[V.Narayan]

Bereiv A-50 Mainstay; Russian AEW&C aircraft; Witty Wings 1:400; diecast

Length & Wingspan ~4.5 inches

Russia’s premier AEW&C aircraft {Airborne Early Warning & Control}. First entered service in the mid-1980s. The aircraft is based on the Ilyushin IL-76 platform. Key to the AEW&C role is the 9-metre rotodome that covers air targets out to ~600 kms and ground targets out to 300 kms according to published sources.

India operates 3 modified aircraft with the Israeli EL/W 2090 ASEA radar and associated Plalcon systems. An AESA radar can radiate multiple beams of radio waves at multiple frequencies simultaneously. AESA radars can spread their signal emissions across a wider range of frequencies, which makes them more difficult to detect over background noise, allowing ships and aircraft to radiate powerful radar signals while still remaining stealthy. India is in the process of purchasing 2 more for a total of 5 operated by Number 50 Squadron. Cost is ~ US$ 350 to 400 million per aircraft. The IAF version is designated A-50EI.

The key flight performance criterion is endurance. The aircraft can stay up in the air providing surveillance and air dominance control for ~6 hours+ at a range of 500 kms. This can be extended by air to air refueling. If used properly it can be a force multiplier. China operates a similar aircraft.


For reasons I do not know some A-50s were flown in Aeroflot colours.










The IL fleet. All 1:400 except the IL-76 at the back which is 1:500. In clockwise from the top IL-76 military transport; IL-62M medium to long range airliner; A-50 Bereiv (including here as it is based on the IL-76 platform); and the IL-96 long range airliner


IAF's A-50; note flight refueling probe on nose


The real aircraft a little the worse for wear and tear


This looks smells of Air Control :-) The big bird seems to be saying 'Wanna mess with me, mosquito?"

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Bereiv A-50 Mainstay; Russian AEW&C aircraft; Witty Wings 1:400; diecast

Length & Wingspan ~4.5 inches

Russia's premier AEW&C aircraft {Airborne Early Warning & Control}. First entered service in the mid-1980s. The aircraft is based on the Ilyushin IL-76 platform. Key to the AEW&C role is the 9-metre rotodome that covers air targets out to ~600 kms and ground targets out to 300 kms according to published sources.

Wow!!! That is quite an amazing and iconic addition to your fleet. Congratulations.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

For reasons I do not know some A-50s were flown in Aeroflot colours.

That is because some Aeroflot IL-76 transports were converted to AWACS configuration by the Soviets and they did not re-paint it. Our own A-50s were conversions of stored IL-76 airframes.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

The IL fleet. All 1:400 except the IL-76 at the back which is 1:500. In clockwise from the top IL-76 military transport; IL-62M medium to long range airliner; A-50 Bereiv (including here as it is based on the IL-76 platform); and the IL-96 long range airliner

They look fantastic together!!!!

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

IAF's A-50; note flight refueling probe on nose

It seems that the IFR probe caused some serious wake turbulence troubles to the A-50. In the slipstream of a tanker, the A-50's IFR fitted radome created very bad buffeting that inflight refueling demanded special pilot qualification.

[V.Narayan]

Tupolev Tu-134; Russian short to medium range airliner; 1:200 Phoenix; diecast

Model is about 7 inches in length and has a wingspan of just under 6 inches

The Tu-134 was the third Russian jet airliner after the Tu-104 and Tu-124. A little over 850 were built and they served with very creditable reliability from 1967 to 2012 in main line service with the Russians. Only a few serve on today. The aircraft was designed to carry 72 to 84 passengers along with space for the Russian winter overcoats and boots. In size and weight it was in the class of the DC-9 Series 30 or BAC-111 Series 500 or the later Caravelles beyond the Mark 10. The Tu-134 was the second most successful, after the DC-9, of the rear mounted twin engine designs that came in the 1950s and 1960s - DC-9, Tu-134, Caravelle, Fokker F28 and BAC-111 in that order.


Note the glass nose that accommodated the navigator who lay prone and guided the pilot in on rough landing strips without modern radio based nav-aids. The 35 degree sweep on the wings was unusually high for a short to medium range airliner designed for multiple sectors a day. That combined with a lack of leading edge slats made for a high landing speed.


View from the glass nose. Such window noses which reminded Western journalists of WW-2 bombers were seen as assign of backward Russian technology. Actually it is an excellent facility if you have to land at rough strips that lack landing aids.


Note the rear mounted twin engine layout. This reduced noise in an era when jet engines were very very noisy. It also led to a tail heavy weight distribution which messed with the centre of lift which was between the wings. Aircrafts like it if the centre of gravity and the centre of lift are as close to each other as possible.Typical of Russian needs the power plant at a combined 13,600 kgf was 10% to 20% higher rated than engines of similar sized Western airliners of the era.


Note the sponsons accommodating the heavy duty 4-wheel landing gear bogies. They were designed for operations from packed mud and gravel air strips. The sponsons were a Tupolev trade mark. They served two purposes – (i) a place to accommodate a heavy volume occupying landing gear without taking up precious payload carrying volume in the fuselage or in the fuel carrying wings; (ii) they shape of the sponsons added Mach 0.1 to 0.2 to the cruise speed. The only other airframe designer who made use of this was Convair in its Convair 990 design.


The Tu-134s large tail fin or vertical stabilizer. The size of the tail fin including its root extension was to provide control authority even in high angles of attack. This is a problem characteristic of tailfins being placed on top of the tail plane – in turn necessitated by the rear mounted engines. The Tu-134 was one of the very few airliners to use a brake parachute! This was because the earlier models lacked thrust reversers on the engines. This was rectified in later series.


The real aircraft.


A handsome classic of its time.

My thanks to Foxbat for pointing me to the availability of the Tu-134 in the reasonable 1:200 scale.

Originally Posted by skanchan95

That is because some Aeroflot IL-76 transports were converted to AWACS configuration by the Soviets and they did not re-paint it. Our own A-50s were conversions of stored IL-76 airframes.

It seems that the IFR probe caused some serious wake turbulence troubles to the A-50. In the slipstream of a tanker, the A-50's IFR fitted radome created very bad buffeting that inflight refueling demanded special pilot qualification.

You really know interesting factoids. I think you must be reading a lot.

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Dornier Do 335 Pfeil : Luftwaffe’s fastest fighter in WW-II; Oxford Models 1:72

Thats a very interesting model, remember reading how it was able to outrun allied aircraft in its shorts operational career. We have a shared interest in exotic German machinery German engineering in WWII was in a different league, imagine what would have happened if they had developed the Atomic bomb before the US.

Originally Posted by skanchan95

1:200 Airbus A400M Atlas (Lupa Models)
Same as the one posted by Narayan sir earlier on this thread
Currently in service with the Air Forces of Germany, France, UK, Spain, Turkey and Malaysia.

Very unique Where was this acquired from? I remember the Indigo A320 we have is a Lupa model, although of good detail not as good as Hogan. How is detailing on this ?

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Tupolev Tu-134; Russian short to medium range airliner; 1:200 Phoenix; diecast

One more rare Crusty on the thread ! Did you order just this one or the Luftwaffe one I have also? Did you have to pay customs duty ?

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

We have a shared interest in exotic German machinery

And Japanese and Russian:-)

German engineering in WWII was in a different league, imagine what would have happened if they had developed the Atomic bomb before the US.

Ve vould haf ben writing this post in deustche :-)

One more rare Crusty on the thread ! Did you order just this one or the Luftwaffe one I have also?

I bought only this amongst Tu-134s. I prefer to stay with one piece per type normally but made an exception for the one and only MiG-21.

Some more photos, after all a boy has to show off.

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Tupolev Tu-134; Russian short to medium range airliner; 1:200 Phoenix; diecast

Handsome looking Tupolev. Congratulations!!!

Originally Posted by Foxbat

Very unique Where was this acquired from? I remember the Indigo A320 we have is a Lupa model, although of good detail not as good as Hogan. How is detailing on this ?

Got it from DBJets. Detailing is pretty decent, but nowhere as close to Hogan's C-17 model of the same scale. Markings are pretty much complete but the only marking details I found missing on the model was the A400M logo on the nose , under the central cockpit windows. One can easily mistake it for a metal model but it is actually plastic. The propeller blades are nicely detailed and strong, unlike Hogan's C-130 blades which are very thin and extremely fragile. No landing gear though. I felt that they got the three refueling baskets on the model horribly wrong in terms of shape, size and detailing. They could so easily have added more detail to the basket.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Bereiv A-50 Mainstay; Russian AEW&C aircraft; Witty Wings 1:400; diecast
"

Compared to other four engines under the wing type of aircraft this aircraft has the engine quite close together.

I wonder what determines the spacing of under the wing engines? Obviously, close together and close to the cabin minimizes differential thrust issues when you loose an engine. But on most aircraft, 707, 747, A380, DC8, the spacing between the engines seem much larger? Sort of evenly spread across the wing span.

Whilst I type this question, I have a very vague recollection that we might have discussed this already, but for the life of me can't think where?

Jeroen

[V.Narayan]

MiG-15 bis; Soviet first generation Jet Fighter; HobbyMaster 1:72 scale; diecast

Length & Wingspan ~5.5 inches

The MiG-15 bis needs no introduction to this group. 'Bis' in Russian literally means encore but is used equivalent to the English 'Plus'.

In 1953 this particular aircraft was flown by a Czech pilot Lieut. Jaroslav Sramek who shot down an American F-84 Thunderjet on the Czech-Germany border in an incident where the Czech alleged the American had strayed into their air space.

For its time the MiG 15 was fast - topping well over 560 knots It was a fast climber with an initial climb rate of over 10,000 feet/minute – compare this to 8000 feet per minute of both the Hawker Hunter and Dassault Mystere IV which were second generation machines! And it was maneuverable.

A nice youtube on the MiG-15 in the hands of its vintage aircraft owner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=z3srwQlyeA4

Colonel Y.Pepelyaev the leading Soviet MiG-15 ace from the Korean war with 17 confirmed and a possible 23 victory score. His record came to light only in the early years of the current decade when old Soviet archives were released to the public.


Clean straight through design - 35 degree sweep and high tail planes.


Wide track landing gear and wing drop tanks.


The attackers view


Nice level of detailing.


Wing fences and tail mounted air brakes


The 2-seater conversion trainer version. It proved to be a competent advanced pilot trainer and served with the Chinese Air Force till the last decade. North Korea uses it even today.


Lieut. Jaroslav Sramek referred to above.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Compared to other four engines under the wing type of aircraft this aircraft has the engine quite close together.I wonder what determines the spacing of under the wing engines?

They were spaced together to allow the jet efflux to flow into the wide flaps especially when set for take off or a steep landing.

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

MiG-15 bis; Soviet first generation Jet Fighter; HobbyMaster 1:72 scale; diecast

That's a gorgeous looking model. Congratulations.

Do the airbrakes retract or are permanently in 'extended' position?

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

The 2-seater conversion trainer version. It proved to be a competent advanced pilot trainer and served with the Chinese Air Force till the last decade. North Korea uses it even today.
.

The Pakistanis flew the FT-2( Chinese copy of the MiG-15UTI) in training role alongside the FT-5, FT-6 and FT-7 which are pretty much the entire set of Chinese copy trainer versions of the early MiG family -15,17,19 & 21).

[skanchan95]

1:72 Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero-Sen/Zeke Diecast Model Imperial Japanese Naval Air Service, Tsukuba Flying Group, 1942 (Luppa Models)
Not as detailed as Narayan Sir's Corgi A6M Zero, but a decently detailed model of the legendary A6M Zero. It doesn't have a landing gear either.

The A6M Zero
First flown in April, 1939, the MItsubishi manufactured A6M Zero-Sen was the Allies' main opponent in the Pacific and the most famous symbol of Japanese air power during World War II. This carrier-based fighter, designed with a low-monoplane wing and armed with a formidable array of two 20mm cannons and two 7.7mm machine guns, proved capable of handling any of the Allies' aircraft. It wasn't until the Allies studied a captured Zero that they were able to identify and exploit weaknesses such as minimal pilot and fuel tank protection. Zeros became infamous for Kamikaze attacks, in which pilots would intentionally crash explosion-laden aircraft into Allied ships.

Everytime I come across reference to a Zero or a Japanese WW2 Naval bomber like the Kate or Val, it reminds me of the IJN peral harbour attack launch scene from the movie Pearl Harbour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHwYD5fFLR4

[skanchan95]

1:250 ShinMaywa US-2 (De Agostini Models)
The ShinMaywa US-2 is a Japanese large STOL amphibian aircraft designed for air-sea rescue (SAR) work. An “amphibian aircraft” is one that can land on either land or water.

Operated solely by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, the US-2 is scheduled to replace the older Shin Meiwa US-1A in Japanese service. It can be used as fire fighter taking 15 tonnes of water.

The aircraft is currently operated by the 31st Fleet Air Wing (71st Air Force, 71st Flight Squadron) at Iwakuni air base and Atsugi air base.

In April 2015 aircraft 9905 was involved in an accident.The aircraft was on a training mission near Cape Ashizuri in Shikoku and four crew members were injured. Six US-2s had been delivered by November 2018, with a further 2 in production.

The Indian Navy has a requirement for 12–18 US-2 Amphibious Search and Rescue aircraft at a cost of US$1.65 billion. It is expected that these amphibious aircraft will be stationed in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In October 2016, ShinMaywa reduced the price to around US$113 million per aircraft.There were expectations that a contract for the order would be signed in November 2016,but it was deferred by the Indian defence minister Manohar Parrikar. In March 2018, Japanese ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu told The Hindu Business Line that talks were still in progress.

The US-2 is powered by4 × Rolls-Royce AE 2100J turboprop, 3,424 kW (4,592 hp) each( same engines that power our C-130J-30s)















Note the boat like undersides to facilitate landing on water

[skanchan95]

1:72 Sukhoi Su-30MK Flanker-C No. 24 Squadron Indian Air Force "Hawks" Republic Day Tri-Colour paint scheme (JC Wings)
Can't be any more happier and proud to add this beautiful Indian Su-30 model to my collection. JC Wings messed up big time by describing the model as a Su-30MKI FLanker-H, In reality it is a Su-30MK Flanker-C

The Sukhoi Su-30 (NATO reporting name: Flanker-C) is a twin-engine, two-seat supermaneuverable fighter aircraft developed by Russia's Sukhoi Aviation Corporation. It is a multirole fighter for all-weather, air-to-air and air-to-surface deep interdiction missions.

No. 24 Squadron "Hawks"
The squadron was raised on Dehavilland Vampire FB.52s at AFS Chabua on 16 February 1962 as an Air Defence and Reconnaissance unit. In the 1965 Indo-Pak war, the squasron operated from AFS Kalaikunda, in West Bengal, tasked with providing close air support to the Army ground units in the Eastern Sector. It continued for the first few days of the war, and then relocated to Barrackpore, from where it launched daylight strikes over vital targets, mostly in hostile weather conditions.

In 1966, The Hawks converted to HAL built Follang Gnat F.Mk.1s. In the 1971 Indo-Pak War, the squadron operated from AFS Tezpur mainly flying Close AIr Support missions for the Army.The squadron was also the first of the IAF to provide air cover to helilift operations.

Their 12 year association with the Gnat came to an end in APril 1978, when they converted to the HAL built Type 96 MiG-21M. In May 1981, they converted to the HAL buillt Type 75 MiG-21bis. In March 1997, the squadron relinquished their MiG-21s.

The squadron was resurrected in Pune on 12th May 1997 as IAF's first Su-30 Flanker squadron with 10 Su-30MKs and 8 Su-30Ks. The squadron flew their Su-30K/MKs to France for excerises with the AdA Mirage 2000s. In February 2007, the squadron traded their Su-30K/MKs for the advanced Su-30MKIs. They also flew MiG-21 Bisons alongside Su-30MKIs and developed tactics for optimum usage of both aircrafts. Teh squadron is based at AFS Bareilly(which is also home to No. 102 sqdn's Flankers)

















Refuelling Probe & Airbrake extended

[skanchan95]

More pics:

Mine's the 51st of 600 manufactured


With the tiny 1:200 Hogan Su-30MK in the same livery and serial number
















The real SB008 in Republic Day tri-color paint scheme

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

With the tiny 1:200 Hogan Su-30MK in the same livery and serial number

The real SB008 in Republic Day tri-color paint scheme

Brilliant ! Always wanted to do that, you even got the serial numbers to match! You and Narayan both have one of the best models on this thread. Can you message me where you procured it from and costs?

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

1:72 Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero-Sen/Zeke Diecast Model Imperial Japanese Naval Air Service, Tsukuba Flying Group, 1942 (Luppa Models)

Ahh, the Zero-Sen. The first carrier borne aircraft to out-fly land based fighters. The Washington Treaty after WW-I placed limits on the Navies of the great powers in the hope of preventing another Great War. Even though the Japanese had been allies of the Western Powers - UK, USA, France & Italy their Navy was limited to a fraction of the size of the US Navy and Royal Navy. The Japanese were infuriated but swallowed it as they still needed technology from UK to build their naval power. From this came the drive to build large long range submarines, pioneering aircraft carriers, top dog aircraft for those carriers and the worlds best and most reliable torpedo the Type 91. In addition to the Zero-Sen, which was the most famous, the Japanese also introduced before 1940 the Aichi D3A 'Val' dive bomber and the Nakajima B5N torpedo bomber. All three were superior in speed, range and combat effectiveness than anything the Allies had in carrier borne air power in 1940. The Americans developed new outstanding designs as the war dragged on while the Japanese failed to do so.

Originally Posted by skanchan95

1:250 ShinMaywa US-2 (De Agostini Models)
The ShinMaywa US-2 is a Japanese large STOL amphibian aircraft designed for air-sea rescue (SAR) work. An “amphibian aircraft” is one that can land on either land or water.

What a great find. Oh would I love to have a US-2. The last large flying boat. This is an exceptional STOL aircraft that can take off in 220 metres in zero wind conditions!!

Originally Posted by skanchan95

Mine's the 51st of 600 manufactured
With the tiny 1:200 Hogan Su-30MK in the same livery and serial number

Congratulations on acquiring the best model that any Indian can own - a 1:72 of the most powerful combat aircraft ever to serve with the IAF. Bravo. I just love that big eagle and baby eagle combination. Beautiful.