Aircraft Identification...

These shots are from an abandoned airforce base in the UK.

RAF Alconbury to be exact. Decommissioned in March of 1995.

Two murals on the wall of the 17th's fuel shop brought my attention.

This first link is of a U-2 flying over (what I assume is England...notice the friendly green color!)

www.bunkertours.co.uk...


This second link shows a U-2 on the right, and on the left, an aircraft that I can't identify, shooting missles into a red country map. It looks sort of like an F-22 but missing tail elevators, still has the double tail, but with canards at the front. Longer pointier wings etc. An offensive aircraft.

I believe they drew what they saw, and I'm curious about what they've been refueling long enough to paint a mural, and be closed in '95.

Has anyone seen or can identify this aircraft?

www.bunkertours.co.uk...


thanks,

DocJohn

Looks like a fantasy depiction. The plane is shooting missiles off into the sky through a hole in the clouds. It's a make believe scene and a make believe plane. It's way easier to draw a random plane than it is to be all exact, besides it's more fun.

I think that's a horrible rendition of the joint-strike fighter. There are different types and I think I remember seeing one on TV that had those front winglets.

The plane is depicted as ABOVE the clouds, and the outline of the U-2 (on the right) is explict. I think someone was documenting their contributions to the cold war?. (Service ceiling 80K+?)

I think their missle launch is wishful thinking, and I think they've probably never seen the plane on afterburners. (You'd probably never see this in a refueling environment.)

But I really believe someone was documenting this and the plane is as depicted. It would be a motivation for the fueler working in the shop. The Air Force wouldn't have allowed it otherwise.

They've been refueling THIS, and they all recognise it. (I'm also betting that UNDER that painting is the SR-71. These guys fueled the U-2, then, then the are the top of the food chain! And they believe it!)

They wouldn't have put it on the wall, otherwise. If they wanted to scam me, they would have just put a MARS Rover getting the juice up there.

Hey, in 4 or 5000 years, this will be a cave painting...!

:-)

It appears to be an XR-125... it's a fighter model that is supposed to be similar to the XR-7 Thunderdart.

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[Edited on 11-2-2004 by Condorcet]

Still the same huge tail elevators though, but the canards bring me back to a Burt Rutan design.

Can't come up with the picture that fits this though...

Pulse Jet? Aurora?

Gentlemen, take it from me. That painting was probably painted by a 19 year old kid who just joined the service. It's a horrible painting and in no way suggests anything out of this world.

The person who painted it would have no access to any secrets and he was probably just looking forward to making it back to the barracks to crack a beer when he was finished.

I know the military. They're all the same. The only way that bird would hold some kind of a secret would be if a general officer had painted it. Now, do you think that would really happen?

Think back to your own experiences. You wouldn't respond to an imaginary picture.

These guys were fueling THIS aircraft! They wouldn't have done this...

I believe it's the real deal.

Scramp is close, but it should have inbound engines.

I have so many window's open you wouldn't believe it!

Aircraft with canards, don't need ELEVATOR's.

That's what's real...

John

It is a Saab Viggen. I don't know if they are still in use though.

You can only see part of the Alconbury runway here

www.bunkertours.co.uk...

I wonder if it's on Terra Server
(nope only the US, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada)

[Edited on 11-2-2004 by Condorcet]

Canards are too big, and only a single engine....

Great shot though...

They wouldn't have made that mistake...

This guy was VERY clear about the U-2!

You mileage may vary!

John

Anything piggybacked on the SR-75 wouldn't have a bubble canopy like the one depicted in this painting.

If that's a real airplane it's a relatively slow one, IMO.

at all...!

What I see is an aircraft outline that I believe they have been refueling... (FOR SEVERAL YEARS?)

B4 - 1995?

So far, I've gotten several configs that don't match...

Just lookin for the ONE, and I'll leave you alone...

The Doc..

probably it is just a creation of someones imagination judging by the other picture with a dragon in it..

It looks imaginary to me, probably a combination of plane designs that the artist thought looked cool... remember the ATF (YF-22 & YF-23) was actually flying tests as far back as 1991. This depiction is neither of those planes but bears minimal similarity. It's a delta wing with only vertical stabilizers canted out away from fuselage at about 60 degrees... as stated, no horizontal stabilizers... Saab's, a Mirage 3's or an Israeli Kfir
F-21A's front canards, the F-22's flat exaust ports... etc.

It's probably someone's rendering of what they thought the next generation fighter would be.
It just does not look like any of the black project aircraft thought to be in existence.