A long, long time ago, in a forum not far away .... I said, I'll make a drawing of the jet transport derivative of the Rainbow.
As already well known in Germany for airports, railway stations or other big projects, it took a little bit longer ... but here at
least the costs remained the same !
I started with the assumption, that as many components of the original Rainbow as possible would have been used, at least
in modified form. The forward fuselage seems to have a somewhat different glazing but more or less remained unchanged, but
the rear part got a completely new, wider shape for incorporarting the loading ramp, the tail was modified, too, accordingly. The
wing was moved from the middle to the shoulder position, but planform seems to be identical, changes (hinge lines for ailerons
and flaps) probably were a result of the underslung single nacelle on each side, contrary to the former two with the wingn running
through.
A more difficult point was the landing gear, not shown on the model. In order not to need too long main gear legs, the nose gear
would have been to be shortened considerable, but that not impossible, I think. Asuming, that the main legs would have been
attached to the main spar, as in the Rainbow, length was determined then by the length of the protruding nacelle. Single wheeled
main gear would be unsuitable then, so I switched to legs with twin (smaller) wheels, fortunately allowing for sufficient tail clearance
during take-off rotation. For the drawing without landing gear, I would claim source grade 3, as I could rely on Rainbow drawings,
with landing gear 2, at best. Clues and critics welcome.
BTW, I checked several drawings of the Rainbow and found considerable discrepencies ! Anybody an idea, what's the best ?
I hope, to present something more colourful soon, and the V-tail variant, too. Just have a look at the development of the new
Berlin BER airport for estimating the probable waiting time ...