Shipbucket

IMO, should go with a B-52-ish landing gear setup.

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I dont have much room for that though. I can definitely make it work, but it is set up like the B-36, with the retractable turrets (but they will be removed in future versions).
My only concern is the wing tip gear. I mean, should I just retract it from the nacelle of the outer engine?

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Salide - Denton - The Interrealms

I am not very active on the forums anymore, but work is still being done on my AUs. Visit the Salidan Altiverse Page on the SB Wiki for more information. All current work is being done on Google Docs.
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You could make the jet nacelles a little deeper and have a small outrigger that retracts back into that.

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Given the massive volume of fuel such a large aircraft could carry internally, I don't think that the wingtip fuel tanks would be worth the extra drag they'd cause. The B-36 had a round-trip combat range of something like 8,000 nm, with payload and WITHOUT refueling, so it's reasonable to assume that your aircraft would have a similiar range. And if you need more range than that you can always call up a KC-97 or KC-135. That's why the US Strategic Air Command always had far more tankers than they had bombers.

As far as the cockpit, i don't know, I think just glazing the nose like an old school B-29 would be most aerodynamic, but the middle cockpit on your latest drawing looks coolest.

Yeah, and turrets, it needs gun turrets. Not because they're useful, but because they're cool. LOL.

And to me your wing placement looks okay. That tail is pretty heavy, so I think if you moved the wing too much further forward it'd move your center-of-gravity too far behind the wing and you'd wind up flying with a slightly nose-up attitude all the time.

Travestytrav25, I have 3 reasons for adding the tip tanks.
1. Like you said they give more fuel capacity (you can never have too much fuel).
2. They act as a "winglet," and also add wing bending relief.
3. They look cool.
The DAAF did not start using AAR until the mid 70s, so the bomber was designed to carry as much fuel and as much of a bomb load as possible to reach targets and come back witout having to make intermediate stops.
As I have it planned, the middle cockpit will be used for later production models (1960-present), while the B-36 style cockpit will be used on older variants.
With the turrets, I agree. As time progresses, though, the turrets will all be removed except for the tail gunner position.

Kilomuse and DLR, I will draw up a version with the B-52 style gear and post it. Now that I think about it, the only problem I see with it is the wing bending (downwards) due to the large armount of weight inside the wings. If I have the tricycle gear setup, it will basically keep it from happening to a certain degree.

-EZ-

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Salide - Denton - The Interrealms

I am not very active on the forums anymore, but work is still being done on my AUs. Visit the Salidan Altiverse Page on the SB Wiki for more information. All current work is being done on Google Docs.
If anyone wishes for their nations to interact with the countries of the Salidan Altiverse, please send me a PM, after which we can further discuss through email.

Update.

Ok, so I looked into the B-52 setup and tried it out. It looked horrible. There was way too much distance between the front and rear gear. 'IF' the bomb bay and plane were 20-30 feet shorter, it might work better. So that idea is out.


On another note, I added the tail gunner's position, installed the nose (been needing to do that ), detailed the landing gear, and put in a side view of the jets. I know this is just the side view, but once I get the top and front views up to date I will post those as well.

I am feeling ready to start another plane, but do you think it is sufficiently finished, or do you think there is anything more I should add?

Thanks for all of your help.
-EZ-

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Salide - Denton - The Interrealms

I am not very active on the forums anymore, but work is still being done on my AUs. Visit the Salidan Altiverse Page on the SB Wiki for more information. All current work is being done on Google Docs.
If anyone wishes for their nations to interact with the countries of the Salidan Altiverse, please send me a PM, after which we can further discuss through email.

Looks like you're ready to go do some carpet bombing or nuking. Looks great!

The only thing I'd add is maybe some markings. Do you have a roundel design yet?

Haha, that was the next thing I was gonna do. I was just trying get some ok's before I paint that thing. The color scheme I have on there right now is the Anti-Flash paint, and I'll add some markings to it. I also have an idea for a black belly with camo top (like the USAF used in Vietnam), but I'll do that later.

Right now I have 2 aircraft in the works. The cargo version of this behemoth, and a fighter jet based on the F-105 Thud. I have a question for those who know aviation. The Thud is one of my favorite fighter jets, hands down. Since it was concieved in 1955, if new upgraded forms of the aircraft were built, do you think it could be a worthy opponent to aircraft such as the Mig-29, Su-27, F-15, etc. ? While I would probably use it mainly for ground attack roles, I know there would be a point when it's aerial attack roles would come into the picture, so what do you think?

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Salide - Denton - The Interrealms

I am not very active on the forums anymore, but work is still being done on my AUs. Visit the Salidan Altiverse Page on the SB Wiki for more information. All current work is being done on Google Docs.
If anyone wishes for their nations to interact with the countries of the Salidan Altiverse, please send me a PM, after which we can further discuss through email.

The Thud was an awesome aircraft. It was designed as an intercepter but never really used as one. It's really fast, but it was never very maneuverable, which is why it was mainly used in the ground attack role. It was also a really good SEAD aircraft. In Vietnam a typical Air Force strike package would include F-105s carrying the air-to-ground ordinance with F-4 Phantoms doing air-to-air escort duty. I think if you were going to update the F-105 you'd have to have a dedicated fighter aircraft to escort it too, because I don't think all the upgrading in the world could make it competitive against a Mig-29, Su-27, F-15 or any other modern fighter in a dogfight. For one thing, the 3 aircraft you mention have 2 engines apiece, which means twice the thrust of the single-engined Thud. To make it competitive in the modern world you would have to pretty much redesign it from scratch, which would kind of defeat the purpose of using the design. That being said, it's still a good aircraft.

While I haven't researched it much IIRC the Thud was basically designed as a Mach 2 Tactical Nuke plane as well as bomber
Planes in its sized category simply aren't built for a single mission like this anymore and I'm sure many specific design choices and compremises were made so it could perform its intended role well
I honestly think it would not be a very capable fighter because if it was they Air Force would have made it one and not bought F-4s and i think today especially it would be heavily outclassed
You may however be able to use it as a ground attack plane but I believe there are much better aircraft available
just my honest opinion
like the idea just don't know how useful it would be

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