ZELL model

It was a Hawk kit in 1/48 scale.

Hawk 300-300 Guerilla Combat Team. 1/48 scale.

Odd name for it.

They go for over $250 just about anywhere.

Tom

Yes, it's a Hawk kit. I have one I picked up on eBay a few years ago. I've thought about building it using a Tamygawa F-84 in place of the kit plane. Jerry 47

There are some great detail shots of the ZELMAL setup at

Here's a pic of the kit:

Okay, really dumb question: Would that plane really have been launched with the landing gear down? -- John The history of things that didn't happen has never been written. . - - - Henry Kissinger

Here's a pic of an F-100 launch with the gear down.

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The Keeper (of too much crap)

Happened to me too Keeper, then I made sure I used BOTH lines without the ">"s in the middle. Here:

Which leads to Dumb Question© #2: WHY is the aircraft launched with the landing gear down?

-- John The history of things that didn't happen has never been written. . - - - Henry Kissinger

"The Old Timer" wrote

I think the idea was to allow landing if the rocket failed to deliver enough thrust. I remember films of the first unmanned launches had the gear up and the planes were just tossed into the ground.

KL

Here's more pic's of the F-100 ZEL

The F-104 was also used in this system (as was the F-100) and some useful references for a great model would be Flying Review International June 1966, Wings of Fame Vol 2 and Scale Aircraft Modelling April 2002. Interestingly the cover of the first reference seems to show a wheels-up take off whereas the second reference shows wheels down. I can't imagine the wheels making much difference to survival prospects after a rocket failure... better to trust the zero-zero ejection seat!

IIRC and without diving into the MAI Library, wasn't that a German F-104?

Tom

You are quite correct, Luftwaffe F-104's were used in Germany for ZELL. Make an even more interesting model I think!

The picture showed it launched with the landing gear up, but it could have been launched with the landing gear down. That would have been prudent in case of a emergency.

The F-84 ZELMAL was launched gear up and was designed to land gear-up on a rubber mat. I guess if it had gone into production, they'd have deleted the landing gear and put more fuel or ammo in.

Duncan

That was true. The only time the F-84 was launched with a pilot on board, he didn't correctly line up the plane with the rubber mat. The plane bounced off the mat and hit the ground, the pilot suffered a broken back, which he recovered from.

The one thing that I never heard about was how they transported the plane and trailer down country and city roads. I would guess they took the wings off and trailer them separately. It would also take time to mate the wings to the plane and raise it into launching position. Another thing that I read was that the rocket motor had to be carefully aligned with the center of gravity of the plane. All this would have taken alot of time to set up in the battle field.

I'm sure these problems where the reason why the ZELL project never went in to production.

Gary

I thought (and could be wrong) that one part of the ZELL program was to have some fighters "on call" so to speak, armed, fuelled and ready to scramble at a moment's notice in case of enemy attack. I remember some photos of an F-100 being launched out of a hanger or at least halfway out the hanger doors. Anyone else remember or am I wrong on this?

-- John The history of things that didn't happen has never been written. . - - - Henry Kissinger