Jump to content

F-14A glove vanes 1/48


Recommended Posts

You could find someone who has a Hobby Boss kit and isn’t using theirs. The kit has them molded closed, but also includes the vanes. I was happy to discover that in my sole HB tomcat kit whilst planning an aerial display of a TARPS mission going at warp speed.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hey Darren, new addition to the Steel Beach line...

 

Aside from looking different on a static model, were they opened on the ground for inspection? Regularly or just if a gripe came up during flight? This, obviously before they disengaged the mechanisms later on.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I can't recall ever seeing them deployed on deck while I was in my Fleet squadron (VF-33) in the mid-80s. I did see them out while at Pax in the late 80s, that was during the testing that led to them being deactivated. We did some wild stuff to the test bird, an Alpha...they wanted to move the CG as far aft as possible. We removed pretty much the entire AWG-9 radar, antenna, transmitter, power supplies, receiver, RMO, syncronizer...all of it. They even put lead weights back where the ALE39 buckets went. Then they went out and flew high speed low level flights and melted a lot of the paint off. The bird looked like a damn elephant, the paint heated up and then sagged after landing. That was SD202 in the tactical paint scheme. Wish I had pics of that.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Center of pressure (Cp) moves aft as aircraft speed increases, especially when supersonic. The glove vanes deployed incrementally with increased speed maintain proper Cp balance.

 

What I don't know is how/why they determined they weren't needed later in life.  Certainly a lot of engineering and wind tunnel work went into the design to determine they were needed in the first place.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...