Spinners

Mirage 2000C

Ilyushin Il-10 'Beast' - Ataque de Regimiento Reino de Castilla, Spanish Republican Air Force, 1949

I knew I was on shaky ground with this so thanks for the pointer ; )

Mirage ascendant

Welcome to Combat Ace Ace!

Ilyushin Il-10 'Beast' - 1st Attack Regiment, Afghan Air Force, 1954 In 1953 Mohammed Daoud Khan became President of Afghanistan and soon looked for a closer relationship with the Soviet Union and, perhaps unintentionally, this soon led to a more distant relationship towards Pakistan which by 1954 had escalated into border clashes over the disputed 'Durand Line' border which had never been amended or ratified since Pakistan's partition from India in 1947. Sensing an opportunity to extend their sphere of influence into the region the Soviet Union quickly supplied military equipement to the Afghan Government including the formidable Ilyushin Il-10 (NATO Codename: 'Beast') which soon became the mainstay of the Afghan Air Force. N.B. my Afghan roundels actually belong to the 1937 to 1947 era but these don't quite fit the timing of my short backstory and I really dislike the roundel that came later so a bit of artistic licence has been used.

Mirage F1C

Chapeau! Well done Ludo and team.

Beasts

Top drawer stuff mate - thank you.

Old adversaries... reunited!

Beauty and the Beast The beauty is, of course, Piecemeal's superb new Desert4 terrain and the fantastic IL-10 'Beast' by Paulopanz (great team work lads).

@ Wrench - they ARE MiG-15's mate. The Fantail's wing was closer to shoulder-mounted and not mid-mounted. Required Screenie A jet

Early Kurnass

General Dynamics F-111N - 2 Smaldeel, Belgian Air Force, 1977

General Dynamics F-111N - 6° Stormo 'Diavoli Rossi', Aeronautica Militare Italiana, 1990 Once the USAF's SOR-183 'Tactical Strike Fighter' mission and the USN's 'Fleet Air Defense' mission had been banged together to create the TFX competition, eventually won by General Dynamics, there was immediate interest from many air forces due to the dazzling performance promised by the F-111. In turn, General Dynamics were encouraged by the US Department of State to propose export versions to allied nations so as to realise further cost savings from a larger production run. Indeed, the likely production run was estimated to be in excess of 1,500 for the USAF and USN plus another 1,000 for export to US allies and by 1964 this had prompted General Dynamics to actively market a baseline F-111X export version based on the F-111A. When the UK Government cancelled the outstanding TSR.2 strike aircraft in April 1965, General Dynamics realigned the F-111X to create the F-111N meant as a NATO standard type with the UK announced as a launch customer for a new version based on the Australian F-111C with long-span wings and strengthened landing gear and subsequently revised to incorporate the Triple Plow II intake and the TF30-P-12 engine rated at 20,250lbs thrust. Whilst initially only ordering 50 F-111N's the UK Government gave every indication of a total requirement of 220. In early 1966 Italy become the second customer for the F-111N when they ordered 90 aircraft for the Aeronautica Militare Italiana and the first of these entered service in 1969 with 154º Gruppo at Ghedi.

A couple of shots showing the earlier style of roundel.

And twisted ones!

View File [Fictional] General Dynamics F-111A 'Early TAC' General Dynamics F-111A 'Early TAC' for STRIKE FIGHTERS 2 This is a very simple mod of the superb F-111A by FastCargo to represent a fictional 'earlier timeline' version of the F-111A entering service in 1965 with service years restricted to 1965 to 1967 inclusive. BACKSTORY Perhaps the three technical breakthroughs that came together to make the F-111A (the swing-wing, the afterburning turbofan and solid-state devices) came together just that little bit earlier leading to the corresponding earlier drafting of SOR-183 and the resultant TFX competition thus predating McNamara and the distraction of 'commonality' and the Naval F-111B. INSTRUCTIONS 1. From the AIRCRAFT folder drag and drop the F-111A_TAC folder into your Aircraft folder. 2. From the DECALS folder drag and drop the F-111A_TAC folder into your Decals folder. 3. From the SOUNDS folder drag and drop the TF30_DRY AND TF30_WET files into your Sounds folder. Make sure you've got the F-111 SuperVarkPack for the tanks and weapons bay mounted gun. CREDITS As always, big thanks to Third Wire for the continuous improvement of a great little game/sim. Massive thanks to FastCargo for the full and complete F-111 family. The F-111 Super Vark Pack by FastCargo gives comprehensive thanks to everyone who has played a part and his credits include thanks to Norman Knight for the F-111 pit. And, finally, thanks to everyone in the wider Third Wire community. Regards Spinners Version 1 - 02/02/14 Submitter Spinners Submitted 02/02/2014 Category What If Hangar  

General Dynamics F-111A - 428th Tactical Fighter Squadron, USAF Tactical Air Command, 1964 Only a partial 'what if' based on the swing-wing research carried out by Vickers during the mid-1950's being passed to NASA's Langley Laboratory earlier than reality (i.e. before 1959) and then a corresponding earlier drafting of SOR-183 and the resultant TFX competition predating McNamara and the distraction of 'commonality' and the Naval F-111B. I'm not sure an earlier TF30 would have done it much good though!

Uploaded - just give the admins some time.

Give me an hour or two and I'll upload it 'as is' (with F-105 Tail Numbers).

'Combat Lancer' - Six of the Best!

Parani MiG-15's Yes - MiG-15's