phantom Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 (edited) Okay, back in 1963 the navy still did not have anything to replace its lost Banshees with. The Bonnie was soon to be retired and the air force was getting all the new stuff. Sooooooo....... ah.....yeah, Canadair decided they could help the navy by providing another 30 Starfighters for naval use. As the Bonny would never be able to launch anything like a Starfighter it was decided to navalize the suckers using a bunch of extra pontoons the air force had bought for its Otters. The original plan was to just number the Starfighters in the 12901- 12930 range but the last threes would not work with the RCN registry system. The 900 series was reserved for trainers and reserve use only. So the air force who was in charge of the purchase used the unused 12600- 12630 range. 12631 and up were to be used by the Mk1 and Mk2 two seat Starfighters bought of the Lockheed lines. Apart from the pontoons and the addition of a stiffener which measures out almost the exact same as the tail surface of a early F-16 the only difference to the naval Starfighter is the German style ejection seat. The main reason for this has nothing to do with the fact my Canadian resin ejection seat in the stash is being saved for a normal Canadian build. One neat feature was the aerodynamic addition of the "deck" at the back of the pontoons. Not only did they aid in stability but they provided a nice place to sit and soak your feet while fishing. Somehow the attrition rate of the naval Starfighters was rather low. 28 survived into the early 80s when they were replaced with CF-18s which flew off the HMCS Crossbow and HMCS Whatyoulookenat. The pontoon equipped Strfighters were demilitarized and sold on the civilian market to rich buggers who wanted a flying fishing boat. Edited August 1, 2010 by phantom Quote Link to post Share on other sites
faab104 Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 "The Torpedo with a man in it" ! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pirata Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 The beauty of this is the insanity and the paint. Striking paint job. Insane concept. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted July 9, 2010 Author Share Posted July 9, 2010 Paint scheme is close to what the RCN Banshee flew in. As did the Sea King when we first got them near 50 years ago. The other plane is a what if Skyhawk I did a couple years ago. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pirata Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 (edited) All are very nice. I enjoy looking at your work. I just realized that the pitot tube on your Starfighter is pointing downward. Spearfishing? :) Edited July 10, 2010 by Pirata Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted July 10, 2010 Author Share Posted July 10, 2010 Figured the pontoons made it rear heavy. That and it broke off during the photo shoot. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Rat Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 I think I just had one of 'those' moments. Here comes yet another cold shower. Brilliant one Shawn! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 "The Torpedo with a man in it" ! :) That's funny! Neat concept Shawn. I wonder how many weenies on Parliament Hill maybe thought of something like that back in the '70s! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted July 12, 2010 Author Share Posted July 12, 2010 I think the party in charge in the 70s would have sooner handed out flowers and worn hippy beads then added ANY capability to the forces. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Flyboyf18 Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 OK that's really cool, now get to work on the Pontoon Voodoo!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted August 1, 2010 Author Share Posted August 1, 2010 Did not feel like starting another thread so here is another Starfighter: Leading Edge decals this time. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted August 1, 2010 Author Share Posted August 1, 2010 Here is a whole bunch of Starfighters: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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