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The Pogo Experiment, Part 2

By Terry Moore

While researching my article on the use of the Convair XFY-1 in Vietnam (See "The Pogo Experiment", Internet Modeler, April 1, 2009) I found documents relating to a little known series of tests conducted a few years before the Pogo was sent to Southeast Asia. Apparently, tests were conducted under the auspices of NACA, shortly before it became part of NASA, regarding the use of an automatic landing radar, which would have solved the major issue of the Pogo, the ability to land without great difficulty. A small electronics company, Aprilful Electronics of East Overshoes Indiana, had designed a small radar system, that tied into the controls of an aircraft such as the Pogo, would allow pinpoint landings in any location without the need of pilot inputs, a very difficult situation with the Pogo as the pilot, laying on his back, had to look over his shoulder to attempt a landing.

The Pogo was removed from storage, the U.S. Navy markings were removed and NACA markings were applied. The radar was attached to the wing via a strut and tests were conducted at Naval Auxiliary Air Station Brown Field, California using the large outdoor tether rig that was originally built for the early testing of the Pogo. Although the radar setup was successfully bench tested, in actual use it was deemed a failure. The primary issue was that as the Pogo came closer to the ground, the exhaust interfered with the radar, giving inaccurate readings which could put the Pogo out of control, beyond the capabilities of the pilot to recover in time. The test program was concluded, the Pogo was repainted in its original markings and put into storage until its use in Vietnam. It would be many years before a landing radar would be perfected.

Like my Vietnam Pogo model I used the Lindberg kit, however this time I used an original issue kit, one that was molded about the time I started building models(!). The plastic was silver, a lot harder plastic and somewhat more brittle than the current reissue. I built the kit out of the box, save for a cockpit that came from the Hobbycraft F-94, which had donated part of the cockpit for my previous Pogo build. The Aprilful radar was modified from an F-94 tip tank and bits of sheet styrene. The mount for the tether rig was aluminum & brass tube I was able to scrounge from the darkest corners of my bench.

I primed the model with Floquil CSX gloss black, then applied a layer of Alclad Chrome where the fuselage national insignia was located. I then applied the kit decals to the fuselage, carefully trimming the national insignia and NAVY. The amazing thing was that they actually worked. It took a while to soak them off the paper but they went down quite well.

As soon as I applied the decals I shot Alclad aluminum over the insignia and before the decals had a chance to set, I pulled them off, revealing a bright shiny spot where they used to be. I was very pleased with the effect. I then shot the rest of the model with various shades of Alclad, using Post it notes as a mask. I finished off the painting with Modelmaster black for the underside of the wings and Tamiya white for the top of the wings. The NACA stripe came from my box o' decals as did the other random markings.