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SIKU F-32 Radarflugzeug Lockheed WV-2 (Radar plane)

Picture 1 SIKU F-32 Radarflugzeug Lockheed WV-2                                      Courtesy of *krempelbox*,© cjk
Siku Aircraft Models List of Siku Aircraft History Catalogues Dioramas

SIKU F-32 Radarflugzeug
Lockheed WV-2 (Radar plane)

The Lokheed VW 2 "Warning Star" was an early warning aircraft in service with the U.S. Navy. It was a military variant of the civil L.1049 Constellation ( photographs on the US NAVY Patrol Stations website) .

The Lockheed WV-2E was a WV-2 modified as a testbed for the equipment for the W2V-1, a projected airborne early-warning version of the civil Model 1649 Starliner . It was to be powered by propeller turbines and aditional turbojets. The WV-2 had a dish radome , the tip tanks were ommitted, and it has the rouded wingtips of the L-1049 line. First flight was 1956. The W2V-1 contract was cancelled and the WV-2E remained experimental.

Picture 2 Dish radome and rounded wingtips of the real Lockheed WV-2E.

See also this photo  from the Aviation Enthusiast Corner website.

SIKU simply mounted an open concave radar dish on top of his civil Lockheed 1649A Starliner , which is copmletely wrong - pure phantasy (Picture 1 above). The radar of the real thing was not meant for radio astronomy but for scanning the horizon ! And imagine the aerodynamic effect of such an device: Drag and an force opposing the lift .

In the box insert, SIKU tells us, that their Lokheed WV-2 Radar Plane modelled ..has been developed from the "Super Constellation" Model 1049 ...The plane is driven by four turbine compound engines amounting to 14 000 HP and auxiliary turbojets on the wingtips.

What does SIKU mean with "turbine compound engines" ? Turbo compound piston engines, where the exhaust drives a tubine acting on the power shaft or turpoprop engines ? The SIKU model sports the same piston engines as the civil L.1649 Starliner, not turboprop engines.

Even more confusion as with the SIKU Sikorsky "Turbinen-Kranhubschrauber" (Turbine Crane-Type Helicopter)


Started :2003 Revised : 27.07.2007   Author: C.J.K.