Air and Space Photos from Alternate Worlds.

I kept them mostly for visual reasons
Yeah they do look pretty cool.
Could you go with solid hatch outlines, and then a smaller center porthole (maybe 4-6" in diameter) and get the interest you're looking for? I think having 8 hatches is silly, too, but it was the historical proposal for whatever silly reason.

@e of pi what document was that drawing in if you don’t mind me asking?
I actually don't know where I got them, they're not originally my images. They're possibly from the depths of some NSF thread on Big G. The report is titled "Report H321" at the tops of the images:
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EDIT: Seems like it's from someplace in this thread, likely from Blackstar who had access to the hard copies and mentions other images:
 
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Since the thread is dedicated to aviation and flying machines I wanted to ask questions to connoisseurs.
In the movie Castle in the sky by Hayao Miyazaki there is a military airship named Goliath. Although I couldn't find any information about the size and the different resources I tried to list them with picture of illustration.
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The particularity of the aircraft is that it is totally rigid, its entire surface is solid and accessible to the crew. The latter is also extremely numerous (several hundred in the film) and the Goliath is heavily armed.
So I wanted to know if it was theoretically possible for a state of the early/mid-twentieth century to build such a machine? I think that even if we don't see it there must be a huge balloon being at the buoyancy of the device (I couldn't find any cuts of the device). Moreover the device has four enormous propellers allowing it to regulate its height in part.
But is this enough? If not, it should be more.
Finally a last question which has its importance is to know what military interest the airship would have? It could be fragile compared to the rest of the aviation it would have to be limited. But a state capable of building an airship of this size would rather have started to build planes or smaller airships. How to get out of this paradox?
I would be happy if someone would answer me because I am far from being a specialist in flying machines.
 
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2 Balkan also-rans of WW2 pt2​

Link: www.whatifmodellers.com/index.…

Avia B.135
Luftwaffe, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, May 1942

In 1939 Bularia ordered 50 Avia B.135s for domestic assembly from parts manufactured in Czechoslovakia, but Germany cancelled the order and took the aircraft for Luftwaffe use as fighter trainers. Ironically, during 1942 and 1943, several Luftwaffe B.135s were based in Bulgaria at Plovdiv. Officially they were on a training mission known as Kommando Riewoldt, providing Bulgarian, Croatian and Luftwaffe pilots with fighter combat experience. However, little training was conducted.

In reality, the lightly armed Avias were used in cross-border counter-insurgency missions against Yugoslav and Greek partisans. The idea had been to use trainers that would attract little attention for light COIN missions, Kommando Riewoldt deployments also taking place in Poland and occupied areas of the Socialist Union until mid-1943. Although judge by Goering as successful, Hitler ultimately declared the outcome as "overrated" and ordered the cessation of the program.

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Free Austrian Bf 109 G-10​

Link: www.whatifmodellers.com/index.…

Free Austrian A.F. Bf 109G-10/U4, 1st Fighter Squadron, Zeltwig, May 1945

Following the overthrow of the Nazi regime in July 19944 and the Spererate Peace with the Western Allies in August, Austria was freed from the Nazis but was not entirely free. Instead, it was effectively divided in two; those parts occupied by the Western Allies and that part designated for occupation by the Socialist Union. In the latter region, the Germans aided the establishment of the Free Austrian Republic. This entity establsihed an air force in September 1944.

The Free Austrian Air Force was formed with a fighter force based around the Bf 109G-6 and G-10. Many of the G-6 airframes were second hand and as the Austrian has a low priority when it came to the allocated of new fighters, several Austrian Bf 109 airframes came to have components from both the G-6 and the G-10. This aircraft, which landed by mistake at a U.S.A.A.F. base in May 1945, was one such hybrid. The arnament includded the G-6/R6 kit of two 20 mm Mauser MG 151/20 in underwing gunpods and the G-10/U4 standard 30 mm MK 108 Motorkanone cannon firing through the propeller hub. Curiously, and apparently to save weight, the cowling weapons had been removed. The pilot, Major Florian Grünwald, explained that the aircraft had been a G-10/U4 that had been involved in a landing accident in late 1944 and been locally rebuilt, the head armour, underwing cannon and cowling having been canniblised from G-6 airframes. He said that this aircraft had been modified to perform "heavy strafing" of Red Army vehicles.

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Dawn Fraser's 'Red Roo' La-7​

La-7, 751 International Volunteer Escuadrón, Mukden, Manchuria, 20 September 1945
Pilot: Combat Pilot Flight Leader, Dawn Fraser


Dawn Fraser grew up in Wonthaggi, Victoria, the tom-boy daughter of a fitter and turner and union activist who worked in the town's State Coal Mine. At the age of 19 in 1937, she left Australia and traveled to Europe, finding work in England in 1938 for a travel company that specialised in helping people fleeing Nazi Germany. Here she also joined the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party, but became confused when the party refused to join the war effort following the outbreak of WW2 in September 1939. Seeking refuge and understanding, Dawn traveled to the still neutral Socialist Union in early 1940. Here she enrolled in an aeronautical mechanics course, fulfilling a dream that began with a childhood crush an aviator Amelia Earhart.

Following the Nazi invasion of the Socialist Union in June 1941, Dawn joined the Socialist Union Air Force (SUAF) as an international volunteer and was put to work as an aviation mechanic. Her initial post was with a training unit, but with the formation of international volunteer units in early 1942, she joined the 750 International Volunteer Escuadrón (IVE).

In late 1943, the IVEs began a program of training selected mechanics to fly, at first to conduct post-maintenance check flights and ferry missions, but those who showed promise could go on to be trained as combat pilots. Dawn was trained to fly by 1944 and flew a La-5FN to Poltava in June as part of an goodwill visit to meet the visiting American bomber crews during Operation Frantic. It was here that Fraser caused a minor international incident when, after some heavy drinking, she climbed a flag pole and stole the American flag flying over the base. The fact that she and others later burnt by now vodka soaked flag (thus bringing attention to themselves) only made matters worse. Although the Americans were incensed and demanded action, the Reds and the Internationals protected Fraser and she was duly given a promotion. When the Western Allies signed their Separate Peace/Great Betrayal with Germany in August following the coup against Hitler, Fraser chose to stay on and "finish the job of bringing Socialist liberation to Eastern Europe".

Fraser's first air-to-air kill came in February 1945, when she shot down a Fw190A-8/U16 of 316 Squadron, Polish Air Force. To celebrate, Fraser added not a red star kill marking to her plane (by now a La-7), but a red kangaroo (as befitted her nickname of Red Roo, a reference to her politics, her nationality and to her red hair). A second red kangaroo was applied in April, after shooting down another Polish Fw190, this time of 303 Squadron. At around this time, large black kangaroos were added to the wing upper surfaces of her La-7; many other internationals also added black national symbols to their aircraft wings at this time. The choice of black signified that their homelands were still in the "grip of capitalist exploitation and slavery".

In June 1945, 751 IVE moved East to Siberia in preparation for the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation; the launch of an offensive against the Japanese. Before the Great Betrayal, the Reds had agreed to wage war against the Japanese 3 months after the cessation of hostilities in Europe, but with the war on the Eastern Front ongoing and the Western Allies poised for victory over Japan, Moscow decided to make their move in early August, 1945. On 9 August, Fraser joined the attack from the unit's base at Galenki. Like other aircraft in the campaign, Fraser's La-7 now sported large black and white "liberation stripes". These had been adopted to avoid Red-on-Red friendly fire incidents, as both the Reds and the Japanese used red markings on their planes. It was this that forced the Western Allies to change their planned replication of D-Day invasion stripes for the upcoming invasion of Honshu to the more colourful yellow and orange stripes. Fraser, being a fan of the Australian rules Collingwood Football Club, called the stripes her "footy jumper".

0n 19 September, Fraser moved forward to Mukden with her unit and in November to Wonsan in northern Korea, where they flew patrols as part of a deception plan to make both the Western Allies and the Japanese think that the Reds were about to invade Hokkaido or Honshu. 175 IVE stayed on these duties until the end of the war in May 1946. Fraser stayed in the Socialist Union and became a pilot with Aeroflot for the remainder of her professional life, never returning to Australia.
 
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Kamikaze 1946, Issue No.1
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Kamikaze 1946, Issue No.3
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Eastern Front 1941: French I-153​

Link: www.whatifmodellers.com/index.…

Socialist Unity Aviation Collective (SUAC) I-153
a/c 1, Groupe de Chasse GC 3 Normandie, Armée de l'air
7 December, 1941, Vaenga, Socialist Union

Thrown into crisis by the Axis invasion of 22 June, 1941, the Socialist Union had little choice but to make common cause with what until then had been referred to as the Western Imperialist Allies. Moscow ordered its diplomats in London and Washington to make appeals for assistance within days of the assault.

Although anti-Communist, Churchill and Roosevelt responded favorably, as did the Free French government in exile. By 9 July, 1941, a proposal had been agreed whereby the Royal Navy would send the first of many an aid convoys to Murmansk and Archangel in August. Among the arms and logistics sent would be 40 Hurricane IIBs, plus pilots and ground crew to train the Reds in the unpacking, assembly, maintenance, procedures and tactics of Hurricane operations. The RAF formed 151 Wing for the mission and drew its personnel from 81 and 615 squadrons, both units being highly experienced on the Hurricane. 81 Sqd included Australian, British and Canadian personnel and 615 Sqd was commanded by a British officer but mostly staffed with Free French.

Called Force Benedict, the mission provided vital aid to the Reds at a critical moment, introducing them to the use of modern technology and control systems (including radar), fighter tactics and prepared them to accept further Hurricane deliveries. It also played a significant diplomatic role, as it gave backbone to the calls from London and Washington for the Finnish government not to advance beyond the territory it lost to the Red Army in the 1939-40 Winter War. The deployment demonstrated to the Finns that further offensive action against the Socialist Union, including moves to cut the railway line from Murmansk, would result in direct military confrontation with the Western Allies. An additional response wanted from the Finns was to halt or limit their support for the German-led offensive aimed at Murmansk that was operating from northern Finland.

Force Benedict went ashore at Archangel on 1 September, 1941, and quickly established the airfield at Vaenga, near Murmansk, as their base. 151 Wing was declared operational on 10 September and from the next day to 17 October the RAF crews engaged in a combination of combat and training, officially handing over the last of the 36 surviving Hurricanes from the first batch on the 18th. By then the RAF pilots were credited with shooting down 6 Luftwaffe planes. The Reds achieved their first Hurricane victory over the Luftwaffe on 26th. The Australian, British and Canadian personnel started for home from mid-October and the last left on 1 December, but the Free French of 615 Sqd remained to fight alongside the Reds. On 1 November, 1941, 615 Sqd was renamed Groupe de Chasse GC 3 Normandie.

By the start of December over 100 Hurricanes IIBs had arrived by sea, but all were earmarked for the Reds. The French were eager to get back into combat but were now without planes, so from early November transitioned to the best of the SUAC I-153s that local Red units had discarded for the Hurricane. Although operations were severely restricted by weather and the declining hours of daylight, several armed reconnaissance and bombing missions were flown through to the end of the year. Winter camouflage and the removal of the wheel covers (to ease the problem of mud and ice build up) adapted the planes to the conditions.

This aircraft was photographed before taking off on a mission against German troops that had taken up defensive positions on the Litsa Front, 7 December, armed with four FAB 50 bombs. Note that, as there was no chance of mis-identification with Vichy French aircraft, standard Armée de l'air roundels were applied on GC 3's I-153s (with underwing red stars retained in order to reduce the chance of friendly ground fire). Unlike the activities of Force Benedict, which were secret at the time, the operations of GC 3 whilst flying Red aircraft in the Socialist Union were highly publicised for propaganda purposes.
 
Key moments so far from the Hatsunese Space Program reboot:

1960-08-31 - Launch of the Negi-2B orbital rocket, based on large sounding rocket technology (similar to Vanguard)

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High Altitude Test Satellite Utilization Near Earth, the first satellite of Hatsunia

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1962-01-16 - Launch of the Thor-like M-1 rocket and the Sakura communications satellite

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Luftwaffe 1946, Issue No.4
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Luftwaffe 1946, Volume 2, Issue No.5
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A6M9 Hado ryu​

A6M9 Hadō ryū
Kani, Honshu. Japan
302 Tokkō Tai Kokutai, Imperial Japanese Navy, March 1946

In early 1945 the Imperial Japanese Navy issued a request for proposals for existing aircraft that could be adapted to accept the Maru Ka10 pulsejet. One of the industry proposals adopted for production was Mitsubishi's A6M9 submission, which adapted new production and existing A6M5 airframes to accept a ventrally mounted pulsejet. These mixed-powerplant aircraft used the Nakajima Sakae 21 engine; when this engine went out of production in favour of the Mitsubishi Kinsei, the plan was to apply the pulsejet to the A6M8 to produce the A6M10, but none were completed. Instead, a program of reclamation began, rebuilding derelict A6M airframes of various models to accept the Maru Ka10, resulting in various, undocumented standards of conversion, all of which were simply designated A6M9 Hadō ryū (wave dragon).

This aircraft was discovered by American troops at Kani after the war in May, 1946 and subsequently removed back to the U.S., where it eventually became a exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute. Kani was one of several airfields that operated the A6M9. According to Japanese documents 49 A6M9s were available on Y-Day, 1 March 1946. The U.S. Navy recorded 5 shot down by fighters, with another 8 credited to anti-aircraft guns. 27 U.S. Navy vessels were struck by A6M9s, resulting in 10 ships sunk. Multiple aircraft, including 3 A6M9s, hit and sunk the aircraft carrier USS San Jacinto.

Numerous external points of interest in modelling the A6M9 are evident in his testimony. The extended tail wheel arrangement was necessary for reasons of ground clearance; it was also detachable, being removed when the airframe was jacked up for pulsejet engine ground runs and jettisoned following take-off, otherwise it would be damaged by the jet's exhaust. The main undercarriage was also jettisoned in flight, explaining the removal of the upper landing gear cover parts. He noted that the undercarriage bay was only closed-off by a clipped-on canvas sheet for combat flights. Since this plane was unable to fly its combat mission the bay was found uncovered by the Americans. It should be noted that the discovery of this plane was of great interest to the Allies, as their intelligence had failed to identify pulsejet augmented hybrids as being under development until they were fighting them on Y-Day.

According to Lieutenant Commander Masaaki Higashiguchi all A6M9s had their wing guns removed, the resultant cavities being filled with explosives. The fuselage weapons were usually retained for self-defence. This plane, based on a Nakajima-built A6M5c airframe, was found with its combination of fuselage-mounted 7.7 mm Type 97 and 13.2 mm Type 3 machine guns intact.

Lieutenant Commander Higashiguchi's experience is itself of interest. In late 1945 he was assigned to the A6M9 program, rebuilding Sakae 21 engines and supervising their maintenance with the 302 Tokkō Tai Kokutai. On Y+5, all of the unit's personnel were ordered to the frontline on the Kanto Plains, where they were to serve as infantry. Walking to the front, their progress was slowed by poor footwear, illness and a lack of food, harassment by Allied air strikes and Honshu's heavily damaged road infrastructure. It took 3 weeks to reach the town of Odawara, close to the battlefront south-west of Yokohama, by which time they had lost about two-thirds of their force as casualties. At Odawara they were met by an American artillery barrage, leaving Higashiguchi with a fractured left leg and shrapnel wounds. He spent the remainder of the war recovering in hospital and was one of a handful of survivors from the A6M9 program found by the Allies.
 
Hitler's Valkyries
This an ASB-esque scenario, where in late 1943, the Luftwaffe would form up an all female fighter squadron led Hanna Reitsch, which would be called Jadgeschwader 104 Reitsch or JG-104. The Allies would dub this squadron simply as either Goering's Amazons or Hitler's Valkyries depending on who you talk to. This unit was mostly stationed within Germany as part of the Defense of the Reich from the Allied Bombing Campaign, but they have seen some service on the Western Front during the ill-fated Bodenplatte Operation. The remaining pilots and their support personnel (including Reitsch) would end up surrendering to the Western Allies in 1945.
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A Bf-109R-6 as flown by Hanna Reitsch herself, circa June of 1944.

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A Bf-109G-2 dubbed Blue 16 based outside of Essen, circa September of 1943.

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An FW-190A-8 from during the Bodenplatte Operation, circa January of 1945.
 
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