Forgotten Fifties Fighters Aerfer Ariete – Nord Griffon II – North American YF-93A The 1950s was an exciting time to be involved in aviation. Rapid advances in aerodynamic knowledge, new materials and new and powerful motors opened the door to new and sensational innovations. The force of the Cold War also drove governments to support…

Lend-Lease Fighters Curtiss Tomahawk II – North American Mustang IV – Vought Corsair I Between March 1941 and the end of World War 2 the United States transferred to Allied nations a total of $40.1billion of war materials ($719billion in 2021 value). This was seventeen percent of the United States total was expenditure. Of that…

Key American Airliners of the 1930s Ford 5-AT – Boeing 247 – Douglas DC-3 While war drives rapid technological change competition in business is also a very strong driving force for change. The period between the two world wars in the United States saw the growth of a vibrant and highly competitive air transport industry,…

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Big Supersonic Jets Myasishchev M-50 – North American XB-70 – Aerospatiale/BAC Concorde Last time we looked at the early days of aviation when the force of war created new advances in technology very quickly. This time I thought we’d move to the other extreme and look at the development of large jet powered aircraft capable…

Lesser Known German World War I Fighters Roland D.II – Fokker D.VIII – Junkers D.I About the only good thing that can be said for war is that it brings on rapid technological change. Improvements which might have taken years or decades to be tested and adopted took only months or years under the pressure…

Additions to the Public Galleries Boeing B-52D in 1/72 by Monogram Convair B-36B in 1/72 by Monogram Fournier RF-9 in 1/72 by Dujin North American XB-70 in 1/72 by AMT Northrop Grumman RQ-4B in 1/72 by Italeri Potez 540 in 1/72 by Smer         Additions to the BAC Lightning Special Display BAC…

More Douglas Commercials Douglas DC-4 – Douglas DC-5 – Douglas DC-6   Ten weeks ago we looked at the first three Douglas Commercial airliners, the DC-1, DC-2 and DC-3. They had a major effect on the development of air travel in the 1930s and 1940s. Let’s now look at the next three Douglas airliners. Two…

Additions to the Public Galleries Boeing 737-700 (Virgin Blue) in 1/144 by Revell Douglas DC-6 (TEAL) in 1/144 by Roden Douglas DC-7C (Braniff International) in 1/144 by F-Rsin Plastic Douglas P-70 in 1/72 by Revell HFB-320 in 1/72 by VAMI Models Piaggio P.180 Avanti in 1/72 by Amodel Republic F-84F in 1/72 by Italeri Republic…

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Dark Earth and Dark Green Westland Lysander – Armstrong Whitworth Whitley – Hawker Hurricane This week I thought we’d look at the colours of some aircraft and what caught my eye was the camouflage colours flown by Royal Air Force aircraft at the beginning of World War II. At that time those aircraft were camouflaged…

Additions to the Public Galleries Curtiss Hawk 75A in 1/72 by AZmodel DeHavilland Riley Heron in 1/144 by Welsh Models Gloster Meteor F.4 in 1/72 by Frog   Goodyear F2G-1 in 1/72 by Special Hobby Grumman F4F-4 in 1/72 by Airfix Grumman F6F-5 in 1/72 by Eduard Grumman F9F-4 in 1/72 by Matchbox Handley Page…