Spinners

Lockheed F-104H Starfighter - 318th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, Aerospace Defense Command, USAF, 1971 On March 15th 1963, two Soviet bombers overflew Alaska and despite a desperate chase the F-102A's of Alaskan Air Command were unable to intercept them. The immediate response to this embarrassing intrusion was to deploy ten F-106A's drawn from various Aerospace Defense Command Fighter-Interceptor Squadrons to Alaska and to recall the remaining F-104A's that had previously been transferred to the Air National Guard back in 1960. Despite the excellence of the F-106A it did come with a pretty hefty price tag and Aerospace Defense Command realised that in order to replace the earlier F-101's and F-102's a cheaper alternative was required. With Lockheed's multi-role F-104G Starfighter in a high-rate of production the relatively low unit cost attracted the attention of the US Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara who authorised production of the F-104H a dedicated interceptor version based on the F-104Gand an initial order for 200 was made. The F-104H was powered by the uprated General Electric J79-GE-10 engine rated at 11,905 lbf dry thrust and 17,844 lbf thrust with afterburner although initial deliveries were powered by the earlier J79-GE-8B. The F-104H incorporated the advanced Litton LN-3 inertial navigation system and also featured the Autonetics NASARR F-15J-50 radar and fire control system optimised for the air-to-air mode with all ground-mapping, contour-mapping and terrain-avoidance modes deleted. After some debate, the M61 20mm cannon was retained but the main armament for the F-104H was the AIM-7 Sparrow semi-active homing missile, the AIM-9 Sidewinder infra-red heat-seeking missile and the AIR-2 Genie unguided air-to-air rocket with a 1.5 kt nuclear warhead. Entering service in April 1965 the F-104H eventually served with nine squadrons and was gradually withdrawn from Aerospace Defense Command service from the late 1970's onwards - a relatively short service life. Template Credit: bobrock (you'll find it in the SF1 downloads section). Stock decals apart from the 318th FIS' tail marking. 318STARFIGHTERTAIL.TGA DECALS.ini

Lockheed F-104H Starfighter - 318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, Aerospace Defence Command, USAF, 1971 The real F-104H was actually a dumbed down export variant that did not proceed

Tykes!

In January, would it be possible to only release the updates and not the whole thing? BTW, the Meteor F.1 should have Type B roundels on the upper wings. Attached is a quick fix. MeteorF1Wings.7z

Gloster Meteor NF.VI - No.264 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1944 Meteor NF.VI 3D Model & Skin: Yakarov79

Greif Stricken

Blackburn Firebrand TF.5 - 813 Naval Air Squadron

Strong Stuff

G'day!

Nyghtfall might have one or the template. Looks like the template was uploaded

The biennial USAF World Wide Weapons Meet had began in June 1954 with Air Defense Command and Air Training Command being the sole competitors but by 1956 the meet was expanded to include nine teams representing seven major Air Commands and gaining the (then) unofficial nickname of 'William Tell'. William Tell 1965 was the largest in history with 16 teams and four categories but the demands and distractions of the Vietnam War meant that there was a five-year pause until 1970 when William Tell resumed at Tyndall AFB with twelve teams competing in an expanded competition with three teams in each of the four categories of jets competing at William Tell; the McDonnell F-101B, Convair F-102A, Convair F-106A and the new Saab-Fairchild F-13A with the latter being represented by the 125th FIW (Florida ANG), the 177th FIW (New Jersey ANG) and the 52nd FIW (New York ANG). The competitive flying ran from Monday, October 26th through Friday, October 30, 1970 and the three F-13A teams gained an early lead in the overall competition and the torrential rains in the middle of the competition only seemed to improve their position which ended with the 177th FIW from the New Jersey ANG winning the overall category and the F-13A category whilst the 125th FIW from the Florida ANG scooped the aircrew award and also the aircraft maintenance award with the three F-13A teams filling the top three slots.

Israeli Meteor F.Mk.8

Falcons & Fangs

^ Fantastic ^ Mandatory Screenshot I absolutely love the Gloster Meteor. As an aviation mad teenager in the mid-1970's, for a while, our local library only had two aircraft books 'Gloster Aircraft since 1917' and 'The Gloster Meteor' by Edward Shacklady so it's no wonder I'm fond of it!

SAAB-Fairchild F-13A - 4451st Tactical Squadron, USAF, 1985 During mid-1965 with attrition rates rising as the Vietnam conflict progressed (sic) the USAF's plans for re-equipping the ADC and ANG interceptor squadrons with F-4C's fell apart. Undaunted they launched a quick study into an off-the-shelf purchase of an alternative interceptor to replace the F-102's and supplement the F-106's and looked at the BAC Lightning, the Dassault Mirage IIIC, the Saab Draken J-35F and the homegrown Lockheed Starfighter 'ADC' (an F-104G optimised for air-defense duties). With some considerable weighting given in the detailed analysis to low cost the Saab Draken soon became the front-runner by being the only aircraft with a fly-away price below $1M but, in fact, the USAF study team scored the Draken highly in most areas. In July 1966 the USAF announced that Saab's outstanding J-35F was the winner of the competition and that Fairchild, who had recently taken over Republic Aviation, were to partner Saab in producing the aircraft by now redesignated F-13 (despite objections from Fairchild to the 'unlucky' number although Saab didn't seem too bothered). Entering service with the Florida Air National Guard in March 1968 the F-13 was initially viewed as the poor relation by the F-106 squadrons, a situation that soon changed with the success of the F-13 in the 1970 William Tell competition. F-13's served until the mid-1980's when they were generally replaced by F-16A's although one squadron remained in service until 1990 at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada in a ruse designed to mask operations of the F-117 Stealth Fighter. During the flight-testing and the early service years of the F-117A 'Nighthawk' the F-13A Draken was used as a surrogate aircraft to maintain pilot proficiency and to provide part of an eloborate cover story for the existence of the 4450th Tactical Group. Whilst in no way similar to the shape of the F-117A the rakish lines of the Draken did have an unusual planform and was therefore chosen as the 'cover' aircraft for the specially created 4451st Tactical Squadron based at Tonopah. It is believed that 18 F-13A's were given a modest refurbishment to extend their operational lives and initially wore a two-tone grey scheme to give them more of an operational 'front-line' appearance. F-13A's entered service with the 4451st TS at Nellis AFB in May 1981 and wore 'LV' tailcodes due to their proximity to Las Vegas. From about 1983 at least half of the F-13A's were re-painted matt black and operated from Tonopah at times of day to to coincide with the F-117A test programme and it became a deliberate policy to park some of the matt black F-13A's out in the open so as to give the impression that Tonopah was simply a normal operational F-13A base. At least four derelict ex-Florida ANG F-13A's arrived by low-loader and were given an overall coat of matt black paint to help maintain this impression. The F-13A's were extremely popular with the pilots of the 4451st TS and were often used as 'Red' assets in Red Flag exercises and even made the occasional guest appearance in 'Constant Peg' operations when MiG's became unserviceable or simply to provide dissimilar bogeys. As the F-117A gradually moved from 'black' to 'grey' towards the end of the 1980's the 4451st TS's F-13A operations slowly dwindled and the unit was disbanded on April 30th, 1990. An old backstory from 2010!

Desert Deployment

It already has been! In 2010 and 2023.

Saab Draken F.1 - No.56 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1962

Double Double Delta

Special thanks to paulopanz for the 'real world' skins used for the top two profiles.

BAC Lightning F.2 - No.92 Squadron - 'The Blue Diamonds'

BAC Lightning F.3 - No.111 Squadron - 'The Black Arrows'

CASA-Dornier C-101 'Cernicalo' - Escuadron 113, Ejército del Aire, 1964 Template Credit: KnightWolf45 (Cocas) Some sources refer to it as the CH-101. This must have been a serious project at one time because the Spanish allocated it the service designation of C.7.

CASA/Dornier C-101 Cernícalo (Spanish Designation C.7) - Escuadron 113, Ejército del Aire, 1965