I had an idea today! Don’t know if this has already been done, though.
A Group Build of recon aircraft.
Rules:
It must be an aircraft
It can be any scale
It can be any era
It may not carry weapons (defensive weapons allowed) or be an active aggressive aircraft
This means your build could be an Electronic Warfare aircraft (EF-111 Raven), photo recon aircraft (SR-71 Blackbird), AWACS, AEW&C (Wedgetail), maritime patrol aircraft (EP-3 Aires), observation bird (O-2A) etc.
Start date: now
Finish date: anytime, perhaps end of 2005-mid 2006 (??)
Cross builds are allowed.
Expressions of interest needed. Submissions for a GB badge welcome.
List of builds to date (28/3/2005) dkmacin - ? oscardeuce - 1/48 O2-A Quagmyre - 1/48 Spitfire PR Mk. XI yardbird78 - McDonnel Douglas RF-4B (scale?) johnforster - 1/72 RAAF Boeing 737 AEW&C Wedgetail - 1/72 SR-71 Blackbird (crossbuild from Stealth Planes GB) EC-130CrewChief - 1/72 RF-101C - 1/72 P-3 Neptune
Hey this fits in with a question I have and am seeking the smarts of the folks on the forum.
In a mail order catalog of aviation. . .stuff, I saw a lithograph of “the last dog fight of WWII.”
Supposedly between a USA Birddog and a Storch! The weapons were the pilots .45 and Luger pistols. Any truth to this?
Recon planes and fighters too!
That would put them in the ETO, and that theater ended its war in May 1945. The PTO was still going until about August 1945 (officially ended in Sept 1945), so I wouldn’t think that your example would be the last dogfight. If that particular fight did happen though, regardless of whether it was the last one or not, I would love to have seen it. Harkens back to World War One, don’t you think?
Also, was the Birddog used in WWII? I though that it wasn’t built until the late '50s/early '60s…
Right, the nickname “Bird Dog” is most commonly given to the Cessna O1-E/L-19. Flew in Korea and as a Forward Air Control bird in Viet Nam. The O-1E was replaced by the Cessna M337 O2-A Super Skymaster while awaiting the arrival of the OV-10 Bronco. Grasshopper was one of the nicknames of the L-birds in WW II.
I’ll add a 1/48 O2-A to the mix if it fits the rules!
Reconnaisance or Observation? Too different purposes. Expanding the scope of the GB to include Observation craft might encourage variety.
Anyway… if this build goes into 2006 I might be able to accelerate my plans of building a 1/48 scale version of the Spitfire PR Mk XI PA944, of the 14th PS, Mount Farm, England, April 1945 pictured below.
Been dying to build this one. Would require some custom decals and it’s another opportunity to do a US WWII plane that has a little more color variety.
The litho showed the two planes extremely close and the iron cross kinda tipped me off to the ETO! LOL
I am of course going by my poor memory and it very well may have been one of the L-birds and not the bird dog, I’ll search my junk pile and see if I saved it. . .
Okay I’ll bite on the difference between recon and observation. . .Recon is go out, spot the enemy and say “there they are!” and Observation is to go out, spot the enemy and. . .?
( I am NOT being a smart aleck I really don’t see the difference and want to know!)
Actually a good question. Trying to find the official definitions, but having trouble finding them. The designations exist, but I actually never bothered to ask that question, and just assumed there was a difference.
As of the Joint Service System for U.S. Air Force (1948-), U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Army (1962-) these are the Basic Mission designations used:
A Attack (numbering sequence reset 1962) 1942-1947, 1962-
B Bomber (numbering sequence reset 1962) 1925-
C Transport (numbering sequence reset 1962) 1925-
E Special Electronic Installation 1962-
F Fighter (numbering sequence reset 1962) 1948-
L Laser 1997-
O Observation (numbering sequence reset 1962) 1924-1942, 1962-
P Patrol 1962-
R Reconaissance 199?-
S Antisubmarine 1962-
T Trainer 1948-
U Utility 1962-
X Research 1948-
As you can see the Reconaissance (R) designation wasn’t adopted until 1990s sometime which would rule out any planes from earlier eras if the definition of this GB is to be as such. Observation (O) has been used, not used, and used again, probably for Reconnaisance reasons, but again, I’m still struggling to find the official definitions of the two. Rather than hi-jack this string any further let’s post the question. I gotta know now.[:D] Follow the link below.
What about the RB-29 & RB-36 of the late 1940’s, the RF-84F of the 1950’s, the RF-101C of the 1960’s, the RF-4B/C of the 1960s to 1990, the RB-57, RC-135, and #1 on the list, SR -71. The designation R for Reconnaissance has been around a lot longer than 1990.
My impression of the difference between reconnaissance and observation is:
Reconnaissance is something that is recorded either with visual, IR or SLR photography for later analysis. ie, any of the above listed aircraft.
Observation Eyeball observation of bad guy activities for immediate action such as artillery spotting, CAS coordination, detection of enemy activity, etc. Aircraft such as OS2U, O-47, O-1, O-2, OV-10, OA-10, OA-37, etc.
As far as the group build is concerned, this would immediately become my number one priority for GB’s. I have several possible aircraft in mind, namely, just about all the ones listed above with an “R” in the designation.
WOW! Great to have so many replies and so much interest.
Just to clear up some points:
Maritime Patrol aircraft can be built (P-3C Orion)
Observation aircraft can be built (O-2A)
Observation helos can be built to!! (Bell Kiowa)
UAV’s can be built (Globalhawk)
Basically, any aircraft that is used to watch ‘the bad guys’ in any way, but unarmed.
STUG61: no there’s no era restrictions.
Cheers,
John
I would like to join…as long as the finish date is '06 sometime.Not sure about what I will build…I am thinking about the Italeri 1/48 scale U-2R,but I am having trouble finding reviews of the build-up.If someone knows where I could find one or have built one themselves,I’d like to hear from you.Thanks!!
Hmmm… maybe, pending the finish date. If I do I’d like to build the AWACS. Does anyone know if the Revellogram 72nd kit is still in production? This was the first model I ever put together as a kid… it was a gift from an out of town friend visiting. I slapped it all together in one sitting and probably broke it all up in less than a week.
By the looks of things, perhaps setting the finish date at mid 2006 would be best. Any objections? If we get a definite date, then I’ll start a thread in the GB forum.
Happy Easter!
John
