YF-19: America's forgotten intercepter The maiming update: 13.2.16

[raptormodeller]

June, 1979, Alaska. At a lonely air-base, the air-raid warning blares out. The pilots not knowing if it's an exercise or the real deal, run for their lives to their ageing F-106 intercepters. As soon as they take-off they hear on the radio: "6 Bears at at angels 50". With their hearts in their mouths the pilots race to 50 000 feet to intercept and destroy the Bear bombers. But when they get there, nothing, not a bird in the sky. The bombers have already left. And then, on the radio: "we're taking hits on the runway". The 'Darts head to another air-base, their's is in flames. News of this spreads around the world like a forest fire. The Russians claim that they bombed the base to dissuade the Americans from transferring ICBM's to Alaska. When the president heard that the intercepters failed to destroy the bombers, he ordered "all available F-15's, F-16's and F-14's to Alaska". Five F-15's and 6 F-16's all brand-spanking new left for Alaska. For two weeks, the Eagles and Falcons failed to intercept the bombers. It turned out, that the Russians flew as low as possible, sometimes at less than 50 feet to avoid radar, and then, six miles from the air-bases, they would induce a neck breaking almost vertical climb to 50 000 feet, drop the bombs and then dive for cover. It happened so quickly that when the fighters reached that altitude, the bombers were already 20 000 feet below them.

Britain laughed at this performance from the Americans. A Russian raid on the Shetland Islands ICBM base had ended in disaster when four Lightnings based at a nearby airfield had annihilated the bombers from ABOVE. Their response time was three minutes. And one and a half minutes later they were 10 000 feet above the bombers and then, they fired their red top missiles and destroyed the bombers.
When the Americans heard of this, they asked for ten F.6 Lightning. And in the best English manner the Brits' said "Well that's a bloody big NO, good day!"
Instead, they sent 74 squadron to Alaska. Three raids were stopped in their tracks. The Americans, despite the big "NO" from the RAF, had been given basic information on the wing of the Lightning. If they couldn't buy the Lightning, they would make a better one. In their eyes at least. What they did was very onorthodox: take the wings of a Lightning, put them on a F-18 fuselage and add more powerful engines. The result was rather potent. Despite having a slightly slower rate of climb it could still easily match the Lightning. It was named: YF-19 Striker. It flew just 36 times, but it destroyed 6 Bear bombers. It was cancelled in 1981 due to its very evident lack of multirole abilities. Northrop, pointed out that it could reconfigure the four underwing hardpoints to carry rocket pods. This was ignored. Luckily, all YF-19's were preserved. N°1 aircraft stands proudly in front of their main production plant.
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The kit:
- F-18
- Harrier GR.7? nose
- Lightning F.6 wings
- Typhoon drop tanks

photos of the dry fitting:

chomp chomp
-raptor

Edited February 13, 2016 by raptormodeller

[mackem01]

Excellent back story - but we should have sold them to our N.American friends. We could have dictated the price!!

[raptormodeller]

The maiming update, literally. I chopped off the elevators and 'wings' of the tub of the aircraft along with a bit of modification to the canopy. Next I primed the cockpit sides and the control panel. the wings? Well I still need to sand them but they're nearly ready!

Anyway, the photos! Enjoy.

That's it for today's update, I'm hoping to get the cockpit painted by the end of the weekend so I can start assembly.

chomp chomp

-raptor

Edited February 13, 2016 by raptormodeller