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Thread: Variable wing geometry RIP?

  1. #1

    Default Variable wing geometry RIP?

    I was just looking at on of my displays
    Attachment 183396

    and It triggered a thought is Variable wing geometry a thing of the past ? Yes I know the "Tornado" is still flying But the Americans and the Iranians have stopped flying the F-14 TomcatAttachment 183397Attachment 183398,

    Are there any variable wing geometry in the pipeline that I don't know about, or is that it?

  2. #2

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    What goes around, comes around. I don't know offhand, of anything currently in the pipeline-but things like the "flying wing" concept was tried, rejected, tried again, accepted, and may be gone again tomorrow. Likewise fr the forward-swept wing concept: tried originally experimentally in WW II, rejected, tried again as a DARPA project, but not adopted. Eventually, there will be some project for which the variable-geometry wing makes the most sense.

  3. #3

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    Drew that is a very nice line up of models you have there - are they all kits or diecast models? In what scale too please.

    Grumman F-14A Tomcat operations in Iran were severely affected and curtailed by sanctions: Somebody I know suggested that four years ago they still had six airframes in service with the rest having been cannibalised for spares. The US Navy got the best usage out of the airframes they received with a fair number of F-14As being upgraded to F-14Ds in the late 1980s. Then in the early to mid 1990s the F-14B Bombcat was given a ground attack capability but this modification was not widespread - enough airframes modified to allow the phase out from USN service of the remaining A-7E Corsair IIs. I think what put them out of service was a combination of age / operating cost and obsolescence from what I remember.

    There's one type you have missed out which was V/G ... As flown by the USAF and Royal Australian Air Force? Also V/G still in service in Russia too currently with the Sukhoi Su-24D Fencer and the Tupolev Tu-26B Backfire bomber. Though the Swing-Wing MiG-23 has largely disappeared from the scene the MiG-27 ground attack aircraft which was based upon the MiG-23 is still in service across the globe.

    Anyway never say never thinks me on the basis of what has happened with Canard Foreplanes over the years with the design of military jets. The Americans experimented with them as did Dassault in France but the IAI C-7 Kfir (Israeli license-built Mirage III) showed these as effective when combined with a Delta wing-shape. Then in 1985 there was a revival of this concept in France where the Dassault Rafale was under development as well as where the EFA2000 (now Eurofighter Typhoon II) was under development at roughly the same time. One of these flew for the first time at the 1986 Farnborough Airshow ... I think it was the EFA2000 though I could be wrong: I'll look this up and edit if required

  4. #4

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    They are all 1/72 diecast models, I used to make loads of plastic kits, And then I moved house, "Nope" almost nothing got broken in the move; I hired a van just for my models/war games, and then the "madness hit" I bought four wallpaper tables, and put them inside my garage against the sidewalls, I then placed over one hundred German WW2/3 models on the tables, They looked wonderful, long rows of Messerschmitt 110-210-310-410 & 510 (Jets and a nose wheel) Just about every German plane you could think of, WHEN my Brother opened the main garage door, In one single second years of model making got destroyed by the door counter weights, Years later I found these on the garage floorAttachment 183400,
    a pair of Heinkel He 219 tail fins, From my ejector seat test plane, All I have left from my plane making days are a handful of 1/72 & 1/48 that survived the "Night of the long garage"

  5. #5

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    Drew that is a tale I am VERY sorry to hear ... In the last-but-one house move my collection underwent four aircraft were lost to an accident in transit c/o Pickfords. But I cannot even begin to imagine what losing as many models as that would feel like ...

    During my 2004 to 2014 1/72 kit-building days I maintained a tradition that if a WW2 aircraft for some reason was not built successfully then I'd Chop The Prop - or retain the aircraft propeller only and stick it to my shelves with blu-tack. The current record sadly stands at 1 x Hawker Hurricane Mk IV - Airfix. 1 x Hawker Typhoon Mk Ib - Novo. 1 x Messerschmitt Bf.109G-6 - Frog. 1 x F4U-1D Corsair - Airfix. 1 x Messerschmitt Bf.109K - poor quality E European manufacturer and finally 2 x DH98 Mosquito from the same aircraft - Airfix updated version!

    I now much prefer to collect diecast models these days in 1/72 and 1/144 scales mainly. Though I am still known to build the odd 1/72 scale WW2 or vintage jet kits now and again when I am in good health. To date the only serious accident I have had with a diecast model turned out to be when I bought a 1/72 scale Corgi Aviation McDonnell Phantom FGR.2 for £14.99 Buy It Now on E-Bay which fell out of a very battered box as I was in the process of undoing it. I was aware of the landing gear being super-glued in position when I bought it ... Well it's now unboxed with the landing gear doubly super-glued into position and part-painted too. I would not re-sell this aircraft to put the matter another way ...

  6. #6

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    Loved those Tomcats


    I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
    Coming down is the hardest thing

  7. #7

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    I started the Airfix 1/72 scale Tomcat over 25 years ago, and got about half way, then packed it in.
    This thread has made me go looking for it; I FOUND IT! Still in its box, still "complete", still half-finished! Doubt I'll ever get it finished now but you never know, maybe in a few years.........................

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    Only problem I found with Airfix's 1/72 Grumman F-14A was the attachment of the extra missile pylons to the wing-fairings (not to the wings themselves) didn't go too smoothly and required a spot of sanding. I built four between 1993 and 1996 which ended up in the default VF-1 and VF-2 liveries. Then I remember an Iranian Tomcat for which I customised some shared and Airfix 1/72 Northrop F-5A decals - that used to be a stinker of a kit to build in terms of parts not fitting together etc. Finally in 1996 I built the last one and painted it up as an Aggressor (Su-27) as used by then at NAS Fallon. With the concept having been made famous by the film Top Gun which was all about NAS Miramar. My friend JP airbrushed this aircraft for me making it by far the best in terms of paint-jobs applied! He had just built and completed the Airfix 1/72 Sukhoi Su-27A which is where the idea came from.

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Flying Helmut View Post
    I started the Airfix 1/72 scale Tomcat over 25 years ago, and got about half way, then packed it in.
    This thread has made me go looking for it; I FOUND IT! Still in its box, still "complete", still half-finished! Doubt I'll ever get it finished now but you never know, maybe in a few years.........................
    I remember going to Seagull models South Kensington as a matter of urgency, to buy some "GHQ" micro armour (88mm Flack guns) Which I needed for a planned war game, which was cancelled at the last moment, That was in 1974, alas I've yet to paint them, still ill get round to it one day!

  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by andron234 View Post
    But the Americans and the Iranians have stopped flying the F-14 Tomcat
    Nope, the Iranians are still flying theirs. Last seen escorting Russian bombers over Syria

  11. #11

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    Airfix in those days used far more durable plastic - it was around 2000 that they began to go downhill in their original format. Only problem was if you had a mis-shaped part in your kit it was nearly impossible to re-shape it back to what it should have been like. Mind you I only experienced this three times between 1978 and 1998.

    Meltbox ... Sorry, Matchbox kits were sometimes the funniest especially the bi-planes they produced in 1/72 scale like the Hawker Fury and Siskin Mk IA. PK-35 Curtiss SBC-1 Helldiver seemed to melt persistently: In fact I remember buying the lad next door one of these in 1985 for his birthday so I could watch it melting as he built it using UHU glue! My Father managed to build a decent Heller / Humbrol SBC-1 Helldiver in 1986 and put French markings on it rather than the RAF markings I was wanting him to put on it making it a Curtiss Cleveland Mk I. However he used Humbrol plastic cement as I remember him saying that UHU glue had no nozzle. I then changed over when I saw him build this

  12. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by andron234 View Post
    Are there any variable wing geometry in the pipeline that I don't know about, or is that it?
    I was going to say Tornado, until I re-read your post.

    There are still Russian swing wing planes in use, the MiG23 & 27, Su22 & Su24, Tu22M, & Tu160 and US still have the Rockwell (Boeing) B-1 Lancer.
    I don't know of any in development.

  13. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by andron234 View Post
    They are all 1/72 diecast models, I used to make loads of plastic kits, And then I moved house, "Nope" almost nothing got broken in the move; I hired a van just for my models/war games, and then the "madness hit" I bought four wallpaper tables, and put them inside my garage against the sidewalls, I then placed over one hundred German WW2/3 models on the tables, They looked wonderful, long rows of Messerschmitt 110-210-310-410 & 510 (Jets and a nose wheel) Just about every German plane you could think of, WHEN my Brother opened the main garage door, In one single second years of model making got destroyed by the door counter weights, Years later I found these on the garage floorAttachment 183400,
    a pair of Heinkel He 219 tail fins, From my ejector seat test plane, All I have left from my plane making days are a handful of 1/72 & 1/48 that survived the "Night of the long garage"



    oooohhhh the humanity!!!! many of my models ended their days by unfortunately occupying space coveted by various feline family members



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