Spinners

We're on about the post-war development (the Ikarus S-49C).

Weddel-Williams P-34A Cardinal - 48th Pursuit Squadron, 15th Pursuit Group, United States Army Air Force, December 1941 When the USAAC announced a competition for a new single-seat fighter in 1935 the three main contenders appeared to be the Curtis P-36, the Seversky P-35 and the Vought V-141. Whilst all three featured all-metal construction, retractable landing gear and an enclosed cockpit there was concern that none of these radial engined fighter aircraft would meet the projected performance of the sleek inline monoplane fighters then under development in Europe. There had already been some USAAC interest in the successful Weddel-Williams series of private racing aircraft earlier in the 1930's leading to the XP-34 but this did not proceed further than the drawing board. However, in early 1936 the USAAC asked Wedell-Williams to design a new fighter aircraft utilising the Allison V-1710 V-12 liquid-cooled engine. Chief Designer Jimmy Wedell quickly schemed a new streamlined low-wing monoplane design around the V-1710-19 inline engine and, favouring manoeuvrability over speed, his radical new design had a smaller wing area than the contemporary Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire with an unusually short fuselage. Whilst the design was known as the Wedell-Williams Model 46 for obscure budgetary reasons the USAAC continued to use the XP-34 designation. The Model 46 prototype first flew on August 15th 1937 and development and testing moved swiftly. When tested against P-35 and P-36 pre-production aircraft (in the USAAC trials held in March 1938) service pilots concluded that the Model 46 had several advantages over both - including being more manoeuvrable in level flight thus enabling it to quickly get behind its opponents by making tight horizontal turns. These trials led to an order for 240 P-34A's which first entered service with the 20th Pursuit Group at Barksdale Field in Louisiana in April 1940. In February 1941 forty-two P-34A's were delivered to Hawaii after being loaded on to the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and flown off the carrier's deck by USAAC pilots when the Enterprise approached the coast of Hawaii. During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 8th, 1941 only a handful of the 39 remaining P-34A's at Pearl Harbor were able to take off during the attack. One of the few pilots who managed to engage enemy aircraft was 2nd Lt. Philip M. Rasmussen of the 46th Pursuit Squadron. He was woken up when the attack began and, whilst still wearing his pajamas, Rasmussen raced towards the flight line where most of the P-34A's were either damaged or destroyed. Rasmussen jumped in to aircraft number '86' (belonging to the 48th Pursuit Squadron aircraft) and took off with another three pilots heading for Kaneohe Bay where they engaged eleven Japanese fighters in battle. After shooting down one Japanese aircraft, Rasmussen was attacked by two Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighters. Bullets and cannon shells shattered the canopy, destroyed the radio and severed his aircrafts hydraulic lines and rudder cable forcing Rasmussen to seek refuge in nearby cloud cover before flying back toward Wheeler Field. Landing without brakes, rudder or tailwheel his P-34A was riddled more than 500 bullet holes. * Sadly, Jimmy Weddel died in a flying incident in 1934.

The post-war development looks awesome!

Weddel-Williams P-34A - 48th Pursuit Squadron, United States Army Air Corps, 1941

Bloch MB-151 - 1st Fighter Regiment, Parani Army Air Force, 1941

Decades ago when I was in my early teens I bought a book called "A Pictorial History of the RAF - Volume 3 1945 to 1969" and perhaps my interest in 'what if's' can be found from within those pages. Page 82 refers to the 1950 RAF display at Farnborough, where the famous Amiens Jail raid was recreated and shows a delightful picture of six clipped-wing Spitfires in full WW2 Luftwaffe markings "masquerading as Messerschmitt Bf109's" - a lovely phrase don't you think? Anyway, this thread is for 'what if's' that use an aircraft to pretend to be an entirely different aircraft and probably from a different nation. This isn't just decals added to an F-14 to make an RAF Tomcat (guilty as charged!) but something entirely different like my Aero L.23 that is a Super Mystere masquerading as a fictional Cold War Czech fighter. A more recent example was my Lavochkin La-13 'Fibber' using the Focke-Wulf Ta-183 Wrench (the original 'what if' guru of this site) has done a couple of 'masquerades' and here is his Northrop F-79 Manta So, there you go. C'mon, give us your 'masquerades'! If you've done one before, repost it here. Give us your thoughts, give us some ideas and give us some pictures!

Hawker Hurricane Mk.I - Polish Air Force, 1939

Just a stock F-4D

Northrop F-5D Freedom Fighter - No.75 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force, 1968 The New Zealand Government's decision to send troops to Vietnam in 1964 was highly controversial but was simply an escalation of the previous position of New Zealand assistance via various support structures such as the Civilian Surgical Team and the supply of a small non-combatant military force of engineers. The Royal New Zealand Air Force had provided transport assistance since 1962 and this had begun to increase when a sufficiently large airstrip to accommodate the Bristol Freighters of No.40 Squadron was built at Nui Dat. American pressure on both Australia and New Zealand to increase their support to US Forces in Vietnam continued and on March 31st, 1966 Sir Keith Holyoake, the New Zealand Prime Minister, announced that the Royal New Zealand Air Force would contribute to a joint RAAF/RNZAF combat wing consisting of three squadrons (two RAAF and one RNZAF) operating a version of the F-5A 'Freedom Fighter' which had just finished a succcessful five-month combat evaluation during 'Operation Skoshi Tiger'. On April 30th, 1966 No.75 Squadron of the Royal New Zealand Air Force at Ohakea was disbanded and a new No.75 Squadron was formed on the following day at Bien Hoa Air Base in South-Central southern Vietnam operating a handful of F-5A's and F-5B's loaned from USAF stocks. Experiences gained from 'Skoshi Tiger' were incorporated into a new version of the basic F-5A designated as the F-5D and initial deliveries were made to No.75 Squadron of the Royal New Zealand Air Force during August 1966 and the squadron were declared operational at the end of September 1966. The joint RAAF/RNZAF combat wing at Bien Hoa operated in ground-attack operations over South Vietnam and gained an enviable reputation for bombing accuracy and aircraft availability. When the joint RAAF/RNZAF combat wing finally ceased operations at the end of 1971 only eleven F-5D's had been lost over Vietnam - nine to enemy ground fire and two due to an unfortunate collision at take-off. All remaining aircraft were handed over to the Republic of Vietnam Air Force in 1972 in a move financed by the Nixon administration as part of the wider policy of 'Vietnamization'. Skin Credit: Sophocles

Kiwi Freedom Fighter Free the Kiwi's!

McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR.3 - No.6 Squadron, RAF Middle East Command, 1970 Template Credit: sundowner

Not a full-blown skin request but does anyone have a sharkmouth for the ThirdWire F-4E (i.e. F-4E-35) with the short fairing? Either as a decal or perhaps as a layer on a template. Cheers.

What's the difference? You're happy to give $99.99 to a corporate giant like Nike for their intellectual property but not to a one-man company trying to keep his head above water. What odd values you have.

Buy a legitimate copy, where the game creator gets his fair reward, then we'll talk.

Is that a pirate copy of Wings Over Europe?

Lockheed Starfighter F.2 - RAF Fighter Command, 1963-1968 Template Credit: bobrock

Updated!

Treble One Zipper

Firebirds

Bristol F2B 'Brisfit' - Everytown Air Force, 1970 An affectionate nod to the 1936 film 'Things to Come'.

McDonnell Douglas F-4M 'Kārearea' - No.2 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force, 1992

Sham... rocks!

McDonnell Douglas F-4M Phantom - 48th Tactical Fighter Wing, United States Air Force Europe, 1975 During late 1966, with the USA getting more and more embroiled in the Vietnam war, it was decided to re-equip several USAFE units with the British licence-built F-4M so as to release older tactical aircraft such as the F-100D and F-105D for service in Vietnam where attrition was now a very serious issue. McDonnell Douglas had already brought together a substantial UK sub-contracting team consisting of BAC, Hawker Siddeley, Rolls-Royce (for the Spey turbofan engines) and Shorts with final assembly and flight testing being carried out at St. Louis but, with one eye on the European market, McDonnell Douglas moved final assembly to Brough (North Humberside) with flight testing at Holme on Spalding Moor. This decision came a bit too late for the Royal Navy whose F-4K aircraft continued to be assembled and flight tested in the USA but all F-4M's were produced in the UK with all odd production numbers being allocated to the RAF and all even numbers to the USAFE with Lakenheath and Bitburg becoming the first USAFE wings to re-equip with the type. Entering service with the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing based at RAF Lakenheath in England in 1970 the F-4M's received a modest upgrade during 1973-1974 to emerge with the Marconi ARI18228 RWR mounted on the fintip and also gained 'slimer' formation-keeping strip lights. The USAF F-4M's had a relatively long career with USAFE and were eventually replaced by F-15E's during 1990 and just missed out on participation in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm.