Subject: Re: Article for Silly Week, Lippisch P.13a
From: "Submissions for ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "Remco Grob" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2013 11:12:33 -0800

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks again for sending it in.

Steve Bamford
ARC Air - Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.arcair.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Remco Grob 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2013 5:40 AM
  Subject: Article for Silly Week, Lippisch P.13a

  "Revell/Mauve 1/48 Lippisch P.13a" 

  by "Borg R3-MC0"
  --------------------

        Steve Bamford will insert full sized version of photo 01.jpg here  

  Altough this is a "what if" aircraft it was seriously studied. So, here is some history, straight from the Wikipedia:

  As conventional fuels were in extremely short supply by late 1944, Lippisch proposed that the P.13a be powered by coal. Initially, it was proposed that a wire-mesh basket holding coal be mounted behind a nose air intake, protruding slightly into the airflow and ignited by a gas burner. Following wind-tunnel testing of the ramjet and the coal basket, modifications were incorporated to provide more efficient combustion.

  The coal was to take the form of small granules instead of irregular lumps, to produce a controlled and even burn, and the basket was altered to a mesh drum revolving on a vertical axis at 60 rpm. A jet of flame from tanks of bottled gas would fire into the basket once the P.13a had reached operating speed (above 320 km/h), whether by using a rocket to assist takeoff or by being towed.

  The air passing through the ramjet would take the fumes from the burning coal towards the rear where they would mix under high pressure with clean air taken from a separate intake. The resulting mixture of gas would then be directed out through a rear nozzle to provide thrust. A burner and drum were built and tested successfully in Vienna by the design team before the end of the war.

  It is not known what armament would have been carried by the P.13a; the MK 103 cannon would have been too heavy and large for such a small aircraft and it is possible that one or two large-calibre machineguns would have been used.

  At the end of the war even the prototype DM-1 test glider had not been finished when it was captured by US forces. It was ordered to be completed by Lippisch's team and was then shipped to the USA where it was test-flown. Reportedly[by whom?] the results were very positive and lessons learned were incorporated into NASA's research aircraft of the 1950s and on.

  Film footage exists which shows a gliding test of a scaled-down model of the P.13a. These tests began in May 1944 at Spitzerberg, near Vienna.[2]

  After the war, Lippisch, working with American aircraft designer Convair, developed and tested the XF-92 based on his designs, leading to the eventual adoption of the F-102 Delta Dagger and its successor, the F-106 Delta Dart.The Lippisch P.13a was an experimental ramjet-powered delta wing interceptor aircraft designed in late 1944 by Dr. Alexander Lippisch for Nazi Germany. The aircraft never made it past the drawing board, but testing of wind-tunnel models in the DVL high-speed wind tunnel showed that the design had extraordinary stability into the Mach 2.6 range.

  YES, it really did say "powered by lumps of coal" ! Just check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lippisch_P.13a

        Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 03.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 03.jpg Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 04.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 04.jpg Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 05.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 05.jpg Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 06.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 06.jpg 

  This is the 1/48 Revell reedition of the Mauve kit. The kit is easy and goes together quickly. This really is one of the few kits that I did not use any putty on.
  When build straight out of the box you can see trough the intake and exhausts. So I chose to insert 3 cm of stryrene tube by Evergreen and glue that shut on one end so you cannot see through the whole plane. Other then that no modifications where neccesary.

        Steve Bamford will insert full sized version of photo 0 
  2.jpg here 

  This is the third time that I did motteling. I used Tamiya acrylic paint with Tamiya thinner. I normaly use alcohol to thin Tamiya paints but that dries to quickly for motteling and clogs up your airbrush. I found that out the hard way on the two earlier attempts to mottel. 
  I also noticed that I was reaching the limits of my airbrush (a Badger 200 with a medium head). I think I need another airbrush to achieve these kind of result in a smaller scale (like 1/72)

  I used the kit decals (incl the seatbelts, but I "beefed them up" with aluminum foil). I had some severe silvering problems with the decals. I tried every trick in the book but I could not get the Balkenkreuzen to settle properly. Other then that I am pleased with the build.

  "Borg R3-MC0" 
        Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 07.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 07.jpg