Of course, there's also this route:
Cool! But also prompting a few questions:
- The twin tails on the Design 215 were to better handle the T64s' extra power?
- Both Design 165 and Design 215 were intended to be new-builds, right?
- Any reason that the Design 165 couldn't have been a Tracker rebuild programme?
I'm wondering about the feasibility of an earlier-than-OLT CP-121 upgrade (since the CF had T53s in their CH-118s and CX-84).
Being as Designs 121, 137 (tanker), 142 (COD) and 165 were relatively straightforward
re-engined developments of the Stoof, it could be a rebuild program. T53s were proposed
for all including the original 165 proposal which was changed to T55s.
Interesting note from Francillon's
Grumman Aircraft since 1929:
"In 1987, the Canadian Department of National Defense announced that IMP Group in
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, would re-engine a CP-121 with 1,059-eshp Pratt & Whitney
PT6A-67AF propeller-turbines driving six-blade propellers and that this experimental
conversion was likely to be followed by the re-engining of twenty-seven additional aircraft.
The re-engined CP-121s will probably be fitted with Spar Falcon FLIR (Forward Looking
Infra-Red), Litton Canada APS-504(V) radar, and Marconi Canada ARV-509(V) Omega
very low frequency navigation equipment."
... and pigs will fly.
