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Nothing escapes Foxbat's long range RP-25MN (Saphir-25) radar. Nothing.:)

clap: Another most apt addition to your fleet Sandesh. Congratulations. The 737 was truly our workhorse from 1970 to 1990. I simply loved the looks of the 737-200 and the later Classic series 737-300, -400, -500. The first batch of IC's 737s had the JT8D-9's that gave a 14,000 lbf thrust which made a peak summer afternoon take off tough. Fortunately after c1973 we started getting the JT8D-17s with their improved 16,000 lbf which solved this issue. In the 1950s to 1980s Boeing had such mastery over design that working on a 737 was a pleasure - far more than on a A320. Everything was laid out so well. The Max has messed up this legends reputation forever.

Your A300 and 737 pair looks gorgeous. Reminds me I need to take time out for photo shoots :-)

Thank you sir. I am waiting for the tiny 1/400 IC HS.748 and that would complete the set of Indian Airlines aircraft I had flown in and have memories of.

Yes please, I can't wait to see the models that you had teased earlier on this thread:)

This one? :):D Tiny as it is, it is worth it. I loved the Avro. In the 1980s I was once posted to Jabalpur - hot , high and short runway - everything the Avro did not like :-) On hot summer afternoons the Captain would make a very careful weight assessment and then invariably off load the single men first to get to a light enough take off weight - bad luck buster. And I was single then. You cursed that the country was going to the dogs {just like young folks insist today}, mumble and catch a moth-eaten three-wheeler shared with 2 others and trundled back home.

Sorry about that skirt lift - leg show - no show. Two large projects I've been weighed down by reached fruition today. Finally breathing space on the weekend.

Yes, the same one. Inbound soon, hopefully:).

Love the way you write and describe your experiences. I can only imagine what the scene must have been like :uncontrol. It is always fascinating to hear about such experiences from days long gone by:).

My dad had some similar stories to tell about flights to and from small towns. Back them, in the late 70s, the nearest airport to the town he had just moved in for a new job assignment was a very small and not so well known airport called Keshod.

Indian Airlines used to operate Avros or F.27s from Mumbai back then to Keshod (which over time got substituted by Vayudoot in the mid or late 80s, East West Airlines F.27s came in the 90s followed Jet Airways ATR-72s. After Jet stopped flying into Keshod a very lesser known airline called Gujarat Airways flew Beech 1900 into Keshod and they were the last I think before Keshod closed operations). I remember him telling me that on a flight to Mumbai, a couple of passengers were offloaded from the Avro because the aircraft was "overweight". Fortunately for him, he wasn't asked to get off.

To get to his new workplace from Keshod airport, to a town called Veraval, he had to travel around 35 kms in a shared three wheeler in roads that were not as good as they are today. It was during one of those trips that he accidentally a met a gentleman from Mangalore, who went onto become his very good friend. Those old Ford taxis existed in that area back then but were deemed expensive. He went on to achieve great things and earned a name for himself in Veraval....a very dusty old town with poor travel options back then, a town which he was initially reluctant to move in to with a young family. I was born and bought up in Veraval and as the infrastructure started improving, Keshod airport moved into the history books.

But the memories of having flown in Avros as a child from Keshod to Mumbai remain with me.

Before Jabalpur I was posted in Rajkot. So these places - Keshod, Veraval, Amreli, Bhavnagar are etched in my memory. Early impressions stay. I really liked the hard no nonsense style of the Saurashtra folks and picked up enough Gujrati to do my job. In those days, early 1908s I was not senior enough to be entitled to air travel - only first class rail or 3-tier AC. There was a solitary Avro flight from Mumbai to Rajkot. 90 minutes before the flight the airport would come to life. Occasionally I would go to the airport to watch that flight land and take off. Compared to today Rajkot was a small town then though very prosperous and clean.:OT

Yes the decals are separate. These came from a roundel sheet purchased from a person in UK who prints them. Very few models come with inbox decals.

Btw you did a superb job with the Rafale, which model is on your bench next?

Some more pics of the cockpit and engine area.

On 6 September 1976, a disaffected Soviet Air Force pilot named Viktor Belenko made headlines when he flew his Mig-25 Foxbat-A from Siberia to Japan, landing at Hakodate. He was taken in by the Americans, obtaining a trust fund and, eventually, American citizenship.

With Belenko's defection its radar and other systems had been badly compromised. As a result, in November 1976 the MiG OKB was ordered to develop an improved MiG-25P on a fast-track basis. The new variant was designated "MiG-25PD", where the "D" stood for "dorabottanniy / upgraded". The MiG-25PD was introduced into service in 1979 and assigned the NATO reporting name of "Foxbat-E".

The most significant improvement in the MiG-25PD was the new RP-25M Saphir 25 radar, based on the Saphir-23 developed for the MiG-23 fighter. It was a great improvement over the Smerch-A, having slightly greater range and, more significantly, pulse-Doppler operation to provide a look-down / shoot-down capability. The aircraft's nose was slightly stretched to accommodate the new radar. The Saphir 25 was complemented in later MiG-25PD production by a TP-26Sh-1 "infrared search & track (IRST)" sensor mounted under the nose to provide passive target detection and tracking.

There had been upgrades in other avionics systems during MiG-25P production, and the MiG-25PD was fitted with the most up-to-date standard of radios, navigation systems, datalinks, and IFF. It also could carry improved R-40R and R-40T AAMs, featuring more sophisticated seekers, these updated weapons being designated "R-40RD" and "R-40TD" respectively. In addition, the MiG-25PD could carry an alternate warload of two R-40s and four R-60 (NATO AA-8 Aphid) short-range heatseeking AAMs, with the Aphids replacing the outboard R-40s and carried on a dual stores rack.

Other improvements in the MiG-25PD included R15BD-300 engines, with no increase in thrust but modernized accessory gearboxes; and the ability to carry an oversized, spindle-shaped 5,300-liter (1,400 US gallon) belly tank, over half as long as the aircraft itself, and one of the biggest external tanks ever fitted to any Soviet aircraft.

1/72 Soviet Air Force Mig-25PD "Foxbat-E" circa 1983












With its successor, the Mig-31 Foxhound.








Never thought I would get to see 6 R-40 missiles in one frame:D




This kit is made by a Ukrainian company called Mistercraft (Condor) and is absolutely the terrible! It's the worst of the 50+ kits I have made in my life. Basuroy advised me the brand wasn't good but I still went ahead and got one shipped from Germany. The landing gear bays came with huge holes in them due to manufacturing defects, parts are covered in dirt, missiles were broken, canopy has defects and not one part fits together with out cutting, sanding and filler. To top it all the decals don't have instructions ! Luckily my gamble of paying 2-3x the price by buying it from a reputed seller on eBay paid off and I managed to get a full refund.

I thought of discarding it then but as they say, when life gives you lemons, then make lemonade :D It came out reasonably well given the poor kit but please stay away from this brand:deadhorse

Nicely done Foxbat. You must be very proud that you salvaged a kit with such defects and converted into a masterpiece!!!! Well done, indeed.


1:200 Airbus A320-214 Air India VT-EDD (Hogan)
VT-EDD stats
Status : Active
Registration : VT-EDD
Airline : Air India
Serial number : 4212
Type : 320-214
First flight date : 02/02/2010
Date of Delivery : 26/02/2010
Test registration F-WWDJ
Engines : 2 x CFMI CFM56-5B4/P

This completes the collection of the three Hogan Air India A320s in my collection. This is the wingtip fences A320 model and I find it to be more elegant than the sharklet equipped A320 models.

I dearly wish for a double bogey, IAE V2500 powered IC/AI A320 model.












































The real VT-EDD

Excellent addition to your Air India collection and excellent photography! Do you use a camera phone or some digital camera? A picture of all three A320s would be great.

Incidentally Air India A320 VT-EXP was parked next to my aircraft as I was reading your post. Only managed to take a pic when I was taking off.

Thank you. Yes, I use a digital camera - an old and battered Nikon L340.

:thumbs up

The three AI 320s - EDD(-214), EXE [-214(SL)] & CIE(-251N)










Air India A320 fleet. Why Indian AIrlines is in there? That's because after Indian Airlines was merged with Air India, those three Indian Airlines/Indian A320s served with Air India in Indian Airlines liveries and did not get re-painted with Air India livery.Although many ex-IC A320s did get new AIr India re-paint, these didn't.

EDIT: It hit me just now that the Indian Airlines A320s were powered by IAE V2500 engines and new AI A320swere powered by CFM56 engines. What factors went into deciding the engine choice on an A320 by the Airline? Does one engine offer any significant advantage over the other?











Air India Fleet.

That explains your marvelous photos :-)

clap:
IAE is a JV comprised of 3 Japanese companies + Pratt & Whitney + MTU of Germany with technical collaboration from Rolls Royce and Fiat. They went on to develop an engine for the 150 seat market which means it could serve for the 120 to 180 seat range the biggest single segment in commercial aviation. The CFM, a joint product of GE, USA and SNECMA, France, was the obvious competitor.

IAE V2500 is marketed very aggressively on both price and terms of ASS. A lot of the selling was done at less than cot throat prices. IAE figured breaking into the US market dominated by the 737 mounted CFMs would be tough so they focused on the rest of the world market. In any bid that was focused on price and price alone IAE started to win. In my opinion having touched both engines CFM is far more reliable by a mile and more. IAE engines tend to get off the wing too often in comparison. Some like Air India went for IAE on price alone. Others like Indigo got the lowest price and tied IAE up in very very tightly worded SLAs and requirements for spare engines to be kept on standby. So Indigo got top class service from IAE in which IAE got bled sharply while other airlines who went for business as usual ASS contracts suffered. Some have started to return to CFM.

Hope this helps.

1:400 Japan Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner JA861J











The real aircraft.




This is Japan Airlines JAL's first 787-9 Dreamliner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPOabovn6_A

Fun Fact: I ordered this in April and got it a few days ago!

Foxbat, your Foxbat rocks. I don't think this is your first Foxbat, is it Foxbat? I am foxed bat I'm sure you have another Foxbat tucked away somewhere.:D Congratulations on making a success out of a bad deal. The MiG-25 has such perfect lines and planform that I could oogle at it all afternoon.

Ahhh, the Dreamliner. I first saw the 787 as a static display at Farnborough in July 2010. I fell in love with is lines and that Caravelle style nose. The aircraft displayed was, I think, in ANA colours. The baby wide body, handsome like the other baby A310. Congratulations. Your patience paid off.

Thanks Narayan. There have been 4 Foxbat's on this thread, two 1:200 Scale and two 1/72 Scale divided equally amongst us. But only three unique Aircraft.

1:200 Herpa Mig-25PDS Soviet Air Force Serial 52
1:200 Herpa Mig-25PD Libyan Air Force Serial 6716

1:72 Condor Mig-25PD Soviet Air Force Serial 71
1:72 Hobby Master Mig-25PD Libyan Air Force Serial 6716

As you can see I have a lot of free time these days lol:

Crisp and to the point, as always:thumbs up. Thank you, sir.

Great looking model. Which brand is that?