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The year: 1992. The
Soviet Union has collapsed, the fall of communism across Europe is continuing at
an unbelievable pace...and politicians of the West are promising a "Peace
Dividend". Somehow, all that money spent on Cold War weapons will be beaten
into plowshares, or Walkmans, or something. Funny, it never really happened..but...what
if it did? What would we have done with nuclear aircraft carriers and
B-52s and boomer subs? Ok, maybe some of them could have been converted into
something non-military...and my mind began to whirl.
Yeah, I know, it's
2010 and things didn't exactly pan out all love and flowers and
stuff...but...you know...the Germans made a manned version of the
V-1...why not the same with the ALCM Cruise Missile? Ok, so here's how it might
have happened...
Boeing, facing
massive cuts in their military programs, frantically looked for something to
develop as a civilian application..and they had the perfect aircraft..the ALCM
Cruise Missile! Adapting it to fixed wings and fixed gear was easy, they merely
used the proven P-51 Mustang wing planform, and simple, robust strutted landing
gear. The Williams engine was derated back to only allow a top speed of 190
knots, and a cockpit was fabricated to go where the payload had formerly been
kept. Litton, having developed an excellent terrain following radar/navigation
system, was tasked to make the plane now able to fly hands off from take-off to
landing..a truly push-button aircraft! Set your take-off point, your landing
point, a few parameters like desired altitude, and push the big green start
button..and away you go!
The most brilliant
stroke was getting the Boy Scouts of America on board. A new category of
Scouting, Scouts Aloft, was born, and within a couple years, Fly-In Jamborees
were the newest craze in the USA (soon to be replaced with watching Full Contact
Tank NASCAR). With the Scouts Aloft program, Scout troops would be given three
Scout Cruisers, and various Scouts would be given turns flying them. While their
actual input was minimal,( actual flight control was limited to some basic
course and altitude changes, with the Internal Litton Flight Dynamic System always
having last say for safety reasons) it did meet FAI regulations, and as a
result, the USA began to see a massive boom in civil aviation, at a time when
most aircraft manufacturers were looking at an end to their businesses. Cruise
Missile derived nav/control systems began to enter into the field, and
gradually, more and more people were able to fly. It was the beginning of a
great age for General Aviation.
And then Burt Rutan
landed on the moon using old Titan missiles....but that's another story!
Click on
images below to see larger images
The cost of starting
the Scouts Aloft Program was enormous, as was converting the ALCM to Piloted
status, so extensive sponsorship was brought on board. Decried by some as
"Flying NASCARs", the multi-hued planes allowed their sponsors much
free publicity wherever they went, and the Scouts to afford flight. What was
considered to be gaudy then is now, of course, completely normal.
The basic nature of
the aircraft allowed for easy servicing and flying, but one little glitch was
not discovered in the software until 2003, when a huge international Scouts
Aloft Jamboree was held in the Germany. Several hundred Scout Cruisers
inexplicably changed course and landed in Moscow's Red Square, and an
embarrassed litton employee was left to explain that there was a leftover
program in the nav system that was the attack profile on the Soviets capital
city...fortunately, the landing protocols were written to override any thing
else that was happening. The Russians were less than amused.
The kit used is the
Estes Flying Rocket of the Cruise Missile. No scale is stated, but it measures
out to approximately 1/28th scale. The wings are from a scrapped 1/48 P-51, and
the gear is from the parts basement. I heat molded the canopy myself, as nothing
in the world would fit on that skinny fuselage. I'm pretty sure Scouts weighing
no more than 80 pounds would be the maximum "cargo". Decals were
printed off at home of a cranky inkjet printer on Testors Clear Decal paper.
Paints were Tamiya spraycan white and acrylic bottled paints, and a lot of
Tamiya putty helped fair in the bottom of the missile to the wing. It only took
15 years to actually make what I'd thought of in those heady days of the early
90s...Now to make a Cruise liner out of the USS Nimitz....
Alvis 3.1
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