Academy P sprue from the F-4 B/C/ N/J kits has 4 AIM-9 types. Photos I’ve seen arent clear enough to verify the types. Looks like Bs and G/Hs. ANybody know for sure? I’m trying to figure out if one set is Ds.
Left side top to bottom: AIM-9J/N/P, AIM-9B, AIM-9E (solo)
Right side top to bottom: AIM-9D/G/H, AIM-9L/M, AIM-9E (solo)
AIM-9B was USN/USMC & USAF. AIM-9D/G/H were USN/USMC only, while AIM-9E & AIM-9J/N/P were USAF only. AIM-9L/M were all service. Of course this applies to only in US service, not to overseas customers.
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Kinda what I thought. Dont think the one qualifies as a Delta. The D had a shorter nose that the G/H (from what I understand the G/H are same body, different guts. G has tube electronics, H is transistor) The G/H looks to be half again as long from the forward canards to the seeker head.
Well, I suppose that you could sand down the seeker head to the shorter length of a D. I do know for certain that the D, G, and H all shared the same canards on the seeker head. I can’t say for the length of the seeker head. So it would be an easy fix to shorten the seeker head if need be.
Actually … The Soviet R-13 missile looks like a Winder D. Except the tail fins. Winders are smaller . Did a fin-ectomy with winder size fins. Problem with cutting theseeker on a G/H to size is trying to gt the taper right after the chop.
Well the original R-13/AA-2 Atoll was a reverse engineered AIM-9B. It should match one of those in exact detail. The Chicoms flew one back to base that had embedded itself into one of their Migs during a dogfight with the Taiwanese and failed to explode. The Soviets took possession of that missile and reverse engineered it down to the last detail. From what I’ve read, they even copied numbers off of the stampings.
That’s what I read too. PArts were interchangeable. One I used was a Chicom one from a Trumpy J-7 kit. Chinese copied the copy (you know what happens when you photo copy a photocopy) so that might explain things. And I know they up dated them. And Lord knows how well Trumpy did their home work.