Shipbucket

Impressive additions.

Hello again!

Some Thiarian Helicopters:

The Thiarian aviation industry never quite managed to enter the helicopter market; the few designs that achieved production readiness usually failed due to excessive cost, with two exceptions (not yet drawn, to come later). Thiaria's armed forces thus have to buy off the shelf. The Aerospatiale Puma/Cougar was their standard medium transport helicopter from the early 1980s through late 2000s; the acquisition of the NH-90 had already been decided upon in 1995, but cost and reliability issues frustrated the Thiarians, and they decided to quit the programme and look for an alternative in 2004. The Eurocopter Caracal - a brand new offer with virtually no development risk, as it was based upon a 40 year old design - fit their requirements best, and between 2004 and 2009, a total of 120 units were ordered, 48 for the air corps to serve as CSAR and special operations support helicopters and 48 for the navy for use as shipborne ASW machines (8 for each carrier, 2 for each destroyer and 1 for each fleet replenishment ship, plus 12 in reserve). The air force version was virtually identical with the french original, while the naval version featured many indigenous improvements, like two fuselage-mounted weapons stations, a surface search radar, MAD gear, a sonobuoy launcher array and sonobuoy surveillance gear.

Caracal - Air force version with refueling probe (available for all 48 machines, but not usually mounted)


Caracal - Naval version (upper one with 2 MU-90 torpedoes, lower one with 2 Polyphem missiles)


Thiaria did not possess a dedicated combat helicopter till 2006; a few Mi-24s were supplied in the early 1970s by the soviets, but that alliance broke up before they were fully operational, and the small fleet never became reliably serviceable. Unwilling to buy American instead, the Thiarians deferred the decision from year to year for almost two decades; the puny army budget (compared with the amounts of money lavished upon the navy) did not help either. In the late 1990s, the Thiarians took notice of South Africa's troublesome Rooivalk programme, a potentially very powerful helicopter with the added benefit of considerable commonality with the already well established Puma/Cougar series. When the South Africans demanded a counter-trade agreement during negotiations about the purchase of Siolpaire jet fighters, the Thiarians offered to buy 16 Rooivalks and acquire a license to build 48 more. The deal was made, and the South Africans finally were able to get their project running after it had been starved for funding over many years. Deliveries took place in 2006 and 2007, and the first Thiarian license-produced machines followed in 2009; they featured a new five-bladed rotor similar to the Caracal's, a mast-mounted radar and the ability to fire TRIGAT (identical to the German PARS-3LR) ATGMs. As usual with Thiarian army projects, the originally planned numbers could not be funded, and production was terminated after 24 machines in 2011. Although the Thiarians marketed the Rooivalk - called Seabhac (Hawk) by them - rather aggressively, no export orders have materialised so far.

Seabhac (Rooivalk) - upper one with 4 Mistral AAMs and 4 68mm Rocket pods, lower one with 4 Mistral AAMs and 8 TRIGAT ATGMs)


Greetings
GD

Great work, as always.

EXCELLENT stuff!

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

That digital camouflage! As always, cool drawings GD!

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There's no such thing as "nothing left to draw" If you can down 10 pints and draw, you're doing alright by my standards

Hello again!

Thiaria adopted the Aerospariale SA.321 Super Frelon as standard heavy-lift helicopter in the mid-1960s. The machines gave stalwart service for a quarter century, but started to fall apart in the early 1990s. The Thiarian Army wanted a helicopter with at least the Chinook's performance to replace the Super Frelon, and specified a payload of ten tons, a radius of action of 500 kilometers with maximum payload and the ability to operate at any time and weather. At that time, the only off-the-shelf option meeting the specifications was the Chinook itself; as usual when the choice became too narrow, the Thiarians decided to go for a domestic development. The relatively young manufacturer Znamenany Eitiliocht, founded by a Hungarian immigrant in 1983, who had begun to supply large numbers of his maiden design Muiscit to the Thiarian Navy, Coast Guard and Police in the early 1990s, presented a design in 1994 which outwardly looked quite similar to the Super Frelon it was supposed to replace, but in fact was all new in every respect. The machine exceeded specifications in every respect as well; with two 6.000 hp Turboshafts (the strongest yet mounted on any helicopter except the Mil Mi-6/26) and a huge fuel supply, the new helicopter could lift 10.500 kilograms over a distance of 600 km; during tests, a speed of 335 kph and a ceiling of 6.000 meters were attained. The cargo bay was shorter than that of the CH-47, but higher and wider and able to accept vehicles of up to seven tons weight (the maximum payload had to bee carried outboard, as usual for helicopters). Since no other design was available and Znamenany offered the machine for $ 25 million per copy - not significantly more expensive than a contemporary CH-47 - two orders for a total of 64 machines, dubbed the HT-D Foiche (Hornet), were placed in 1996 and 1998. 36 were for the Air corps, 28 for the navy, to operate from the new Realtbhuion-class LPHs. Deliveries commenced in 1998 and were complete in 2003. By that time, other nations had taken interest in the Foiche; especially Germany was looking for a replacement for its decrepit fleet of CH-53s. The fact that the Foiche was considerably smaller and had less payload than the CH-53 actually helped its cause with the German parliament; the procurement of 60 machines for 1,5 billion dollars was actually sold to the Bundestag as a cost-saving measure in 2003. An intial batch of 20 was to be delivered from Thiaria in 2004/5, the others were license-produced by Eurocopter between 2005 and 2008. France, which did not possess any heavy-lift helicopters at all, jumped on the train in 2005 and orderd 40 machines for her own army, all of them Eurocopter-produced; deliveries took place between 2007 and 2010. In 2006, the type received its own Eurocopter product designation, becoming the EC.590. By that time, a total of 35 civilian orders for the Foiche had been placed as well, most for offshore supply missions, and the armies of South Africa, Sweden and Thailand ordered 10 units each in 2007, 2008 and 2012, all to be assembled in Thiaria; more importantly, Vietnam ordered 20 units in 2013, that being the first major order from a non-russian contractor to be placed by that country. Although unit cost has increased to $35 million by early 2014, ongoing production is secured till 2016 so far. Beyond that, the Foiche is currently evaluated by Japan and Spain, with further 80 orders possible, although all of them license-produced.

Znamenany HT-D Foiche - Thiarian Air Corps


Eurocopter EC.590 - Luftwaffe


Eurocopter EC.590 - Armee de Terre


Greetings
GD

Impressive.

Hello again!

After the demise of Fairchild-Dornier, the company's assets were sold off. Thiarian defense contractor SCI - so far without any experience in building civilian planes - acquired Prototypes and plans for ludicrously little money. Their plan was to enter the market segment just about to be conquered by the Embraer E-jet series with a competitive aircraft of their own, without suffering the cost disadvantage that usually played in Embraer's favour. The plane received the Thiarian designation IM-D Toscaire (Envoy); for marketing purposes, the old designation Dornier 528/728/928jet also remains in use (the Fairchild part was dropped after that brand was revived in the US). SCI quickly set up a production plant in Thiaria; in oder to keep the substantial german orders already placed for the 728jet, they also had to keep the one in Germany. Fairchild-Dornier's plans to produce in the US however were postponed for the time being. After completing tests, the first series machine could be delivered in 2007 to Lufthansa City Line; Thiaria's flag carrier Aerlinai na h-Atlantach took over her first machine in 2009, followed by another 17 airlines, 11 other civilian operators and 5 military operators till 2014. By 2014, some 380 planes have been produced (180 728jet, 120 928jet, 50 528jet and 30 Envoy 7 large bizjets based upon the short 528jet hull). Production currently averages 5 aircraft per month; a total of 420 machines are currently still on order. The Thiarian Armed Forces have recently taken delivery of a dozen units in the Envoy 7 Bizjet version with additional electronics and avionics gear. Eight were delivered to the Air Corps, four to the Navy; they are operated by a joint service unit which performs pilot training for pilots of large multiengine planes, assists with the calibration of sensor systems and is also available for VIP transport if the Airbuses of the nominal VIP squadron are all busy.



Civilian versions will follow as soon as I have completed colouring the entire fleet of Thiaria's flag carrier between 1975 and 2015.

Greetings
GD

Nice work GD, particularly on the Caracals and the Fairchild-Dornier 528 based Envoy. Looking forward to the civilian versions!

Hello again!

In 1980, Istvan Znamenany - a talented aviation engineer with a big mouth and poor manners - had to leave his native country Hungary rather abruptly after one run-in too many with high ranking Communist officials. After a rather spectacular escape using an ultralight helicopter, he finally left Europe entirely and settled in Thiaria in 1983, where he set up a small company manufacturing ultralight helicopters. As soon as 1985, he was asked to manufacture parts for license-produced Cougar helicopters, and in 1987, he started to license-build Ecureuil helicopters for the civilian market. By 1988 he had acquired enough experience to launch a design of his own. At that time the Thiarian Navy was looking for a Lynx-sized shipborne ASW helicopter to replace the Alouette III, and Znamenany surprised everyone with presenting a flyable prototype within six months after the specification went out. The machine was called Muiscit (Mosquito) and was a relatively unspectacular looking machine with two externally mounted Turboshafts, a rather large 4-bladed rotor and a well thought-out modular construction which was equally tough and simple to maintain. Although the Thiarian Military preferred the Aerospatiale Panther (that being the only other serious contender), Znamenany received the contract in 1989 by undercutting Aerospatiale's price by 20% and delivered the first of 40 series machines in 1990. After receiving a few requests for a civilian version, Znamenany launched a simplified variant with skids rather than wheels, and with customer interest gradually increasing, he developed a shrunk and a stretched version durung the 1990s. The Thiarian Air Corps took interest from 1993 and purchased 30 of the standard version as liaison and medevac helicopters, 40 of the short version as helicopter trainers and 12 of the stretch version as VIP transports; deliveries were complete in 2002. By that time, the short version had become the helicopter of choice for all three Thiarian private Medicopter services, and also for several such organizations abroad (80 delivered or on order in 2014, 30 of them inside Thiaria); another 140 were ordered by various military and law enforcement agencies all across Africa, the Americas and Europe. The medium version was bought in 40 specimens by the Thiarian Departmental (State) police forces and in no less than 60 copies by the Thiarian Coast Guard, and by 2014, 100 of that version have been ordered by military and law enforcement agencies worldwide; 40 were license-produced by Denel in South Africa. The stretch version has so far attracted 20 orders from foreign police or military organizations, most as VIP transports. Some 290 of all versions were ordered sundry private users, about half of them inside Thiaria. Today, the Muiscit is the most prolific civilian helicopter in Thiaria and a common sight all across the southern hemisphere; it is in widespread use in Europe as well, particularly in Ireland, Spain and Sweden.

Znamenany Muiscit


Greetings
GD