) into the very successful Delta family of space launchers, still in use today.

	UP THE CREEK WITH A PADDLE





	Before leaving Americana behind, my attention was drawn to these two designs of paddle steamer - both very different from the faux diesel paddle wheeler "Oliver Cromwell" currently moored in Gloucester Docks! Both were designed for freight use in 1910 by the Marine Iron Works of Chicago with the smaller, single funnel boat measuring only 50' long in reality and proportionately smaller when scratch built in 1/72 scale.

	LITTLESKI AND LARGEOVICH



	From east of the Iron Curtain - and more specifically from Soviet helicopter maker Mil - came these two very different Aeroflot marked 1/72 scale whirlybirds, the V-12 - pictured above - being the largest helicopter ever built. Had it gone into production it would have been called the Mi-12 by the Soviets and "Homer" by NATO although in fact only two prototypes were ever built. The V-12 was developed from 1965 to carry missile components of up to 30 000 kg and the first prototype made its first lift-off on 27 June 1967. After a few oscillations in close proximity to the ground the V-12 made a rough touchdown on one wheel resulting in a burst tire and a bent wheel disc. Even though the damage was insignificant, it was reported in the Western press that the prototype had suffered severe damage, and even to this day the rumour persists that the prototype had crashed fatally. The V-12 features the only two-rotor transverse scheme ever built by Mil, eliminating the need for a tail rotor. The twin engines were taken together with the rotors from the Mil Mi-6 and duplicated on the V-12. However, the twin rotor transverse scheme was not new. It was first seen in the Focke-Wulf Fw 61 - the first fully controllable helicopter from 1936 - and later in the design of the Focke Achgelis Fa 223 Drache from 1940 and the 1958 vintage Soviet Kamov OKB built Ka-22 Vintokryl . This aircraft had also the combined wing/rotor arrangement later used on the Mil V-12. The first prototype, now wearing the registration CCCP-21142, made its first true flight on 10 July 1968 from the Mil factory pad in Panki to the Mil OKB test flight facility in Lyubertsy. In February 1969, the first prototype lifted a 31,030 kg payload to 9,682 feet and on 6 August 1969, the V-12 lifted 44,205 kg to a height of 7,398 feet, a world record. In May and June 1971 the first prototype V-12 CCCP-21142 made a series of flights over Europe being topped by the participation in the 29th Paris Air Show at Le Bourget wearing exhibit code H-833. The second prototype had been assembled at the Mil experimental production facility in Panki but sat in the workshop for a full year waiting for its engines. It was not until March 1973 that the second prototype could make its first flight, being from Panki to the flight test facilities in Lyubertsy. Curiously the second prototype was also registered as CCCP-21142. The design outperformed its design specifications, set up numerous world records which still hold today, and brought its designers numerous awards such as the prestigious Sikorsky Prize awarded by the American Helicopter Society for outstanding achievements in helicopter technology. The V-12 design was recognized as an invention for which patents were issued in the USA, Great Britain and other countries. Despite all of these achievements the Soviet Air Force refused to accept the helicopter for state acceptance trials for many reasons, the main one being the fact that the initial purpose for which V-12 had been developed - the rapid deployment of strategic ballistic missiles - no longer existed. In the meantime the military concept of deploying missiles had been altered since some of the missiles had proved disappointing and were phased out. This was the same reason which led to the massive reduction inAntonov An-22 production. Another was that the design was expensive and that other lifting requirements were met with the Mi-6 and later by the more powerful Mi-26. In contrast the Mil Mi-2 is a single pilot, light transport twin turbine type helicopter with a three bladed main rotor (48 ft diameter) and two bladed tail rotor system, making it at first glance similar to the Bristol Type 171 Sycamore. Intended to replace the earlier Mi-1 and known by NATO as the Hoplite, the Mi-2 can be used for transport of up to eight passengers or an equivalent amount of internal or external freight, for training ( with the option of twin cockpit controls ), reconnaissance and rescue tasks as well as providing close air support with 57mm rockets or laying a smoke screen in front of armoured fighting vehicles. The first prototype Mi-2 flew in September 1961 but from 1964, further development, production and sales of this type was passed over to the Polish PZL Swidnik aircraft factory. Several thousand of these aircraft were built from 1966 to 1985. The flight control system is a positive, mechanical linkage with hydraulic boost to a conventional set of helicopter controls and the Mi-2 is powered by two 400 shp GTD-350 engines. By 2005 more than 1,500 Mi-2 helicopters were in operation in different parts of the world and nearly all of them had reached the end of their service life and were in need of an overhaul. However, the cost of refurbishing a Mi-2 being several dozen times lower than the price of a new foreign-made light helicopter of a similar category, the Mil OKB and the Swidnik plant took the decision to start work with a view to restoring, improving and upgrading the existing fleet of Mi-2 helicopters. The first stage of this work envisaged increasing reliability and improving the performance, as well as ensuring good quality repairs. The next step includes a programme of increasing the helicopters’ service life and fitting them with more lightweight and up-to-date equipment, some of them using composite materials.



	CHURCHILL MARK VII DIORAMA



	My interest in Churchill tanks - 764 of which were built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company - was reignited by this superb diorama featuring a 1/35 scale Mk VII variant from the Tamiya kit arriving at a filling station "closed for the War". The Mark VII Churchill tank was radically different from earlier models with a new, wider and better armoured hull and completely new turret equipped with a 75mm gun. Sometimes referred to as the Heavy Churchill, the Mark VII first saw service in the Battle of Normandy, and was redesignated A42 in 1945 - marking a long journey from the original pre-war concept of the Tank, Infantry Mk IV (A22) Initially specified prior to the outbreak of the Second World War the British Army General Staff designation A20 was to be the replacement for the Matilda II and Valentine infantry tanks. In accordance with British Infantry Tank doctrine and based on the expected needs of World War I style trench warfare, the tank was required to be capable of navigating shell-.cratered ground, demolishing infantry obstacles (such as barbed wire) and attacking fixed enemy defences. For these purposes, great speed and heavy armament was not required The task of design and construction of the A20 was given to Belfast based shipbuilders Harland and Wolff who completed four prototypes by June 1940. The vehicle was armed with two 2-pounder guns each located in a side sponson and plans existed for an additional third gun in a central turret. Indeed one of the Harland and Wolff prototypes was built with a Matilda turret and the Ulster firm was also responsible for the side escape hatches which featured on all marks of Churchill. Even by this point the sponson idea had fallen out in favour of turret and hull mounted guns. The A20 designs were short-lived however, as at roughly the same time the emergency evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk occurred. With France conquered, the scenario of trench warfare in Northern Europe was no longer applicable and the design was revised by Dr. H.E. Merritt, director of Tank Design at Woolwich Arsenal, based on the combat witnessed in Poland and France. These new specifications, for the A22 or Infantry Tank Mark IV, were given to Vauxhall in June 1940. With German invasion looking imminent and the United Kingdom having lost most of its military vehicles in the evacuation from France, the War Office specified that the A22 must begin production within the year. By July 1940 the design was complete and by December of that year the first prototypes were completed; it was in June 1941, almost exactly a year as specified, that the first Churchill tanks began rolling off the production line. The hull of the Churchill tank was made up of simple flat plates initially bolted but later welded together. It was split into four compartments: the drivers position at the front, then the fighting compartment including the turret, the engine compartment and then finally the gearbox compartment. The suspension was fitted under the two large "panniers" on either side of the hull - the track running over the top. There were eleven bogies either side, each carrying two 10-inch wheels. Only nine of the bogies normally took the vehicle weight, the front coming into play when the vehicle nosed into the ground or against an obstacle, the rear acting in part as a track tensioner. Due to the number of wheels, the tank could survive losing several without much in the way of adverse affects as well as traversing steeper terrain obstacles. As the tracks ran around the panniers, escape hatches in the side could be incorporated into the design. These were retained throughout the revisions of the Churchill and were of particularly use when the Churchill was adopted as an armoured recovery vehicle. The Vauxhall designed twin engines were connected through a common crankshaft feeding a regenerative transmission steered by a tiller bar rather than levers or steering wheel. The Churchill was also the first tank to utilize the Merritt-Brown gear-box, which allowed the tank to be steered by changing the relative speeds of the two tracks; this effect was more pronounced as the gears were lowered, allowing the tank to fully turn on its own axis while in neutral. Each tank was delivered with a document from the manufacturer which stated that it had great confidence in the fundamental design of the tank but that the model had been put into production without time for proper honing and that improvements would be made in time: "All those things which we know are not as they should be will be put right....Fighting vehicles are urgently required, and instructions have been received to proceed with the vehicle as it is rather than hold up production" This hasty development had not come without cost though, as there had been little in the way of testing and the Churchill was plagued with mechanical faults. Most apparent was the Churchill's underpowered and unreliable engine, a situation made far worse by the engine's lack of accessibility. Another serious shortcoming of the tank was the 2 pounder 40 millimetre gun in its cast, round turret fitted with a Vickers Tank Periscope MK IV. This relatively weak gun was augmented by the addition of a 3 inch howitzer in the hull ( or the turret in the case of the Mk IICS ) to deliver a high explosive shell - albeit not on howitzer type trajectories.. This enabled the tank to deliver a useful HE round while retaining the antitank capabilities of the 2-pounder. However, like other multi-gun tanks, such as the French Char B, it was limited by a poor fire arc. The entire tank had to be turned to aim of the hull gun. The Mk II dispensed with the howitzer and replaced it with a bow machine gun. These flaws contributed to the tank's poor performance in its first combat outing, the disastrous Dieppe Raid in August, 1942. In fact the poor performance of the Churchill nearly caused production to be ceased in favour of the upcoming Cromwell tank.




	The Churchill was saved though by the emergence of the much improved Mk III which appeared in March 1942 and first saw operational use during the Second Battle of El Alamein in October of that year. In this 'second chance' a select group of five Mk III's, known collectively as 'King Force' went into battle. All were heavily shelled by German anti-tank guns but all bar one Mk III returned with little damage. One tank was said to have been struck up to 80 times. The Mk III was easily distinguished by a new turret design carrying a 57mm calibre 6 pounder gun and in one encounter the updated Churchill tank even eliminated a heavy German Tiger I tank when the shell becoming lodged in between the Tiger's turret and turret ring. The crew abandoned the Tiger, which was subsequently captured and is on display at Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset. In the following Tunisia and Italian campaigns, the Mk III and its immediate successors continued to prove their usefulness. The Churchill Mk III underwent field modification in North Africa with several tanks being fitted with the 75 mm gun salvaged from destroyed M4 Shermans. These "NA75" variants were used in Italy and although the 75 mm gun was inferior as an anti-tank weapon to the 6-pounder it proved better as an all-around gun and was soon made standard on successive versions. The second major improvement in the Churchill's design, the Mk VII ( pictured in colour above and below ) first saw operational use in the Battle of Normandy in 1944. The Mk VII improved on the already heavy armour of the Churchill with a wider chassis and the 75 mm gun ( installed in a custom made fabricated turret ) that had been introduced on the Mk VI. The new size, armour and firepower of the Churchill Mk VII combined with its existing long wheelbase and multiple bogie suspension was instrumental to its success in helping VIII Corps capturing Hill 309 in Normandy as part of Operation Bluecoat between 30 and 31 July 1944. It was primarily the Mark VII Churchill, also known as the A22F, which served through the remainder of war and was redesignated as A42 in 1945. The armour on the Churchill, often considered its most important trait, was originally specified to a minimum of 16 mm and a maximum of 102 mm; this was increased with the Mk VII to a range from 25 mm to 152 mm. Though this armour was considerably thicker than its rivals -including the German Tiger tank, but not the Tiger II - it was not sloped, reducing its effectiveness. Earlier models were given extra armour by the expedient of welding extra plates on. Because the engines on the Churchill were never upgraded, the tank became increasingly slower as additional armour and armament was equipped and weight increased; while the Mks I to VI weighed 36 tons, the Mk VII weighed 40 tons. This caused a reduction in maximum speed of the tank from its original 26 km/h down to 20.5 km/h. The engines also suffered from many mechanical problems. The Churchill's relatively small turret also prevented the use of weapons much larger than the 75 mm gun. Although the Churchill's thick armour could withstand several hits from any German AT gun, even some from the famous 88, the guns often lacked punch to fight back effectively. While earlier Churchills could outgun many German medium tanks, like the Panzer IV's short-barrel version and the Panzer III's 50 mm gun with its 6 pounder, the later Churchill variants were armed with a general purpose 75 mm gun while Germans had 75 mm high-velocity cannons as their main armament. The Churchill was also quite notable for its versatility and was utilized in numerous specialist roles. Additionally, in tests conducted in the Madang by the Australian Army in mid-1944, at the request of the British War Office, the Churchill was tested against the M4 Sherman and found it to be, overall, a superior tank for jungle warfare. The Soviet Union received a total of 301 of Churchill Mk. III and Mk. IV types as part of the Lend-Lease program and the tank remained in the service of the British Army until 1952 with one bridgelayer variant remaining in service well into the 1970s. The Irish Army took delivery of four Churchill Mk VI tanks in 1948. They were rented from the British War Office as trials vehicles until 1954, when they were purchased outright. This purchase was despite the fact that the supply and transport corps workshops, who maintained them, had reported that spares had all but run out. Experiments were carried out involving replacing the existing Bedford engine with a Rolls Royce Merlin engine salvaged from an Air Corps Seafire. The experiment was not a success, although the reasons are not recorded. By 1967 only one Churchill remained serviceable, and by 1969 all were retired. One remains preserved in the Curragh Camp. The Churchill was an unusual choice for the Irish Army, as the most of the country at that time consisted of narrow roads and small fields with hedges and ditches restricting movements by armoured vehicles. In general, the Irish Army has always relied upon lighter, more manoeuvrable armoured vehicles, such as the Panhard AML and FV101 Scorpion of modern times.



	1/72 SCALE JUNKERS 287 V1



	The Ju 287 was intended to provide the Luftwaffe with a bomber that could avoid interception by outrunning enemy fighters. The swept-forward wing was suggested by the project's head designer, Dr Hans Wocke, as a way of providing extra lift at low airspeeds - necessary because of the poor responsiveness of early turbojets at the vulnerable times of take-off and landing. The first prototype was intended to evaluate the concept, and was cobbled together from the fuselage of a Heinkel He 177, the tail of a Junkers Ju 388, main undercarriage from a Junkers Ju 352, and nosewheels taken from crashed B-24 Liberators. Two of the Jumo 004 engines were hung under the wings, with the other two mounted in nacelles added to the sides of the forward fuselage. Flight tests began on 8 August 1944, with the aircraft displaying extremely good handling characteristics, as well as revealing some of the problems of the forward-swept wing under some flight conditions. Tests also suggested that the aircraft would benefit from concentrating more engine mass under the wings, a feature that was to be incorporated on the subsequent prototypes. These were to have been powered by Heinkel HeS 011 engines, but because of the development problems experienced with that motor, the BMW 003 was selected in its place. The second and third prototypes were to have six of these engines, the former with a cluster of three under each wing, the latter with two under each wing and one on each side of the fuselage, as the first prototype had. These machines were to have all-new, purpose designed fuselages, and the third prototype was also to carry armament and serve as the development aircraft for a production version. Before the second prototype was complete, though, the Junkers factory was over-run. Wocke and his staff, along with the two prototype aircraft, were taken to the Soviet Union. There, the second prototype (returned to its original Junkers in-house designation, EF-131) was eventually finished and flown on 23 May 1947, but by that time, jet development had already overtaken the Ju 287. A final much-enlarged derivative, the EF 140 was tested in prototype form in 1949 but soon abandoned.

	BRITISH JETS IN THE MIDDLE EAST





	Although the first jet dogfights had taken place in the Korean War of 1950-1953 between Soviet built and United Nations aircraft - including Royal Australian Air Force Gloster Meteor F8s - the first such confrontation in the Middle East involved two makes of British straight-winged types. Following Israel's victory in its 1948-1949 War of Independence De Havilland Mosquitos were acquired from France, Supermarine Spitfres from Italy and North American P-51 Mustangs from Sweden to re-equip the Israeli Air Force ( IAF) . However, Egypt - with which Israel had signed an armistice but not a peace treaty on 24 February 1949 - acquired its first Gloster Meteor F4s at the same time. The Royal Egyptian Air Force - loyal to King Farouk - also acquired De Havilland Vampires while Israel's hostile neighbours also acquired British jets: Syria taking delivery of Meteors while Jordan opted for Vampires. On 10 February 1953 Israel ordered eleven Meteor Mk 8s and four Meteor T7 trainers from Gloster Aircraft and the first two T7s touched down in the Jewish state on 17 June 1953. At the handover ceremony, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion named the T7s Gale and Tempest. The Gloster Meteor F8 was derived from the earlier F3 model, as supplied to the Royal Air Force to create its first jet squadron in 1944, and both types are represented in the photographs above. F3s - lettered 4DZ and 0NH - can be distinguished from Israeli 36 by the original design of upward curved tail empennage, shorter and fatter engine nacelles and longer wingspan. The Gloster Meteor F4 meanwhile featured the same tailplane as the F3 but the longer , thinner engine nacelles and shorter wingspan continued on the F8. The Israeli Air Force also specified that its eleven Meteor F8s were to be equipped with target towing equipment, Martin Baker M2E ejector seats and underwing rails for the carriage of High Velocity Aircraft Rocket (HVAR) projectiles. HVAR firing tests were conducted over the Lyme Bay range with aircraft 2166 - serials as delivered being 2166 to 2169 and 2172 and 2178. The first Meteor F8s arrived in Israel in August 1953 and the last left Hucclecote in January 1954. Israel's Meteors and other military aircraft were to be maintained by a new organisation - Bedek Aircraft Ltd - which was to evolve into Israel Aircraft Industries, today perhaps best known for its own design of executive jet transports. By early 1955 the Armistice agreements of 1949 were beginning to fail with Israel attacking targets in the Gaza Strip and Sinai in response to guerilla activity by displaced Palestinian Fedayeen guerillas. In response, Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser - whose revolution had overthrown King Farouk in 1952 - sought to acquire Soviet built Mig-15 fighter and Il-28 bombers via Czechoslovakia. The subsequent arrival of these Communist built aircraft enhanced Nasser's political position to the extent that he ordered Britain to withdraw its troops from the Anglo-French owned Suez Canal. France, knowing that Nasser's Egypt was supporting its opponents in the Algerian civil war, supplied Ouragon and more advanced Mystere IVA jet fighters to Israel. The first Ouragons - the first all-French jet fighter design - arrived in November 1955 while the first Mystere IVA - with low swept wings and mid-fin tail - was delived to the IAF in April 1956. However on 31 August 1955 IAF Meteors and Egyptian Vampires fought the first jet air battle in the Middle East. As IAF Colonel Aharon Yoeli recalled: "At seven o'clock in the morning a standby of four Meteor 8s were ready. I was not a standby pilot, but I am an early riser and bang - the siren goes off. The two duty guys are brushing their eyes and by that time Sedan and I are in the aircraft ands we made contact with the controller who said, "Take off heading south west, fly at 7 000 feet." It was a cloudy day and the sun was only ten to fifteen degrees above the horizon. We took off headed south and were told that there was a bogey consisting of two airplanes flying southbound below us at two to three o'clock. I made a left turn so they couldn't see me because I would be in the sun and two minutes later my number two said "I see them," and I turned my head and saw them. We simply pulled up and started to come down behind them. The closing speed was, say 150 mph. Number Two was behind me. My sight was on night brightness, and since I was slowly closing in, I had no time to mess with it. I saw one aircraft at about five hundred yards range, opened the safety cover, and slowly closed line astern behind the Vampire. At 200 to 250 yards, I opened fire. My tracers moved from the left to the wing, and I simply shifted them to the center and I didn't finish until I saw the bubble [ canopy] explode. We were at about 3 000 feet and I was flying at about 460 knots. Bang, the airplane broke up but didn't explode and I pulled up the left. Number two was following; he warned me that the Egyptian number two was behind me. The I saw him. The second Vampire turned southbound and started to dive towards a sandy area at 1 000 feet. When I was straight behind him, he started to roll with his nose down, and I thought that damn son of a gun will hit the ground before I can shoot him. So I missed a chance to shoot him. He made another roll and I closed in. I headed the gun sight up front as I used to do when shooting targets in training, and I said, "This is the right deflection angle and the right range." I pulled the trigger and hit the cockpit - bang - unbelievable - the airplane exploded right there! That was that! The two other bogeys had already crossed the border so I went back, made two victory rolls over the base, and I landed" Even more significantly, on the morning of 29 October 1956, ten Gloster Meteor F8s provided a fighter escort for 16 IAF Douglas Dakotas flying paratroops to capture the strategic Mitla Pass in the Egyptian held Sinai desert. Israel's attack on Egypt - known as Operation Kadesh - was designed to eliminate Fedayeen bases in Sinai and Gaza, disrupt Egypt's ability to attack Israel and to end Egypt's blockade of the Gulf of Eliat. However, following secret talks between France, Britain and Israel the previous month, Operation Kadesh also allowed France and Britain to intervene in the war between Egypt and Israel - ostensibly to keep the peace but in reality to recapture the Suez canal from a pro-Communist regime. On October 30, Britain and France issued an ultimatum calling for Israel and Egypt to stay ten miles away from the Suez Canal and to end combat in Sinai. If these conditions were not met, Britain and France threatened to occupy the Canal Zone. Israel accepted the ultimatum but Egypt did not.



	The caption on this 4mm model read: The Subject English Electric Canberra B6, 109 Squadron RAF Luqa (Malta) Suez Crisis 1956 The B6 was the second bomber variant of the Canberra to attain production. The Model Airfix kit with Aeroclub replacement nose, finished in Halfords Nissan Silver with markings from generic sheets.

	As a result, RAF Vickers Valiant and English Electric Canberra aircraft began bombing Egyptian airfields at 10.30pm on 31 October 1956 from an altitude of 40 000' to avoid interception by Egyptian jet fighters. Although the bases at Almaza, Inchas, Abu Suweir, Kabrit and Cairo International Airport were damaged by both contact and delayed-action bombs only 14 Egyptian aircraft were destroyed on the ground - although Egyptian, Czech and Soviet pilots immediately began dispersing their remaining serviceable aircraft either to remote locations or out of Egypt altogether. However, despite the military success of Britain, France and Israel, the threat of intervention on the side of Egypt by the Soviet Union and diplomatic pressure from the United States ( where President Eisenhower - campaingning for re-election - was already occupied by the uprising against Communism in Hungary ) forced Britain and France to agree to a United Nations resolution to end their invasion on 7 November 1956.

	BRITISH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION TSR2



	"All modern aircraft have four dimensions: span, length, height and politics. TSR.2 simply got the first three right."- Sir Sydney Camm The story of the TSR2 - as depicted in the 1/72 scale model displayed at Churchdown in 2009 - really in the late 1940s when English Electric had realised the need for a modern Canberra replacement even before the official requirement for the Canberra had been issued. By 1956 the Ministry of Supply envisioned a small, fast, strike-fighter to replace the Canberra - possibly a development of English Electric's P.1B (soon to become theLightning) but English Electric preferred an all-new aircraft. The requirement evolved for an aircraft with a 2,000 nautical mile [ferry] range, capable of Mach 1.5 at altitude, able to carry a variety of weapons and reconnaissance equipment, attack at very low level, and vertical or short take-off capability. English Electric had been working on a design designated the P.17, and this moved on from their initial layout (basically straight wings with podded engines hanging off them) to being a delta wing design with engines buried in the rear fuselage (and now designated the P.17A). Discussions began in the MoS and the RAF and soon more specific requirements were made available - a crew of two was required, at least four - and preferably six - 1,000lb bombs were to be carried, and more emphasis was put on low-level performance and short take-off runs, with a preference for vertical take-off. Around this time a report on the supply of military aircraft was issued by the House of Commons Select Comittee on Estimates. It included recommendations to limit the number of aerospace companies by forcing them to band together to win contracts. This was the beginning of the end for the majority of the famous British aircraft manufacturers. Meanwhile, the air staff were drawing up General Operational Requirement (GOR) 339 to cover a Canberra replacement, and finished it days before Duncan Sandys, the Minister of Defence, announced in the infamous 1957 Defence White Paper that manned aircraft were obsolete. GOR 339 was then the subject of much debate before it was finally issued to various companies in late September. Shorts Brothers made a submission to cooperate with English Electric and cover all aspects of GOR 339. Their outlandish idea was for the P.17A to be joined by the P.17D, a platform with no fewer than 56 lift engines which would lift off vertically and from which the P.17A would then launch. Understandably this idea did not come to fruition! In March 1958 an announcement was made on which companies had been successful in their bids for the contract - Avro, Hawker, Vickers-Armstrong and English Electric. Cooperation from them all was expected. The requirement was refined, reissued, renamed and renumbered - first OR 339 then OR 343. Now operation from semi-prepared strips was mentioned along with higher speed, longer range, higher altitude, shorter take-off run... the straight-forward Canberra replacement was rapidly becoming the stuff of science fiction, plus the MoS wanted the new aircraft to fulfill every role the Canberra was undertaking, including reconnaissance. The MoS had decided that the best way forward was a partnership between Vickers Armstrong and English Electric, even though neither company had much contact with the other. The first public acknowledgement of the new project was made in the House of Commons in December. In January 1959 more details were forthcoming, including the designation of TSR.2 (the 2 standing for Mach 2). This designation originally stood for Tactical Support and Reconaissance, then later became Tactical Strike and Reconaissance once the possibility of a nuclear role was considered. Blackburn Aircraft had seen GOR 339 and realised that their Buccaneer already went some way towards satisfying the requirements. With improvements, the Buccaneer could be made into an aircraft that would satisfy most - though not all - of the requirements. Obviously developing a completely new aircraft was obviously going to cost much more than modifying an existing one, and the Fleet Air Arm were already delighted with the performance of the Buccaneer. However, the RAF had nothing but contempt for this naval aircraft. Blackburn's P.150 design (which appeared some years later in 1968) was for a supersonic Buccaneer with Spey engines with reheat, new TSR.2 style intakes, longer fuselage, thinner non-folding wings and twin mainwheels and gave some idea of how Blackburn might have proceeded had their been any interest in their proposal. Despite the lack of RAF interest, the Buccaneer would return to haunt the TSR.2 project later on. By July 1959 meanwhile Vickers and English Electric had jointly submitted their new design (which did not actually differ too much from English Electric's P.17A) despite worries about the restrictive aspects of the specification. On 1 January 1960 the two companies ( along with Bristol Aircraft ) merged to form the British Aircraft Corporation and in October 1960 - a year later than planned - the contract for TSR2 was formally issued. The government had looked at American methods of project management and development, and while finally admitting that the American's methods were superior to traditional British methods, they make a complete mess of implementing these improved methods. To all intents and purposes it appeared that the government's version threw away all the good points and kept the bad - the new, more 'efficient' management techniques would soon turn into the most bloated and inefficient bureaucracy ever seen in the aviation industry. One celebrated incident occurred when a meeting was called and the meeting's chairman decided that far too many people had turned up. He cleared the room and asked for only essential personnel to turn up for the second attempt at the meeting. When the reconvened meeting arrived, and the essential personnel had trooped in, it was found that there were actually more people present than in the first meeting. Design and manufacture proceeded despite these problems and despite poor cooperation between the constituents of BAC. One example of this was that when the engines were ready to be placed in the airframe it was found that they simply did not fit in the supplied tunnels! In addition, some sub-contractors were not working for BAC, but were working for the Ministry instead, with communication problems being a result. The Ministry's interference extended into the design and manufacture of the aircraft itself; they took charge of the cockpit layout, and often had three hour meetings to decide the location of a single switch and often got it wrong. In contrast, Avro's Chief Test Pilot Roly Falk fought for and got permission to design the cockpit of the Vulcan bomber himself! At the same time the British Government were under American pressure to buy the TFX (later to become the General Dynamics F-111) instead of the 'more expensive' TSR.2 when a BAC delegation visited Australia and left with high expectations of an export order. The Australians were very interested in the new wonder-plane but their interest was undermined by Lord Louis Mountbatten suggesting that the Royal Australian Air Force could buy ten Buccaneers for the price of a single TSR.2. . The Australians chose to buy the F-111 shortly afterward at a cost 10 times more than they had been told by the Americans. The F-111 also entered Australian service ten years late. Back in Britain TSR2's all-new Bristol-Siddely Olympus engines suffered major teething problems before the first prototype - XR219 - began assembly at RAF Boscombe Down in early 1964. Vickers had wanted test flying to begin at their airfield at Wisley, but the chief test pilot, Roland Beamont, objected to this because of the short runway there. English Electric's airfield at Warton would have been ideal, but as a compromise Boscombe Down was chosen As neither company had a presence there the prototype had to be reassembled over a period of three months but on 6 May 1964 XR219 left its hangar to begin testing, including taxi trials. Various minor problems occurred, including the failure of the braking parachute to deploy on one fast taxi run where the long runway came in useful, vindicating Beamont's objection to the shorter airfield at Wisley, but most were overcome. On 27 September 1964 XR219 finally flew, with Roland Beamont - callsign Tarnish 1 - as pilot and Donald Bowen as navigator. Beamont summed up the flight as 'a very good start'. However, XR219 at this point was hardly representative of an operational version; with limitations on engine power, many missing systems (both to keep weight down and to hurry up the first flight) and no attempt was made to retract the undercarriage (a complicated affair made necessary by the lack of room in which to place it). Finally, on flight 10, after four months of attempts to fix the problems, the undercarriage was successfully retracted and Beamont decided that XR219 was ready to continue its flight test programme at Warton while XR220 would be brought to Boscombe. Flight 14 was XR219's trip to Warton, during which it went supersonic for the first and only time. TSR.2's performance was shown to particularly good effect when Beamont engaged reheat on a single engine and left the Lightning T5 chase aircraft behind despite engaging reheat on both of its engines! By this time in early 1965 however the national newspapers reported that an RAF team was in the USA to consider purchasing the TFX (F-111) instead of continuing the TSR.2 programme. Urgent discussions between BAC and the Labour government - elected in October 1964 - ensued, and there was even a protest march in London where 10,000 BAC employees called for the keeping of the TSR.2. Mass physical support notwithstanding, the second prototype would never fly. The government, in the Budget Day announcement on 6 April 1965, announced that the TSR.2 programme was to be terminated immediately. The aircrew were at the time having lunch in a pub near Boscombe Down and on hearing the announcement they rushed back to the airfield in an attempt to get XR220 into the air and to at least present the government with a second flying prototype. Permission however was denied. XR219, XR221 and XR223 were taken to the shooting range at Shoeburyness to be destroyed as 'damage to aircraft' targets. XR220 was kept at Boscombe for a year or so and then placed in storage at RAF Henlow after it had had all internal equipment ripped out (even the wires to equipment were cut rather than disconnected). It was later transferred to RAF Cosford's Aerospace Museum. XR222 was initially to be scrapped but was instead sent to the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield and later saved for restoration and moved to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. All other airframes were scrapped and all tooling was destroyed. Cancelled shortly before the TSR.2 were Hawker-Siddeley's two major projects; a new transport aircraft and the P.1154 (the 'supersonic Harrier'). The P.1154 had also been victim of the infighting between the Navy and the Air Force, but some good was to come of these two cancellations. The P.1127, a less ambitious project, was allowed to proceed. This became the Harrier, a world-beating VTOL light strike aircraft and fighter which has since been developed into a number of versions for countries around the world, including the UK, the USA, India and Italy. The TFX programme continued in the US; but when it too became massively expensive and development ran into major problems the UK (and the US Navy) cancelled their orders. Britain was to pay hugely for the TSR.2 cancellation; not only in the waste of the TSR.2 development, but now in cancellation fees to General Dynamics. Instead it was decided to buy the F-4 Phantom II. But the government could not be seen to be buying an inferior American aircraft after this fiasco, so specified that British engines were to be used. The UK Phantoms were to use Speys, an engine generally thought to be unsuitable for a fighter. Problems with the Spey and Phantom marriage meant that not only were British Phantoms the most expensive of all, but they also performed nowhere near as well as the original US models. TSR.2 was long gone, and all we had in its place was an aircraft of nowhere near the capability. Not only did the Phantom not come close to fulfilling the TSR.2's role, it could not adequately fulfil narrower roles such as air defence. The ageing English Electric Lightning continued to outfly Phantoms until its retirement in 1988. BAC survived the TSR.2 cancellation; the only major project not cancelled was the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic transport, which while never being a massive commercial success, gave BAC valuable experience and prestige both with advanced aircraft and with international cooperation. The SEPECAT Jaguar, near enough a 'baby TSR.2', gave them even more experience of this kind of cooperation, and produced a useful strike aircraft, though it did not compare with the TSR.2. Following soon after came the MRCA (Multi Role Combat Aircraft, or, more cynically, Must Replace Canberra AGAIN!) project, a truly European project, which despite its detractors produced another world-beater - the Panavia Tornado. Strangely, in 1981, the then Conservative government briefly looked at reviving the TSR.2 programme. This got as far as looking at possible modifications to bring it up to date (Tornado style intakes, modern electronics, extensive use of carbon fibre construction to lower the weight and so on) before the project was once again returned to the grave. It was certainly a strange episode; with the Tornado shortly to enter service, developing the TSR.2 to completion (using XR220 and XR222 as a basis for the new project!) would have been a very odd thing to do. As it turned out, the Tornado became more or less what the TSR.2 was to have been. That it was still slightly less capable than the TSR.2 had been projected to be a full fifteen years earlier says a great deal about how far advanced the TSR.2 project really was. That the TSR.2 was all-British (bar some electronics) and the Tornado required the cooperation of three countries also says a great deal about just how good the British aircraft industry was.

Although the first jet dogfights had taken place in the Korean War of 1950-1953 between Soviet built and United Nations aircraft - including Royal Australian Air Force Gloster Meteor F8s - the first such confrontation in the Middle East involved two makes of British straight-winged types.