Wie wär's mit karibischer Exotik? Vermutlich weiß kaum jemand, dass Haiti mal eine Luftwaffe hatte - und ich schiebe ihr noch etwas neues unter...
Some backgorund:The Corps d'Aviation d'Haïti was formed in 1943 with some aircraft from the United States. Its main task was transport and communication. Headquarters were at Bowen Field, Port-au-Prince, a former U.S. Marine Corps airfield, which was the main air base of the Haïtian Air Force until 1994. During the 1940s Haiti received small quantities of training aircraft. The first combat aircraft, six F-51D Mustang and four F-47D-40, arrived in country in 1950 - just in time when things turned rough.
Haiti elected a legislature in May 1946, and after two rounds of voting, Dumarsais Estimé, a black cabinet minister, was elected president. He operated under a new constitution which expanded schools, established rural farming cooperatives, and raised salaries of civil servants. These early successes, however, were undermined by his personal ambition, and his alienation of the military and elite led to a coup in 1950, which reinstalled the military junta.
This was just the moment when the ex USAF aircraft arrived. The Mustangs were reserved for the fighter role, ground attack being just a secondary option. The Thunderbolts were primarily intended against ground and sea targets, and they were equipped to carry HVARs under the wings.
The Republic F-47 Thunderbolt (P-47 until 1948) was one of the largest and heaviest fighter aircraft in history to be powered by a single piston engine. It was heavily armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns, four per wing. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to eight tons, and in the fighter-bomber ground-attack roles could carry up to ten five-inch rockets or a significant bomb load, for a total of up to 2.500 pounds of external ordnance.
After WWII the USAAF Strategic Air Command had P-47 Thunderbolts in service from 1946 through 1947, as escort fighter for heavy bombers, but they were quickly retired until 1953. The four Haïtian aircraft were taken from this overstock, and unlike the Mustangs, which had to be modernized and made airworthy by Cavalier in the USA, the F-47s could be put into service immediately.
When Haiti announced that its first direct elections (all men twenty-one or over were allowed to vote) would be held on October 8, 1950, Paul Magloire resigned from the junta and declared himself a candidate for president. In contrast to the chaotic political climate of 1946, the campaign of 1950 proceeded under the implicit understanding that only a strong candidate backed by both the army and the elite would be able to take power. During that uncertain phase, all the Haïtian Air Force aircraft were kept in store and were disarmed, for fear that they’d be abused in another coup d’état.
Facing only token opposition, Magloire won the election and assumed office on December 6th 1950. Magloire restored the elite to prominence, and the Haïtian Air Force resumed its duties. The business community and the government benefited from favorable economic conditions until Hurricane Hazel hit the island in 1954. Hazel devastated the nation's freshly renovated infrastructure and economy. Hurricane relief was inadequately distributed and misspent, and Magloire jailed opponents and shut down newspapers.
After refusing to step down after his term ended, a general strike shut down Port-au-Prince's economy, and Magloire fled, leaving the government in a state of chaos. When elections were finally organized, François Duvalier, a rural doctor, was elected, on a platform of activism on behalf of Haiti's poor.
Both Mustang and Thunderbolts were superseded in October 1973 with T-28D Trojan from France, which were replace by O-2A Skymaster in 1975. It was also in 1973 that Haiti got its first helicopters from the United States.
Eventually, the Haitian Air Force was disbanded in 1994, after United Nation sponsored forces came to Haiti to reinstall president Aristide.
General characteristics: Crew: 1
Length: 36 ft 1 in (11.00 m)
Wingspan: 40 ft 9 in (12.42 m)
Height: 14 ft 8 in (4.47 m)
Wing area: 300 ft² (27.87 m²)
Empty weight: 10,000 lb (4,535 kg)
Loaded weight: 13,300 lb (6,032 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 17,500 lb (7,938 kg)
Powerplant: 1× Pratt & Whitney R-2800-59 twin-row radial engine, 2,535 hp (1,890 kW)
Performance: Maximum speed: 433 mph at 30,000 ft (697 km/h at 9,145 m)
Range: 800 mi combat, 1,800 mi ferry (1,290 km / 2,900 km)
Service ceiling: 43,000 ft (13,100 m)
Rate of climb: 3,120 ft/min (15.9 m/s)
Wing loading: 44.33 lb/ft² ()
Power/mass: 0.19 hp/lb (238 W/kg)
Armament: 8× 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns (w. 3.400 rounds total)
Up to 2,500 lb (1,134 kg) of bombs or10× 5 in (127 mm) unguided rockets/HVARs
Ein simpler Quickie - die Inspiration schlug vor einiger Zeit ein, als ich in einem P-51-Buch ein Profil einer haitischen Mustang sah. Ein reizvolles Thema, zumal es sogar Nachrüst-Aufkleber dafür gibt. Aber als alter Whiffer ist nachbauen nicht genug - hier wird improvisiert und 'geschummelt'!
Als Alternative zur Mustang aus Überbeständen bot sich die P-47 an, und ich hatte noch einen Hobby Boss-Bausatz einer späten D in der Halde, der kurzerhand verwurstet wurde. Baulich ist das Ding fast OOB, nur im Cockpit gab es ein Armaturenbrett extra, die Unterrumpf-Aufhängung wurde weggespachtelt, ein Antennengehäuse kam auf den Rücken und als Anachronismus kamen statt Eisenbomben zwei modernere Raketenwerfer unter die Flügel.
Die Lackierung orientiert sich an den echten haitianischen P-51: komplett grau, wobei dies aber recht dröge aussieht und ich quasi zur Auflockerung einen abgenutzten Eindruck haben wollte, um die Kiste interessanter zu machen.
Daher ist das Modell erst einmal mit Acryl-Alu "grundiert", und darauf dann, mit einem flachen, weichen Synthetikpinsel, das Grau (IJN-Grau von Modelmaster) aufgebracht. Das Ganze erhielt dann noch ein leichtes Tusche-Washing und ein wenig Trockenbemalung, aber nicht viel.
Die Hoheitszeichen sind komplett improvisiert, aus weißen Balken, runden Startnummer-Kreisen für Slotcars sowie RAF-Rondellen.
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Thema: What if? Caribbean Thunder(bolt): F-47D-40 des Corps d'Aviation d'Haïti; 1965 (Gelesen 2679 mal)
