A Fictional History Of Alternative Mistels
Project Aphrodite II
- desperate for a solution against buried Nazi war factories but needing a "safer" alternative for the controlling pilots, the 8th AirForce retools the Aphrodite project to use P-40s as "mated-controllers".
Project Mighty Aphrodite
- with Imperial Japan invaded and a desperate land-campaign underway, the 20th AirForce "throws the kitchen sink" at strategic strongholds by adapting the Aphrodite concept to war-weary B-29s and early-model P-51 Mustangs.
Project Northern Seal
- this MacArthur concept for destroying the bridges between North Korea and China by reactiving the Mighty Aphrodite group never got past the planning stages.
Project Fatherland
- desperate for a glimpse behind the Iron Curtain, Eisenhower approved this "deniable" option where the Lockheed Skunkworks built three Ju-290/TA-152 combinations. The Ju-290 provided extreme range and a "sacrificial discovery decoy" to the camera-equipped TA-152. Crewed by ex-Luftwaffe Germans, seven flights were successfully completed before loss of of a combination over the Ukraine lead Eisenhower to cancel the project. Although not intended, these flights reinforced Stalin's paranoia about resurgent Nazism and the possibility that Hitler survived beyond Berlin.
Project Advance Guard
- this early 60s LeMay SAC initiative inverted the normal Mistrel concept. The piloted portion was a B-52, with a pair of obsolete F-86 jets slung under the wings. Each Sabre was fitted with a single lower-yield atomic bomb. A still-classified number of these combinations were built to "open" the air defenses of the USSR for follow-on SAC waves.
Operation Parking Lot
- product of the Nixon Administration's frustration with North Vietnam's leadership. Old 4-piston-engine transports were filled with explosives and mated to SkyRaider controllers as part of a "dehamleting" intiative. Kissinger himself is credited with the phrase "one plane, one village" that became the unit's slogan.
Order 593
- with the fall of the USSR, this Soviet Air Force example of not scraping weaponry - even when long obsolete - became known. The purpose of a wide belt of primative grass runways along the border with China was clearer when the nearby hidden hangers were opened. The hangers were filled with myriad obsolete 4 engine bombers and transports. Each fitted to carry a first-generation jet-fighter as "controller" after being filled with a jumbled variety of payloads that included first generation atomic bombs, radioactive waste jacketed around mining explosives, obsolete naval ordnance and mustard gas canisters
Project George
- this SkunkWorks proposal never got beyond a successful feasibility study. "George" was a small custom-built airframe packed with the guidance and communications systems needed to remote-control and fight a B-52B it was attached to. In the event that the B-52 was too damaged to return home, the George component could be detached to return home alone, bringing with it the expensive electronics.