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BAe/Rockwell Excalibur B.1


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History-

After the Falklands War and the retirement of the Vulcan the RAF realised that it still needed a long range heavy bomber.

The British government could not afford a completely new design of aircraft, so turned its attention to the US for a bomber replacement.

Entering USAF service at this time was the Rockwell B-1B. The MOD studied this type and conclude that it would fit the future requirement for a new RAF bomber.

A contract was drawn up between the United States and the UK for procurement of the aircraft.

To offset the cost, many subsystems and avionics were contracted out to British manufactures and these were controlled by BAe Systems.

The new aircraft, was named the Excalibur for RAF Service.

The first Squadron to operate the new aircraft was 617 “Dambusters” Squadron based at RAF Fairford.

The aircraft is operated in the low level penetration role and anti shipping strike.

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The truth-

This model was built from the Panda model 1/144 B-1B Lancer kit, This kit would never win a completion but it does look like a B-1B.

The fit is quite poor, So I just plonked it together and painted it in the RAF wrap round scheme.

This is not my normal build standard, just a little fun. :rolleyes:

The reason I built the kit like this, is too have a little fun and because the kit has terrible decals!.

For my build, the decals came from an old Hasegawa Tornado kit.

I like 617 Squadrons markings, so I made a “What If”model instead.

Hope you all like it. ;)

Can you tell, I’m counting the days down to my holiday! :tease:

O.K, time to get back the serous project of the Hawk. :winkgrin:

Shaun.

Edited by Shaun
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The British government could not afford a completely new design of aircraft, so turned its attention to the US for a bomber replacement.

If that was the case they would have ended up with surplus B-29s specially adapted to carry buckets of warm lard.

Anyone fancy a whiff at that??

Seriously Shaun, nice B-1, one of my fave aeroplanes, would have liked to see this happen!

Al

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Oh yeah!!!!, that paint scheme just seems to be a perfect suit of clothes for the (ahem!!)"Excalibur". Superb build BTW.

Edited by Angels49
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