Apophenia's Offerings

[apophenia]

An AN/APQ-126 might be doable.

Nice! And, going by YA-7D development, should be available around 1968?

[GTX_Admin]

Nice! And, going by YA-7D development, should be available around 1968?

Yep.

[apophenia]

M.A.D asked me to do a whif night fighter derivative of the Grumman F9F-8T 2-seater for carrier use by the RAN's FAA. (Hope that you like it, Rob.)

He chose the pre-1961 markings of 805 Squadron - a sawtooth pattern in red and white. Those colours were worn on 805 Sea Venom tip tanks. Since the F9F-8 didn't have tip tanks, the sawtooth markings were moved to the drop tanks. Other RW markings were moved about to suit the Cougar's rather unique body shape. This included overlapping 'NAVY' on both the upper Extra Dark Sea Grey and lower Sky surfaces.

The most liberties were taken with the individual aircraft number - with '801' rendered in white on the upper surface as well as being moved from the main undercarriage covers forward to the nose gear cover. I also added a national flag to the vertical fin ... just for a bit of extra colour.

[Old Wombat]

The Cougar looks odd with that double-bubble.


Whilst the single-bubble looks elegant dressed in a 1950's inspired high-demarcation EDSG-over-Sky scheme.




 

[GTX_Admin]

 

[apophenia]

... Whilst the single-bubble looks elegant dressed in a 1950's inspired high-demarcation EDSG-over-Sky scheme.

Nice! I much prefer this Sky-up-on-the-spine demarcation. I wish I'd thought of that!

The Cougar looks odd with that double-bubble...

It does indeed. The basis for this was the F9F-8T trainer but then the radome from F4D-1 Skyray's radar set was grafted on. Of necessity, the curve of the F9F-8T's lower fuselage is largely eliminated to accommodate the larger diameter of thatAN/APQ-50 radome.

M.A.D didn't tell me his overall plan for this Cougar night fighter within his alternative orbat. I doubt that it will match his thinking but I'm imagining something like the following:

N4 = Grumman (CAC) Cougar F(AW) Mk.48 (aka F9F-8NF) [1]
- N4(NF) = Cougar shipbard all-weather/night fighter
-- Armament = Up to 4 x AAM-N-7 Sidewinder IA missiles; and

N6 = Grumman (CAC) Cougar trainer (aka F9F-8T and F9F-8NF)
- N6(T) == Cougar pilot trainer (based on Grumman F9F-8T)
- N6(NF) = Cougar radar-operator trainer (based on Grumman F9F-8NF)
- N6(TT) = Cougar target tug; surplus N6(T) conversions with Delmar target kit

I could see elements of this fleet outlasting the RW Sea Venoms and Vampire T.34 trainers. For example, after retirement from shipboard operations, I can imagine a few lower-hour Cougars being moved into a land-based spoofing role to keep RAN air defence operators on their toes.

Anyway, I guess will know for sure when M.A.D publishes his orbat.
_____________________________________________

[1] I wanted a British-sounding designation so I made up F(AW) Mk.48. The '4' came from N4 - the RW Sea Venom code - and the '8' from F9F-8, of course.

[Litvyak]

... Whilst the single-bubble looks elegant dressed in a 1950's inspired high-demarcation EDSG-over-Sky scheme.

Nice! I much prefer this Sky-up-on-the-spine demarcation. I wish I'd thought of that!

I really like both, but my vote is for the line lower down, just because I like EDSG as a colour. :)