The Curator’s Choice 075 – Bloch Bombers

Bloch 200 – Bloch 131 – Dassault Mirage IVA The French aircraft industry was among world leaders from the beginning and, apart from the setback in the first half of the 1940s, has been at the forefront of aviation technology since. To show how rapidly the industry developed let’s look at three examples of French…

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Additions to the Museum’s Collection – 057 August 2023

NEW IN THE READING ROOM Addition to Workbench Notes CAC CA-27 Avon Sabre in 1/72 by High Planes NEW IN THE GALLERIES Additions to the Aircraft Galleries Airbus A.330-300 (Air Hong Kong, B-LDO, 2020) in 1/144 by Revell CAC CA-27 Avon Saber (A94-971, 3 Squadron RAAF, 1958) in 1/72 by High Planes Grumman F9F-2 (VFM-311,…

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CAC CA-27 Avon Sabre in 1/72 by High Planes

Am I giving away my age if I say that I remember when the Royal Australian Air Force was flying CAC CA-27 Avon Sabres? Not that I actually remember seeing one flying. By the time I became interested in aircraft the RAAF was reequipping with Mirage IIIs and who would be interested in watching a…

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The Curator’s Choice 074 – Ambulance Aircraft

Ambulance Aircraft Augusta 109 K2 – Bloch 81 – Aerospatiale SA365N Dauphin 2 Two of the great advantages of air travel over land travel is that it is faster and can simply fly over obstructions like rivers, mountains and traffic jams. This makes flying perhaps the best (but not the cheapest) way of transporting people…

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The Curator’s Choice 073 – Pusher Warplanes

Pusher Warplanes De Schelde S.21 – Kyushu J8W1 – Vultee XP-54 When we wander around the museum we take it for granted that propeller driven aircraft have their engines and propellers at the front of the aircraft. But very occasionally there is one with the propeller at the back. At the beginning of aviation it…

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The Curator’s Choice 072 – Gliders

Gliders Schneider Grunau Baby 1 – Waco CG-4A – Castel Mauboussin CM8/13 Looking at Swiss aircraft, as we did last week, I was struck by the appearance of the lovely little, yellow, F+N N-20.1 Arbalete glider that was made to test the concept of the Aiguillon fighter. This set me wondering how many gliders there…

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The Curator’s Choice 071 – Swiss Aircraft

Swiss Aircraft EKW D-3800 – Doflug D-3802 – EFW N-20.10 When we think of Swiss manufacturing an aircraft manufactuging industry is not the first thing that comes to mind. There is the the Pilatus company which has been manufacturing light transport aircraft and trainers since the 1950s that have sold around the world, but before…

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What Wayne and Leigh Learned at ModelExpo 23

MUSINGS FROM EXPO 2023 Not having attended a Model Expo since 2019, I was partly interested and equally not interested in once again trudging down to Melbourne to see if there had been any advancement in which I’d be interested in the latest world of scale modelling. One thing that doesn’t help is that in…

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Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a in 1/72 by Roden

One at the first things they teach you in school is that the number 2 follows on in the sequence that begins with 1, under some circumstances. And so it was with the Royal Australian Air Force when they began allocating numbers for their aircraft. Thus, since the first A- number allocated in the first…

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Additions to the Museum’s Collection – 056, July 2023

NEW IN THE READING ROOM Addition to Workbench Notes Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a in 1/72 by Roden Addition to The MoB Chronicles What Wayne and Leigh Learned at ModelExpo 23 NEW IN THE GALLERIES Additions to the Galleries Bloch 81 in 1/72 by Dujin Curtiss Tomahawk I (349Sqd, RAF) in 1/72 by Trumpeter Curtiss P-40B…

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The Curator’s Choice 070 – Turboprop Twins

Turboprop Twins Antonov An-32 – deHavilland Canada Dash-8-100 – Piaggio P180 Avanti Turboprop engines occupy the space in aero engines between piston engines and pure just aircraft and generally also fit into the range between small aircraft and larger ones. If you’re looking for speed and altitude you need pure jet aircraft and if you’re…

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