That’s short for zero length launcher. There’s a 1/72 conversion kit from the Edwards Air Force Base Museum:
F-100 ZEL (for Italeri kit, does not include trailer)
Parts List: Booster, nozzle, forward booster brace, rear booster
brace, inert Mk 7 store, pylon for Mk 7, cameras (2), plastic rod, decals.
$10.00 plus postage
You can take a look at photos of the test aircraft at:
http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/models/x_planes/zel.html
You can order from fthf@antelecom.net or toll free at 877-FLT-TEST
Wow, looks like that would be one heck of a ride. What an interesting model subject as well.
Tailspin, You working on commission for Edwards now?[:D] That F-100 ZEL conversion is great except that you don’t get the trailer it fired from. You would have to scratch build the trailer since the jet can’t sit on it’s gear with the rocket underneath it.
Nope - I’m not on commission - I even paid for the XA3D conversion that I’m getting - just doing promoting the availability of these kits as a service to modelers who might be interested in them and in hopes that the sales are enough to justify the kit maker from creating some more of this kind of unaddressed stuff.
It turns out that you can’t even get to the Edwards museum without knowing somebody to sponsor you through the gate; it’s hard to believe, but in the old days anybody could drive on the base and past all the hangers, the end of the main runway and the edge of the lake bed.
The lack of a trailer was noted in the information that I received and passed on, but thanks for emphasing that point. You’d have to do something - pose it inflight or scratch build a trailer. The trailer doesn’t look very standard from the pictures, particularly the transformer-like mechanism that lifts the aircraft up by the main wheels to the launch angle, but maybe it’s close to a flatbed trailer otherwise. Not my area of expertise. Maybe the creepy crawler guys could come up with something…
I purchased a video of this test program from Air & Space a few years ago titled “Runways Of Fire”. Lots of great footage of takeoffs, in flight views including one flight when the booster failed to separate, and an attempt at making an aircushion landing. I think the pilot is stil recovering from that one!
Another thing about these kits is, they are only available through the gift shop at Edwards. They are not doing any kind of distributing. From talking to them about wholesaling I get the impression they don’t make a lot of these at a time. They didn’t have one or two of the things I wanted and had no idea when they would be getting more. In their defense, this was probably close to a year ago and things have probably gotten better since then.
Hey any one have photos or drawings of the MiG-19 ZEL?
Check this site for the MiG-19 ZEL. It only has one profile drawing, but it gives the location for the rocket.
http://www.faqs.org/docs/air/avzel.html
Thank you mojo. I would like to find drawings or photos of the launcher from the front or back. My in action book has a side view but not enough to build it.