The Motor Pool – Blog – Page 162 – Pureveyors of Fine Diecast Collectibles

The USAF Looks to Lasers

An air-to-air left front view of an AC-130 Hercules aircraft during target practice.

According to a recently published article in Popular Science. the United States Air Force is planning to deploy laser cannons on AC-130 Gunships as early as 2022. “The AC-130 is a battlefield giant, a large transport adapted to instead carry inside its cavernous belly. Right now, AC-130s are armed with a range of guns, rockets, cannons, missiles, and bombs, and it’s used them to support troops on the ground from Vietnam to Afghanistan. The latest version of the AC-130 in the works is scheduled to have a heavy cannon, but there’s the possibility of adding in a laser weapon on the last few made, provided the laser is ready.”

DARPA had been testing laser cannons to see if they were suitable for mounting on board modified USAF 747 jet liners as a means of destroying ICBMs during their boost phase. It had been widely believed that they were unable to miniaturize the weapon so that it would fit within the confines of a 747. If these reports are true, then they apparently did meet with some success, since an AC-130 is significantly smaller than a 747. Moreover, the report goes on to indicate that specially constructed laser pods can be slung beneath a sixth generation fighter jet, and perhaps a drone, but these measures still need further refinement and testing.

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The Motor Pool: Updated for the New Millenium

Its been several years since we last overhauled our site to give it its current look, feel and appearance. Now, as we approach the all-important holiday selling season, we felt it necessary to take our e-commerce site to the next level and give it an even fresher look.

From a technological stand point, we recognize that a great many viewers and customers are surfing the web from a variety of platforms, covering everything from the traditional computer desktop to mobile devices, tablets and even wrist watches.

People can even be transported to the web directly from a print advertisement. Equally important are the Google search rankings, which now examines each site to see if it conforms to mobile standards.

That said, we are close to deploying our first web site design utilizing what is termed a responsive template. In effect, the viewing area a customer sees on the screen dynamically rescales to fit any sized device, and, just as importantly, maintains the look and feel of the site across the entire device spectrum. So, what you see on the desktop will look pretty much the same on much smaller screens. We’ve posted an image of a similarly constructed site to this blog post so you can get a better understanding of what we are doing. We will post a follow-up blog post once we are ready to fully deploy the new template.

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Its Fleet Week Here in New York

Ordinarily, Memorial Day weekend signals the start of Fleet Week, whereby several US Navy warships, Coast Guard cutters and patrol craft arrive at the port of New York City for a well-deserved respite from sea duty. To commemorate the event, we have loads of Eaglemoss Collection’s 1:1100 scale warships now in stock, ranging from stalwarts such as the IJN’s super-battleship Yamato to the recently arrived and oddly-designed HMS Nelson. Make sure to check out our entire collection of Eaglemoss warships, which typically sell out faster than we can replenish ’em.

Incidentally, World of Warships, a free, massively multiplayer online game has now entered alpha testing and should become available to everyone later this fall. Check it out at http://worldofwarships.com/

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The F-35C: Last of a Breed?

In a rather stark admission, US Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, disclosed that the soon-to-be-deployed F-35C will be the last manned strike fighter for the US Navy.

The F-35C “should be, and almost certainly will be, the last manned strike fighter aircraft the Department of the Navy will ever buy or fly,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in a speech in April at the annual Sea-Air-Space Exposition outside Washington, D.C. Fighter jocks would still be needed for dogfighting, but Mabus envisions a future when strike missions will be fulfilled by unmanned aircraft.

According to Defense News, Mabus announced the creation of the N99 Navy staff office for unmanned weapons systems and a new position for deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for unmanned systems.

“Unmanned systems, particularly autonomous ones, have to be the new normal in ever-increasing areas,” he said.

The announcement came the same day as a milestone test for the Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration program, the first of three aerial refueling tests that mark the program’s concluding step.

Following the tests, the two UCAS jets will be sent to an aviation museum or to the aircraft boneyard in Arizona, Capt. Beau Duarte, Carrier Unmanned Aviation program manager, said Tuesday at the exposition.

“The UCAS-D program was born with the primary role of, ‘Okay, let’s show ourselves that we can successfully take off and land from the ship, integrate operations around and on the carrier, and work in the pattern [with manned jets],’ ” Duarte said.

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Lockheed’s Skunkworks: The Future is Now

According to a recent article that appears in the June issue of Popular Science, the folks at the legendary Lockheed Skunkworks are at it again.

“With regional threats growing and portable surface-to-air missiles evolving, engineers have once again set out to build the fastest military jet on the planet.

This time, it will take the form of a 4,000-mile-per-hour reconnaissance drone with strike capability. Known as the SR-72, the aircraft will evade assault, take spy photos, and attack targets at speeds of up to Mach 6. That’s twice as fast as its predecessor.

Aeronautical engineers at Lockheed Martin and Aerojet Rocketdyne have been designing the SR-72 at their Skunk Works black site in California for the past several years. It will require a hybrid propulsion system: a conventional, off-the-shelf turbo jet that can take the plane from runway to Mach 3, and a hypersonic ramjet/scramjet that will push it the rest of the way. Its body will have to withstand the extreme heat of hypersonic flight, when air friction alone could melt steel. Its bombs will have to hit targets from possibly 80,000 feet. Lockheed says the craft could be deployed by 2030. Once it is, the plane’s ability to cover one mile per second means it could reach any location on any continent in an hour—not that you’ll see it coming.”

Several on-board systems will need to be redeveloped for such a reconnaissance and weapons platform to work at a speed of Mach 6, chief among them targeting, high altitude bombing, piloting, and stability at a high friction rate of speed. Frankly, if anyone can do it, its the boys at Lockheed, who are responsible for creating some of the most sophisticated aircraft ever to take to the sky.

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Hobby Master Super Sizes the Hornet

Ever since Hobby Master came out with their first F/A-18 Hornet, it was long speculated but never confirmed that they would eventually up the ante by producing its larger successor, the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Earlier today, the Company finally fessed up by indicating that a Super Hornet is indeed in the works and expected some time in early 2016. Their first bird is a US Navy McDonnell Douglas F/A-18E Super Hornet Strike Fighter that was attached to VFA-14 “Tophatters”, and bears their 90th Anniversary commemorative scheme (HA5101). Frankly, if you like modern US warbirds, then this is a no brainer, simply because its the inaugural release. While an operational scheme always seems to do better at retail, its going to be hard to pass this one up.

As an aside, we hope they also decide to produce the Advanced Super Hornet, which is designed to maintain fleet requirements well into the 2030s. More information can be found here

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Star Wars: There is a Great Disturbance in the Force

Apparently, Disney has deemed that September 4th is when a great many licensees of its Star Wars brand will be able to reveal their merchandising plans to the public at-large. In the meantime, we’ve learned a couple of interesting tidbits that should get the party started a wee bit early. First off, our distributor has confirmed that the large majority of the legacy-based DeAgostini Star Wars vehicles and ships come with their coveted magazine, which offers loads of information and full color illustrations concerning each replica portrayed.

At the other end of the spectrum, Mattel has posted pix of three of their upcoming 1:18 scale ships that have appeared prominently in previous Star Wars films. Heavy in the hand, and bearing all of the detail you’ve come to expect from this long time toy maker, these limited edition replicas will certainly help to get the ball rolling ahead of the debut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is scheduled to hit theatres on December 18th. May the force be with them.

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Star Trek Continues

Some times I think we’re completely out-of-the-loop when we stumble upon information that could have knocked us over with a feather. While perusing the web, we discovered a brand new web-based film series based upon the original, Gene Roddenberry-created Star Trek television series. Named, aptly enough, Star Trek Continues, these “webisodes” feature all of the familiar characters, sets, costumes, and hokey special effects first witnessed in the 1960s series, going so far as to even include the same dated introduction, sound effects and animations. To view the five uploaded webisodes and see what’s in store for Trekkies, visit: http://www.startrekcontinues.com/

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The DoD Breathes New Life into the Abrams

Back in 2014, long before the Russian T-14 Armata main battle tank was unveiled to the public, the US Department of Defense awarded General Dynamics with a contract to build 12 advanced main battle tanks with digital vetronics. Dubbed the M1A2 SEP Version 2, the tank, according to Military and Aerospace Electronics, “is considered to be one of the most technologically advanced and most survivable digital tank available worldwide. The networked tank has an electronic backbone, improved processors, high-resolution color displays, increased memory capacity, a day and night forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sighting system, auxiliary power, a tank-infantry phone, and an open architecture designed to accommodate future upgrades without redesigns.”

Its not clear how the upgraded M1A2 SEP V2 will fair against Russia’s new battle tank in a one-on-one slugfest, or whether the Abrams has the ability to defeat other armed threats on the battlefield, particularly from air-launched heliborne assets. This electronics-based upgrade could serve as a short-term solution before the Armata gets fielded en masse, further extending the life-cycle of several thousand battle tanks that have seen service throughout the world with a number of armies.

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Signature Goes on Parade

One of the reasons we love Signature Models is that they aren’t afraid to tackle a subject at any scale. Take, for example, their 1:18 scale 1938 Mercedes G4 limousine, which has been a hit amongst the largesse community for several years running. Now, miniaturize it down to 1:43 scale. and you’ve got the same crowd pleaser rumbling down the pre-WWII streets of Berlin for an entirely different audience. Priced at just $59.99, the G4 comes in three flavors: a white and black convertible, as well as a deep blue portrayal with its top up. Look for these in May.

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