Mal was Großes, ich baue ja aus Platzgründen eher kompakte Sachen...
Dies ist eine im Kern erhaltene, aber mit vielen Transplantationen und Scratch-Ergänzungen veränderte Beriev Be-6 vom verblichenen VEB Plasticart, nun ein Flugboot aus den letzten Tagen des WWII aus Großbritannien:
Some background:The Supermarine 370 “Stalwart” was a British twin-engined long-range maritime patrol flying boat. Originally designed for the Royal Air Force Coastal Command as an anti-submarine aircraft for long range operations over the Atlantic the type saw, with the change of threats and global priorities from 1944 on, only limited production and use in the Pacific theatre of operations in late WWII.
The 370’s design started in early 1940, intended primarily for military use, but also with an option for commercial duties. The military 370 was intended as a more powerful alternative to the Consolidated PBY Catalina, as well as a faster and twin-engined successor to the Short S.25 Sunderland. The civil version was supposed to carry seats for 52 passengers, or sleeper accommodation for 28.
The 370 accepted by the RAF and received the name "Stalwart". The flying boat was a gull-winged, all-metal aircraft with twin oval vertical stabilizers on top of a deep fuselage. The fuselage was divided into eight watertight compartments to improve survivability. Despite its size the 370 was only to be powered by two engines - one of the reasons for the type's protracted development phase until mid 1944. The engines were installed in the bends of the wings with the floats on an underwing cantilever rack. Each float was divided into four watertight compartments.
Progress was good, but the lack of appropriate engines in the 2.000+ hp class in time delayed the project. Nevertheless, equipped only with 1.600 hp Hercules engines, the underpowered 370 prototype first flew on 30th April 1942. The type showed much potential, with very good handling characteristics both in the air an at sea, but it was not until the availability of the sufficiently powerful Bristol Centaurus engine in 1944 that the Stalwart could show its full potential and actually be put into service - and even this engine was not deemed to be sufficient.
Consequently, the Stalwart became the first (and, eventually, the only) aircraft to be powered by the Bristol Orion engine. Designed by Sir Roy Fedden, the Orion (a name used previously for a variant of the Jupiter engine, and later re-used for a turboprop one), was an enlarged capacity version of the Centaurus. It was also a two-row, 18 cylinder sleeve valve engine with the displacement increased to 4,142 cubic inches (67.9 l), nearly as large as the massive American Wasp Major four-row, 28-cylinder radial, the largest displacement aviation radial engine ever placed in quantity production.
But there was more to the Orion radial than just sheer size and power. It also benefited from a late-war era invention, known as the "blowdown turbine" or "power-recovery turbine" (PRT). This design extracted energy from the momentum of the moving air in the exhaust system, but did not appreciably increase back-pressure. Effectively, this avoided the undesirable effects of conventional designs when connected to the exhaust of a piston engine, and a number of manufacturers studied this concept, because the PRT not only boosted the engine output, it also gave an extra 15 to 35 percent fuel economy - highly appreciated for a long range aircraft like the Stalwart.
Due to the engine troubles the 370’s serial production was just starting when the war situation relaxed and the need for a Sunderland update waned. Hence, after 20 initial airframes in early 1945, the original production order of 200 was cancelled. The already finished Stalwart airframes were equipped and put into RAF servoce but only saw use during the last months of the Second World War in the Pacific theatre or operations under SEAC command.
From the start, the Supermarine Stalwart was equipped with the ASV Mark III, which operated in the centimetric band and used antennae mounted in blisters under the wings outboard of the floats, instead of the cluttered stickleback aerials of former radar systems. The ASV enabled the flying boat to attack submarines on the surface, and allowed surveillance operations at day and night.
As weapons they carried, beyond conventional torpedos, water bombs or mines, new Mk.24 acoustic mines (nicknamed "Fido") that automatically homed in on the sound of submerged submarines or, lacking a homing signal, patrolled a certain area in circles in hope for an accidental collision hit.
In this role the Stalwart GR.Is were operated primarily by RAF 205 from Ceylon and 357 Squadron from Madras, but after the hostilities ended the flying boats were quickly phased out: the Orion engine and its complicated turbine mechanism proved to be unreliable and hard to service, and the tropical climate of the operation zone did not make things better - even though the Stalwart was easy to fly and a stable platform for various tasks. Nevertheless, all aircraft were scrapped, and the idea of a commercial version was also quickly let down due to the technical advances of land-based aircraft.
General characteristics:Crew: 9—11 (2 pilots, radio operator, radar operator, navigator, engineer, bomb-aimer, 3-5 gunners)
Length: 24,62 m (80 ft 8 in)
Wingspan: 33 m (110 ft)
Height: 7.64 m (25 ft 1 in)
Wing area: 120 m² (1.292 ft²)
Empty weight: 18.827 kg (41.506 lb)
Loaded weight: 23.456 kg (51.711 lb)
Landing weight: 20.928 kg (46.138 lb))
Max. take-off weight: 29.000 kg (64.000 lb)
Powerplant:2× Bristol Orion PRT II compund radial piston engines with 3.000 hp (2.158 kW) each
Performance:Maximum speed: 414 km/h (218 kn, 257 mph) at 1.800 m (5.900 ft)
Cruise speed: 280 km/h (173 mph) at 2.000 m (6.600 ft)
Landing speed: 147 km/h (105 kn, 91 mph)
Range: 5.000 km (2.700 kn, 3.100 mi)
Service ceiling: 6.100 m (20.013 ft)
Armament:10x 0.5 (12.7 mm) Browning machine guns in nose, dorsal, side and rear turrets
2x 0.78 (20 mm) fixed Hispano cannons, firing forward
2× 1.000 kg (2.205 lb) torpedoes plus 4.410 lbs (2.000 kg) of bombs or depth charges, or 10 mines, under the wings
Riesenprojekt, im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes und mit fast einem halben Meter Spannweite. Alleine die Fotos waren schwer zu machen, habe dafür extra 75x50cm-Poster drucken lassen - und ich habe keine Base, die eine Komplettaufnahme "an Land" erlaubt hätte.
Viel Arbeit: neu sind z. B. das komplette Cockpit mit Innenleben, die ganze Bewaffnung wurde implantiert, es gab neue Triebwerke (Resin-Teile, diese an die viel größeren Übergänge anzupassen war Hölle), die FIDOs sind aus modernen Schüttbomben gescratcht, dann gab es ein gescratchtes Landungs-Fahrwerk... Das Gute: auf den ersten Blick erinnert kaum mehr was an eine "Madge", man vermutet eher eine Martin Mariner?
Thema: What if? Supermarine Stalwart GR.I, RAF 205 Squadron; Ceylon, Sommer 1945 (Gelesen 4570 mal)