[TonyE]

Some months ago, somewhere in Harpoon land I saw it mentioned that someone had a database of fictional/fanciful platforms for Harpoon Classic. More likely lots of people do . Anyway, I don't take a whole lot of time to work on my own and would like to join forces with others who might take their creations public if teamed up with others. If you are interested, please contact me and hopefully we can work something out. Probably the best benefit I can offer is the ability to use whatever we desire from HCDB (where most of my entries for StrikersFictDB have come from...). Outside of that I offer more outlandish platforms than most would make (possibly making you less shy about the whole deal <g>) and some facilities to make sharing the files back and forth a lot more automated that previous shared DB editing.

Thanks!

On an unrelated topic, Rabbit aka (Patrick), I'm scheming up a RA-5C scenario using HCDB and would welcome any first-hand input you can provide on typical missions. So far the story is pretty generic, RA-5C has to scope out a target in preparation for a nice big B-52 strike, do some post-strike recon, and maybe even a bit of CSAR assistance. SA-2, Mig-21, F-4 to be present, and annoying AAA as well. If the scen pans out of course you will be credited in the orders file as it wouldn't be created without your desire for RA-5C to show up more in Harpoon. It will be a wacky scen for sure (first it is coming from me, second, HCDB loadouts aren't exactly Vietnam era centric).

Thanks, again!

[JClark]

Lemme see, RA-5C loadout, circa 1970'ish...

One wicked, scare the poop out of you fast aircraft, along with long as hell nose that runs you right over the round down when making the turn into the launch line on the angle....

Several highly classified cameras....

A back seater who has been drugged to the gills in order to willingly get into the aircraft with a Viggie pilot...

And the Pilot himself, a man with no reasonable expectation of seeing the flight deck again, but who cheerfully leaps into the cockpit time after time, just for the thrill of flying the fastest jet on the flight deck, a man who thinks that flying straight and level over downtown Hanoi is just medium cool, compared to getting that long nosed beast back down on the flight deck in the dark, and a Pilot who has big ones...BIG ONES. Makes me wonder how the hell they ever got the aviator into the aircraft and keep it under gross weight limits....

Byron, who has enormous respect for Patrick, aka, Rabbit, and is proud to call Rabbit his friend. Hey Rabbit, don't forget, Gettysburg next summer!

[RA-5C]

... and less we forget...

+ North American Autonetics "AN/ASB-12 Bomb Directing Set" which included:
- multi-mode radar
- radar computer with an associated "Pilot's Projected Display Indicator (PPDI)"
(the first "head-up displays" to be fitted to an operational aircraft)
- TV camera under the nose for daylight target sighting
(with the imagery passed to the pilot's PPDI and the back-seater's radar display)
- "REINS" ("Radar-Equipped Inertial Navigation System")
- "Versatile Digital Analyser (VERDAN)" (one of the first solid-state computer systems
ever fitted to an aircraft) aka "Very Effective Replacement for a Dumb-Ass Navigator"

+ KA-51A/B forward-looking oblique angle optical camera

+ KA-50A, KA-51A, or KA-62A vertical optical camera

+ AN/ALQ-61 Electronic Reconnaissance System (AN/ALQ-61 was an "electronic intelligence (ELINT)"
system that would pick up radar emissions and pin down their coordinates, frequency, and pulse
pattern; data was recorded on magnetic tape)

+ KA-58A panoramic camera for medium- to high-altitude work

+ KA-57A panoramic camera for low-altitude work
(the cameras shot through prisms in the canoe that could be pivoted to
permit shots straight down or from side to side)

+ AN/AAS-21 infrared sensor (provided a continuous film strip of thermal targets,
such as hidden trucks, over a field of view 140 degrees wide)

+ AN/APD-7 "side looking airborne radar (SLAR)" system
which permitted all-weather, day-night imaging

+ AN/ALQ-21 (Integrated Radio Frequency Countermeasure System)

...and by the way... the Vigilante was also one of the first aircraft to have a "fly by wire" flight control system. Its design and configuration was believed to be a major influence on one of the world's most famous postwar interceptors: the Soviet MiG-25 'Foxbat'. The MiG-25 was apparently heavily influenced by the A-5's design.

[JClark]

Don't forget the Big Ones, Pat, the Big Ones

Boats

[RA-5C]

JClark, on Dec 9 2006, 03:29 PM, said:

Don't forget the Big Ones, Pat, the Big Ones

Boats

Hmmm... I can only assume you mean the...

[A6BSTARM]

I think Boats means these,

[Cartoon]

Not sure if I have said it before, but the Vigilante sure is a beautiul plane!