My Projects (EricJ)

[+EricJ 3,973]

More detailing and panel line work:

[Wrench 9,596]

welll...at least my serial number decals are still being used!!!

 

that skin looks soooooooooooooo much better than my crappy early versions ... good work Eric!!

 

wrench

kevin stein

[+EricJ 3,973]

Thanks!

[FastCargo 412]

Nice stuff Eric!

 

Periscope down:

 

Periscope up:

 

FC

[+Coupi 4,292]

Hello,

 

I didnt know this aircraft!

 

I like your model...

 

Coupi.

[squid 21]

Moding perversion, wickedness ... you are sick

[+EricJ 3,973]

Looking cool FC!

 

More work and yet another flight test. You don't see this of course but it took me eight minutes to get from the runway to the northern edge-ish of the map.

[+daddyairplanes 9,028]

what is the projected range on that monster? one would think its definately a point interceptor but how far out would that point be?

 

also for all who have been decrying the series of late, where else can you take obscure aircraft concepts from the past and put them in the air to see what they would be like? huh? huh? thats right kids. (just waiting for the bugs to work out of the patch:grin: )

Edited December 30, 2010 by daddyairplanes

[Wrench 9,596]

that's the MidWest USA terrain, isn't it??? Gotta get back to that, after iraq/iran....

 

wrench

kevin stein

[+EricJ 3,973]

Yes it is :) Just thought I'd try it just for a low end map to quick shots on. daddyairplanes I honestly haven't gotten that far or I'll end up like FC "Gonna need a bigger map"

[FastCargo 412]

Well, I've been testing out the F-103A acceleration and climb times, and she's pretty close. The projected time to climb was 7.1 minutes at Mach 3 at 60k. Currently, the model does the same numbers at 7.5 minutes.

 

In the B-70 book, the F-103's Combat Radius is given as 450 miles...I thought I read somewhere else that it was closer to 220 miles. I did read in the F-103 Standard Aircraft Characteristics (official USAF docs) that the 'Mission Time' was expected to be 0.2 hours...or about 12 minutes! Considering that would be 7 minutes to altitude for 5 minutes of air combat time, that sounds about right...at Mach 3, you'd cover the combat radius in 15 minutes (450 NM) or just under 8 minutes (220 miles).

 

Also, the fuel usage is horrendous, but not unexpected. You drain the external tanks just about the time you hit Mach 3 and 60k, so the timing works too.

 

The F-103A will be a 'point' interceptor...emphasis on 'point'. After the initial blow by and turnaround (assuming the target is at 1.34 Mach and 40k feet), you pretty much get one pass and you're out of gas.

 

FC

[+Muesli 2,154]

Hahaha, funny and exciting!

Promising plane.

[+EricJ 3,973]

The only nagging question is for the more knoweledgeable people is would a plane like this have extensive riveting? Wrench? Lexx_Luthor? Or anybody familiar with the Blackbird?

[+EricJ 3,973]

Okay taking a little "break: from everything and continuing on more sex plane work. The mouth area needs cleaning up as its final at this point. The good thing is that the line birds had a similar mouth look so all I need to do is recolor but man I'm glad this ordeal is almost over with.

[+Dave 2,319]

[+EricJ 3,973]

Got the right side done... now for the left.

[+EricJ 3,973]

Minor pylon and tank work.

[+EricJ 3,973]

Starting on fuselage riveting...

 

Stupid question with the early-era folks... you have any pictures of the access panels? Such as riveting and such? or is it on the actual panel itself? etc?

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

Eric I'm looking now. FC and I have Jenkin's B-70 book. All they did was a metal mockup. I do see what looks like lots of riveting on one of the nose mockups, but that may be just the mockup, and if so, it could be flush. Nothing else I see has info on this. FC may know. The fellas over at overscan's http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php might know.

 

According to the book, Kartveli aimed for M=4, but he found that heat limited that to M=3, and Air Material Command predicted only M=2.5 sustained. But I wonder how much fuel was left after the plane reached M=3. If not too much, then there is not much time to sustain that speed anyways. So M=3 may be a good max.

 

btw...Kartveli wanted a real canopy -- think X-15 style and very small -- and continued to work on that as his own project even after everybody else went flush canopy.

Edited January 3, 2011 by Lexx_Luthor

[+EricJ 3,973]

Okay I may start going across then....

[+EricJ 3,973]

Okay after waiting 15 minutes for Sprint to pull their heads out of their fourth point of contact so I can upload a quick 1 minute update... never mind.... Started to work around the fuselage going for a more F-100 look as far as riveting.

Edited January 4, 2011 by EricJ

[+EricJ 3,973]

And mostly done. I guess it wouldn't hurt to go across?

[FastCargo 412]

Looks good to me...keep on keeping on!

 

I think the FM and cockpit are as good as they are going to get. I'll send you an update soon.

 

FC

[+EricJ 3,973]

Wilco

[+EricJ 3,973]

Going across...