Italeri RAAF Mirage IIIO. FINISHED

[TTail]

Why don't the Aussie 'O' model have the Doppler bump under the nose or the cranked vertical tail to house the HF radio. That would all be useful equipment for the RAAF wouldn't it?

The RAAF Mirages never had HF fitted. As to Doppler. Well the initial aircraft were dedicated Air Defence aeroplanes. They did not come equipped with Air to ground functions on the radar or with Doppler hence no bump.. A3-50 and up were meant to be dedicated Air to ground aircraft. These aircraft came equipped with both Air to Air modes on the radar and Air to ground modes on the radar. These included "Blind Dive", Terrain Obstacle clearance, Ground mapping with Freeze function. They also had an additional 55 galls fuel in wet leading edges. Blind dive allowed an instrument penetration in a dive to a specific terrain clearance. The obstacle mode allowed terrain relative altitude to be displayed so you could see what terrain was above you whilst still in cloud. These aircraft also were equipped with similar Doppler radar as fitted to the IIIE however the radome was flush with the lower fuselage. All the earlier Mirages were then updated to this common standard so all become both Air to Air and Air to ground capable Blind dive and Terrain obstacle clearance radar modes were deleted in the early 70's.. Doppler was a standard fit. If you look at images of RAAF mirages from the under side you can see a black oval panel in the nose this is the radome for the Doppler radar.

 

Edited September 8, 2016 by TTail

[hamfists nz]

Nice..having flown around the Northern Territory and Queensland for work in a past life, I would've thought HF radio would be an essential in Aus..it was for us

[TTail]

I guess HF is a moot point for the Mirage with limited range etc. The vagaries of HF propagation don't lend themselves well for the fighter mission, though in terms of Intercept direction perhaps using OTHR type sensors maybe. of course nowadys with Sat coms and data link type stuff its pretty much redundant ... I mean even UJUNG now has CPDLC data link .... The RAAF FA18 is HF (secure) equipped.

[ericg]

Thanks for the explanations Sean.

 

Onto some more work.

 

I was going to leave the sides of the cockpit as they were but was tempted to do them up a bit. The kit parts were a bit bare for my liking, so I got stuck in and sorted them out. I figure that this wont be my last Italeri Mirage, so the harder I work on this one, the easier the next one will be, as I intend on making copies of these in resin as well as the panel.

 

Right side:

 

 

Left side:

 

 

Fitted with the rest of the cockpit. I have started detailing the side consoles as well, as there are a few extra details that I would like in this area. Noticeable is some of the areas that I have scrubbed the detail off and also some details added such as the Approach Control lever on the side of the Throttle assembly.

 

 

[dodgem37]

Nice bit of detail work, Eric.  Looks grande.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[alaninaustria]

Damn fine work bro!!

[Rainer Hoffmann]

Really impressive, how a few bits of styrene and brass improve the look of the pit so much. Well, at least when it's done so expertly!

 

Cheers

Rainer

[TTail]

Absolutely magnificent Eric !!! .... except the Defog handle is in the defog position ....

[TTail]

Approach Control Lever. (The white lever on the inside of the throttle quadrant in Eric's image above). Clever little system to aid in Speed control on final. The Mirage Min Drag speed was 300Kias. Below this the aircraft was effectively speed unstable. Tiny Angle of Attack (AOA) changes resulted in large changes in drag. This required judicious throttle movement back and forwards to control IAS. Approach control was an Autothrottle type arrangement that at a constant pilot set RPM varied Nozzle area (and consequently EGT/T4) to maintain IAS. To use it the pilot got the aircraft to its final Approach speed of 200Kias, he then set the throttle to 7500RPM and then raised the Approach lever using the finger lift. The lever was hinged at the rear and rotated anticlockwise by about 20degrees. This engaged the system. System specs were +-2Kts based on the 190Kt datum. Though in practice it was more like 188Kts ... the nozzles would close and you would spring up to 192kts at which point the nozzles would open and back you slid to 188kts. If performing a pairs instrument approach with a wingman on the wing it was pretty trying for him, so it was generally only used single ship. Approaching the minima/threshold you would disengage Approach control by flicking the lever down.

Edited September 10, 2016 by TTail

[Whitey]

Sounds like a forerunner to some Airbus systems. No wonder T'Tail continues to enjoy his French connection.

 

Great work on cockpit mate.

[ericg]

Thanks Sean.

 

Part of me hopes that you had to dig into the manuals to recall that info!

 

As for the demist lever, I will see if I can change it. A really good clear photo that Furbs gave me (RAAF official, stamped on the back 1971) shows it in that position.

[TTail]

No Eric, the Mirage neural pathways are still strong

[Zero77]

Amazing job. Aires would not have done better !

[Nillus]

Beautiful modelling as usual Eric.

200kts?

Carumba that's quick...lotsa V to create the L.

Those deltas are sweet to look at, but must have been deadly with insufficient speed.

Were the OTU stall sequences carried out at great altitude, Sean?

[TTail]

Mirage didnt stall per see ...... just gyrated a bit if you pushed it too hard