Canadian interceptor

[Kerick]

Well, I’m jumping in with an idea I had a few years ago. Take a Tornado F3 and extend the fuselage a little more for more fuel and add the best missiles around. Have it flying missions over the great white north instead of the short legged F-18. Tough decision will be to use the ADC grey of the retired F-101 or the three tone F-18. Or get crazy and do the F-15 Air Superiority Blue.

[GTX_Admin]

So something conceptually similar to the Tornado 2000 proposal though without the faceting:

[apophenia]

I like it! But here's a bit of RW background ...

On the road to transform the AFVG into MRCA, Canada became a programme partner. We called our bit CAMRA - the Canadian Advanced Multi-Role Aircraft - with Canadair assigning the type number CL-236. But the incoming PM, Pierre Trudeau, wanted out of Canada's NATO nuclear strike role and cancelled CAMRA on 22 Oct 1968.

WHIF: So, Canada never cancels CAMRA or pulls out of what becomes MRCA. Instead, Canadair modifies the MRCA airframe into a pure interceptor. Hey presto, stretched Tornado toting missiles over the Arctic Archipelago! Nice 

... Tough decision will be to use the ADC grey of the retired F-101 or the three tone F-18. Or get crazy and do the F-15 Air Superiority Blue.

If we get a vote, I put my 'x' beside ASB. IIUC, the 2- and 3-tone grey schemes were created to match mulit-role duties. By contrast, ASB was created for the F-15A when it was still seen as a pure interceptor.

[Kerick]

I love that drawing. I'll probably stretch a little more to make the difference more noticeable.
Here's the preliminary photos.



Decals are from Leading Edge and perhaps Promodeler.





I've got some Hindenburg fuel tanks I cast a long time ago. Now I have to find them again.

[apophenia]

Leading Edge do good stuff 

Your CAF beastie will be doing some serious fuel carting - 900 litres internal plus another 4,500 in your 'Hindenburgers'! AFAIK, RAF GR1s were also cleared to carry the standard underbelly pair of 1,500 litre tanks as well (although, aside from prototypes, the F3s never carried them).

I really like the conformal belly tank concept for the Tornado 2000 as well - much less draggy than the paired underbelly tanks. IIRC, the 2,250 litre tanks kept the Tornado F3 firmly subsonic. But, apparently, at high subsonic speeds, they produce very little drag. Sounds ideal for a very long-range interceptor 

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"One day in your life; Shouldn't cause you pain" - 54-40

[Kerick]

I’ve never heard of a pilot that would turn down having more gas on board! The Hindenburg tanks should carry enough fuel and still allow high speed. The ventral tanks would block carrying Skyflash or AMRAAM missiles so I won’t be using them. So it will be a loadout of four Sidewinders, four AMRAAM and two Hindenburg, so far. If another idea pops up we’ll just where that takes me. The fuselage extensions will also slow more fuel. Lots of airspace to cover over all that tundra.

I’m working on getting the top and bottom fuselage sections to line up correctly in the cockpit area. I’ve glued tabs to the upper half to get the bottom half to spread out and line up better. Much less putty involved this way. The basics of the cockpit are installed and the first cut to the fuselage will be right behind the cockpit.

[apophenia]

I’ve never heard of a pilot that would turn down having more gas on board! ...

True dat! Especially with nothing but tundra beneath you for a few hundred kilometres in either direction