Flightline: Flights of Fantasy #2

"user314" (user314)
09/29/2020 at 11:00 • Filed to: flightline, modelopnik, Stealth, 80s

Developed in secret during the late 1970s, the Lockheed F-19A “Ghost” was a precision strike aircraft rather than a “fighter”. Incorporating radical advances in materials, shaping and avionics, the F-19 was designed to penetrate Soviet radar to destroy targets with guided missiles or bombs. A small aircraft, the Ghost had a wingspan of twenty-four feet and was just under fifty feet long. Featuring buried inlets and a highly smoothed fuselage, the F-19's GE F-404-HB engines could propel it to Mach 1.4, though its cruise speed was high subsonic. The plane’s design meant that it had high take-off and landing speeds, and it was not a nimble aircraft, though the unique construction and materials that make up its structure and skin made it invisible to the latest Soviet ground and airborne radar sets. The shrouded inlets prevented radar from reflecting off the spinning jet engines, and the exhaust was cooled with air ducted from numerous slits on the dorsal fuselage. The Ghost was not fitted for air-to-air munitions, but could carry one or two AGM-65 Maverick missiles, Paveway laser guided bombs up to 2,000lbs, and B61 or B83 nuclear bombs. Several aircraft have been spotted with a more bubble-shaped canopy and in a gloss gull-gray paint, which is theorized to be a training variant. The F-19A can be airlifted by C-5A Galaxy transports, with the outer wing panels folding up for clearance. It is unknown how many F-19s have been built, or what, if any, missions they have carried out.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

In response to the F-19A, the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau of the USSR introduced their own stealth aircraft, the MiG-37B, given the NATO reporting name ‘Ferret-E’. The MiG-37 was slightly wider than its counterpart at 33'6", but it was shorter at just 44'6". It was slower than the Ghost, with a maximum speed of 550mph, though its more conventional wing shape meant that it had slower take off and landing speeds. Like the F-19, ducted and shielded inlets fed the engines while keeping radar from reflecting off the spinning turbines, and bypass-air cooled the exhaust to protect the plane from IR seekers. The Ferret-E is armed with anti-radiation missiles to destroy NATO radars, and can also be fitted with a nuclear bomb, with both weapons shaped to also be low-observable to radar. Photographs have been taken of an unarmed version, likely a photo-reconnaissance variant. The MiG-37 incorporates landing gear derived from, if not directed source from, the MiG-23, allowing it to take off from and land at rough fields.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!