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…

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…

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…

Here it is.

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…

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…

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…

Experimental Attack Aircraft Boeing X-32 – Douglas XA2D – Ilyuhin Il-40P Some military aircraft are designed specifically to attack targets on the ground so their shape and size is dictated by that function. Sometimes the resulting aircraft make it into production and sometimes they don’t. Let’s look at three attack aircraft that didn’t make it…

South East Asia Camouflage General Dynamics F-111A – Boeing B-52D – McDonnell RF-4C During the Vietnam War the United States Air Force adopted a four tone camouflage scheme for its aircraft operating in that region. The upper colours of two shades of green and one of tan were designed to match the terrain over which…

Here is the link to the latest Museum Newsletter

Additions to the Public Galleries DeHavilland DH-9A in 1/72 by Kovozavody Prostejov Lockheed F-104C in 1/72 by Italeri   Addition to the Workbench Notes DeHavilland DH-9A in 1/72 by Kovozavody Prostejov   Addition to the Royal Australian Air Force Special Display DeHavilland DH-9A  

Air France in the 1930s Dewoitine 333 – Potez 621 – Wibault 283 Air France is one of the world’s great airlines and France’s national ‘flag carrier’ airline. It was created in October 1933 from the amalgamation of five existing French airlines and brought together France’s domestic, colonial and inter-national airlines. The five airlines had…