Convair KINGFISH - Secret Zone

Thanks :)

It's really almost a stealth plane ;)

It was the the rival project of the Lockheed A-12
 
Dang, that's fine!!! Awesome, I like the way the Kingfish is "lost" in the middle of a huge sky (how poetic ::)

I've scratchbuilded both Fish and Kingfish recently, the Fish was even more impressive...
 
That contrail looks familiar to me, but I don't know where I might have seen it before.
 
Archibald, any chance of seeing pics of your Fish and Kingfish models? I tried to do a scratchbuild of the Kingfish (twice) and had disastrous results. I had a heck of a time seeing the inlet-wing-fuselage interface.
 
Seems that these 3-views are not very accurate (is the nose round or pointed ? wings are not better on the side view.. ???)
But it's the only available !!!

This doesn't help building model of the Kingfish... and mine looks cool, but is probably inaccurate!!

I posted pics at the whatif modelers forum, but you can only see the pics if you are registered there (what I recomend strongly :D)

I'll try to post some pics here soon
 
Archibald said:
Seems that these 3-views are not very accurate (is the nose round or pointed ? wings are not better on the side view.. ???)
But it's the only available !!!
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Both. Rounded from the top view, pointed from the side with the edges forming the side/bottom interface being sharp and swooping up from the bottom.
 
As sferrin said, about it being both rounded and sharp, look at the pics of many hypersonic wave riders and you see a similar profile, rounded in plan view, sharp edge in side view. Just look at the thread in the modern aircraft forum for the hypersonic strike design that NASA studied.

You also see the same feature in many stealth aircraft. In many respects, the way/method the nose is shaped on the Kingfish is similar to how it is on the F-22 Raptor as well, only the underside of the nose on the Kingfish is flatter.

BTW, cool picture Jozef!
 
Nick Cook has some interesting things to say about KINGFISH in The Hunt For Zero Point. Namely that the top speed was over Mach 6.
 
SOC said:
Nick Cook has some interesting things to say about KINGFISH in The Hunt For Zero Point. Namely that the top speed was over Mach 6.
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Not sure if he's talking about the same model. As I'm sure you're aware the one here was to be powered by J-58s and had similar performance figures to the Blackbird. I think the one mentioned in Zero Point (have the book but it's been a while) may have been referring to the ramjet powered one. The Kingfish design progression would definitely be something interesting to know more about. Maybe Scott Lowther will help us out ;)
 
You mean the FISH ? This project was forerunner of the Kingfish. Projected top speed would have been mach 4.2, but on "pure" ramjets (not J-58 turboramjets similar to the Kingfish or SR-71). This meant that the Fish needed a mothership -
B-58Bat take off, and would have made glided landings. that was not very practical, so the Fish was changed into the Kingfish. This one was slower, but could take off and land alone...

Mach 6 seems a bit of an exageration... a bit like A-12 at mach 4 Loading...
 
sferrin said:
Not sure if he's talking about the same model. As I'm sure you're aware the one here was to be powered by J-58s and had similar performance figures to the Blackbird. I think the one mentioned in Zero Point (have the book but it's been a while) may have been referring to the ramjet powered one. The Kingfish design progression would definitely be something interesting to know more about. Maybe Scott Lowther will help us out ;)
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He's talking about the apparent final iteration of KINGFISH, using info gleaned from an interview with the designer, Bob Widmer (amusingly now a Lockheed employee). 125,000 feet and Mach 6.25, with ramjet power.
 
SOC said:
sferrin said:
Not sure if he's talking about the same model. As I'm sure you're aware the one here was to be powered by J-58s and had similar performance figures to the Blackbird. I think the one mentioned in Zero Point (have the book but it's been a while) may have been referring to the ramjet powered one. The Kingfish design progression would definitely be something interesting to know more about. Maybe Scott Lowther will help us out ;)
Click to expand...

He's talking about the apparent final iteration of KINGFISH, using info gleaned from an interview with the designer, Bob Widmer (amusingly now a Lockheed employee). 125,000 feet and Mach 6.25, with ramjet power.
Click to expand...

Is that the one with the off-center cockpit and ventral intake? I seem to recall reading it was to be made of ceramic or somesuch.
 
No, I'm pretty sure that the one you're describing is a FISH iteration.
 
Is that the one with the off-center cockpit and ventral intake? I seem to recall reading it was to be made of ceramic or somesuch.
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Pyroceram ;) I googled a bit on this material, seems it was used on Terriers SAMs...

Is the mach 6 / 125 000 ft bird linked to the ISINGLASS project ? ???
 
Interesting theory. I'll see what I can dig up on ISINGLASS and see if it represented the Mach 6 KINGFISH design.
 
More on projects ISINGLASS (GD) and RHEINBERRY (MDC) here

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,382.0.html

ISINGLASS was Mach 17, and RHEINBERRY even ...Mach 20
 
Why launching a small rocket suborbital aircraft from a B-52, when DynaSoar early variants did the same job from a Titan I ? ::)

We need some thread on Dynasoar here one day (or maybe this thing is not "secret" enough ??? ?)
 
Wow! An aircraft that always intrigued me--probably because so little is known about it and I had such difficulty seeing how it would look if it had been built. Well, now it has been built! By an artist. Thanks Jozef for making my day. I am so happy you're on this forum.
 
Two sides of copyright. One year ago Flight International promised me some money for used PAK FA picture, but...
Let's go. Next picture for you. No last today
 

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Beautiful, beautiful work Jozef! Thank you for
bringing this bird to life.

Please keep up the GREAT work. :D


Shivering
 
Awesome pics! I know those new ones are just the ones Shivering was waiting for. ;D
 
Jozef - as you are a moderator you can add and remove pictures. Ordinary users couldn't. Now they can.
 
Matej said:
Strange perspective in the last picture. Its made from 3D model so it must be correct, but it just looks strange.
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I'll agree, it does look a bit peculiar.
 
Depends on how close you are to the "camera". Sometimes proportions can get really distorted up close. Also if you're not rendering a perspective view it won't be ;D
 
I think you have to consider the effects of wing dihedral on the perspective. It makes the right wing look smaller than expected and the left wing look normal.
 

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