Aircraft Mock-Ups

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The two-engine aircraft was a strut-braced high-wing monoplane with two tail-booms and a narrow fuselage pod carried by struts under the centre-section, and was designed to operate in areas featuring rough terrain, and boasted two rigidly mounted forward-facing machine guns. The former development director Erich Bachem described the Fi 168 as a flying "tank destroyer".
The project was discontinued at the direction of the RLM in September 1939.
 

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I this might be of interest here.

About a year ago, a local estate auction came up and as I was browsing the items, it became obvious the owner had been USN.

And then I saw this:

USN_NP-Princess_1.jpg
USN_NP-Princess_2.jpg
USN_NP-Princess_3.jpg
USN_NP-Princess_4.jpg
USN_NP-Princess_5.jpg
USN_NP-Princess_6.jpg
USN_NP-Princess_7.jpg


This is the USN's consideration for a nuclear powered aircraft and was to be based on the Saunders-Roe Princess Flying Boat - which is why it's refrred to as the NP Princess (NP meaning Nuclear Powered).

The project never came to anything, but I never knew any desk models were ever produced.

Not sure who won the auction for this treasure, but it wasn't me :(
 
WOW! What might have been huh? If just to save one of those magnificent sea birds... I wonder if it was a TOPPER model. Did you happen to see who made the model?
No Jim, unfortunately I wasn't able to get any more details on this gem other than what we see here in the photos.

Someone scored an awesome piece of history, though.

I was gonna say, Dave, that looks like a Saro princess...

Saro 500 Ton Flying Boat:

Saro_500ton_flyingboat.jpg


Saro Duchess jet powered flying boat:

https://sites.google.com/site/edgeofweb/Home/duchess/duchess 3 view.jpg

and here on the Flying Boat Forum:

The Flying Boat Forum from www.seawings.co.uk • View topic - Saro Duchess

I will be honest and say I had never heard of the USN's proposal but aparently, they were serious enough to send some personnel to the storage area and inspect the three Princesses that were being stored.

It seems that the USAF's nuclear bomber project (WS-125/B-72) gets what little spotlight there is (which doesn't seem to be much) and like I mentioned a moment ago, I had no idea the USN ever considered such a project until I came across this NP Princess desk display.

Of course, I had to go look it up after this discovery and there really isn't a great deal of information about it.
 
Here's another one that was a mock up on an existing airframe; this was the prototype Mosquito after the idea of a turret was put forward to night fighter specification F.18/40, released in October 1940, but amended to include the turret in December that year. The turret was a simple fairing with removable 'guns' that were inserted within the holes visible to determine the impact of drag on the airframe with the turret rotated. The 'guns' could only be moved between holes on the ground.

MosquitoTurret01.jpg


When the prototype, which still exists in Britain, was undergoing overhaul they discovered the mountings for this mock up turret and the fittings were left in place since this was a little known aspect of the type's career. Contrary to what I wrote before, the Mosquito prototype never flew with an actual turret fitted, just this mock-up.

The previous caption I wrote here was incorrect. This aircraft below is likely to be the fourth prototype W4053, which was fitted with an actual Bristol B.11 turret and flew as fitted from Salisbury Hall, where it was built. During trials it was found that the turret would not rotate with the full force of the slipstream acting on the guns to either side - its hydraulic motor was not strong enough to overcome the force of the slipstream. Two Mosquitoes were fitted with the Bristol turret and both of them had it subsequently removed and they became the prototypes of the T.III trainer variant.

MosquitoTurret02.jpg
 
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