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No BuNo for F4D Satellite launcher

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  • Member since
    June 2006
  • From: New York City
No BuNo for F4D Satellite launcher
Posted by Mel Sharkskin on Friday, July 13, 2007 9:22 AM

This is a long shot, but I figure I'd try everywhere. I'm planning a conversion of the Tamiya 1/48 F4D-1 using the New Ware 1958 Satellite Launch Vehicle. In this program, the Skyray was considered the first stage, and at 40,000-something feet, it launched the vehicle in an attempt to put a grapefruit sized "satellite" into orbit. The program fired about ten missiles, and it is believed by many that two were  successful, but others believe that none made it to orbit.

 But that's irrelevant to my question: The New Ware kit comes with decals for the F4D-1, but the BuNo on the aircraft as given by NW is 130745, while photos of the aircraft on the excellent China Lake photo archive, which is easily obtainable by web, show the BuNo to be 130747. Records show the same plane fired all the rockets, which makes economical sense because only one plane had to be equipped with the instrumentation for the launch.

 So which is it? I wonder, since both planes show up in these photos, if the chase plane got confused by NW with the launch vehicle. If anyone knows the real number, it would be a great help.

Thanks,

Tom

  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: Sugar Land, TX
Posted by rlawson on Friday, July 13, 2007 11:44 PM

Tom

You've already tracked down all my resources, but I'm confident that the launch plane was 130747.  Some of the color photos on the China Lake archive show in-flight views of '747 with the NOTSnik under the port wing, plus a belly instrument pack.  There's one pic of a NOTSnik on 130745 (the gray/white Ford with the nose probe), but it's a ground shot, nothing in-flight. '745 may have flown some chase missions, but at least one other plane did this too, an FJ-4 with side number 308. 

If you look closely you'll see that 130747 sported white trimmers, possibly replacements, and wing undersurfaces were painted fluorescent red-orange for visibility.  It also carried the earlier, more tapered tailcone. Don't know about Tamiya's 1/48 F4D, but their 1/72 version has the late tailcone.  These planes were early pre-production models used for testing (see Ginter's F4D Skyray), and apparently never got updated with the later cone.

I've got a 1/72 Airfix F4D kit (w/early cone) waiting for this livery, but all I've done so far is lay out the decals on my computer.  The holdup is trying to match Dark Sea Blue for the background color behind the white letters. It's been so long now the printer ink has probably dried out.  If I ever get back to it, I'll still need to scratchbuild the launch vehicle, but that doesn't appear overwhelming.  Good luck with yours, and I'd love to see pics along the way.

HTH

Dick

 

 

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