Bombardier Araignée 1983

[kwaterous]

In 1981, when the tension of the Cold War finally broke, and the East invaded westwards, they staged a major armoured assault. The forces of the west were beaten backwards. Many tanks and crews were lost in the opening hours of the war. The western forces tried to attack the armoured vehicles from the air, but the soviets had prepared. The attacking aircraft were met with a stiff defense of SAM and AAA. Many planes and pilots were lost. Eventually the war drew to a stalemate, neither side could advance and the casualties kept mounting. This stalemate continued for 2 years, both side threatening nuclear war, but neither side willing to risk the consequences.

In 1982, a West German tanker living in canada who had been injured in the opening battle had an idea. His father, a tanker in WW2, told him how the Germans feared the rockets launched from typhoon fighter-bombers like little else. He wondered what kind of effect a small drone carrying rockets would have in the current military deadlock.

He eventually brought the idea to the folks at Bombardier aerospace.

The designers at bombardier liked the idea and brought it to the military, who also liked it. The design team at Bombardier began to convert their small, helicopter, reconnaissance drone, the Mouche. This was a small, light, fast, long endurance helicopter of unconventional design.

The team at Bombardier modified the design to carry four modified 60lb armour piercing rockets similar to those used 30 years earlier in WW2. These decreased the performance of the drone, but not too badly.

The military brass decided to give this new drone a try, and 20 were built and sent overseas. The drones had a high loss rate, but they were quite effective against soviet armour. The first 20 drones lasted 6 days, a horrifying loss rate. However, they took enemy 11 armoured vehicles with them.

It was decided to mass produce the drones cheaply, low cost meant low expenses as the drones were destroyed. Eventually, 6,480 drones were built, of these, 4,281 were destroyed. The drones ended up destroying 2,731 enemy armoured vehicles, and 1 enemy aircraft.

The saga will continue with pictures...

K

Edited April 4, 2015 by kwaterous

[Mitch K]

Looking forward to this!

[kwaterous]

Thansk Mitch,

Building has started (and nearly finished). But I have yet to take photos.

K

[kwaterous]

A few pictures.

The main body of the Araignée. The engine and electronics were stored in the central body, while fuel was stored in the outrigger tanks.

The rotor that will be used. It's actually the unused tail rotor from the Airfix Sea King.

Cheers, I'll put up more as more progress is made.

K

[kwaterous]

Next photo.

The blue is a filler I made up. I'll describe it in the sea king thread. The red is the beginning of the scheme(only because I had some extra)

Cheers,

K

[kwaterous]

Here's a hint of what's to come:

Cheers,

K

[kwaterous]

My my, tiny little things with no clear parts do build up fast.

This one needs a clear coat and some weathering, then she's done.

How the main body looks now. The bit at the the back is the aerial that was added to enhance radio reception when the drones started flying very low.

And the rotor. Not much to say here.

Cheers,

K

[kwaterous]

Yeah, got this one finished up

(Not that there was much to do)

Cheers,

K

[raptormodeller]

Nice un'

[mike romeo]

Nice!

How do you counteract the torque from the rotor, though?

regards,

Martin

[kwaterous]

The rotor is *intentionally* slightly slanted in order to counteract the torque.

There's also the under-fuselage fin, which helps out too.

K