CF-100 Mk.4B, The Canuck

[Would you like to see this in-game?]
  • Yes
  • No
0 voters

Hello! In this thread, I would like to suggest the addition of the Avro Canada CF-100 Mk.4B to the game.

In a nutshell: The CF-100s, also known as the Canucks or Clunks are interceptors with an interesting set of weapons for air to air combat, and for some very limited ground strike capability. They were designed to have an incredible climb rate for their time, and a decent top speed in order to fulfill their interceptor duties. They are however quite heavy, making them sluggish at low speeds.
To explain this in a manner for players to understand, CF-100s turn as badly as F-84s at low speed, accelerate better than a Canadair sabre 6, and rip their wings in a straight line at less than 90% throttle (max speed of 944 kph).

image

History:

With the end of the second world war and the dawn of the jet age, Canada found itself in need of a jet aircraft capable of defending its skies from coast to coast and as far north into the arctic as possible. It was believed that in case of war, the Soviet Union could fly bombers over the artic to attack North America. In response to this, the Royal Canadian Airforce set out a requirement for a fast, all-weather long range jet interceptor. [1]
Work at AVRO began in 1946 and went on for four years. On the 19th of January 1950, the CF-100 had its maiden flight, and entered service with the RCAF by April 1953. The aircraft went on to serve with NORAD and NATO squadrons until the early 1960 as interceptors, but remained in service as training, reconnaissance, and in the electronic warfare role until 1981. With NORAD, the aircrafts operated from Canadian airfields across the country with the defence of north America in mind. With NATO, the Canucks operated with the RCAF from airfields in France and Germany and served with the Belgian Airforce. [2]

There are many versions of the Canuck, but this suggestion is specifically for the CF-100 Mk.4B. The reasons for this being their flight performance, strengthened wings, high productions numbers, as well as their armament options.

137 CF-100 Mk.4A and 141 Mk.4B aircrafts were produced, out of a grand total of 692 Canucks.[2]

The following information and data provided in this suggestion is relevant only to the CF-100 Mk.4s, most only applies to the Mk.4B. Much of the information in this thread comes from the Aircraft Operating Instructions manual made by the RCAF, it is mostly meant to help with research in case this gets forwarded to the devs. As such, the information might get a little technical, I hope you still find it interesting lol.

Aircraft Data:

Dimensions: [3]
Wingspan without rocket pods: 49ft 11in
Wingspan with combat rocket pods: 53ft 6in
Wingspan with tip tanks: 57ft 6in
Length: 54ft 2in
Height (to top of canopy): 10ft 2 in
Height (to top of fin): 14ft 4 in

Aircraft Weights: [3]
Dry weight: 24408 lb
Empty weight + crew: 26000 lb
Gross weight: 36162 lb
Gross weight with tip tanks: 41217 lb

Load weights: [3]
Tip tanks (empty): 500 lb
Combat pods (filled): 1450 lb
7-Rocket Training pods (filled): 650 lb
7-Rocket Training pods (empty): 400 lb
3-Rocket Training pods (filled): 275 lb
3-Rocket Training pods (empty): 200 lb
Chaff dispensers (both): 250 lb

Avionics: [3]

AN/APX-25
This is an IFF system that enables the aircraft to identify itself when interrogated by coded transmission from ground or airborne radar sets.

MG-2 Fire control system
This system is used to aim and launch the rockets when in automatic operations mode. The MG-2 comprises of a radar and ballistics computer.

AN/APG-40 Radar
Onboard radar used by the MG-2 fire control system

AN/ARN-6
Radio compass for navigation

AN/AIC-10
Intercommunications between Pilot and Navigator

AN/ARC-552
UHF Radio for communications

Armaments:
The CF-100 Mk.4s are armed with a ventral pack carrying 8 M3 Browning .50 cals with 200 rounds per gun.

  • They can carry wingtip rocket pods to use against aircraft. There are three rocket pod types that can be carried: Combat pods carrying 29 FFAR rockets each (the pods are automatically jettisoned after launch), and two training pods to carry 3 or 7 each.

  • They can carry 4 1000lb bombs, one on each pylon under the wings.

  • The CF-100 mk4 could also carry two streamlined chaff dispensers on it’s outer wing bomb racks.

There is mention that the ventral pack can be switched for 48 FFAR rockets in the article (428th sqn RCAF wikipedia), however, this was not in the aircraft operating instructions. This ventral pack was fitted onto at least one aircraft and tested, as can be seen in the following video. The aircraft firing the rockets appears to be 18112, which was a Mk.2 that was upgraded to Mk.4 standards for testing.
https://youtu.be/G5PKKx3Ven8?t=80

Some aircraft were fitted with missiles for testing. CF-100 Mk.4B with serial number 18478 was tested with 4 Falcon missiles. CF-100 Mk.4B with serial number 18229 was tested with 4 Velvet glove missiles.[5]

Information here was partially sourced from this page of the manual:
https://static.theaviationarchives.com/000/000/000/016/203/b1121b3319a32d0d876e3bf30009ec9d.jpg

Fuel tanks: [3]
Fuel on the aircraft is stored in 5 fuel tanks, with the possibility to add two wing tip fuel pods. The wing fuel tanks are formed of 12 interconnected flexible fuel cells. The two fuselage tanks are each formed from 4 interconnected flexible fuel cells.
Internal fuel capacity is of 1303 Imperial gallons, which translates to 10163 pounds of JP-4 fuel. Wing tip fuel pods each carry 292 Imp. gal.
From what I gather, the fuselage tanks act as collector tanks for the engines.
The normal fuel sequence for the aircraft:
- Fuel is transferred from auxiliary fuselage tank to the LH and RH fuselage tanks until empty.
- fuselage tanks are drained until 140 gallons remain in each tank.
-(if applicable) Wingtip tank fuel is transferred to the fuselage tanks keeping their 140 gallon level until empty.
-Wing fuel tank fuel is transferred into the fuselage tanks keeping their 140 gallon level until empty.
-the final 140 gallons in each fuselage tank are used.
Here is a diagram showing the fuel system

Flight Characteristics:

Descriptions: [3]

-General
The aircraft is said to respond immediately to variations in power above 250kt IAS, but to be sluggish and slow to accelerate below this. At low airspeeds, especially with flaps and landing gear down, relatively high power is required to maintain flight, and the aircraft is less responsive to controls.

-Stability
The aircraft is stable in all altitudes, up to approximately Mach 0.8 True, where “tuck-under” occurs. At high altitudes, stick force is lighter, resulting in an apparent loss of stability.
Stick forces for manoeuvres will decrease with altitude, until Mach 0.8, where they start to appreciably increase.

-Ailerons Control
The ailerons are told to be effective down to the stall speed. Above 300 knots IAS, response to stick movement is immediate.

-Elevator Control
Stick forces are generally light, and above 250 knots IAS, the elevators are sensitive to small stick movements. They are effective at the stall but require large control movements.

-Rudder Control
The rudder is said to be effective at all speeds, and even when flying on asymmetric power.

-Flaps
On extension of the landing flaps, there is said to be a slight nose-down change in trim.

-Speed Brakes
They will decelerate the aircraft rapidly, with traces of mild buffeting. When opening the speed brakes at airspeeds above 400 knots, a momentary change in pitch may be experienced.

-Landing gear
Extension or retraction of the landing gear causes no apparent change in trim, however extension causes a large increase in drag.

-Stalling
In landing configuration (flaps and landing gear down), there is very little warning of the approach of a stall. At the stall, gentle buffeting of the tailplane and lateral instability become noticeable, followed by a marked shuddering and the dropping of a wing.
Between maximum and empty weights, stalling speed varies by around 20 knots.
At 31000lb weight with power off, stall speed with landing gear and flaps up is between 115 to 125 knots IAS, with landing gear and flaps down its between 100 and 105 knots IAS.

-Flying with Asymmetric Power
With speeds above 170 knots IAS, the effects of asymmetric power are hardly noticeable, except when using very high engine power.

-Inverted Flying
A collector tank in each fuselage tank provides a reserve of fuel for approximately ten seconds when flying inverted or pulling negative G. There are no provisions to supply fuel to the engines for prolonged inverted flight, so fuel starvation will occur.

-Diving
Speed will build up very rapidly in a dive and probably cause the maximum Mach number to be exceeded. This can happen in shallow dives at angles of 10 to 20 degrees.

This information was all paraphrased from the following pages of the manual:
https://static.theaviationarchives.com/000/000/000/016/203/8e9165e80d57b45babd6bc65cadba64f.jpg
https://static.theaviationarchives.com/000/000/000/016/203/ef2f01fb4f387cdabb5e39b154b0797b.jpg
https://static.theaviationarchives.com/000/000/000/016/203/d54a87f6c719f8d2d17de4a6b02695e7.jpg
https://static.theaviationarchives.com/000/000/000/016/203/6d5bee2e99e88a51d9b98d94f5d32c0a.jpg

Engine limitations:

image

This information was taken from the following page of the manual:
https://static.theaviationarchives.com/000/000/000/016/203/a80efd72e4037921cd9e208b75e0dd70.jpg

Speed Limitations:


Note: while the Maximum Mach number is 0.82 above 3,300 feet altitude, a CF-100 Mk.4 broke the sound barrier up to Mach 1.10 with a dive from 40,000 feet and recovered.[2]

G load limitations:
Here are the flight envelopes for sea level and 3300ft. These pages are from the Aircraft Operating Instructions.


Performance:

Speed:
Straight line performance at maximum continuous power (93% RPM):

Climb:
These are some of the climb charts from the Aircraft Operating Instructions. When “tip tanks” is indicated, it means that the aircraft is flying with the wingtip tanks. When it says “with or without tip pods”, it indicates rocket pods at the wingtips. There are other charts for different configurations, but these show the difference between a minimal load and a full load.


Here are some pictures of the aircraft.

CF-100 Mk.2T (this picture shows all 4 bomb pylons)
image

CF-100 mk3 with extended flaps.
image

CF-100 mk3 with extended airbrakes.
image

3-Rocket training pods
image

7-Rocket training pod in flight
image

CF-100 flying with wingtip fuel tanks
image

CF-100 number 18229 being tested with Velvet Glove Missiles
image

CF-100 number 18478 tested with Falcon missiles
image

Thank you for reading this suggestion, I hope you found it informative. If you find more information on this aircraft, or mistakes in my work, please tell me in the comments!

References:
[1] Avro CF-100 Canuck | The Canadian Encyclopedia
[2] Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck - Wikipedia
[3] EO 05-25E-1 Aircraft Operating Instructions CF-100 MK4 (pages are pasted or linked into the suggestion when possible)
[4] https://www.silverhawkauthor.com/post/canadian-warplanes-6-jets-avro-cf-100-canuck (Most pictures are sourced from this site)
[5] https://torontoaviationheritage.ca/wp-content/uploads/CASM-Monograph-CF-100.pdf

1 Like

Suggestion passed to the developers for consideration.

2 Likes