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Showing results for tags 'Rapier'.
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The North American XF-108 Rapier was a proposed long-range, high-speed interceptor aircraft designed by North American Aviation intended to defend the United States from supersonic Soviet strategic bombers. The aircraft would have cruised at speeds around Mach 3 (3,200 km/h; 2,000 mph) with an unrefueled combat radius over 1,000 nautical miles (1,900 km; 1,200 mi), and was equipped with radar and missiles offering engagement ranges up to 100 miles (160 km) against bomber-sized targets. To limit development costs, the program shared engine development with the North American XB-70 Valkyrie strategic bomber program, and used a number of elements of earlier interceptor projects. The program had progressed only as far as the construction of a single wooden mockup when it was cancelled in 1959, due to a shortage of funds and the Soviets' adoption of ballistic missiles as their primary means of nuclear attack. Had it flown, the F-108 would have been the heaviest fighter of its era. This is the Wikipedia abstract, full story here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_XF-108_Rapier I recently completed this build from the Anigrand resin kit: since both incarnations of the mock-up (overall metal or white) were quite bland and uninspiring I chose to depict a fictitious evaluation a/c from Edwards, as imagined by the artist on the front cover of this Airpower Magazine issue: The build thread can be found here for those interested. As you will read it was truly a collaborative effort with great inputs from BM members, thank you again to all! So here are the images. Thanks for looking!
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Hi all, I started this battle a few months ago with one of the Anigrand's resins I accumulated over the years. Thankfully I stopped purchasing them some time ago: as much as they can be tempting subjects for my tastes, the building experience is always somewhat painful! So let's start with the raw materials: Not much in the way of references: the program was terminated before any metal was cut so there is only a mockup (with two iterations) as reference and much imagination. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_XF-108_Rapier Most of the material available is in this feature article and a similar one in Le Fana de l'Aviation n°527.
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BAC Tracked Rapier. This is the BAC Rapier system fitted to a modified M548 chassis. Pics mine from Cosford. https://www.britmodeller.com/walkarounds/armour/trackrap/t06.jpg
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Hi all Here is my finished Towed Rapier diorama. It depicts the Rapier display I saw and had an opportunity to 'play with' at the 1979 RAF Waddington when I was an RAF recruit going through basic training.
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