Vultee P-66 Vanguard - RC Groups (2024)

Dec 09, 2013, 02:46 PM

• #1

davidterrell80

Thread OP

Gallery

The Vultee P-66 Vanguard was a United States Army Air Forces fighter aircraft. It was initially ordered by Sweden, but by the time the aircraft were ready for delivery in 1941, the United States would not allow them to be exported, designating them as P-66s and retaining them for defensive and training purposes. Eventually, a large number were sent to China where they were pressed into service as combat aircraft with indifferent results.

Last edited by davidterrell80; May 26, 2014 at 07:15 PM.

Dec 09, 2013, 09:42 PM

• #2

packardpursuit

On closer scrutiny, this drawing seems to have the correct straight lines in the appropriate places. Vangard was based upon utilization of BT-13 several components. Outer wing and tail, etc. There's hardly any compound curvature in the airframe, and this seems a good overall depiction.

I am having trouble deciding which dihedral configuration is correct (front view). Seems a bit asymmetric to me. Rt seems to show polyhedral while left is shown straight taper??

At least the horizontal tail area seems large enough for any model use!

Dec 10, 2013, 09:06 AM

• #3

davidterrell80

Thread OP

I was also thinking she would make a great model, without too many scale effects.

If you look in the front view, at the ground line under the wheels, you will see the view is rotated slightly, relative to image horizontal; probably enough for anti-aliasing in the monitor to show a bit of difference in dihedral. I also wouldn't assume the separate views to be orthogonal to each other and would rectify each independently before generating a plan.

In the bottom view, I see on my monitor, significant anti-aliasing (that comes from showing a diagonal line using discrete pixels) in the LE and TE of the wing. The lines have quite a saw-tooth in their representation.

Sigh... analog drawings in a digital world.

Last edited by davidterrell80; Dec 10, 2013 at 09:14 AM.

Jun 05, 2014, 02:13 PM

• #4

juweeltje

Last edited by juweeltje; Jun 06, 2014 at 09:49 AM.

Jun 05, 2014, 05:12 PM

• #5

JRuggiero

This general arrangement drawing shows slight polyhedral and more detail.

http://i729.photobucket.com/albums/w...ly/P-66_01.png

I also note the very large horizontal tail area, very good for a scale model.

Jim R.

Jun 06, 2014, 01:28 AM

• #6

packardpursuit

Jim,

Good find. I always liked that particular drawing. Overall, possibly the best/most accurate P-66 effort available to date. My one complaint is the curve of lower rear profile, which I judge to be straight line from vertical panel line to front of tail cone, from photos. Easily correctable. Of course, other's mileage may vary. I do wish there was generally less distortion of the images, online!

Jun 06, 2014, 10:20 AM

• #7

JRuggiero

I note that the P-66 Photobucket drawing shows a curved underside to the rear fuselage profile that seems a bit excessive to me. This begins at the fuselage joint just aft of the co*ckpit section and continues to the joint just under the rudder hinge line. Photos indicate to me that this should be a straight line, so that there would have been no compound curve to the skin under that part of the fuselage. The BT-13 appears to have no compound curvature in the same area under the rear fuselage. Given that the P-66 seems to share the same design "philosophy" as the BT-13, why would there be a difference?

Furthermore, it's curious that the plan view of most (all?) of the 3-views of the P-66 show the wings to have straight taper, whereas the other Vultee product, the BT-13 shows a double taper. Why the double taper? Does the BT-13 also have the polyhedral wing angles that some 3-views show on the P-66? There being no extant(?) P-66s to eyeball, someone would have to look into Convair archives.

Idle thoughts on a dry day.

Jim R.