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Gollevainen
Post subject: First Generation Jet Fighter -ChallengePosted: November 6th, 2019, 11:25 am
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The next challenge is here. This time we will be designing first generation jet fighters! This has been one of the most favorite thing suggested in the challenge suggestion thread, so All hype and huge participation should be ensured.

Requirements are pretty straight foward in the challenge name, if you dont know what jet fighter is and their common generations, perhaps you shouldn't participate. Here are few markers:

- Fighter plane with jet propulsion
- All technical features must have OTL base within the timeframe, no magic anime-kingdoms where VG VSTOL technology exists before Mach 2 flight.
- OTL 1940-1955 time frame (or equivalent)
- No Supersonic level flight

So submit a drawing of first generation fighter with axial- or centrifugal flow jet engines, with swept or straight wing. Remember that this design needs to be first designed after piston engines, so not first jet designed by country X. Feel free to show as many versions of the plane throughout its service life and operators. Submit your drawing with or without a text block accompanying it.

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Length of challenge & judging categories:

This challenge will run until 23:59:59 UTC December 9th. Entries submitted after 23:59:59 UTC on December 9th will be disqualified.

Drawings will be scored via Google Forms poll, based on the below categories to decide a winner. The poll will close and open once its completed. Categories are as follows, with 10 points available in categories 1-4 and 5 points in category 5:

1. Drawing quality (1-10): quality of the drawing; this would include detailing, shading, accuracy, etc.
2. Design realism (1-10): how realistic the design feels with or without the associated backstory.
3. Originality (1-10): did the artist just copy an existing design and add a new paint scheme, or did they design something new from the ground up?
4. Suitability (1-10): is the design presented actually suitable for the challenge? Does it fulfill the requirements posed?
5. Kitbash factor (1-5): heavily kitbashed work gets a 1, all-original work gets a 5.

The poll will not allow commentary. Reviewers are encouraged to leave a post in this thread once polling begins with their commentary for each drawing.
NO voting rigging or other negative influencing of the results. Becouse of last challenges experiences, I will take close inspection over this issue. Poll will include e-mails and other ID information, so all foul makers will be banned from SB, and artists as well, if we can find evidence that they were behind such activities.

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Challenge rules:

- One entry per person.
- Multiple versions of your entry are allowed, provided they show the same ship's evolution over time.
- Multiple views of your drawing are encouraged but not required.
- Post demanding entries to submit Multiple views are considered offt opic and deleted.
- Text blocks with stats, history, etc are allowed but not required.
- Springsharp stat blocks are allowed but not required.
- Discussion of Springsharp is not allowed in this thread.
- Posts that are off topic in this thread will be deleted.

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Inspiration:

Me-262 to Saab Lansen

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Hood
Post subject: Re: First Generation Jet Fighter -ChallengePosted: November 7th, 2019, 8:57 am
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Sounds interesting.

Can I ask one clarifying question? To qualify does the fighter have to be a day fighter or can it be a night/all-weather fighter (for example I'm thinking F-94, Meteor NF, the 'Luft 46' night fighter proposals)?

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Gollevainen
Post subject: Re: First Generation Jet Fighter -ChallengePosted: November 7th, 2019, 9:12 am
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It can be day/night fighter or interceptor, or multipurpose plane that is intended for engage enemy aircrafts.
NOTE: i edited bit of the technical requirments to allow all geometry that existed in OTL 1st generation fighters

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VictorCharlie
Post subject: Re: First Generation Jet Fighter -ChallengePosted: November 11th, 2019, 7:15 am
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Herny Potez Aviation Company Model 1600

In the immediate post-Pan-Septentrion War environment, the many nations who had won the war found themselves starting to grasp the advances in jet technology that had been achieved by Ostland during the war. Prototypes not yet mass-produced, design engineers, and thousands of working aircraft that were surrendered were suddenly dropped on the victorious nations. Sieuxerr had lucked out and taken a large number of not only aircraft in their advances, but also a number of engineers who designed and produced these. Along with these were half-finished prototypes, some minor manufacturing facilities, and also hundreds of spare engines of varying repair.

The years following the war were one of explosive development much like the early years of flight in the 1910s. The rapidly advancing state of engine and aerodynamic frame design meant that aircraft introduced would become obsolete within a only a few years, in some cases some aircraft would be made obsolete before their introduction. Along with this, the rapidly advancing state of radar technology also meant better but smaller radars were being fitted into smaller aircraft, allowing for more capable night fighting.

In 1948, Henry Potez Aviation Company, with the assistance of some newly "liberated" Ostlandic aircraft engineers, began developing a new aircraft with swept-wings and an emphasis on large amounts of lift. Along with this were new engines, developed off a combination of the BMW-003 and the HeS-8 axial turbofans which were being tested by the newly created SNECMA, which centralized aircraft engine development and gave aircraft designers standardized engines to work with, instead of a wide series of engines which had caused problems in the early war for Sieuxerr. With the first scaled model tests in 1949 came interest in the new fighter from the Sieuxerrian Air Force. Dassault and SNAD (Société Nationale des Aéroplanes Deperdussin, Deperdussin National Aeroplane Company) were in the middle of develop of the single engine day-fighter Ouragan and twin engine medium bomber Vautour respectively, which left a gap for a dedicated radar-guided night fighter to replace the older Potez models in service.

A full-scale wooden mockup was built in 1949, which differed slightly from the previous research aircraft with a readjusted landing gear set-up, a radar system, 4 20mm cannons along with other minor militarizations of the aircraft. In 1950 testing with full-sized aircraft had begun with pre-production set up mid-1950 and the first aircraft accepted in late-1950. This was the first Sieuxerrian designed jet aircraft to reach active service.

It would later enter service with other nations allied to Sieuxerr as well.

By the mid-1950s the replacement for the Potez 1600 was already in development, its fellow fighter, the Ouragan, was already in the process of being phased out by the Dassault Mystère, which itself had gone through three design iterations before the end of 1955, with all three aircraft to be replaced by the impending Super-Mystère which itself was threatened by the new Mirage program started in the early 1950s. A fellow aircraft of the time, the SNAD Vautour, had its own super-sonic replacement program which was slowly gaining traction. By the 1960s the replacement for the Potez had entered service with the Mirage III. While Mirage III production started, attempts to modernized the Potez 1600 with guided missiles was attempted but by the time any meaningful progress was made the Mirage III was already available in good numbers. Therefore very quickly from 1960 to 1965, Potez 1600 squadrons swapped for Mirage III interceptors. With the retirement of the 250~ or so surviving air frames of the Potez 1600, efforts were made to convert them into target drones for the air force. The last Potez 1600 target drone, which were known as 1600T, would be shot down by the Mirage III's own replacement, the Mirage 2000, in 1978.

By the late 1960s, Potez itself would be wrapped up into the newly formed SNCAN aviation consortium in a series of new centralization by the government. The Potez 1600 represents their last designed fighter, which upon looking at its frontal aspect held a very uncanny resemblance to the Potez 630, which was one of Potez's most successful heavy fighters of the PSW.

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Kattsun
Post subject: Re: First Generation Jet Fighter -ChallengePosted: November 12th, 2019, 11:17 am
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SCRUNT Chaser 71

The first military jet designed by a Ch'ti (a hyper-nationalist minority group within Galla, akin to Quebecois but way smaller and way less lazy) firm (SNAC [National Consolidated Aircraft Company] designed the first Ch'ti motorjet mail carrier in 1942, but it was never built) and the first swept-wing tactical jet put into production by the Gallan military, the SCRUNT (Societe de Construction et de Recercer et d'Unvelope de Nouvelles Techniques; New Technologies Research, Development, and Construction Company) Chaser 71 was the ultimate design of the Chaser (Fighter) series of aircraft produced by SCRUNT. It was initially conceived of as a pusher prop fighter-bomber, competing with the Hjuletsson Model 21, for the Royal Army Air Corps' requirement for a mid-1940s, all-metal fighter-bomber. The wooden monowing Hjuletsson Model 37 [Hurricane], by 1939, was beginning to show its age as the Frisian Air Service's Foke 108 and the Yenisei Model 4 of the Hsingnu, both all-metal monowings, had entered production by that time. The Sverker Model 18/Snipe (P-39) was ordered as a stopgap measure, which although powered by the Alison [not a typo] V-17/12 liquid engine, the supercharger was removed to hasten production of the new fighter, with the expectation that a new fighter would appear by 1942 to be powered by the supercharged engine.

In 1940 the requirement for a high speed fighter was put out to industry, and Hjuletsson and SCRUNT responded with two unconventional pusher-prop designs, while the Sverker Model 21 (P-63) was proposed as a supercharged version of the Model 18. The Sverker 21 was designed as an otherwise conventional mono-wing and could not meet the speed requirements, while the SCRUMT aircraft showed more promise, with its unique swept wing configuration. Unfortunately, prop strike proved to be an issue, and the aircraft went back to the drawing board for the time being. The contract was awarded to Sverker, now rebranding itself as Saab, for an indeterminate number of Model 21s/Saab Sparrows, with ultimately about 12,000 being produced of all types.

During this time, all major Alarian powers had been working on jet aviation, and the Gallan Electric firm had developed a primitive turbojet engine, which was first fired in 1943. Turbo Technologies, a tiny company of about a dozen engineers, had been acquired in 1941 by Gallan Electric after their successful demonstration of a small turbojet motor in 1940, and this engine was developed into the Y43 turbojet, the first viable jet engine, and was trialed in a converted Snipe, disguised as a motorjet. While the Y43 proved underperforming except for the smallest installations of aircraft (a mere two dozen prototypes of various mixed jet-prop conversions were built) the enlarged Y44 was found to be suitable for a single engine fighter. By 1944, the SCRUNT firm was finding difficulty in acquiring buyers for its Chaser E-series propeller aircraft. Most air forces of the era were happy enough to accept hand-me-down Foke 108s and Ye-4s by this time, to replace their mostly obsolete biplane fleets, as the large nations shed their earlier monoplanes in favor of increasingly faster and better aircraft.

In May 1946 a requirement for a tactical jet fighter materialized, as the RAAC realized that it would soon be outgunned with the appearance of the Ye-15 turbojet in April 1946, and the highly advanced Fokke Ljepper a year earlier, and quickly reviewed its options: a clean sheet aircraft would take too long, and a conversion of existing aircraft would likely require a full take-down and rebuild of existing aircraft, costing more money, so the ideal option would be a conversion of an aircraft which existed as otherwise ready for production and tooling. The Hjuletsson Aviation Company responded that they could have a re-engined version of their mono-wing Model 21 ready to go in approximately 8 months. SCRUNT, which had spent its time more judiciously, replied that they only needed money to procure tooling, and had completed all necessary groundwork for a conversion 6 months earlier, mostly in anticipation that the Ljepper's appearance would spurn a request for a new jet aircraft.

The RAAC replied that it would order either 3,000 of one aircraft, or 1,500 of either, and that both firms had 6 months to produce flying aircraft. Surprisingly, the Hjuletsson Aviation Company was first to show, with the Model 21Y flying by October of 1946. The aircraft was, compared to its contemporaries, somewhat underperforming in the fighter role, and the RAAC quickly consigned it to the ground attack mission, where its 20mm nose cannons and 40mm gun pods proved useful. The SCRUNT Chaser 71, as it was now called, flew in September and proved better in this regard, capable of keeping up with most aircraft of the era and surpassing them in straight flight and climb substantially. Its armament of a quartet of .50 caliber machine guns, however, was considered somewhat lacking for the time period, although adequate as a fighter weapon. The high amount of ammunition per gun (400 rounds) was welcomed. A pair of 180 gal wingtip tanks was added to compensate for the low combat radius of the Chaser and production go-ahead was given in December 1946 for both types. The first production Chaser 71 was delivered in February 1947.

Provisions for carriage of 2000 lbs bombs and 5" HVAR rockets were made on the outboard wings (the inboards stored fuel, the landing gear, and the intakes, thus limiting their capacity if for landing gear interference alone), with four pylons being available to carry up to 8x 5" rockets or 4000 lbs of bombs. These pylons were also expected to be used to carry self-guiding air-to-air missiles, a then-emerging technology which had, in 1945, been tested against radio controlled target aircraft using infrared and radar beamriding guidance. Additionally, 7-shot 70mm rocket pods were available, although these were rarely used by the RAAC, they were extensively fitted to the A 21Y, and later the rocket pods became a favorite of Kampalan jet drivers in the 1970s.

Later (September 1947), a radar gunsight was added in a void in the nose, increasing the combat effectiveness of the fighter. During the Far East Emergency in 1951, RAAC Chasers were able to achieve an astounding 12:1 kill:loss ratio against opposing Celestial Ljepper fighters thanks to this addition, and although the superior Fokke Koarthakke [devil/demon/imp] the Chasers still managed to defeat them at a ratio of nearly 5:1, although this was surpassed by the Royal Navy's introduction of the J9F and the Red Comet (AIM-9B) missile. Initial missile capability was provided by the Army developed Blue Boa (AIM-4A) and Blue Asp (AIM-4B) rockets, which proved substantially disappointing. Provision for the use of Red Comet was later incorporated into the Chaser, as was the radar guided Red Meteor (AIM-9C), to replace the Army missiles. The attacker A 21Y was produced from 1947-1949, and replaced by the A24 (Saab 32 Lansen) in 1955. The SCRUNT J 24 was produced from 1947-1950 and replaced by the swept-wing Sverker 29 (Tunnan) in 1954.

Two radar altimeter antennae, and an IFF and TACAN antenna, are visible on the underside, while two HF radio antennae are provided on top so that the pilot can maintain contact with his flight leader and a ground controller or wingman at the same time. On most aircraft in Kampalan service, the twin HF set was replaced with a VHF radio, but Lt. Okeke's aircraft had not yet received this modification.

Ordinary cruise speed and altitude generally hovered around 400-450 mph and 15-18,000 feet, with a combat load of 80% fuel, mostly in the wingtips, giving it excellent roll performance at this altitude regime. Full military power provided a level flight maximum with a combat load of about 480 mph, and in a dive, this could approach 550 mph comfortably. War emergency power increased level flight speed to well over 500 mph, generally putting the aircraft well above its contemporaries, although this was quickly smashed by the appearance of the Shi-15 swept wing fighter, and had already been somewhat dampened by the beginning of production of the Fokke Pylk fighter in November 1946.

Vd clean was tested at approximately 580 mph, as at around 600-620 mph the pilot would experience severe oscillation and difficulty in keeping the nose steady, as the aircraft enjoyed pitching in the transsonic regime. In a terminal dive (>80 degrees) the aircraft could approach the sound barrier, with maximum speed recorded at 687 mph, although recovery from the dive at this speed was impossible. The test aircraft used to discern this was remote controlled into the ground in May 1947, during Royal Army test trials, and maximum recoverable speed was determined to be around 640 mph before oscillation tended to pitch the aircraft into an unrecoverable angle, control lockup, or whatever. Due to the high speed of the aircraft, manual escape was mostly impossible, especially at lower altitudes, and so the Royal Army developed a gunpowder-based ejection seat which propelled the pilot upwards using modified shotgun cartridges. This was successfully integrated into the A 21Y and early J 24s, although it would later be replaced by a rocket based system in 1949. The first use of the ejection seat occurred in October 1947 when Lt. Bengt Andersson ejected over the sea after encountering a flock of startled shore birds. He was rescued by a local fisherman a few minutes later who saw the plane crash and followed the parachute. The first rocket ejection seat was installed in November 1949, and thereafter retrofitted to every production aircraft by the end of 1950.

Maximum operating altitude was limited by pilot equipment, specifically the oxygen mask, although there was space available for an oxygen bottle and pressurization system, it was generally inadequate to provide oxygen above about 36,000 feet. Additionally, it was ill advised to fly above even 32,000 feet, as pilots found out, meaning that the Chaser 71 was incapable of intercepting high altitude fighters that it began to face in the Far East Emergency. Unfortunately, due to the limited space inside the plane, this could not be substantially rectified without significant conversion work, and the rapid pace of aeronautics at the time meant that the aircraft would be obsolete by the time it was complete. Despite this, the Chaser's big wing and powerful engine meant that, when such aircraft came down to fight it, it could out turn and outgun them easily. In this sense, it resembled the performance of the Sverker Snipe against the Celestial Empire's "Zephyr" fighters during the Circum-Celestial War of the early-mid 1940s.

450 surplus, modified J24s and A21Ys were sold to the Royal Kampalan Air Force in 1958, where they fought through 1976 in the Kampalan Crisis. The J24 became famous when a pair of fighters from the RKAF's E10 Wing, on a "Fokkevakt" mission, responded to calls for assistance from the World Bank President's Hjuletsson Trident airliner, which was attacked by a mercenary Fokke Sefyr, in 1972. The airliner narrowly escaped destruction, losing two of its main engines in the process. Two bodyguards were killed in the attack from strafing machine gun fire, and the World Bank President, Daniel Hjalmarsson, escaped with a broken arm due to the erratic evasive maneuver, before the attacker was shot down. The airliner ditched in Orimiri Lake, and a World Bank rescue helicopter recovered the survivors a short while afterward. The helicopter landed at Uwu Aerodrome, a divert destination about 30 miles away from the Ukeseme Airport, where a ground convoy of tanks and armored cars were waiting to pickup the President, after World Bank military forces made the assumption that an airborne flight to the Kampalan capital would be too dangerous. This was proven prudent several hours later, when a World Bank HN6S helicopter was shot down by a MANPADS on the outskirts of Ukeseme, with a total loss of all crew, apparently under the mistaken assumption that the President was aboard. A preserved J24 in Kampalan livery stands as gate guardian in front of the main entrance to the World Bank Aerodrome, a mile from the World Bank Building, alongside a World Bank Voigt J6V fighter.

The Chaser 71 would be the last SCRUNT fighter to see Gallan service, although SCRUNT has kept itself busy since the 1940s by providing Kampalan Air Force and Navy troops, along with other, undisclosed clients, with training, spare parts, simulators, and low-key, boutique modifications of their aviation inventory. Although well known in civil industry for making one of the first commercial all-composite/fiberglass medical evacuation helicopters, SCRUNT has long since exited the military aviation production business, transitioning to a support role in the industry and as a component sub-contractor to larger aircraft houses like Sverker Aeroplan, Malmo, and Voigt.

[ img ]

A Chaser 71 as it appeared in 1972 during the rescue of Dan Hjalmarsson. Two Red Comet missiles are carried inboard and two Red Meteor missiles are outboard, with a radar guided gunsight in the nose to operate the missiles and machine guns, and integral wingtip tanks with the position lights in the nose. The attacking aircraft was shot down by a radar guided missile from #17, No. 1 Squadron, flown by Flying Lieutenant Ndidi Okeke of the RKAF, after the mercenary pilot had evaded a heat seeking missile. The attacking pilot ejected over the sea, but was never found despite a several days search involving float planes, World Bank warships, and helicopters.

General characteristics
Crew: one
Length:
Wingspan: 37 ft 2 in (11.32 m)
Height:
Wing area: 280 sq ft (26 m^2)
Empty weight: 9,332 lb (4,242 kg)
Loaded weight: 15,754 lb (7,161 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 18,488 lb (9,323 kg)
Powerplant: 1x Alison/Gallan Electric Y44 turbojet
Dry thrust: 5,000 lbf (22.24 kN)
Thrust with afterburner: 6,250 lbf (27.8 kN)

Performance
Maximum speed: 580 mph @ 32,000 feet (933 kph @ 9,755 m)
Range: 1,200 mi (1,040 nmi, 1,920 km)
Internal fuel: 760 gallons (2,877 liters)
Service ceiling: 40,000 ft (12,195 m)

Armament
Guns: 4x .50" Type 21 machine guns (400 rounds per gun)
Hardpoints: 4x with a capacity of 1000 lbs outboard and 2000 lbs inboard, and provisions to carry combinations of:
Bombs: 2x 2000 lbs, 4x 1000 lbs, 4x 500 lbs, 4x 250 lbs
Rockets: 8x 5" HVAR, 76x 3" FFAR, 2x "Store Sven" rockets
Missiles: 4x Red Comet/Red Meteor/Blue Asp/Blue Boa

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The Chinese people are not to be cowed by U.S. atomic blackmail. Our country has a population of 600 million and an area of 9.6 [million sq. km]. The United States cannot annihilate the Chinese nation with its small stack of atom bombs. Even if the U.S. atom bombs were so powerful that, when dropped on China, they would make a hole right through the earth, or even blow it up, that would hardly mean anything to the universe as a whole, though it might be a major event for the solar system.


Last edited by Kattsun on November 26th, 2019, 12:12 pm, edited 11 times in total.

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Gollevainen
Post subject: Re: First Generation Jet Fighter -ChallengePosted: November 12th, 2019, 12:23 pm
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This is FD scale and style challenge. All entries that dont comply with the style rules will not be judged

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Kattsun
Post subject: Re: First Generation Jet Fighter -ChallengePosted: November 12th, 2019, 12:33 pm
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Where is published style rules?

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The Chinese people are not to be cowed by U.S. atomic blackmail. Our country has a population of 600 million and an area of 9.6 [million sq. km]. The United States cannot annihilate the Chinese nation with its small stack of atom bombs. Even if the U.S. atom bombs were so powerful that, when dropped on China, they would make a hole right through the earth, or even blow it up, that would hardly mean anything to the universe as a whole, though it might be a major event for the solar system.


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Gollevainen
Post subject: Re: First Generation Jet Fighter -ChallengePosted: November 12th, 2019, 12:43 pm
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Its basicly same as in Shipbucket style:
http://www.shipbucket.com/styleguide
except the scale is 1 meter :22.093pixels

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Garlicdesign
Post subject: Re: First Generation Jet Fighter -ChallengePosted: November 26th, 2019, 8:57 pm
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Hello again!

Yakovlev Yak-31 Fenian/Frolic/Mastiff
In 1948, the Thiarian light carrier LT Ceintear, which had been awarded as a prize to the Soviet Union, arrived at Murmansk and was taken over by the Soviet Navy under the new name Kraznaya Zvezda. Of all Soviet prize ships, Kraznaya Zvezda was the only really operational carrier, and she was commissioned for trials in 1949, embarking an air group consisting of 20 Lavochkin La-11K fighters and 15 Sukhoi Su-6K dive bombers, all of them WWII vintage and thoroughly obsolete already. Stalin was gung-ho to build a world-class carrier force and ordered a slightly enlarged copy of Kraznaya Zvezda named Kronshtadt, which was laid down in 1950; she was ten meters longer, displaced 5.000 tons more and had a larger island with integral funnel and longer, if still hydraulic catapults. Two additional ships were planned to be laid down in 1955, after initial experience with the first two ships could be evaluated. Stalin insisted his new carrier fleet was to embark cutting-edge technology aircraft, and several OKBs were asked to produce suitable carrierborne jet fighters and strike aircraft as soon as she was laid down. For the strike role, the big, heavy and weird-looking Tu-91 with a single turboshaft was chosen and eventually commissioned as Tu-18 (NATO reporting name Boot); for the fighter role, Yakovlev’s proposal beat similar designs by Lavochkin and Mikoyan. The plane received the internal numeral Yak-70 by the Yakovlev OKB. It was a straightforward upscale of the Yak-30 experimental light fighter to the size of the Yak-50 experimental interceptor; externally it resembled the latter more than the former, but retained the conventional tricyclic landing gear of Yak-30 which was expected to offer superior stability for carrier deck operations. Internal structure was strengthened, the landing gear was made sturdier, an arrestor hook was fitted and every inch of the airframe was crammed with fuel tanks to attain maximum range. Being a modification of existing designs, development was quick, and the Yak-70 prototype had its first flight in October 1951. Empty weight was 4.250 kilograms, over a ton more than the land-based Yak-50, and MTOW was a whopping 6.500 kilograms, pretty much the maximum Kraznaya Zvezda’s hydraulic catapults and could handle (they had been designed for the Thiarian WWII vintage Nairn F5N torpedo bomber, whose MTOW also stood at 6.500 kilograms). Armament consisted of three 23mm cannon; there were four underwing hard points, all of which were wet to enable the Yak-70 to maximize its fuel load for long-range maritime missions. Weapons load was set to 1.200 kilograms Like most Soviet fighters of the age, the Yak-70 was powered by a single Klimov VK-1 turbojet with 27 kN thrust and displayed good agility and pleasant flying characteristics, although it had become a bit too heavy for its somewhat anemic engine, resulting in a rather slow climb and some trouble with catapult shots during trials, including two prototype crashes. The issue could be resolved by fitting an afterburner to the VK-1 in mid-1952, creating the VK-1F which was also installed in the Air Force’s MiG-17, providing 34 kN wet thrust. In this shape, the Yak-70 was approved by the AVMF in 1953 and commissioned as the Yak-31.
[ img ]

Series production commenced in September 1953, several months after Stalin’s death. A two-seat trainer version Yak-31UTI (up to that time, the Soviet Navy had no jet-qualified pilots) was commissioned early in 1954; initial orders covered 60 fighters and 15 trainers. The trainers had one less 23mm cannon than the fighters and shorter range due to smaller hull fuel tanks. Deliveries were complete in early 1956.
[ img ]

Flight operations aboard Kraznaya Zvezda commenced in May 1955, with a single Yak-31 squadron replacing the ancient La-11s (the Su-6K bombers would remain in service till 1958). The carrier Kronshtadt was completed on schedule late in 1954; it had been a priority project during Stalin’s lifetime and too far advanced to be cancelled after his death. IOC was attained late in 1955, and by mid-1956, Kronshtadt embarked two squadrons of Yak-31s and one of Tu-18s. As the new fighter had first entered service upon an ex-Thiarian carrier, the NATO reporting name pretty much chose itself: Fenian-A.
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The operational squadron aboard Kraznaya Zvezda was replaced by a trainer squadron in 1957 in characteristic high visibility markings. The YAK-31UTI was assigned the reporting name Mastiff-A.
[ img ]

That year, a repeat order for another 60 Yak-31 and 15 Yak-31UTI was issued, because the initial training cycle had resulted in several crashes and other write-offs. Air-to-air missiles had been made available by that time, and it was decided to fit the Yak-31 with a RP-2U Izumrud radar and arm it with two or four K-5 (AA-1) missiles. Unlike other early Soviet missile armed fighters, the Yak-31PM retained two 23mm cannon.
[ img ]

Due to somewhat higher weight, performance suffered a little, and as all hard points were now occupied with missiles, range suffered a little more. The added all-weather performance however was considered worth the trade-offs. All 60 machines of the repeat order were delivered as Yak-31PM, while the trainers were identical to the basic Yak-31UTI. Deliveries were complete by mid-1958. The Yak-31PM was designated Fenian-B by NATO.
[ img ]

By that time, the AVMF had decided to relegate the big Tu-18, which had good performance, but ate up too much hangar and deck space, to land based service and transfer the carrier strike role to a modified variant of the Yak-31. They were replaced by Yak-31s from the original order aboard Kronshtadt as soon as the Yak-31PM became available, but that was only an interim solution, as Yakovlev already worked on a more radical approach. To attain the necessary range for antiship strike missions, Yak-31s forward hull needed to be reshaped; all electronic gear was relocated into the forward hull, which received a pointed cone, and the air intakes were relocated to the wing roots. This allowed for additional fuel tanks in the hull behind the cockpit for a 30% increase in range over the Yak-31MP. Weapons load increased to 2.000 kg (not counting two 23mm cannon and their ammunition) and MTOW to 7.500 kg. The higher weight was offset by installing a newer Tumansky RD-9BF powerplant of 29 kN dry thrust, with 37 kN on reheat; improved aerodynamics of the new nose also helped to retain the same flight performance as the original Yak-31. The revised design (named Yak-75 by the OKB) differed sufficiently to warrant a new official designator too; in keeping with assigning even numbers to strike aircraft, this variant was commissioned as the Yak-32 in 1960.
[ img ]

60 machines were produced till late 1961, plus another ten standard Yak-31UTI trainers. The Yak-32 also received a new NATO reporting name; unlike the basic version, this time it was randomly assigned: Frolic-A.
[ img ]

Although by then enough planes to equip them were available, the two additional carriers planned for 1955 never materialized. Stalin’s successor Khrushchev did not believe in conventional forces and focused Soviet efforts on land-based nuclear-tipped missiles. Kronshtadt thus remained the sole operational carrier of the Soviet Navy, with Kraznaya Zvezda operating as a training vessel. Those Yak-31s not needed for shipboard operations were employed as fighter cover for Soviet naval bases in the arctic; although jet fighter development in the second half of the 1950s rendered them rapidly obsolescent, Khrushchev approved no replacement and in 1960 announced to de-commission the carrier by 1961 at latest, after only five years of operations. But during the Cuban missile crisis of 1961, Kronshtadt suddenly found herself at the center of a Soviet task force also containing the ex-Thiarian battlecruiser Arkhangelsk (ex-Caithreim) headed for the central Atlantic. The Russian naval aviators achieved nothing, facing five US carrier battlegroups outnumbering them 15:1 in aircraft, but proved that they had mastered carrier operations. With Khrushchev’s authority somewhat shattered by the outcome of the Cuban crisis, Admiral Gorshkov managed to prevail on the Supreme Soviet to approve construction of two carriers to an all new design code-named PBIA in 1961, and to order development of a replacement for the Yak-31/32 for deployment in 1965 at the latest. In order to prepare the AVMF for this surge in size, another thirty Yak-31UTI were built in 1961/2, plus a repeat order for 40 Yak-32 and 40 Yak-31PM, which were fitted with the DR-9BF engine of the Yak-32. They were dubbed Yak-31PFM upon completion (NATO reporting name Fenian-C). Although the type was clearly obsolescent, it was all that was available at the time, and Gorshkov wanted to create facts quickly. A final lot of 50 Yak-31UTI was added in 1964/5. Including prototypes, production totaled 392, of which 120 were trainers.

As development of the ambitious replacement project Yak-33/34 dragged on longer than expected, the Yak-31/32 soldiered on throughout most of the 1960s. Some 30 remaining original Yak-31s were relegated to the land-based strike role in 1961 and based on the Crimea. They received a four-colour camouflage paintjob, and arrestor hooks and catapult fittings were removed. They were only capable of employing dumb bombs and unguided rockets; their designation was now Yak-31B and their reporting name changed to Fenian-D. The last of them were de-commissioned in 1968.
[ img ]

The Yak-31PM were refitted to carry the new K-13 (AA-2) air-to-air missile (both in IR and SARH mode) in 1962/3; the Yak-31PFM carried it from the start, just like the RWR, which was retrofitted to the Yak-31PM (new NATO reporting name Fenian-E). When commissioned in 1964, the Yak-31PFM were the first Soviet naval aircraft to receive the new blue paintjob with green anti-corrosive paint on the underside, which was to remain standard for a quarter century. A squadron of Yak-31PFMs was the first AVMF unit to deploy on the new carrier Moskva late in 1967. They were supplanted by Yak-33s starting in 1966; the last Yak-31PM retired in 1967, and the last Yak-31PFM in 1969. As the latter were still rather new, 25 hulls were rebuilt to Yak-31UTI trainers. All others were either displayed or scrapped.
[ img ]

The Yak-32 needed to stay in service even longer, because full development of the Yak-34 took till 1971. The Yak-32s were adapted to fire Kh-66 (AS-7) missiles in 1968, also receiving a RWR, a navigation radar, a targeting system for the AS-7 and two more hard points under the air intakes (Yak-32M, reporting name Frolic-B). By 1970, all three Soviet carriers (Kronshtadt, Moskva and Leningrad) had one squadron of 18 Yak-32s embarked (12 on Kronshtadt). Replacement with Yak-34 did not start before 1973 and was complete in 1976. Thus, none of the Yak-31/32 family was ever based on one of the new project 1153 (Kiev-class) fleet carriers, the first of which became operational in December 1975.
[ img ]

The Yak-31UTI had the longest career, remaining AVMF’s prime advanced trainer for carrier operations until well into the 1980s; mostly operating from Kronshtadt, which was relegated to the training role in 1975 when Kraznaya Zvezda was scrapped. A hundred were available in 1970 (including 25 rebuilt Yak-31PFMs), and they were not entirely replaced before 1985, when enough Yak-39UTIs for carrier training ops were available.
[ img ]

Although produced in tiny numbers by Soviet standards and never exported, the Yak-31/32 family was invaluable to gather the kind of experience in carrier aviation that was necessary to establish the Soviet Navy as a true blue water force, boasting six CATOBAR flattops at the height of its power in 1987.

Stats (Yak-31, basic version)
Length
12,36m
Wingspan 10,27m
Wing area 18 m²
Weight empty 4.250 kg
Weight gross 5.300 kg
MTOW 6.500 kg
Powerplant Klimov VK-1F (27/34 kN thrust)
Armament 3 NR-23 cannon
Radar none
Payload 1.200 kg
Top Speed 1.050 km/h
Thrust/weight 0,64
Climb rate 65 m/s
Combat radius 600km (900 km with four drop tanks)

Stats (Yak-31PFM)
Length
12,99m
Wingspan 10,27m
Wing area 18 m²
Weight empty 4.700 kg
Weight gross 5.950 kg
MTOW 6.950 kg
Powerplant Tumansky RD-9BF (29/37 kN thrust)
Armament 2 NR-23 cannon
Radar RP-2U Izumrud
Payload 1.000 kg, usually 2-4 K-13 AAMs
Top Speed 1.000 km/h
Thrust/weight 0,61
Climb rate 62 m/s
Combat radius 550 km

Stats (Yak-32)
Length
13,80m
Wingspan 10,91m
Wing area 19 m²
Weight empty 4.500 kg
Weight gross 5.750 kg
MTOW 7.500 kg
Powerplant Tumansky RD-9BF (29/37 kN thrust)
Armament 2 NR-23 cannon
Radar navigation only
Payload 1.750 kg
Top Speed 1.100 km/h
Thrust/weight 0,64
Climb rate 64 m/s
Combat Radius 850 km

Greetings
GD


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Cplnew83
Post subject: Re: First Generation Jet Fighter -ChallengePosted: November 28th, 2019, 6:17 pm
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Posts: 416
Joined: January 9th, 2012, 9:50 am
Garlicdesign wrote: *
Yakovlev Yak-31 Fenian/Frolic/Mastiff
I'm in love with Yak-32M (the son of a Yak-38 and a Hawk-200).
I'm impressed !

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Worklist, FD scale submarines and ships :
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