Short Skyvan for COIN Operations.

[Roland55]

Is the speed and acceleration in relation to the aircraft known? Can it be worked out?

You could assume that the Skyvan could be in a slight dive...i guess something around/in between 200/300Km/h?

Slant distance? If that was wire guided, the length of available wire would limit the range

Some time ago i remember stumbling into an article on the Swedish MFI-17 Supporter (trainer that was also pushed into the COIN role), the Supporter could make use of the Bantam Missile, an extremely portable ATGM that was often seen being carried by infantry or maybe in some vehicles, like you state, since the Bantam was wire guided it was limited by the 2km(ish) wire that was being carried in the plane (sure it could go a bit faster, but range remained the same, or a bit less).

As far as i know the SeaCat wasn't wire guided, could a wire guided version had been envisioned/Planed/tested for this? (or for its use on the Wasp helicopter?). Then is if the missile's Warhead was modified to avoid self destruction after a certain flight time?

Sometimes i wish we could get a few more sources about it

 

[Jason Dykstra (Wyvern)]

Sometimes i wish we could get a few more sources about it

Would the National Archives at Kew have anything related to this? What about other, smaller archives? Can anyone in the UK enlighten us on whether this is possible? There are almost no sources for this online, so those are the only places where information about this can be.

 

[Jason Dykstra (Wyvern)]

Well oil beef hooked! I wonder if any drawings of that survive. That binned chapter might see light of day yet.

Chris

I'm not sure whether there would be enough material to cover, but, maybe it could be written as a separate publication in the style of "The General Staff and the Helicopter". If there isn't enough material, maybe it could contain material on how COIN operations are conducted, a history of COIN operations before going into projects regarding the sort, like the COIN Skyvan, Norman Firecracker, armed Islanders, etc.

 

[mat]

Not a Skyvan, but here's a Defender Spooky that TSRJoe sent me for a COIN chapter in Typhoon to Typhoon that got pulled. I think its from Flight

Chris

Armed Defenders have been used for COIN and/or anti-drug operations by quite a few countries. Here are a few: 3 x Belize Defense Force, Madagascar, 2 x Rhodesia, 3 x Mauretania shown with 8-cm SURA rockets and drop tanks or, possibly, gun pods. All taken from various web sites.

Two Defenders are used by the danish homeguard (Hjemmeværnet)

 

[TsrJoe]

Sometimes i wish we could get a few more sources about it

Would the National Archives at Kew have anything related to this? What about other, smaller archives? Can anyone in the UK enlighten us on whether this is possible? There are almost no sources for this online, so those are the only places where information about this can be.

Might be worth checking with Shorts themselves or the museum at Belfast?

 

[TsrJoe]

Military Skyvan brochure cover

 

[BlackBat242]

You could assume that the Skyvan could be in a slight dive...i guess something around/in between 200/300Km/h?

Some time ago i remember stumbling into an article on the Swedish MFI-17 Supporter (trainer that was also pushed into the COIN role), the Supporter could make use of the Bantam Missile, an extremely portable ATGM that was often seen being carried by infantry or maybe in some vehicles, like you state, since the Bantam was wire guided it was limited by the 2km(ish) wire that was being carried in the plane (sure it could go a bit faster, but range remained the same, or a bit less).

As far as i know the SeaCat wasn't wire guided, could a wire guided version had been envisioned/Planed/tested for this? (or for its use on the Wasp helicopter?). Then is if the missile's Warhead was modified to avoid self destruction after a certain flight time?

Sometimes i wish we could get a few more sources about it

Here is the guidance of the Seacat...
The operator in the director when the missile was fired could see target and missile with an optical sight (later a tv camera). He then guided the missile to the target by joystick aided by a flare in the missile’s tail. There was an UHF command link to the missile.

 

[MadRat]

Seems like the Skyvan's main advantages were cost and simplicity. Being reliable and cheap is definitely an oxymoron today, but during that era we actually saw truly innovative things like this. The 330 would have been more interesting than the sc.7 original, but thats ten years later at least. Too bad they were tied to those notorious death flights.