As we know IRL, the French SNECMA C.450 Coleoptere is a annular wing tail-sitter VTOL aircraft project that started in 1956, and ended in 1959 after the only prototype crashed, and additional funding was not available to build additional prototypes.
But what if, this is to be changed?
R.O.B. senses an interesting point of divergence in the timeline, and sends you to 1st August of 1959.
Armed with rudimentary knowledge of aviation history of the time period, you are tasked to be R.O.B.'s liaison to supervise his sponsorship towards the Coleoptere team.
R.O.B. has graciously offered USD $5 Billion in 1959 currency sponsorship to the project. (To put in perspective, the Dassault Mirage IIIE program of the same time period costs USD $50 million to develop and USD $3 million per airframe in 1971.)
Your goal is to ensure that before 1970, there would be at least a fully operational wing with 30+ Coleopteres in service of at least 1 major/prominent airforce, and be widely regarded as acceptable in combat. It would be preferable if some performance aspect are comparable with the Dassault Mirage 5 or Mirage F1 that came in service in 1970's.
So, is this workable? what would you expect to be produced from this effort?
How would you guide their efforts?
How do you think this aircraft would affect the IRL development of combat aircrafts?
But what if, this is to be changed?
R.O.B. senses an interesting point of divergence in the timeline, and sends you to 1st August of 1959.
Armed with rudimentary knowledge of aviation history of the time period, you are tasked to be R.O.B.'s liaison to supervise his sponsorship towards the Coleoptere team.
R.O.B. has graciously offered USD $5 Billion in 1959 currency sponsorship to the project. (To put in perspective, the Dassault Mirage IIIE program of the same time period costs USD $50 million to develop and USD $3 million per airframe in 1971.)
Your goal is to ensure that before 1970, there would be at least a fully operational wing with 30+ Coleopteres in service of at least 1 major/prominent airforce, and be widely regarded as acceptable in combat. It would be preferable if some performance aspect are comparable with the Dassault Mirage 5 or Mirage F1 that came in service in 1970's.
So, is this workable? what would you expect to be produced from this effort?
How would you guide their efforts?
How do you think this aircraft would affect the IRL development of combat aircrafts?