Robin Olds' "perfected F-102" idea w/bubble canopy and internal gun
Bell X-5 as a naval fighter
McDonnell F-88 naval derivative
Republic Thunderceptor F.1 with rocket armament in nose
Mikoyan-Gurevich Flipbat
Israeli F4D Skyray
Naval P-43
Naval P-47s
Early 1940s
Bell pogo fighter patent
Martin DC-3
contemporary
This is from a Martin patent of the mid-1930s, and I'm assuming the
rationale behind it was to compete
with Douglas. I'm not that familiar
with Glenn's lesser-known products, so I'm assuming it didn't actually
fly.
All kinds of follow-on come to mind - gunship, Starfighter
radar trainer - that needle nose would look cool
here! floatplane,
Soviet copy with turrets, etc...
And of course I misspelled the last name there - no disrespect meant to
CAL!
Rival design of the Boeing XB-29; would have been much larger with
R4360 engines from the start
Korean-era example with Black anti-searchlight undersides
RAF "California B.1" loaned from USAF stocks mid-1950s; this example is
an ELINT bird
A-1 Spad
Exports
Although it came into being at the beginning of the jet age, the
propellor-driven Douglas AD/A-1 Skyraider was a very potent aircraft
that was not widely exported. Here are a few what-if operators:
Israel
El
Salvador
Supermarine
Seafang Air Racers
We'll say that the Spiteful and Seafang went into service, and a few
airframes survived long enough to be put on the air racing circuit
Northrop
VTOL Concept, early 1960s
Republic
P-47H "Hemi-Bolt"
Douglas
F5D/"F-7" Skylancer
Background: For whatever reason, the threat from Soviet standoff
missiles does not loom quite so large in the late 1950s, and the
USN/USMC pursue pure air superiority fighters for slightly longer,
rather than heading full-force for missile platforms like the
Phantom. This allows for production of the Douglas F5D
Skylancer, the J79-powered outgrowth of the company's F4D Skyray. With
its much more powerful engine, the F-7 (post 1962 designation) is
capable of even greater climb rates.
Despite the Skylancer's abilities, the eventual arrival of the Phantom
in numbers put an end to F-7 operations by 1966-67. The availability of
a fairly large number of low-hour airframes was noticed by Argentina,
which quickly bought up most of the survivors. In restrospect, the A-4
would have been a better deal, being an in-production aircraft with
more up to date electronics, but the Agentinian brass wanted a
supersonic naval fighter more than a bomb truck.
The F-7 proved more or less compatible with the the "new" carrier
Vencintino de Mayo, but the older Indepencia was never refitted for
Skylancer operations. The great majority of the fleet was assigned to
the Argentine Air Force, but these were mostly out of service by 1980,
with those remaining being used as point-defense interceptors for
Mirage bases. The Argentine Navy was more reluctant to
dispose of its Skylancers, as they represented the only carrier-based
supersonic capability that the service was ever likely to have. Using
hulks of ex-air force machines, a total of 12-15 were still airworthy
by the time of the Falklands war. The de Mayo's sortie early on in the
conflict led to an encounter between several Skylancers and Sea
Harriers from HMS Hermes, but despite scoring several victories, the
surviving F-7s are unable to strike at the British fleet.
Canberra
PR.10
RAF A-5s
Rationale: The TSR.2 project was cancelled before any hardware was
built, in favor of "buying American" - in this case the RA-5C
Vigilante. A total of 78 aircraft (from a projected buy of 200+) ended
up being built, these entering service between 1966-68. Although based
on the RA-5C reconnaissance model, the RAF's Vigilantes stressed the
interdictor role. The not altogether successful centerline tube weapons
bay was abandoned, this being used instead for fuel.
Although nominally a tactical type, the Vigilante was in many respects
a medium strategic bomber for the RAF, capable of carrying a pair of
the new WE177 gravity bombs deep into the Warsaw Pact, especially when
given tanker support by Victor K.1A tankers.
Despite the type's capabilities, the small numbers bought made
maintaining the Vigilante fleet increasingly hard as time went by.
Political pressure to continue the MRCA participation vetoed service
plans to buy and refit ex-USN aircraft. Even before the Tornado was
ready, the number of Vigilantes in service had dwindled to around
twenty, and these were shifted to the recon role. The type's
operational swan song came during the Falklands War, when a small
number operated from Ascension Island carrying a pod-mounted SLAR to
search for Argentinian ships in the South Atlantic.
RAF
Vigilante w/Storm Shadow ALCMs, 2003
USN EA-5C
RAF B-52s / Boeing Seattles
Rationale: Higher tensions between the superpowers in the early 1960s
leads to the RAF having to bolster its strategic bomber strength
rapidly - to hold the line until the Vulcan B.3 becomes available,
Bomber Command receives 50 refurbished ex-SAC B-52B/Cs as the Boeing
Seattle B.1
Although plans were put forth to add a fixed refueling probe, this was
never done, and the Seattles had to rely on tanker support from USAF
KC-135s. This was not a major concern, as the RAF aircraft could strike
at the USSR heartland from the UK without tanking. Integration of the
Blue Steel Mk.2 was considered, but the AGM-28 Hound Dog was bought
instead.
Unfortunately, the fading importance of the manned strategic bomber by
the early 1970s, coupled with budget shortfalls was to put an early end
to Seattle operations. The RAF had put forth an ambitious refit plan
that would have added EVS, new countermeasures, and SRAM capability,
but this never came about. Most Seattles were retired in 1974-78, being
flown back to the US to be broken up for spare parts.
Notice I wrote "most" :-) We'll say that at least one was retained as a
testbed for advanced engines (for a Concorde successor?) as well as
drop tests of subscale demonstrators for the HOTOL spaceplane program.
Soviet
Stratojets
Rational: The
mother of all navigational errors puts a fuel-starved B-47B onto a
Soviet arctic base circa 1952 or so. Curtiss LeMay has some
...words...with the returned crew, but the horse is out of the barn and
Andrei Tupolev dusts off the english-to-metric conversion tools.
Rationale: The Soviets exported a number of Browbeats to Arab countries
in the late 1960s as they were replaced by Tu-22s and other types.
Egypt used their Tu-100s as free-fall bombers in the June 1967 war, but
they proved very vulnerable to interception by Israeli Mirages. They
were thereafter relegated to use as ECM/ELINT platforms. Interestingly,
after the Egyptian break with the Soviets, US technicians were able to
inspect the remaining Browbeats, and were favorably impressed
with the level of craftmanship. The Egyptians continued to maintain a
great deal of pride in their aircraft, and there was even a short-lived
proposal to replace the old Turmanskys with TF33s.
Northrop
EF-89J & F3T-1Q/EF-89M Scorpions
Rationale: the ANG hangs on to some low-timed F-89J airframes and
converts them to ECM aggressors (the contemporary B-57 was used as such
in reality) and uses the refitted Scorpions in this role until the
early 1980s.
Rationale: The Marines bought the Scorpion in addition to the F3D
Skyknight, and post-Korea some of these were rebuilt into F3D-1Q ECM
aircraft. They were used in this role over Southeast Asia by VCMJ-1, by
which time they had been redesignated as EF-89Ms. Retirement took place
in 1968-69 as the EA-6A became available; most of the EF-89M fleet was
subsequently put out to pasture as targets at NAS China Lake, although
Raytheon and the Army used a handful as testbeds until the early 1980s,
at which time they were completely worn out.
Tornado
2000 of the USN's NSAWC
VB-58C
"Air Force One"
Based on the proposed transport version of the (proposed) B-58C model
with J58 engines
Vought
Crusader F.1/F-8M
Rationale: assume a much more vigorous RN carrier program postwar - big
ships (Malta class, CVA-01 etc) get Phantoms and/or P.1154s while Ark
Royal, Hermes, Victorious, & Eagle serve as support ships,
embarking Crusaders (later Sea Harriers) for self-defense, with ASW
aircraft carrying out the primary support role.
Republic
P-72 Ultrabolt
Rationale: Let's say the USAAF & Republic started on the P-72
program before they actually did in real life. Result: several hundred
managed to reach the Pacific theater in May-August 1945, although they
don't see much action. The USAAF doesn't have too much use for them
postwar, and rather than dragging them all back across the Pacific,
these still potent aircraft are supplied to Chiang Kai-Shek's forces
along with surplus P-47s. A good number escape to Taiwan in '49 and see
periodic combat against the Communists for the next decade, shooting
down several MiG-15s. The few survivors, which by that time are nearly
impossible to maintain, are retired around 1958-9.
Stratojet
B.1(R) Royal Australian Air Force
The RAAF actually was offerred ex-USAF Stratojets in the 1960s, but
this was not taken up, in favor of the F-111C. We'll say that TFX ended
up getting cancelled early on, and the Australians had to go ahead with
the B-47 purchase to maintain a long-range heavy strike capability.
These surely wouldn't have lasted long, say the RAAF would have turned
to a revitalized TSR.2 program or MRCA/Tornado as a long-term
replacement.
QB-47/DF-104D
Mistel "Have Misletoe"
Rationale: The USAF resurrects the Mistel concept to deliver
a knockout blow to seemingly invulnerable North Vietnamese bridge
targets. Several test flights take place over the Nellis range, but the
composite aircraft is extremely unwieldy in the air, underpowered, and
even the hardiest of Starfighter pilots don't want anything to do with
the project. A follow-up proposal in the early 1970s to use F-105Bs
atop droned B-52B/C/Es never even makes it to the hardware stage.
RAF Curtiss P-40Q photo-recon
North American jet design
they looked at this, tore up the paper, and got to
work on the Sabre ;-) (totally freelance design on my part obviously)
