Civvie Douglas Skyrocket

[tor lives]

Hi guys,
I am just getting ready to refurb this crappy, little, old Douglas Skyrocket research aircraft, (manufacturer and scale unknown)





I wanna re-do her as a NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics....predecessor to NASA) "civil" aircraft, but I am having a bugger of a time trying to locate NACA decals. Does anyone know of who/where NACA decals could be perhaps sourced from, if indeed they exist at all.
TOR

[Graeme H]

Almost certainly this kit

http://modelingmadness.com/review/korea ... rsd558.htm
http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/Dougla ... 2-Page.htm

The scheme you are looking came with the 1/72 kit, so see if you can get a scan of that from anyone, and rescale to make your own
http://modelingmadness.com/scott/korean ... /72180.htm

I can't help un fortunately, of course if you know of anyone with a bit of talent, they could take the scan on the MM site and clean it up and print

[erussell]

I'm guessing you want it like this........
http://www.skytamer.com/1.2/2005/5515.jpg
I doubt these are available but you never know..........
http://www.internetmodeler.com/2006/mar ... CED-U2.php
http://decals.kitreview.com/decals/ced4 ... ewrk_1.htm
But these may be better anyway..........
http://www.fundekals.com/deltaDagger_NACA.html
http://www.scalemates.com/products/prod ... ?id=197176
If you know the sizes and the right people, re-scaling a decal sheet and printing it are not too hard.
You need the actual decal sheet or a vector drawing. If you only have an image on a web site you need to re-draw it which is skilled work.

[tor lives]

I'm guessing you want it like this........
http://www.skytamer.com/1.2/2005/5515.jpg
I doubt these are available but you never know..........
http://www.internetmodeler.com/2006/mar ... CED-U2.php
http://decals.kitreview.com/decals/ced4 ... ewrk_1.htm
But these may be better anyway..........
http://www.fundekals.com/deltaDagger_NACA.html
If you know the sizes and the right people, re-scaling a decal sheet and printing it are not too hard.

Hi Ed,
Thanks for all that info.....very useful indeed.
I am looking to re-do the Skyrocket in the standard NACA scheme without NAVY titles or stars and bars, (as per the aircraft hanging in the Smithsonian).




There is currently a set of NACA/NASA decals on evilbay at the moment, but given his quoted purchase and postage costs, it will end up costing over $80.00 and that's a bit ridiculous even for a silly, frivolous, spontaneous model/accessories buyer like me.
Thanks again for links
TOR

[tor lives]

Almost certainly this kit
http://modelingmadness.com/review/korea ... rsd558.htm
http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/Dougla ... 2-Page.htm

I think you may be right Graeme....one of those odd-ball "to fit box" scales that Revell were notorious for.
TOR

[Adam the Akrodude]

Great project Ray. Two highly recommended books by former D558-2 pilots are:

"The Lonely Sky" by Bill Bridgeman - fabulous book by a excellent and pretty well forgotten test pilot.

"Always another Dawn" by Scott Crossfield. Crossfield was such a brilliant engineer/test pilot.

Found this link which may be of interest.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-035-DFRC.html

Legendary test pilots such as Marion Carl, Joe Walker, Scott Crossfield, John McKay and Bill Bridgeman flew the Skyrocket to the absolute limit. Got to see this aeroplane at NASM back in 1995.

Sad in a way that thanks to Tom Wolfe, the X-1 and Yeager's exploits seem to have taken all the glory, consigning these legendary and brilliant test pilots to almost forgotten chapters of aviation history.

[tor lives]

OK....so the old Douglas Skyrocket has been caustic soda bath paint-stripped and broken down;





Given how old she is and how brittle the plastic has become over time, she broke down pretty well, with relative ease and minimal structural damage.
I will now proceed with the re-build and hope that I can find some NACA decals along the way.
Ed...those F-102 decals look promising, I think I could do something with those.
TOR

[VH-WAL]

I have the 1/72 decals, I'll see what I can do when I get back home in 5 weeks

[tor lives]

Thanks Wal......appreciate it.
TOR

[tor lives]

Hi guys,
Does anyone have a close-up of the rear left fuselage stencilling on the Smithsonian Douglas Skyrocket.
After trolling the web for the last two hours I have managed to establish and decipher all stencilling on the aircraft except what is written on the rear left fuselage above what appears to be some kind of port or exhaust, (you can clearly see this in the above photo). The titles appear to read "TURBINE EX"... but I just can't be sure.
TOR