Gepard

4 hours ago, yakarov79 said:

Those are not gun blast protection plates, ...

This statement is wrong and true at the same time. Of course this plates were helpfull to avoid FOD. Thatswhy they were refitted also on gunless MiG-21 versions.

But the origin of this plates were war experiences. When the MiG was in a close dogfight at low speeds and low altitudes, the plane was flown with a good angle of attack and full afterburner. In such situation the engines needed much more air, than the air intake could deliver. The doors of auxilary air intakes were opend automatically. If in such a situation the gun was fired, the gun smoke had a good chance to were sucked into the auxillary air intakes, which caused compressor stalls and a flame out. The engine died and the pilot had only one choice: to use the ejection seat.

During Vietnam war, but also during arab-israeli  clashes, some MiG-21 pilots shot down themself by firing the gun during low speed, low level dogfights.

The cure of the problem was to add the protection plates, which, as a side effect, were helpfull to avoid FOD.

So i have learned the story of the protection plates from east german fighter pilots.

Hunter over Alderney island.

You could add the steel plate below the gun muzzle, which protects the structure of the fuselage from gun fire. You can see this plate at this photo which i had taken at Luftwaffenmuseum Gatow, some years ago.

Vulcans at parking positions, while Lightnings performing a squadron take off.

Guernsey, a small island in the English Channel. In background Sark and Hern island. (WIP)

Sitrep:  coastline tiles are now blended with sea tiles. Still they are jpg, thatswhy no waves, what cause the difference in the blue between coast tiles and sea tiles. It will change after converting to tga tiles.

Sitrep: I'm still on debugging of Guernsey tiles.

Argentinian Carrier ops

F-103E, brazilian designation for the Mirage IIIE

Argentinian carrier ops

Hunter over Guernsey (BoB2 1960th terrain WIP)

Sit rep. I'm still working on BoB2 1960th terrain. But progress is slow. This has to do with the fitting of the tiles for Guernsey island. It's a fiddling work. I'm looking for mismatches.

As example this screenshot. On the bottom you see at the reservoir that the tiles are not 100% fitting together.

This mistakes i'm looking for and try to correct them.

15 hours ago, swambast said:

Tough crowd...

The irony of your post, is it's quite interesting and your eye for detail to pick up on that fact quite impressive indeed.  And I like the fact that you proposed a more proper option.   

OK,  let's try to make it better!  I did some historical research and settled on this;  hopefully a more accurate improvement...  

 

Looks good!

I'm not sure, but i think jimbib made this static planes by himself. It's not just an ini edited already existing plane.

MiG-23 recon run.

17 hours ago, Mr_Tayto said:

This is another one I'd like to try, such a cool looking aircraft and felt omnipresent on TV shows and films in the 80s and 90s, from Top Gun and Apocalypse Now onwards. The one I quoted, is it in (presumably post-reunification) VPAF colours? I read about VPAF pilots stealing A-37s from liberated airbases and using them in the fall of Saigon, I didn't know the SVAF had them too?

North Vietnam captured a number of F-5A and E and used them till end1970th/early 1980th. One F-5E was given to Poland, one to Czechoslovakia and an unknown number to the Soviet Union. Some ended in vietnamese Museums, the rest was sold to Iran.

The photos were taken during the soviet flight test of the F-5E:

A lot of features of the F-5E were later used for MiG-29 and Su-27 development.

For me it is the F-5E Tiger. It's an underdog plane, but astonishingly capable. It's nimble, agile, had a good handling. It's a pilots plane.

PaintNet is also freeware and can handle 4096x4096. I have Win7 too and only 16GB RAM.

Perhaps the admin could move all posts relating to MiG-21 in a separate topic.

There is a confusion with MiG-21PFM vs PF designation. When the MiG-21PF was delivered it was not able to carry the Monsun. After an midlife update it got the capability to carry Monsun twin rails. The modified planes were in the East German Air Force (LSK) called MiG-21PFM. Later the soviets delivered their own MiG-21PFM, what posed designation problems in the LSK. The same designation for different versions of the MiG-21.  Thatswhy the soviet MiG-21PFM was called MiG-21SPS in east german service.

To make it short. Early MiG-21PF had had no protection plates and were unable to carry Monsun. Modified MiG-21PF (PFM in east german designation) had protection plates and could carry Monsun rails. The last LSK MiG-21PFM was phased out in 1987. In the early years the planes were all metallic, from end 1970th they got camo.

MiG-21PFM (MiG-21SPS) had initially only single launch rails, and were updated to carry Monsun in mid/late 1970th. Mid 1980th they got the ability to use R-60 (AA-8) missiles.

Mandatory screeshot:

41 minutes ago, FLOGGER23 said:

Thank you for that input, Gepard, good stuff coming from someone who was there!

With the permission of the admins for the pics,  they can be removed later, I got the M bort records from http://www.forgottenjets.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/ and based on it, I saw some pictures showing the gun blast panels and rearview mirror base (hmm, odd), perhaps they were retrofitted after some overhauls?

 

The MiG-21M got a second life as recon bird, in the East German Air Force (LSK). For that task the planes with the best condition were selected and got a midlife update end 1980th. They got self made recon pods, which based on UB-16 rocket pods. Then they got the mirror base, but no mirror on the roof. Then it was intended to include the R-60 (AA-8) missile in the weapon system and to replace the old R-11F-300 by the R-13F-300 engine. But this was planed for the early 1990th ....

The protection plates were refitted to all gun armed MiG-21. Even old and outdated MiG-21PFM (our designation was MiG-21SPS-K)) got this plates.

Here a MiG-21M as it was delivered:

Mandatory screenshot:

F-4N

I have tried the F-4N by Storm at the true naval map. Take off from and landing on Essex carrier and i was not able to duplicate the problem. The F-4N stood as a stone on deck after landing. The problem was, that the AI planes were unable to catch the wire and always run over the deck and fall into the sea. But the player piloted F-4N had not this problem.

2 hours ago, FLOGGER23 said:

MiG-21M ...............

 

Some remarks. The colors of east german MiG-21M is close to reality. Good job. The tactical number is to small in size, must be a little bit bigger.

Then the plane is not a MiG-21M, it's a MiG-21MF. This screenshot shows the outer differences between M and MF:

The plane with camo is the MF. It has a mirror on top of cockpit and small protection plates under the auxillary air intakes. The M has no mirror and was delivered without protection plates. The task of the protection plates is to protect the auxillary air intake from gun smoke, which can cause engine stall. Thatswhy this plates were fitted later during planes overhaul schemes. A refit with mirror on cockpit roof was very rare.

MiG-21M was delivered in all metallic skin and got later camo. The MF was mostly delivered with camo. In east german service MF was translated with "Mit Farbe", what means "With Paint".

A400M Atlas over Guernsey

Super Fury