Desert Dawn
ACCESS: Confidential
This time i chose to make a very sexy new spaceplane at a much bigger size than my previous ones.
At 1-48th scale, the Rockwell TAV also known as MRCC is about 30 cm long (12 inch) !
(somewhat bigger than an F-16 kit).
Designed in 1980, it was to have a mission similar to that of the F-111 (!). But it's its design that made me want to make it as a kit since a good 10 years: it is a real little fighter-bomber disguised as a spaceplane.
The launch concept was so simple and so do-able that i wonder why they didn't build it (well, maybe they did, but they are just not telling us...).
The rocket booster to launch it into orbit was a single Solid Rocket Booster from the Space Shuttle, plus two smaller rocket boosters attached at the rear of the spaceplane, making the whole assembly almost entirely reusable (probably entirely, i just don't have confirmation yet if the two smaller boosters were reusable).
With a system like that, the Reagan era would have had a global, reusable hypersonic bomber able to reach any point on Earth in 1 hour or less (while the new (small) HTV-2 (unmanned) that was launched this spring can only be used once).
The MRCC TAV kit is now available at the special price of 85.00$ US for a short time only (the regular price will soon be 105.00$ US, you save 20.00$. The kit include about 40 parts. Lenght of the kit is about 31 cm. The kit also include the pop-out air inlets and pop-out wings.
And now, purely for your enjoyment, i have just made this digital art from one of my kit's photos and it will now officially be the boxart for the Rockwell MRCC TAV resin kit.
The MRCC features pop-out air inlets that were deployed below Mach 2 for airbreather engines (beside its rocket engine), and it could be air-refuelled from what can be seen in the artist concept illustrations. The pop-out inlets will be included with the kit as optionnal parts.
The exterior is almost complete, i just need to add the ventral flap and to build the inside of the RBCC engines and the RCS engines and scribe the panels. After that i will make the canopy, cockpit interior and landing gear. Haven't decided if i will make it two-seat or single seat. Illustrations i've got show both two-seat and single seat versions.
Stephane
Stratosphere Models
Website: http://www.picturetrail.com/stratospheremodels
At 1-48th scale, the Rockwell TAV also known as MRCC is about 30 cm long (12 inch) !
(somewhat bigger than an F-16 kit).
Designed in 1980, it was to have a mission similar to that of the F-111 (!). But it's its design that made me want to make it as a kit since a good 10 years: it is a real little fighter-bomber disguised as a spaceplane.
The launch concept was so simple and so do-able that i wonder why they didn't build it (well, maybe they did, but they are just not telling us...).
The rocket booster to launch it into orbit was a single Solid Rocket Booster from the Space Shuttle, plus two smaller rocket boosters attached at the rear of the spaceplane, making the whole assembly almost entirely reusable (probably entirely, i just don't have confirmation yet if the two smaller boosters were reusable).
With a system like that, the Reagan era would have had a global, reusable hypersonic bomber able to reach any point on Earth in 1 hour or less (while the new (small) HTV-2 (unmanned) that was launched this spring can only be used once).
The MRCC TAV kit is now available at the special price of 85.00$ US for a short time only (the regular price will soon be 105.00$ US, you save 20.00$. The kit include about 40 parts. Lenght of the kit is about 31 cm. The kit also include the pop-out air inlets and pop-out wings.
And now, purely for your enjoyment, i have just made this digital art from one of my kit's photos and it will now officially be the boxart for the Rockwell MRCC TAV resin kit.
The MRCC features pop-out air inlets that were deployed below Mach 2 for airbreather engines (beside its rocket engine), and it could be air-refuelled from what can be seen in the artist concept illustrations. The pop-out inlets will be included with the kit as optionnal parts.
The exterior is almost complete, i just need to add the ventral flap and to build the inside of the RBCC engines and the RCS engines and scribe the panels. After that i will make the canopy, cockpit interior and landing gear. Haven't decided if i will make it two-seat or single seat. Illustrations i've got show both two-seat and single seat versions.
Stephane
Stratosphere Models
Website: http://www.picturetrail.com/stratospheremodels
