All I know is that this thread has me thinking real hard about doing a post Korean War Navy bird. It is something of a forgotten “between the wars” era/area for modelers when huge strides were being made in aviation.
^^ glad to see you have properly corrupted,I mean co-opted, err, assimilated,umm,so glad you are inspired, Stik
To be as open minded as possible,it was a period of growth in almost every air force in the world, not just my favorite,some were flops, but, they sure were different.
That’s for sure. The early jet era seems characterized by extreme, imaginative designs. Any and everything seems worth trying. I think about the Cutlass and how “out there” that design was,followed shortly by the Skyray, which remains the only Navy delta right? My Tamiya Skyray is half-finished and I just need some motivation to make it complete. I love those early jets; Navy and Air Force fighters that exemplified what a jet should look like. Fearless, adventurous and daring designers walked the earth in those days…
Gary
Yup, Kelly Johnson and Ed Heineman were in their prime at that time. Yes Tarn, I am certainly inspired, but the choices in my stash are quite slim. At least on the Navy side of the house. Now I have a great selection of Air Force “Fabulous 50’s” aircraft. But I want something with a tail hook that I do not have…
Well, the Skyray was pretty conclusively a result of the Lippisch studies gained after WW2.
The Gutless? Some attribute it to Arado, but that’s disputed (probably by Arado).
Heineman and dad knew each other pretty well as United was a big Douglas customer and they both went to the same school although four years apart.
Dad started at UAL in 1952, retired in 2000. Worked on spec.s for DC-6, 7,8,10. Boeing 757, 767, 777.
He can’t remember yesterday but he remembers deciding not to buy Concorde in 1964. Spent three summers in England on that one.
There was another Navy delta
It was what was (I think) the only Navy jet fighter seaplane,the F2Y SeaDart (F-102 on water skis)
But the Skyray was the only one to go operational,and the follow-on Skylancer was as cool, but, also just a prototype.
Stik, too bad you build mostly larger scales,or I’d send you something from my “longer than a lifetime supply”
Rex
Tarn I think you are correct. The Seamaster was a bomber after all.
Motivation? Here’s my Ford no big deal.
These little Tamiya 1/72 “warbird” kits are really good.
Thank you for the kind offer Tarn, but as you know, my aircraft are primarily 1/48, with more and more 1/32 stuff finding its way to the bench. I cleaned out my Braille scale stash about 20 years ago. I have been eyeballing the Tamiya 1/48 F4D, and the Hobbycraft F7U for awhile. And mama says if I reduce the stash a bit she won’t object to new acquisitions 
So I may need to fill up a box or two and sell off a few at IPMS and AMPS like some of the other guys do. Otherwise I just have that old Matchbox FJ Fury kit that needs a LOT of work… Mind you I bought that for dirt cheap…
I see a special interest group here.
For lack of a better title I would suggest it be called:
“How the Navy procured and labeled aircraft from different manufacturers; a case study in the system that set the alphabet T, S, F and so forth against the manufacturers D, F, Y and so on through the versions each produced”.
A serious proposal.
For example, when I made that little F4D up, I thought about the A2D,
A-3, A-4
F3D, and so on.
If I could only ever just live long enough,all of those aircraft would be built as a I build for my sig line’s goal
For example, I worked very hard to figure out how to do different versions of aircraft, even if that means 12 different Skyhawks to build 20 different squadrons,get an AD-3 in there amongst the A-1H and A-1Js,don’t do VF-13 as an F8U, do it as an F4D-1,VF-171 is a double letter F2H, instead of the easier F-4 Phantom
Stik, if you do take the plunge,you could do worse than the Tamiya 1/48 F4D, I have been told that it is possibly better than their 1/72,and as you can see above,that builds up into a very nice looking model,without much need for any aftermarket stuff (maybe decals)
Rex
Yes, I have been reading nothing but good things about that kit. I will take the plunge one day.
Cool discusion guys!
As for the pix of the Banshees on the flight line, why did they put a cover over the nose just ahead of the windshieldframe? Surely is can’t be just to protect pitots ??
As for the late 50’s jets, I also have the Trumpeter 1/48 F9f I just added to the roster, I think it looks so cool in the blue scheeme.
Theuns
it must have been an attempt to keep the Radar cool, or to keep grit from working its way into that top access panel for the Radar bay. There was a lot of gear back there, between the back of the radome and the front of the cockpit. Contrary to a lot of beliefs, the radome doesn’t cover the radar unit, it only covers the dish, there is a lot of sensitive equipment behind each dish,including vacuum tubes, right up into the F-4B days (you could test some radar components at a hardware store back then)
Didn’t they not make the switch from a vacuum tube radar to solid state electronic components radar on the Phantom on the E model?
Here are a couple pics of my stalled Skyray build. I stopped work on it to build my Hobby Boss MiG-17F for Manny’s Russian fighter GB. Man, I need to get back on it bad. It’s a cool kit of a very cool fighter.
Stik, it might have been the D model,I was just grabbing a version that I knew from my own experiences,my brother used to rag on my uncle and I about the difference in our vacuum tubes and his solid state, he was there during the D, E, and then G days
I think, but don’t hold me to it, that the upgraded Bs and the Ns had solid state,but, I was over on Harriers by then, during those days I hardly saw a Phantom at all unless I was a visitor somewhere
I was at an airshow with my buddy Airman Jim. There was a T-33 with the radio compartment open. The set was a mess of dusty tubes and wiring. Jim says to the volunteer;
“I could rebuild that for you”.
“Sure, but who would we talk to?”.
I suppose that all depends what the current frequencies in use are. But I will tell you this from many many nights of pulling radio watch, you will hear stuff from all over the world on HF freqs at oddball hours. I am willing to bet that there is someone somewhere they could talk with.