Ideas for development?

S

SSI01

Charter Member
Sitting here musing
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, I have determined the following, and have a request for consideration -

It is awesome indeed to note the knowledge and talent that's displayed on a daily basis on this forum, and by the developers and painters. Makes one feel a little guilty to enjoy the benefits of their labors without having contributed anything to their projects!

I've been looking at what's available re: new aircraft (i.e., Milton S's upcoming Grumman products) and the repainting and modification of existing aircraft on this site, and on others - and I was wondering if anyone has given any thought to the following possibilities:

1)A Martin P4M Mercator - truly an unusual aircraft in that it combined jet and piston power in a patrol bomber, but in a more adroit way than the P-2 did. The Merc buried its jets in the piston nacelles, you have to look closely at some of the available pictures to see this thing had jets on it. The flight model might be a little difficult unless one boosts the piston engine output to compensate for the use of the jets, because as far as I know FS9 does not allow for the use of both type power plants at the same time on any aircraft. A sound package combining the two engines would be a first.

2)A Convair Tradewind for FS9 - this has already been released for FSX but is incompatible with FS9, unfortunately. I can remember the (I think) early Revell scale model kit of this aircraft in the hobby stores - but then, I'm in my late 50s so I can remember a lot of ancient history - when my memory DOES work!

3)A C-46E (stepped windscreen) aircraft. Not many of these were made; their biggest claim to fame is probably breaking up the wonderfully smooth nose contours of the regular -46s. Willow Run Airport near metro Detroit in the early 60s was a real haven for these, and regular C-46s as well, all being flown by Zantop or Flying Tiger; when out with Dad in the area he would swing by the airport so we could look at them on the ramp. They used to pass over our home on approach to the airport as well. I didn't realize what I was witnessing until much later. More ancient history being recalled!

At any rate, I toss these out to the community in general for consideration or comment.
 
Interesting ideas, I'd certainly be interested to hear Tom Gibson's thoughts on the C-46.

I could suggest a few British oddities, but they may not have much attraction; but your mention of the Mercator brought to mind one aircraft that has been missing since FS2002, and probably ticks a lot of boxes - the Shin Meiwa US-1/PS-1 and the later US-2A.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Meiwa_US-1A

And one aircraft that we will sadly not see, after the sad death of Monsieur Brisard, the Casa Cn-235 and variants; Bob had hinted this was a possibility, as the 295 had proved popular. Maybe it could make an interesting project AND be dedicated to Jean-Pierre Brisard?
 
Great ideas/aircraft! If I may throw another one into the mix,the Northrop YC-125 Raider.
 
1) A Martin P4M Mercator -

P4M Yes! Yes! YES!

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2) A Convair Tradewind

Tradewind Yes! Yes! BTW, I have the Revell kit partially assembled and painted glossy Sea Blue; I just need to apply the decals -- fifty five years after I painted it. I guess the paint is dry, huh? :icon_lol: (I have the original box, too.)

3) A C-46E (stepped windscreen) This is a new one for me, but I'm game!

- H52
 
Looks like I've generated some interest - that's what the forum is for!:applause:

I'd forgotten about the Shin-Meiwa. If memory serves this bird had a dipping sonar; it had to land on the water first, then the sonar was lowered through a well in the fuselage for listening. This leads to an interesting ASW torpedo drop - presumably, if sonar indications were right, it could do a drop from a dead stop, engines off.

That Mercator seems to have quite a resemblance to a PB4Y-2, in particular the long and graceful wing borrowed from the B-24. I've never read anywhere the Davis airfoil was associated with this airplane, but the visual evidence makes me bet it was.
 
I'd almost forgotten this little-known fact re: the Mercator.

We moved down here a little over a year ago shortly after my retirement. I had a sizeable library dealing with intelligence matters that right now is packed and stored over on the mainland. One of the books had to do with U.S. and British overflights and cross-border flights of the Soviet Union and its minion states. The first shoot-down casualty of the hot portion of the Cold War was an electronic snooper PB4Y-2 over the Baltic near (I think) Latvia; as I recall this occurred in 1946 or 1947. The second one was a P4M shot down on an electronic reconnaissance mission over the western Pacific, I think somewhere near Vladivostok, maybe in 1948. What a fitting memorial one of these would be to those lost in these little-known and now-forgotten incidents in the Cold War.
 
He's seen it. I've also been in touch with the factory myself once. There was one other dev that had shown interest, but it would likely have been payware. I have no idea what ever happened to that project.
 
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