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Welcome to the 1965 Strategic Reconnaissance Aircraft Challenge! This topic was derived from suggestions in the future challenge ideas thread and chosen by popular vote after the FRAM Can Challenge. Please read the design requirements and challenge rules before posting a submission. In contrast to previous FD scale challenges, you are only permitted on drawing instead of three. The elements you are allowed to include in the drawing have also been restricted to place greater focus on the challenge topic at hand.

Design Requirements

1. Your submission must be a fictional strategic reconnaissance aircraft.
2. The aircraft, expected to enter service in 1965, should be capable of surviving anticipated missile and interceptor threats.
3. Sensors should include a side-looking imaging radar and a camera with a ground resolution of 6 inches (15 cm) at the aircraft's operating altitude.

Challenge Rules

1. Each participant may submit one drawing.
2. The image FD template modified to include the participant’s aircraft and, optionally, crew figures at their stations within the aircraft or one of the following: unit insignia, manufacturer logo, national flag. Other elements are no longer permitted.
3. No more than three views are allowed in each image.
4. If two or three views are included, they must depict the same aircraft, in the same configuration, at the same point in time.
5. All art must be in FD scale and conform to the same drawing and shading rules as official Shipbucket styles.
6. A textual description accompanying each submission is permitted, but not necessary.
7. Non-serious entries, or entries substantially deviate from the challenge requirements, are not allowed.
8. Off-topic posts will be reported to the relevant authorities.

This challenge will run until Sunday the 10th of July 2022, ending at 23:59 UTC-12 (International Date Line West).
A countdown timer can be found at this link.

A poll will be held after this date. Members of the Shipbucket community will have an opportunity to rate each submission. Please provide honest and meaningful scores for each entry. Responses which grant maximum scores to a select group of entries, and minimum scores to all other entries, will be deleted. Members of the community who manipulate the results in such a fashion may also be subject to a permanent ban. Scores will be allocated in two categories, each with a scale of 1 to 10:

• Drawing Quality - The overall quality of the drawing. One might consider detailing, shading, and accuracy.
• Design Quality -The quality of the design presented, irrespective of drawing quality. One could consider feasibility, practicality, and realism.

My first challenge entry!

Following the successful, but limited, production run of 35 Avro Arrows, the mission of the RCAF dramatically shifted in 1960, when the Canadian government first discovered the threat of the Soviet R-7 ICBMs. This negated the need for high speed interceptors, but the government instead sought a new way of gaining information through the use of high speed reconnaissance aircraft, flying over Soviet ICBM installations. This was achieved through a series of 5 heavily modified Avro Arrows, by far the fastest aircraft the RCAF owned at the time. These were lengthened, adding a very large fuel tank in the fuselage, and resulting in the engines having to be modified by special, individual engineers, meaning no two aircraft were the exact same. Each weapon bay was instead fitted with a gigantic, handmade camera produced by the DRDC (defense research council) of the Ministry of Defense, capable of (at peak performance), exactly a resolution of 15cm from the aircrafts primary reconnaissance altitude. Likewise, each engine nacelle was fitted with a SLAR pod, allowing it to collect information on both sides of the aircraft. These were given to the 416th tactical attack squadron, based in RCAF Chatam, New Brunswick.

Primary missions involved taking off, flying Northwest, and refueling over the Arctic Ocean, before climbing to its max altitude and speed, and flying a large arc over the western portion of the Soviet Union. The aircraft would, over France and Germany, again slow down and be refueled by a tanker over the west coast of England, before the flight home.

These aircraft provided vital intelligence, gaining information of much of the USSRs ICBM capability. However, they were also obscenely expensive- being a large part of handmade parts and design, as well as needing numerous refueling every flight (especially if a flight over the east of the USSR was tried, as it was a handful of times), and as such the program shut down in 1982. The aircraft were kept in storage in Cold Lake, Alberta, and seemed to have dissapeared. However, rumors persist the current government has upgraded one, for use of testing its own defenses. Of this, we will never know.

BAC Thunderbolt SR.Mk.1

The English Electric P.10 was offered to Specification R.156T issued in October 1954 to meet Operational Requirement OR.330 for a Mach 2.5+ reconnaissance aircraft with a range of 5,000nm.
The P.10 was designed to cruise at 70,000ft at Mach 3, it was powered by a ducted ramjet wing boosted by two Rolls-Royce RB.123 turbojets used for take-off and subsonic cruise on the return flight. At the cruise at 70,000ft the ramjets would only produce 1/4 of their maximum thrust to allow plenty in hand for evasive manoeuvres. Ceiling was 85,000ft and range 5,000nm.
The reconnaissance equipment was the Ku-band Red Drover SLAR with 30ft-long aerials and a camera ahead of the cockpit. Doppler navigation radar was also fitted. The 2-man cockpit was novel in that the pilot's ejection seat slid up and down on rails so that he could act as a second observer.

Although the Avro 730 was conventional the Air Ministry was impressed enough in mid-1955 to order the development of the P.10. Handley Page were sub-contracted to build seven P.10D sub-scale ramjet testbeds, effectively being large cruise-missile type vehicles with a scaled down ramjet wing and canard. The first of these flew after some delay in July 1960.
English Electric received an order for four prototypes - two for full-scale propulsion tests and two fully equipped for systems trials as well as a structural test mule. During further design the planned wingtip fuel tanks were removed in favour of reliance on in-flight refuelling with a retractable fuel probe, the cockpit was simplified with a conventional pilot's cockpit and the observer ahead - they entered the cabin via a ventral door, each man sitting on a new Martin Baker escape capsule seat similar to those devices fitted to the American B-58 Hustler.

Escaping cancellation in 1957 due to political pressure for a reliable intelligence capability given the Canberra PR.9s obsolescence given Soviet aerial defences, the first prototype flew on 18 August 1961 at Boscombe Down, the second flew on 29 May 1962 and the two fully-equipped prototypes did not fly until 5 June and 14 September 1963. By now English Electric was part of the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Only 9 production aircraft were ordered, the two systems prototypes being brought up to operational standard later - hugely expensive the programme had been curtailed but not cancelled.

No. 543 Squadron received its first Thunderbolt SR.Mk.1 (known to its crews as the "Blue Banana" or "E-Type Biplane") in April 1965 and the type began conducting operational missions from March 1966 - politically denied the opportunity to overfly the Soviet Union directly - operating off the Arctic Soviet ports, the Black Sea from Cyprus and also appearing in the Persian Gulf and over Africa as occasion demanded. Due to its similarity to the Lockheed SR-71, in 1971 Operation Wizard Hat saw a sharing of equipment - US cameras being fitted and SLAR intelligence swapped. Three airframes were converted for ELINT collection in 1973-77. It was this close Anglo-US cooperation that saw the planned retirement in the wake of the 1975 Mason Review being lifted. APARS radar was fitted in 1979-81 to five aircraft, the rest being mothballed except for two ELINT aircraft. The swansong were the six 'Black Penny' long-range reconnaissance flights during the Falklands War before retirement in July 1984.

Officially the maximum speed recorded was Mach 3.25 but on one sortie outrunning a perusing pair of MiG-25 'Foxbats' in 1978 one Thunderbolt reached, what it's pilot claimed was Mach 3.88 and was still increasing when he had to begin slowing down, the returning Thunderbolt with its ablated paintwork needing some repairs afterwards. While the SR-71 denied it the absolute speed record it still holds the London-New York record at an average speed of Mach 2.86 and the absolute altitude record at 85,186ft at a sustained cruise.

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AFuR P.236 "Greif"

In the early 1950s, the Eucadian Imperial Air Force (Fliegertruppen des akiedenschen Kaiserreiches, also known as the Luftstreitkräfte) an order for the proposal of a supersonic bomber capable of speeds over Mach 2 for the delivery of nuclear weapons. This aircraft was required to not only have speed, but also range, as it was destined for targets in the UFMR and the Yamanobese Empire. Three proposals were submitted, and it was determined that one, the AFuR EF 235, was the most notable. In 1954, AFuR was ordered to proceed with the project.

In 1956, the first prototype was presented and flown. Just the looks of the aircraft impressed the officers present, and the performance was impressive compared to designs that were originating out of even the Ussatian Federation (the US in this AU). After more flights, the EF 235 was ordered into production as the P. 235 "Sturmvogel" (Stormbird) in 1958.

However, issues came when the original producer of the engines suffered a worker's strike that resulted in the bombing of their primary factory by a UFMR-funded organisation. Due to this, another manufacturer had to be found and as such the production was paused. In the meantime, the FDAK continued to operate its main strategic bomber (the turboprop Mässelsohn 399) until the first of the P.235s were commissioned.

In December of 1959, the KreissenElektra company agreed to produce the engines for the aircraft and stated that it could supply enough engines for 30 aircraft by 1962. The only issue with this was that there was growing political pressure in the Reichstag, with the Speaker of the Opposition Helmut Schneider claiming that the FDAK could procure a much cheaper, much less powerful engine and modify the design to house more. However, it was by the intervention of Kaiser Wilhelm III that pushed through the opposition and secured a deal with KreissenElektra.

In 1962, the FDAK possessed a total of 13 P.235s that were deployed in strategic areas around the globe. A total of 25 would be produced, with 5 vehicles being modified to become the P.236 "Greif" strategic reconnaissance aircraft. This aircraft was modified to give extra range and to fit its new role, with the bombbay now filled with electronics such as a SLAR and 6 inch resolution camera. It was expected to fly at very high altitude, and be able to outrun any interceptors of SAMs that might be thrown at it.

In 1963, the first reconnaissance squadron (25. Aufklärungsgeschwader) was equipped with the P.235 and immediately began to push the aircraft to its limits. A maximum speed of Mach 2.85 was recorded, however the KE-57(C) engines were nearly destroyed. KreissenElektra then provided an upgrade with the KE-57(F) engine, which allowed the aircraft to cruise at Mach 2.65 with an emergency speed to reach Mach 3.0. One ground crew believed they could push it even further, and with their modified aircraft reached a record speed of Mach 3.2 in 1967. In 1972, purchase of export variants by the Trepaglian Air Force (Regia Aeronautica Trepaglia) was authorised.

The Kaiserliche Marine also displayed interest in the Greif, gaining 5 earlier models from the FDAK for marine patrol and reconnaissance. Named the P.236M "Seegreif," it was given equipment similar to that of the standard vehicle but included the addition of a magnetic anomaly detector off of the tail.

The Greif would see a number of upgrades, such as in 1975 when they and the P.235 were given new Grundweid GW-996(B) engines and a reinforced airframe to reach a top speed of Mach 3.5. The P.235 would be retired in 1991 with the introduction of a new bomber, the Focher-Mikkaelis FM-290 "Blitz II." The Greif would be transferred to the Ortussian Space Agency, where 5 would continue tests until their retirement in 2021.



Some camouflages:

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Project Ysbadden - "Britian’s Billion Pound Bird"

In 1973, the RAF was forced to admit to a black project that truly become a blackhole. The Vickers/BAC Type 719e, referred to as the Ysbaddaden, had been snapped by a pair of birdwatchers in the early morning light off Scapa Flow returning a flight. For 9 years this aircraft had been flying out of a secret base to perform surveillance, prompting complaints from the Scottish Northern coast as to damaged windows which were always chalked up to young pilots violating orders and larking too low. In fact, the Ysbaddaden required so much thrust to operate off her less-than-ideal runway that she’d be leaving the ground with over 1150kN of thrust being produced. Born out of frustration with the slow nature of the British Empire's space endeavor to have a satellite constellation to observe Soviet installations, they instead turned to something they already had a leading hand in. OR330 was initially the call to produce the Ysbaddaden, as a strategic intercontinental bomber. However, Avro was awarded the contract which would be canceled in 1968. Vickers’s research however revealed the potential for a reconnaissance model to be produced albeit with a greater altitude than stipulated in OR330, hence additional funding was made as a demonstrator of the technology.

YS001, was a third-scale version that manage to perform well but her lack of forward visibility led to a loss of the airframe when landing at Boscombe Downs. In light of this success and failure, a single prototype was announced and was key to BAC’s TSR-2 project later as well as some features being adopted by the second run of the Concorde SST. At the time of construction, the Ysbaddaden was the longest aircraft in the world and would keep that record unofficially for some years. Constructed at Brooklands in a separate shed, she was shipped in parts to RAF Dounrey where she was kept in a shed that officially was a “radioactive medical waste storage”. Flights revealed that she was a prodigious drinker of fuel, at full tilt, her de Havilland PS56 Gyron R’s would drink 164kg of specialized kerosene-based fuel a second. Fortunately for the taxpayer, the engines would be smoothly transitioned into a quasi-ramjet phase for cruising above 70kft reducing the fuel consumption to a quarter. During development, both the US and British lost high altitude, but slow reconnaissance flights to missiles and as it was falsely believed at the time, interceptors. With this in mind, she was fitted with 4 de Havilland Spectre rocket motors to enable a “sprint” mode, also assisting with takeoff. Should a missile launched at the aircraft be detected by her twin Red Steer System, she could “sprint”. This was never formally tested beyond Mach 3.6. Although in 1968 over Murmansk, she accelerated through Mach 4.1. beyond the scope her analogue dials and was estimated to have reached Mach 4.4 when the crew throttled back in light of the missile running out of range some 200 km behind them. Returning to base in need of a new paint job and some fittings that were deemed to have exceeded their thermal fatigue limit. In fact, despite her size, Ysbaddaden carried enough HTP for only 10 minutes of full thrust from the Spectres, this was originally envisioned as a means to evade the barrier of air defense stations in the USSR by essentially speeding past them in a shallow trajectory peaking out at 95kt, intending to evade detection or at the very least evade any countermeasure by simply skipping through their coverage.

Unlike her American counterparts, the SR-71 and RB-70, the Ysbaddaden was technically armed, making her capable of downing pursuing aircraft. Six rear-facing de Havilland Fireball AA unguided missiles were situated in the rear of the aircraft in sealed bays that launched the rocket via a burst of intake air from the outer engine's bypass, which would jettison the missile before a pin was triggered, igniting the small solid rocket in the missile. A short distance in the wake of the Ysbaddaden, this would detonate, releasing a shotgun-like spread of 256 25g ball bearings which any pursuant aircraft would have to fly through. This was technically never used in anger in regards to the Soviets but was used to shake an Egyptian MIG25 that got too close over the Sinai which resulted in the loss of the airframe.

The MIG25 would be a bit of a shock to the small cabal of Ysbaddaden pilots when they’d see a small dart come ramping up to their altitude with flamed-out engines. Initially, it was curiosity as the Ysbaddaden was like a larger RB-70 but after a handful of encounters, an RB40 AAM was fired at Ysbaddaden in 1971 but jamming and the closing speed meant the missile detonated far behind. After that event, flights were paused temporarily while they assessed the risk however it was decided they were unlikely to score a hit unless they were able to close to less than a mile. Funding, however, was drying up against the rising cost of its fuel and maintenance, Ysbaddaden was supplanted by cheaper satellites that were quickly taking the role. After being revealed, the Ysbaddaden would make only two more flights as supersonic research test beds for the second generation of Concorde. Now well-aged and out of a job, she was mothballed, her asbestos-laden structure making it difficult to determine a disposal method. Eventually, she was cut up for scrap in 1979 as part of defense cuts and all that remained was her asbestos ceramic nose assembly which was donated to the Glasgow Museum in 1998 after resting in storage.

Length-76.4m
Wingspan-33.54m
Height-9.05m
Crew: 3
Wing area: 805.6 m2

Empty weight: 141,000 kg
Gross weight: 280,500 kg
Max takeoff weight: 295,000 kg
Fuel capacity: 140,000 kg AVKG5+20,000kg of HTP
Powerplant: 6 × DeHavilland Gyron R PS.56 afterburning turbojet, 118 kN thrust each dry, 162.7kN with afterburner, 4 x DeHavilland Sprite Rocket engines, 44kN thrust each

Maximum speed: Mach 3.9 (Exceeded on occasion at low fuel loads)
Cruise speed: 3.4
Combat range: 4090km at Mach 3.4,
Service ceiling: 95,000 ft (28,956 m)

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What if France developed a supersonic reconaissance aircraft out of the Nord 1500 in the 1960s? I think this might push entering in 1965 a little, so I'll say it entered service in limited numbers in 1967.
It has been fitted with two SNECMA Atar 09 and two Nord Stato-Réacteur ramjets. Developed alongside the Mirage IV in corporation with Dassault. Capable of achieving high speed and altittude, it is untouchable by any threats it might encounter and it can keep a distance thanks to the side-looking imaging radar and powerful cameras. Thanks to the ramjet it is able to achieve speeds of over 2000km/h at altittudes of only 3000m, which allows it to surprise enemy radar positions. The primary concern is heating of the airframe, which limits the aircrafts performance. The ramjet engine can't be throttled, only turned on or off. Thanks to the delta wing and aoa performance of the ramjet it should handle well however.

Specifications;
-Crew: 2
-Max takeoff weight: ~30'000kg
-Maximum speed: Mach 2.3

picture link from discord, doesn't work in shipbucket.



It have happend so often, that we should perhaps put out some sort of information that discord links doesn't work in shipbucket forum.

I actually have a feeling this issue this time is something different because I suspect I have access to this image on discord but also cannot see it here.

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Oh it works perfectly for me, how strange, I changed it to an Imgur link, does it work now?

if you are the original host, you will be able to see it. but not us. It's almost like trying to link a picture directly from your computer