Picture of the Week 20

The Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer USS Howard (DDG-83) digs her bow into a heavy swell in the South China Sea, 29AUG04. In the background is a Ticonderoga-class cruiser. The photograph was taken from the Military Sealift Command (MSC) fast combat support ship USNS Rainier (T-AOE-7) as the Howard was maneuvering alongside for an Underway Replenishment (UNREP). (U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate Airman Richard R. Waite)

Operation Deep Freeze 2024 – Aircraft in Antarctica

All photographs credit Lisa Cox taken during her deployment as part of Operation Deep Freeze 2024, who has generously allowed them to be shared here.

A Basler BT-67 of Kenn Borek Air at McMurdo Station, Antarctica on 20NOV23, one of two operated by the airline. The Baslers are rebuilt Douglas C-47 Dakoda airframes using Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67R turboprops and updated avionics among other improvements. The Columbian Air Force operates six Baslers in the gunship role.

A side view of the Basler which shows the skis fitted to the landing gear to advantage. C-FMLB began life as C-47A-80-DL serial 43-15094. It was delivered to the USAAF on 02FEB44, which makes this an eighty- year-old aircraft. KBA took delivery of the refurbished aircraft on 30NOV06.

The interior has been modernized and can be configured for cargo or passengers. Here technicians are seen fitting passenger seats.

A closer view of the work with a peek into the cockpit.

A beautiful view of a Basler in flight. A & A Models has just released a kit of a Basler BT-67 in 1/72 scale.

The New York Air National Guard operated the Lockheed LC-130 Hercules in support of Operation Deep Freeze. Here is 83-0491 on the packed snow runway at McMurdo on 20NOV23.

The NYANG LC-130s stage through Christchurch, New Zealand for their Antarctic operations. Note the pristine condition of the aircraft and the semi-retractable landing gear for snow.

A nice detail view showing the internal wing structure, landing skis, and RATO attachment points.

An atmospheric view of two NYANG LC-130s on the ramp.

Kenn Borak Air also operates eighteen de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otters, here are three at McMurdo. Note the tie-down straps.

A Basler BT-67 and de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otters share the ramp.

The Royal New Zealand Air Force also supports operations at McMurdo Station. Here is a beautiful portrait of a RNAF Boeing 757.

Tamiya Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6/R6 of Oberleutnant Heinrich Klöpper in 1/72 Scale

Heinrich Klöpper had a mixed beginning to his combat career. On 15MAY40 2./JG 77 tangled with several French fighters, Klöpper filed a claim for one which was not confirmed, but his Bf 109 was hit and he was forced to take to his parachute. He was able to claim a single Spitfire during the Battle of Britain before transferring to the East for Operation Barbarossa.

Klöpper scored steadily against the Russians, flying with 11./JG 51 he amassed a total of 80 victories. In November 1943 he was transferred back to the West as Staffelkapitän of 7./JG 1 on Reich Defense duties. He was credited with 8 victories against the Americans, including 6 heavy bombers. On 29NOV43 his Messerschmitt was struck in the cockpit by a burst of fire from a P-38, killing him instantly. Heinrich Klöpper was credited with a total of 94 victories.

Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6/R6 of Oberleutnant Heinrich Klöpper, 7./JG 1, Rheine, Germany, November 1943

Israeli Phantoms Book Review

Israeli Phantoms: The ‘Kurnass’ in IDF/AF Service 1989 Until Today: The Ultimate F-4 Phantom II Collection, Volume 2

By Andreas Klein and Shlomo Aloni

Hardcover, 160 pages, appendices

Published by Double Ugly Books, January 2009

Language: English

ISBN-10: 3935687826

ISBN-13: 978-3935687829

Dimensions: 8.5 x 11.7 x 0.6 inches

The McDonnell Douglass F-4 Phantom is known as the Kurnass (Sledgehammer) in Israeli service. This book is the second volume in what has become known as the definitive reference on the Kurnass, and it is very unlikely these books will ever be surpassed. This is very much a modeler’s reference. The chapters are broken down by detailed descriptions of the development of various Phantom sub-types in IDF/AF service – the F-4E Kurnass 2000, the RF-4E Kurnass Tasilum, and the F-4e(S) Shabul. Subsequent chapters detail service in each of the squadrons which operated the type and detailed walk-around pictorials of each of the three versions.

The last 21 pages of the book are devoted to a series of detailed appendices which are of particular interest to modelers. These include detailed line drawings to 1/87 scale, the odd scale being necessary to fit the page format. A painting guide is included which show both the Ghost Grey and Desert schemes along with Federal Standard numbers. Next are the cockpit layouts with each instrument and control annotated. The last appendix is a serial number list.

This is predominantly a visual reference, the pages contain multiple well-captioned photographs, most of which are in color. Profile artwork is common as well. I was fortunate to find this volume at a model show at a good price, but these books are currently out of print and are fetching collector’s prices on the secondary market. These are excellent books and everything a modeler could ask for as a reference for an IDF Phantom project, highly recommended.

Grumman US-2 Tracker Walk Around Part II

Photographed by Don Gilman at Cavenaugh Flight Museum, Dallas

Part I here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2024/05/05/grumman-us-2-tracker-walk-around-part-i/

Women Warriors 269

Lt. Col. Riel Erickson, CF-18 Fighter pilot of ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE

Aviation pioneer Jackie Cochran was instrumental in founding both the ATA pilots and WASP. Seen here with her P-51B Mustang air racer after the war.

ww473_USArmy_in_Afghanistan — **US Army in Afghanistan**

ww473e_Gilboa M43Carbine — **Gilboa M43 Carbine**

ww274 — **Swedish soldier with Carl Gustav**

ww275 — **1LT Clancly Morrical, 36th Fighter Squadron F-16 pilot, Osan Korea**

WAVES Aviation Machinist Barbara Stroud, NAS Jacksonville

ww076AAMWS2 — **Australian Army Woman’s Medical Service**

To see more Women Warriors, click on the tags below:

AMP Focke Achgelis Fa 223 Drache Build in 1/72 Scale Part I

This is the Focke Achgelis Fa 223 from AMP, a limited-run kit released in 2018. The type first flew in August 1940 but only about 20 were produced.

Parts are presented on a total of five sprues. Many of these parts are delicate and form the intricate latticework for the rotor supports and interior structural framing. Mold lines are prominent and there is some flash, so all these parts will need clean-up before they can be used.

Helicopters models are not the same as a conventional aircraft without wings. The few I have built are surprisingly delicate and tend to take up quite a bit more room than you would expect. This one does not appear to be any different.

The interior framing is delicate but the parts fit together well. The area behind the pilot’s seat is difficult to see on the finished model but the forward section will be visible. I have added wiring for the instruments and rudder pedals.

The kit provides a good representation of the radial engine which is buried in the fuselage. Very little of this can be seen at all on the finished model so I didn’t add any extra wiring or details.

The interior was painted RLM 66. PE seatbelts are from Eduard

Another view of the interior. The instrument panels are just drybrushed which looks fine through the canopy.

The engine with a coat of paint. If the engine wasn’t provided in the kit I likely would not have bothered adding one as it is difficult to find an angle where any of it can be glimpsed.

The forward and aft sections of the fuselage have a gap between them which is joined by exposed structural latticework. I was under no illusions that these delicate parts would survive handling so I replaced the kit parts with bronze rod and Evergreen to give it strength.

This is the forward fuselage section with the kit supplied canopy masks and PE screen. The canopy is composed of four pieces and is the fit is tricky. I had problems with the vinyl masks lifting on the curved surfaces so I used those pieces as templates to cut masks from Tamiya tape.

Picture of the Week 19

A Vickers Wellington photographed during a Press Day at RAF Watton in Norfolk, July 1941 by Robert Capa. This aircraft is particularly interesting as it appears the starboard wing is a replacement wearing a different camouflage, while the starboard engine nacelle looks to be the original. The port nacelle has been touched up as well. A unique modeling subject!

As an administrative aside, this is the 2,000th blog post!

The Chinese Kong Jiang-1 – The B-29 Superfortress AWACS

One of the stranger stories in aviation history is how the Boeing B-29 Superfortress became an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft – not for the USAF, but for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force.

For most of the Second Word War Japan and the Soviet Union were at peace. One of the stipulations of the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact obliged the Soviets to intern American aircraft which landed Russian territory as a result of conducting combat missions against the Japanese. The Soviets honored the treaty to the letter, seizing three American B-29 Superfortresses and their crews which had diverted to the Soviet Union after various emergencies. This is the first Superfortress to divert, B-29-5-BW serial 42-6256 “Ramp Tramp” at Tsentralnaya-Uglovaya in July 1944.

In total three Superfortresses landed intact and one crashed. In addition to Ramp Tramp, B-29A-1-BN serial 42-93829 “Cait Paomat II” crashed, B-29-15-BW serial 42-6365 “General H.H. Arnold Special” landed on 11NOV44, and B-29-15-BW serial 42-6358 “Ding Hao!” landed on 21NOV44. All were based in China and diverted due to either combat damage or fuel exhaustion. The crews were interred, but later allowed to “escape” via Iran. The aircraft were not returned, but were studied by the Soviets. This is Ding Hao! In the markings of her new owners.

The B-29 was years ahead of anything the Soviets had on the drawing boards. Stalin directed that the Superfortress was to be reverse-engineered for Soviet production, a priority project second only to the development of atomic weapons. After a monumental effort the first Soviet Tupolev Tu-4 “Bull” made its first flight on 19MAY47. A total of 847 were produced in several versions and served into the 1960s. Pictured is one of fifty Tu-4K versions produced for the Soviet Navy with an AS-1 Kennel anti-ship missile under each wing.

In 1953 the Soviets transferred twenty-five Tu-4 to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force. The Chinese flew these aircraft in front-line units as bombers until 1978 and in reserve units for more than a decade later. In the early 1970s their Ash-73TK radial engines of 2,400 hp were replaced with Al-20M turboprops, each producing 4,250 hp. Pictured is one of the turboprop Bulls with a WuZhen-5 (WZ-5) recon drone under each wing. The similarity to the AQM-34N “Firebee” is not coincidental, the WZ-5 is a Chinese copy.

One airframe was converted to the Airborne Warning and Control System role by plant No. 5702, located in Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province. In addition to the turboprop engines, the aircraft featured a prominent circular radome for the prototype Type 843 radar. The bombay was converted into crew space for the radar operators and all defensive armament systems were removed.

The Kong Jiang-1 made its first flight on 10JUN71, and began a flight test program which eventually reached several hundred hours. Problems quickly became apparent. While the thrust of the engines was much greater, empty weight had increased by five tons and the new radome and other antennas had greatly increased drag. Excessive vibration was induced by both the engines and the radome, and the aircraft had problems with lateral stability. Adjustments to the engines and a redesign of the radome improved the situation but never totally eliminated the problems.

While the Type 843 radar was able to detect targets out to approximately 200 miles the Chinese were never able to solve the problem of differentiating low-flying aircraft in the radar’s ground clutter. This ultimately doomed the project and the Kong Jiang-1 never entered serial production.

A close-up of the Al-20M turboprop which produced 4,250 hp. The turboprop engines were a great deal longer and much narrower than the radials they replaced. The new engines projected 90 inches (2.3 meters) further forward, and the complexity of fairing them into the nacelles is apparent.

The Kong Jiang-1 was limited to a single prototype, but that airframe is preserved as an outdoor display at the China Aviation Museum near Beijing.

Fine Molds Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6/R6 of Oberleutnant Gerhard Stamp in 1/72 Scale

Gerhard Stamp was a successful Kampflieger, flying the Junkers Ju 88 with LG 1 in the Mediterranean. As a bomber pilot he flew over 300 missions. He was an anti-shipping expert, sinking the destroyer HMS Defender, damaging three British cruisers, and sinking 35,000 tons of merchant shipping.

As the German war situation deteriorated, Luftwaffe emphasis shifted to defending the Reich. Several bomber pilots were retrained on fighters. This did not sit well with Stamp. The symbol painted on the nose of Stamp’s Yellow 17 is the Luftwaffe Bomber Pilot Clasp, emphasizing that he still considered himself a Kampflieger.

Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6/R2 of Oberleutnant Gerhard Stamp, III./JG 300, Oldenburg, Germany, September 1943