Arado Ar.198

Welcome to the last aircraft of this 2016.
The Arado Ar.198 was a reconnaissance airplane that never went beyond the prototype stage made by the Arado Flugzeugwerke for the Luftwaffe. Initially it was the preferred one, over the Blohm & Voss BV.141 and the Focke-Wulf Fw.189 "Uhu" but after some flight tests, it didn't live up to the expectations and therefore only one prototype was made.

It all started when in 1936 the RLM (German Aviation Ministry) issued an specification for a short-range reconnaissance airplane that would have a nice ground vision. Three companies, Arado, Blohm & Voss, Focke-Wulf and Henschel presented their candidates, and eventually the Focke-Wulf Fw.189 "Uhu" won.

The Arado Ar.198 had a crew of three, a pilot, a gunner/radio operator and an observer. The first two ones were placed above the wing while the third one was placed underneath it having good communications with his partners thanks to a well laid-out fuselage.
Thanks to the wing shoulder configuration, the pilot had an unrestricted forward visibility and the fuselage was made of steel tube with an all-metal monocoque of the tail boom.
Initially it was going to be powered by an air cooled BMW 132 engine, but due to it's limited availability the Bramo 323A-1 was chosen for the prototype although it was slightly lower powered.
It was armed with a forward firing 7.92mm MG 17 machine gun and two defensive MG 15 machine guns placed in the radio and observer's post. It could carry up to four SC50 bombs underwings.

It flew for the first time in March 1938 at the factory airfield in Warnemünde and the tests proved it to be satisfactory except for the stability in low speed flights. In order to fix that problem, automatic slats were installed which improved the stability but it was still hard to handle. Anyway due to it's below the expectations results, Arado's technical office decided to cancel any related development in the late months of 1938.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_198
2. http://www.airwar.ru/enc/spyww2/ar198.html (translated)

Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow - Possible foreign users

The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was tried to be sold to various foreign countries, among them United Kingdom and the United States of America, however, their national aviation industry was considered as a national interest and they rarely purchased foreign designs.
Anyway, from 1955 onwards, the UK showed some interest on the Arrow for their F.155 program which was expected to enter into service in 1962, however as time passed and it was obvious that the Arrow wouldn't be completed for that year, they focused their attention on interceptor fighters that would be ready for the end of the 1950s. Initially a thin-wing version of the Gloster Javelin was considered together with the short-range interceptor Saunders-Roe SR.177.
During April 1956 the UK's air council recommended the purchase of 144 arrows as an interim for the thin-winged Javelin which would be powered by two Bristol Olympus 7R, two Rolls-Royce Conway Stage 4 or two De Havilland Gyron. The interest became so real that even it was studied the set-up of a production line for the Arrow in the UK, however the 1957 Defence white paper cancelled almost all British manned fighter aircrafts in development back then. In January 1959 UK definitely declined the offer and they offer to sale Canada the English Electric Lightning. We have taken some liberties to imagine an improved Mk.3 version.

Regarding France, they showed interest in the Iroquis engine, in order to fit them in their Dassault Mirage IV bomber, together with another types of engines like the Bristol Olympus. However due to media speculations about the jeopardy of the Arrow being cancelled, the French government cancelled the negotiations in October 1958 and chose their native Snecma Altar. They only showed interest in the Arrow's engine, not in the interceptor as a whole, however we chosen to consider to show the Arrow in French colours for the sake of seeing it under more international colours, because... why not?

The USA, during 1954 had already a supersonic interceptor programme underway, which would eventually lead to the Convair F-106 Delta Dart (which had some similarities with the Arrow). Some of their designs were already better than the Arrow, like the Republic XF-103 or the North American XF-108 however, both of those aircrafts were cancelled as it was obvious that the Soviets were concentrating their efforts on the ICBMs and not in their strategic bombers. This assumption was taken as one of the justifications for the cancellation of the Arrow. In 1958 Avro Canada president promised the USAF a free supply of fire control system and missiles if they allowed the usage of Edwards AFB for free.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-105_Arrow#Foreign_interest

Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow - Fictional Canadian users

As it's widely known, the CF-105 Arrow was cancelled due to some various reasons.
However, given the characteristics of the airplane, it's very susceptible to a lot of what-ifs.
So, this is the first post, out of two, where we cover various lookings of this interceptor that was ahead of it's time. Each of them is armed with one of the possible missile configurations,either the AIM-4A Falcon, the cancelled Canadair Velvet Glove or the AIM-7 Sparrow II. The Arrow was expected to have so much compatibility with American missiles because it was expected to be sold to the USA and the United Kingdom.
Finally, we decided to take some creative steps and we drawn an anti-ship version carrying one of the first purely air-to-sea missiles, the Nord SS.12/AS.12.
They're all are drawn with the weapons bay deployed in order to show their weaponry.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-105_Arrow

Merry christmas!!

Hey everybody! this post is just to wish you all a very merry christmas!

See y'all in the skies and watch your six!

Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck - Intended users

Merry christmas eve everyone! We come with a very brief post today as there isn't many information available.

After the Korean War had started, the USAF (United States Air Force) was in urgent need of all-weather interceptors and surveillance airplanes. The urgency was so big that they considered two foreign designs to be incorporated into USAF service, the English Electric Canberra and the Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck. The CF-100 was rejected for not having enough range and insufficient payload. In the end, the Electric Canberra was chosen and was built under license by Martin. It was known as the Martin B-57 Canberra.
As the Canuck Mk.3 was the first of the Canucks armed with a machine gun that could've been ready in time before the cease fire agreement of 1953 and considering that it was an all-weather interceptor, we decided to paint totally in black as another all-weather fighters that served in Korea during that year.

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck

Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow

Now it's time to write about a true flying legend.
The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was conceived back in 1952 to a requirement from 1952 made by the Royal Canadian Air Force, the CF-105  was a two-seat tandem all-weather interceptor of which 37 airplanes were ordered.
Of those 37, the first five of them were known as the Mk.1 and were powered by two Pratt & Whitney J75-P-3 turbojet engines delivering each of them 5670kgp of power which could raise up to 8392kgp after applying the afterburner at maximum power.
The sixth and consecutive airplanes, would've been the Mk.2 series which were expected to be powered by two Orenda PS-13 Iroquis turbojet engines delivering each of them 8732kgp of power and 11794kgp whe afterburning.
The Mk.2 series were to be armed with eight AIM-4 Falcon, three AIM-7 Sparrow or some unespecified number of Canadair Velvet Globe Anti-Air Missiles placed internally in a bay that would deploy when needed.
The first Mk.1 prototype was flown on 25th March 1958 and the other four in 1st August, 22nd September and 27th October, the very same day that the Soviet Sputnik satellite was successfuly launched, so it overshadowed the presentation of this airplane. The fifth one flew on 11th January 1959.
The third prototype achieved the speed of mach 1.5 and mach 1.98 speed was achieved when, on 20th February 1959 the programme was cancelled due to various political reasons. By then, the first airplane of the Mk.2 series was almost complete, and was about to join the testing flights followed by further four that weren't so completed. Urban legends claim that one of those prototypes wasn't destroyed and it's lying inside some hangar, rusting somewhere.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-105_Arrow
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Avro Canada CF-100 Mk.5 Canuck - Canadian users

Now it's time for the last post about the CF-100 Canuck.
The Mk.5 was the last variant of the CF-100 Canuck. It featured a longer wingspan in order to increase it's operational ceiling. They were powered either by Orenda 11 or Orenda 14 delivering similar thrust of power. It's special because it was armed only with rockets and had, therefore, the gun pack and machine-gun sights removed.
A total of 281 were built and 49 Mk.4B were upgraded to the Mk.5 standard and it was the first massively produced Canadian jet fighter.
It served with many Royal Canadian Air Force Squadrons, with four of them being deployed in Europe from 1956 to 1962 under the nimble bat program, which consisted on replacing the Canadair Sabre with some Canucks in order to provide some squadrons with an all-weather fighter against the Soviets.
When the Canuck was already outdated, some of them were retrofitted with some electronic counter-measures to serve in that role. It featured some radar jammers in the gun pack and chaff dispensers in the underwing pylons. It was followed by another communications-jamming version and remained in active role until 1981, however we couldn't find relevant graphical references of these versions, so they remain undrawn.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck
2. http://www.airvectors.net/avcf100.html
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of FIghters

Avro Canada CF-100 Mk.5 Canuck - Belgian users

On 28th July 1957, the Belgian government announced that they had chosen the Canuck instead of the Gloster Javelin, the Sud Aviation Vautour IIN, the North American F-86K Sabre Dog and the Northrop F-89D Scorpion for the all weather fighter to serve with the Belgian Air Force.
In total, 53 of them were sold and one of them was damaged before it was delivered. In December 1957 the first fifteen of them arrived from CFB Uplands, located in Ottawa. They arrived in Marville, France after having being ferried via Goose Bay, in Labrador and Keflavik, in Iceland. Once in Marville they were handed over to the Belgian pilots who ferried them to the Belgian base of Beauvechain.
They served with the Belgian 11, 349 and 350 squadrons under the 1st "all weather" wing. They were used until 1964 when it was replaced by the Lockheed F-104G Starfighter.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck#Operators
2. http://www.belgian-wings.be/Webpages/Navigator/Photos/MilltaryPics/post_ww2/Avro%20Canada%20CF100%20Canuck/canuck%20frontpage.htm
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters.

Arado Ar.232B

At the same time when the 232A version was being produced, a second B version was being designed. It intended to solve the problems present at the A one, like the lack of power in case of one engine's failure.
As it had two engines more than the A, the wing had to be extended and the center of gravity was moved forward. The first B prototypes flown for the first time in May 1942 and were followed by a production order to ten machines more. Those airplanes were widely used, specially on the eastern front. However the RLM didn't order more of them as transport planes had the lowest priority as they consumed much more fuel than they could afford. Some others were used by Arado to transport airplane parts between their factories.
Apparently in the inmediate postwar, the British forces captured two of them and, after being tested by Eric "Winkle" Brown, who defined the Ar.232B as an excellent airplane, it was used for regular cargo flights between Germany and the Uk during late 1945 and early 1946.

There were also some unbuilt projects regarding this airplane. The Ar.232C and Ar.432 was initally a sub-variant with wooden wings intended to save some precious alluminium and it would've been produced from October 1945 onwards. The Ar.532 and Ar.632 were version with even larger wingspan that would've been powere by six engines. Unfortunately we couldn't find plans or profile drawings for them so we have left them undrawn.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_232
2. http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=475

Arado Ar.232A

The original Arado Ar.232 responds to a requirement made by the German RLM made in late 1939 for an airplane that would replace the Junkers Ju.52/3m.
The requirements was that it should be a rear-loading design and it had to be powered by two 1600hp BMW 801 A/B radial engines.
After the plans were examined, Arado's design was the most convincing one and was chosen, therefore three prototypes were ordered in 1940.
It was designed by Wilhelm van Nes, who chose an hidraulically powered clamshell doors on the rear bay with a ramp to allow cargo to be rolled into the hold. Tail control surfaces were placed on the end of a long boom, in order to keep the area behind the doors clear, so the load could drive right into the cargo hold.
It was also designed to be able to take-off from short runways, in fact 200 meters were enough and it also used some peculiar landing gear configuration. With various wheels placed in tandem configuration running under the main fuselage and a semi-retractable main front wheel, it could take off and land on rough terrains.
Normally it was operated by a crew of four, one pilot, one radio operator, one navigator and one loadmaster.
Due to the low supply of BMW 801, the Ar.232 was forced to use another engine, so it was fitted with two BMW Bramo 323 which also was powering the mighty Junkers Ju.200, and the first prototypes were built. The first ones, were tested in July 1941 and the front big wheel collapsed when landing, but the other smaller ones saved the aircraft from suffering any damage.
Further ten pre-production Ar.232A were built and it outperformed the Ju.52/3m in almost every aspect as it could cover much longer distances with the double amount of load, it could operate from short, damaged and rough runways and it even had faster cruise speed.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_232
2. http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=475

Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck Mk.4

The CF-100 Mk.4 was the first variant of the Canuck armed with rockets. It made it's maiden flight as a modified version of an Mk.2 on 11th October 1952. When tested, it outrunned the Canadair Sabre but it wasn't as agile as this one. It even managed to reach mach 1 in a dive on 4th December of that same year.
The prototype was used also to test a belly rocket pack mounted behind the guns with 48 FFAR rockets, but it caused several buffeting after being extended and therefore was discarded.
That prototype was lost on 23rd August 1954 during an accident where the pilot successfully ejected but the navigator, unfortunately couldn't.

The first production version of the Mk.4 appeared in September 1953 and it featured a modified cockpit with a one-piece canopy and an internal modification to make it easier for the navigator to eject after the pilot had ejected.
It was powered by two Orenda 9 engines delivering each of them 2950kgp of thrust, which required modified nacelles. Regarding avionics, it was equipped with the Hughes MG-2 fire control system and an AN/APG-40 radar in the nose, copying that way the Northrop F-89D Scorpion.
On the wingtips there was a provision for 29 Mighty Mouse rockets which could be swapped by wingtips tanks, which we have chosen to draw.
The early production of this variant lacked an autopilot, but it's not clear if it was fitted later on or not and some of them had a production tail bumper but most of them were removed, specially in the late production variants.
The Mk.4 was the true first satisfactory production variant, so when this one rolled out, the production orders for the Mk.3 were called off. Totally 137 Mk.4 were built and when an uprated Orenda 11 engine appeared, it became the standard for the Mk.4 which were designated as Mk.4B and those powered by the Orenda 9, were retroactively called Mk.4A. Only two Mk.4A were converted to Mk.4B configuration.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck
2. http://www.airvectors.net/avcf100.html
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck Mk.3

The Avro Canada CF-100 Mk.3 was the first production version. It featured the APG-33 nose radar, an US built Hughes E-1 fire control system, and was armed with eight 0.50in Browning M3 machine guns placed in a belly tray that could be dropped out in order to increase speed.
Some experimental variants were also made, like one with four 20mm cannons instead of the 0,50in machine guns, but it was discarded as it was very problematic.
It seems that it could be equipped with some air-to-ground bombs, with a load of up to four 450kg bombs, in order to perform the rather unlikely for this airplane, ground attack role.
It's interesting to mention that an Mk.3 was fitted with four Canadair Velvet Globe missiles on underwing pylons, in order to test them, however the Velvet Globe missile program was cancelled in 1956 and that missile never entered service.
In September 1950 the Royal Canadian Air Force oredered 124 Mk.3s with the first one of them entering service in 1953.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck
2. http://www.airvectors.net/avcf100.html
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Avro Canada CF-100 Mk.2

The Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck was a pre-production version of the regular Canuck. Only five of them were made as they intended to be test aircrafts.
They were also powered by the Orenda 2 engine that also powered the two prototypes and one of them was fitted with dual controls in order to make it a trainer aircraft. It was labelled as the Mk.2T.

Apparently, nowadays at least one of them is conserved as a gatekeeper at the CFB St.Jean in the Canadian province of Quebec.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck Mk.1

The Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck's origins can be traced back to the very late 1940s as the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) needed an interceptor capable of patrolling the inmense areas of Canada's north operating in all-weather conditions.
The proposed two-seat fighter was designed around two powerful engines, an advanced radar and fire control system placed in it's nose making it that way able to fly under every weather 24/7.

Back in October 1946 a designed labelled as XC-100 was presented to the RCAF by the chief engineer Edgar Atkin who passed his design to John Frost, in order to redesign the design together with Jim Chamberlin, Avro's main Aerodynamacist.
The first prototype ,named CF-100 Canuck Mk.1, made it's maiden flight on 19th January 1950 with Gloster's chief test pilot Squadron Leader Bill Waterton at the controls. It was powered by two Rolls-Royce Avon engines delivering 2950Kgp of thrust each.

A second prototype was made, also belonging to the Mk.1 series, and was also powered by the same engine.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Arado E.555-1

Previous note: As our draughtsman found this airplane irrestible to draw, even being a bomber, we decided to publish it. Does it mean that we're going to post bombers from now on? Not exclusively. Fighters are going to be our main focus, however, from time to time we'll post any type of airplane that we find interesting.

The Arado E.555-1 was first conceived in 1943 to meet the requirement of the RLM for a high speed jet bomber capable of carrying 4000kg of bombs and with a range of 5000km, which is commonly known as the "Amerika-Bomber". Arado studied the project assigning a construction team for the project and, by early 1944 the results were available. They concluded that a flying wing would be the best option in order to achieve high speed and long range.

The study showed up to fifteen designs, labelled E.555-1 up to E.555-15 being the main differences among them the engines and the configuration of those.

The E.555-1 would've been made entirely out of metal being a flying delta wing with a short protruding section of the fusalge to host the cockpit where the crew of three would operate from.
It was planned to have two remote controlled defensive turrets, a dorsal one and a rear one.
The engines would've been six BMW 003A placed in a cluster on the rear upper surface of the wing.

In spite of this very advanced design, the project was suddenly stopped on 28th December 1944 by the EHK (Entwicklungs HauptKommision - Main developtment commission) of the RLM due to the deteriorating war situation as this bomber was going to be very expensive.

Sources:
1. http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2001/09/caisander_ar555.htm
2. http://www.luft46.com/arado/are555s.html
3. http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php?topic=46084.0

Avro 584 Avocet

The Avro Avocet was a British single-seat naval fighter that never went beyond the prototype stage.
It was designed by Roy Chadwick, who designed it in order to meet the requirements of the specification 17/25 for a naval fighter (which required an all-metal stressed skin construction with interchangeable wheels and floaters and had to be powered by the Armstrong Withworth Lynx engine) that only had two candidates, this airplane and the Vickers Vireo.
It was an all-metal fighter that was powered by a 230hp Armstrong Siddeley Lynx engine with interchangeable wheels and floats. Even if it hadn't folding wings, it was designed to be easily dismantled so it could be storaged on board a ship.
Two prototypes were built, the first one as a regular wheeled airplane in December 1927, and the second one as a floatplane in April 1928. The Fleet Air Arm evaluated both airplanes at Martlesham Heath but found their performance to be unimpressive due to the low-powered engine so it wasn't ordered into mass production.
The second prototype, however, was used a seaplane trainer for the Schneider Trophy pilots serving with the RAF's High Speed Flight.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Avocet
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of FIghters