The most unlikely aircraft that nearly entered service with an Air Force

[uk 75]

Various websites like Whatifmodelers and Beyond the Sprues take aircraft and have them equip the most unlikely users.

With so many excellent books available on unbuilt secret projects and their possible users I thought it would be fun to have a thread about the most unlikely combination of aircraft and user (or possibly other bits of kit) which came closish to happening.

My candidate would be the A12 Avenger flying dorito in RAF service.

 

[Scott Kenny]

Various websites like Whatifmodelers and Beyond the Sprues take aircraft and have them equip the most unlikely users.

With so many excellent books available on unbuilt secret projects and their possible users I thought it would be fun to have a thread about the most unlikely combination of aircraft and user (or possibly other bits of kit) which came closish to happening.

My candidate would be the A12 Avenger flying dorito in RAF service.

I have projects for the P1214 equipping all prior Harrier users, and the NA335 winning the F15 contest and getting all those sales across a dozen countries. The fun one would be the NA335 in Iranian service, instead of F14s.

 

[SOC]

At one point Lockheed proposed selling some of the retired A-12s to Iran. Not sure how close it actually ever came, but it was a discussion at one point.

 

[CV12Hornet]

The A-5 Vigilante, of all planes, was Australia's second choice in the competition that begat the F-111C.

And the British nearly bought Mirage IVs re-engined with Speys.

 

[Bounce]

I remember a few years ago a RAAF spokesman stating they were not looking at purchasing Sukhoi Su-30s because of X Y Z reasons (one was stated as poor after sales support lol)

My takeaway from that knowing how government proposals/tenders work is that some poor chap probably actually had to put a report together as if we were actually entertaining the thought of purchasing Russian fighters lol.

 

[BlackBat242]

The A-5 Vigilante, of all planes, was Australia's second choice in the competition that begat the F-111C.

And the British nearly bought Mirage IVs re-engined with Speys.

The A-5 was the RAAF's FIRST choice (due to it being available in far less time with far less risk)*... their "all things being equal" first choice being TFX - but the much more mature and in-production nature of the A-5 made things NOT equal to the RAAF evaluation team.

It was Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies who selected TFX, in part due to the US' promise of deliveries from "late 1967" on... however, actual delivery was from 1 June 1973 on (The first F-111C was handed over to the RAAF on 4 September 1968, but problems with the wing carry-through box (the advanced wing sweep mechanism) delayed delivery to Australia. After further development and testing, and after much negotiation regarding aircraft fatigue life, the aircraft remained stored at General Dynamics until final acceptance in 1973. ).

* See line 5 and beyond on the second page:

 

[Justo Miranda]

Gallipoli