Zealandia In FD Scale

[Trojan]

I'm gonna leave the Boomerang as is for now because I think it makes sense for a wartime emergency design to be imperfect, but I'll probably revisit it eventually. I present Zealandia's first and last completely indigenous jet fighter design, the ZAC, ZA-15 Weasel.

Powered by the Nene 2 jet engine, the ZA-16 was a natural development for the ZAC corporation from its wartime designs and work on the Kangaroo. Work on a super Kangaroo, which was to be powered by one of the several super piston engines developed at the end of World War Two, was canceled in late 1946 and replaced with orders for Gloster Meteors and De Havilland Goblins. However, an indigenous fighter was also designed with the help of international aeronautics engineers like Giuseppe Gabrielli, Kurt Tank, and Emile Dewoitine. It was designed to meet the long range and high speed requirements that Zealandia needed in an interceptor, and that most early jet fighters were lacking in. THe government also wanted to keep ZAC in business during the tough post-war economic years. The first prototype flew in June 1948. It flew 24 successful test flights before having to make an emergency belly landing after entering a dive which the pilot barely got the plane out of. The production version had an increase in the tail's surface area as a result and increased size of the stabilizers. The production version entered service in October 1949, complete with four 20mm Hispano cannons as armament. Speed was a disappointing 574 mph, before a more powerful Nene was added after the 12th production model. Speed was increased to 592 mph on these, with a range of 800 mi, and a ceiling of 50,000 feet. 74 would be built in total, before production ended in 1952, with 16 being exported to Israel, and 24 being exported to India. The rest served well in the Korean war for Zealandia, being modified for ground attack, and managing to achieve 16 victories at the expense of 9 total losses. The Weasel would be retired in 1958 with the advent of the Hawker Hunter.

[eswube]

Nice, but look closely on the canopy frame (there is line into nowhere).

[Trojan]

Thanks, I think I fixed it but I could be wrong, I also put the credits in the correct order

[Trojan]

In 1958 Zealandia began its most ambitious aircraft program to date. In partnership with Hawker aircraft, Zealandia decided to help fund the Sydney Camm designed P.1121's development to prototype form after it was canceled in the 1957 White Paper. Zealandia had initially planned to equip its air force and navy with primarily Grumman Super Tigers while its Hunters and Sabers soldiered on into the late 60s and early 70s, but the extremely fast development of fighter performance led them to change their plans. It was decided that the Super Tiger order would be cut from 72 to 45, and the Hunters and Sabers would be replaced by a new high performance large fighter. Meanwhile to appropriate funds, the Canberra fleet would eventually be replaced by a two seat attack version of this fighter, instead of a TSR.2 type interdictor. And so the ZA-21 was born. The Hurricane II as it would come to be know, was only funded for prototype demonstrator status by Zealandia, in combination with private funded, and their whole 120 plane order depended on a foreign partner being added. The prototype flew in 1960, under Olympus jet engine power and India soon agreed to join development and most importantly add funding. By 1965 the first A versions were entering service equipped with the Olympus OL.22R designed for the TSR.2, Sidewinder missiles, Aden cannon, and a Thomson-CSF Cyrano II radar. Soon Japan, South Africa and Singapore put in their own orders and in 1971 the C version entered service, which added an IR seeker similar to the Saab Draken, as well as the PS-011/A radar developed in partnership with Sweden to give full Sparrow capability (the A model being restricted to the Matra R530). Before production of the drastically upgraded E model began in 1978, over 500 ZA-21 A/B/C/D models had been built. Zealandia converted 12of it's initial A models, as well as all of the 16 recently delivered batch two up to C standard while also ordering another further 30 C models. All regular A's were retired by 1984, while the C's served until 1998.

[Trojan]

Meanwhile as was the case with most 50s and 60s jet fighters, a two seat jet trainer was simultaneously developed the first B model flying in 1962. 14 of these came with the initial 40 A order, and another 4 came with batch two. They had no cannon unlike the single seaters. While the adaptability into a two-seat interceptor was obvious, the Zealandia Aircraft Corporation was much more interested in its attack potential, though it and Hawker would develop the interceptor for export. The 18 plane attack batch entered service in 1969 equipped with the Navy Buccaneer's Blue Parrot radar and equipped with ADEN cannon once again . All 16 remaining of these models were drastically modified eternally with the help of McDonnell Douglas in the late 70s for SEAD, with one of the cannon being removed for electronics space . A second batch of 18 attack planes, upgraded with the C model miscellaneous improvements, known as the D, entered service in 1981, equipped with an upgraded Blue Parrot fit to use Exocet and with addition of LRMTS for laser guidance which replaced both cannon. The SEAD aircraft were retired without replacement in 1995 because of end of Cold War budget cuts and the D model suffered a similar fate in 2002 to fund future projects. They were the last in a long line of P.1121 derivatives in Zealandia service.

[odysseus1980]

Wow!

[Hood]

Excellent work! An excellent series of mods, an very plausible back story, cool camo, nice loadouts of weapons and a very nice looking two-seater too.

You might need to alter the profile of the ZA-21B/S/D nose randome for the Blue Parrot. It should fit ok, but the terrain following aspects would probably require a less conical shape. But that's a small point. Otherwise these look totally believable.

[ezgo394]

Love this! Can't wait for the Denton/Zealandia Interceptor!

[eswube]

Very nice camouflages.
P.1121 was such a great looking design.

[Trojan]

Thanks for the compliments guys!
Hood modifying the nose for Blue Perrot totally escaped my mind, I'll take a look at changing the shape to be a bit less comical.