Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglas / B.A.C. / Aerospatiale

Model: unknown

Name: Skystreak II

Type: Jet bomber

Date: 1982

Status: Service test

Country: United States

Service: U.S. Air Force

Designation: YRS-76A

In 1977, the USAF took delivery of their one and only McDonnell Douglas YRS-76A Skystreak II (s/n 72-9245), a B.A.C./Aerospatiale Concorde modified by MDD to fit an Air Force requirement for a supersonic reconnaissance jet aircraft.

A second aircraft (s/n 74-6615) was due but not delivered following the polemic over the noise generated by the civilian Concorde in US skies. There is no indication that the Skystreak II (dubbed the "Skyfreak" by the ground crew) was ever used again after 1980. It is said to have been modified in the early 1980s as a pilotless target as the YQS-76B and shot down over the Antarctic by a pair of F-15A interceptors. The current whereabouts and condition of whatever's left of it are not known.

The white Skystreak II was elaborated on the basis of a standard Air France Concorde in flight (see bottom picture, right). Had to remove the original markings, add the new ones (always a tricky bit) and repaint some elements. I also had to make the nose straight to give the picture more power.

The black version was a little more tricky because I had to turn part of the aircraft in negative while retaining some elements the way they were, then I had to smooth out the resulting separation lines...

• Beautiful! (Logan Hartke)
• Marvellous! One of my favourite subjects, and one of the first that i've seen in non-RAF markings. If you felt the urge to do more of these, i wouldn't complain at all. (retro_seventies)
• That's very pretty indeed, Stephane. Nice one. (pyro-manic)
• I love the Skystreak II !!!!! (MiB)
• The Skystreak II is beautiful! (lauhof52)
• The Skystreak II is a very nice idea! Double YES for the Skystreak II in black!!! Thanks! (bearmatt)
• The Skystreak is a very interesting design (Kerrillc)
• Awesome! Tell me the Skystreak wouldn't look like it came from 'Iron Eagle', 'Blue Tornado' or 'Top Gun'. Great work! you may have inspired me to Try something if i can purchase Another Concorde Model! (Cobra = arenafighter)
• WWOOOWWW very good in black dress (oliv30330)
• I have the same feeling... (Tophe)
• Wooooooow Great work Stargazer!!!! (MAD)
• Sky Streak is awesome! (Taiidantomcat)
• "Isn't the SAC sash on back to front ? Other than that its really really great !!!" (Gondor)
• This is actually very cool looking! I really like the blend of the SR-71 paint job with the SAC band. It works very well! The white version is cool too, but a little too close to a regular Concorde paint job. The Black one is more dramatic for sure. Good stuff either way though. (dinobatfan)
• Hahaha brilliant, love it  I am trying to make an air force one style concorde, "Uk one" or something  (Giraffeboy27)
• Great work, like this scheme, what about a camo job like the Avro Vulcan B.2?! (hankandrej)
• Oh, yeah! Can you the same thing with the shuttle... Atlantis? (Japanimes)

Why not indeed. These are cool ideas. My fellow MAD has some interesting reflections on the bomber Concorde:

"I have never worked out why (apart from the obvious $$$$$ & cross Channel control issues) Britain and France never put their heads together to develop a bomber version of the Concorde, as a replacement for Britain's V-bomber and France's limited capability Mirage IVA fleet - most of the R&D had been done and paid for by both governments!

I guess the problem would have been controlling the two airforces sticking with the already planned concept and controlling the two air forces from having a wet dream and trying to put anything and every thing in and on it, which would have taken the project from $$$$ to $$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Could the Bombcorde been capable of short periods of low altitude penetration to target, to avoid the powerfulSoviet/Warsaw Pact SAM threat? The RAF variant could have been equipped with say 6-8 Boeing AGM-69A SRAM's on a modified Boeing rotating launcher!"