What if? 1:72 Douglas F3D-3/F-10C "(Swept wing) Skyknight" der VF-61, 1958 (Whif)

[dizzyfugu]

Ein kürzlich fertiggestelltes Projekt - es ist KEINE Schande, wenn man das Original nicht kennt, denn die F3D ist/war einer der frühen, unglamurösen Düsenjäger der Nachkriegszeit. Die F3D-3 war ein echtes Projekt - nämlich eine weiterentwickelte Version mit Pfeilfügeln: hier eine offizielle Skizze, die als Vorbild für eine selbstgebaute (what-if...) Einsatzmaschine diente:




Und das ist dann das Ergebnis:






Some background:
The Douglas F3D Skyknight (later designated F-10 Skyknight) was a United States twin-engined, mid-wing jet fighter aircraft manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company in El Segundo, California. The F3D was designed as a carrier-based all-weather night fighter and saw service with the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The mission of the F3D-2 was to search out and destroy enemy aircraft at night.






The F3D was not intended to be a typical sleek and nimble dogfighter, but as a standoff night fighter, packing a powerful radar system and a second crew member. It originated in 1945 with a US Navy requirement for a jet-powered, radar-equipped, carrier-based night fighter. The Douglas team led by Ed Heinemann designed around the bulky air intercept radar systems of the time, with side-by-side seating for the pilot and radar operator. The result was an aircraft with a wide, deep, and roomy fuselage. Instead of ejection seats, an escape tunnel was used.

As a night fighter that was not expected to be as fast as smaller daylight fighters, the expectation was to have a stable platform for its radar system and the four 20 mm cannon mounted in the lower fuselage. The F3D was, however, able to outturn a MiG-15 in an inside circle. The fire control system in the F3D-1 was the Westinghouse AN/APQ-35.






The AN/APQ-35 was advanced for the time, a combination of three different radars, each performing separate functions: an AN/APS-21 search radar, an AN/APG-26 tracking radar, both located in the nose, and an AN/APS-28 tail warning radar. The complexity of this vacuum tube-based radar system, which was produced before the advent of semiconductor electronics, required intensive maintenance to keep it operating properly.

The F3D Skyknight was never produced in great numbers but it did achieve many firsts in its role as a night fighter over Korea. While it never achieved the fame of the North American F-86 Sabre, it did down several Soviet-built MiG-15s as a night fighter over Korea with only one air-to-air loss of its own against a Chinese MiG-15 on the night of 29 May 1953.






In the years after the Korean War, the F3D was gradually replaced by more powerful aircraft with better radar systems. The F3D's career was not over though; its stability and spacious fuselage made it easily adaptable to other roles. The Skyknight played an important role in the development of the radar-guided AIM-7 Sparrow missile in the 1950s which led to further guided air-to-air missile developments.

In 1954, the F3D-2M was the first U.S. Navy jet aircraft to be fitted with an operational air-to-air missile: the Sparrow I,an all weather day/night BVR missile that used beam riding guidance for the aircrew to control the flight of the missile. Only 38 aircraft (12 F3D-1Ms, and 16 F3D-2Ms) were modified to use the missiles, though.

One of the F3D's main flaws, which it shared with many early jet aircraft, was its lack of power and performance. Douglas tried to mend this through a radical redesign: The resulting F3D-3 was the designation assigned to a swept-winged version (36° sweep at quarter chord) of the Skyknight. It was originally to be powered by the J46 turbojet, rated at 4.080 lbf for takeoff, which was under development but suffered serious trouble.








This led to the cancellation of the J46, and calculated performance of the F3D-3 with the substitute J34 was deemed insufficient. As an alternative the aircraft had to be modified to carry two larger and longer J47-GE-2 engines, which also powered the USN's FJ-2 "Fury" fighter.
This engine's thrust of 6.000 pounds-force (27 kN) at 7,950 rpm appeared sufficient for the heavy, swept-wing aircraft, and in 1954 an order for 287 production F3D-3s was issued, right time to upgrade the new type with the Sparrow I.

While the F3D-3's outline resembled that of its straight wing predecessors, a lot of structural changes had to be made to accommodate the shifted main wing spar, and the heavy radar equipment also took its toll: the gross weight climbed by more than 3 tons, and as a result much of the gained performance through the stronger engines and the swept wings was eaten away.






Maximum internal fuel load was 1.350 US gallons, plus a further 300 in underwing drop tanks. Overall wing surface remained the same, but the swept wing surfaces reduced the wing span.
In the end, thrust-to-weight ratio was only marginally improved and in fact, the F3D-3 had a lower rate of climb than the F3D-2, its top speed at height was only marginally higher, and stall speed climbed by more than 30 mph, making carrier landings more complicated.

It's equipment was also the same - the AN/APQ-35 was still fitted, but mainly because the large radar dish offered the largest detection range of any carrier-borne type of that time, and better radars that could match this performance were still under construction. Anyway, the F3D-3 was able to carry Sparrow I from the start, and this would soon be upgraded to Sparrow III (which became the AIM-7), and it showed much better flight characteristics at medium altitude.






Despite the ,many shortcomings the "new" aircraft represented an overall improvement over the F3D-2 and was accepted for service. Production of the F3D-3 started in 1955, but technology advanced quickly and a serious competitor with supersonic capability appeared with the McDonnell F3H Demon and the F4D Skyray - much more potent aircraft that the USN immediately preferred to the slow F3Ds. As a consequence, the production contract was cut down to only 102 aircraft.

But it came even worse: production of the swept wing Skyknight already ceased after 18 months and 71 completed airframes. Ironically, the F3D-3's successor, the F3H and its J40 engine, turned out to be more capricious than expected, which delayed the Demon's service introduction and seriously hampered its performance, so that the F3D-3 kept its all weather/night fighter role until 1960, and was eventually taken out of service in 1964 when the first F-4 Phantom II fighters appeared in USN service.






In 1962 all F3D versions were re-designated into F-10, the swept wing F3D-3 became the F-10C. The straight wing versions were used as trainers and also served as an electronic warfare platform into the Vietnam War as a precursor to the EA-6A Intruder and EA-6B Prowler, while the swept-wing fighters were completely retired as their performance and mission equipment had been outdated. The last F-10C flew in 1965.


General characteristics
    Crew: two
    Length: 49 ft (14.96 m)
    Wingspan: 42 feet 5 inches (12.95 m)
    Height: 16 ft 1 in (4.90 m)
    Wing area: 400 ft² (37.16 m²)
    Empty weight: 19.800 lb (8.989 kg)
    Loaded weight: 28,843 lb (13.095 kg)
    Max. takeoff weight: 34.000 lb (15.436 kg)
   
Powerplant:
2× General Electric J47-GE-2 turbojets, each rated at 6.000 lbf (26,7 kN) each

Performance
    Maximum speed: 630 mph (1.014 km/h) at sea level, 515 mph (829 km/h) t (6,095 m)
    Cruise speed: 515 mph (829 km/h) at 40,000 feet
    Stall speed: 128 mph (206 km/h)
    Range: 890 mi (1.433 km) with internal fuel; 1,374 mi, 2,212 km with 2× 300 gal (1.136 l) tanks
    Service ceiling: 43.000 ft (13.025 m)
    Rate of climb: 2,640 ft/min (13,3 m/s)
    Wing loading: 53.4 lb/ft² (383 kg/m²)
    Thrust/weight: 0.353

Armament
    4× 20 mm Hispano-Suiza M2 cannon, 200 rpg, in the lower nose
    Four underwing hardpoints inboard of the wing folding points for up to 4.000 lb (1.816 kg)
    ordnance, including AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missiles, 11.75 in (29.8cm) Tiny Tim rockets, two
    150 or 300 US gal drop tanks or bombs of up to 2.000 lb (900 kg) caliber, plus four hardpoints
    under each outer wing for a total of eight 5" HVARs or eight pods with six 2 3/4" FFARs each



Prinzipiell ist das ein Kitbashing aus einer Matchbox-Skyknight und Spenderteilen einer Italeri B-66, sowie ein paar Pimp-Elementen.






So wurde das Cockpit leicht ergänzt (sieht man eh nix von, außer den Pilotenfiguren), neue Fahrwerksschächte mussten geschnitten werden, und auch die Ansatzstellen der Flügel am Rumpf benötigten massive Spachtelarbeiten. Auch die Sparrows sind aus der Ersatzteilbox. Das Seitenleitwerk war eine größere Aufbauarbeit, weil die Tiefe reduziert und die Vorderkante komplett neu gemacht werden musste.

Die Markierungen sind zwar zusammengepuzzelt, aber ich habe versucht eine authentische Maschine an Bord der USS Saratoga bei ihrem ersten Trip ins Mittelmeer "darzustellen". Grau-Weiß mit etwas Farbe steht dem Brummer ausgezeichnet - zumal durch die gepfeilten Flügel erst deutlich machen, wie (potenziell9 elegant die F3D eigentlich ist/war - das Original kommt doch eher plump daher.