Douglas Project 1186C - what a whiffy!

**Paper Kosmonaut** · #1 02-23-2014, 04:25 PM

Hi friends.
Usually I do space related stuff but this beast caught my eye a while ago and it kept itching so I had to make it.
This is my take on Project 1186. Aircraft manufacturer Douglas made it in 1948 as a proposal for a cruise missile that would be guided to its target by a derivative of the famous but ill-fated X-3 Stiletto, the plane that looked like it flew Mach 3 while standing still on the tarmac but couldn't even reach Mach one in level flight because of its little underpowered engines. In this project, I suppose they outfitted it with a bigger engine.

The model is found here on Paperhobby, and it is a fairly straight forward build. I think tekzo did a good job of translating that famous drawing of Jared Zichek into a 3D paper model. There are some things I think were not 100% correct but who cares with an aircraft that never got built!

I also took the liberty of changing a few things, like the nationality (Dutch markings! Haha!) and some of the colouring. I found when building it for the first time, the grey belly surfaces of the X-3 didn't really connect well. The nose cone was fine but the cockpit area was way off. So I recoloured it all (except for the wings). However, the overall fit was very good.

The missile was an easy build. I discarded all the glue tabs and replaced them with strips on the inside and edge glued a lot. For the wing tip jet engine exhausts and the central tower engines I used metallic paper so I had to cut things a little different here and there. I used a small circle saw wheel for my power tool to make the rivet lines on the metal parts. The leading edges of all the wing and tail surfaces were done with thin aluminium tape which I also 'riveted'.

Anyway, here it is, I hope you like it. It really was fun to make.

**SJPONeill** · #2 02-23-2014, 04:40 PM

Great to see one of the PaperHobby models being built. Great work!!

**MacSongLi** · #3 02-23-2014, 05:37 PM

Great job, very clean and precise build.

Gary

**mspacemike** · #4 02-23-2014, 08:03 PM

Great build of this concept. Would love to see more of the creative ideas built, not just from Douglas (though I think theirs rate high), but from other companies R&D think tanks as well.

**chaparral2d** · #5 02-23-2014, 09:12 PM

What a great representation of a little known proposal. Absolutely beautiful!

Dave

**Longbow** · #6 02-24-2014, 07:38 AM

I can imagine that it was fun to recolor and build.
In Dutch Navy markings no less, creative..
Brings a smile to my face

**Paper Kosmonaut** · #7 02-24-2014, 10:59 AM

Hi Klaas, I have made a habit of it to build a lot of my aircraft in Dutch markings, even if we didn't have them at that time.
This one also might have looked great in a polished metal USAF scheme, I think.
The thing I am wondering about is how they would have taken off. The missile doesn't seen to have any landing gear. It perhaps could have been a ZELL system...

**SJPONeill** · #8 02-24-2014, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paper Kosmonaut

The thing I am wondering about is how they would have taken off. The missile doesn't seen to have any landing gear.

Released from orbit, from the space station...

**Longbow** · #9 02-24-2014, 03:17 PM

PK,
Looking at the picture I guess the USN planned to launch them from a carrier..

**Paper Kosmonaut** · #10 02-25-2014, 12:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Longbow

PK,
Looking at the picture I guess the USN planned to launch them from a carrier..

Of course, but they would have needed quite an installation to prepare those babies for launch. I think they would not even have fitted on the lift of a regular carrier...
The Dutch just could have launched them from the beaches of Katwijk and Scheveningen. Or we could have transformed Urk into our launch island, if we had not poldered the area. (-;