The Lockheed C-5 was designed to meet a USAF requirement for a very large strategic transport to compliment its smaller transports such as the C-130 and C-141. Lockheed’s design proposal was selected, construction of the prototype began in August 1966 and it flew for the first time on 30 June 1968. Although initial plans were…

Somewhere buried deep in my hoard is a kit of the Curtiss Wright Demon which looks very strange to me, with a skinny tail which looks like it will fall off at any moment. One of these days I will make that kit, but, in the meantime, I recently came across the Kora 1/72 kit…

In the aftermath of World War II the Royal Air Force was determined to retain the strategic bombing capability it had built up, but armed with the new atomic bomb which would, planners hoped, provide a deterrent strong enough to prevent the outbreak of a new war. The result was specification B.35/46 for an aeroplane…

The Véhicule de l’Avant Blindé (that could translate as Forward, Ahead of or Front Armoured Vehicle) was developed by Giat Industries and Renault Trucks to give the French Army a fast and mobile troop carrier. It’s simple design and the use of a commercially produced engine made it relatively cheap and versatile. It entered services…

Strange but true, this is the first P-40 model I’ve made since the early Airfix P-40E that must have come out in the early to mid 1960s. It was covered with rivets as I recall, and I plastered it with house paint of dubious shades because it was a lot cheaper than the little Humbrol…

The Supermarine Spitfire V was developed to fill the gap in production between the Spitfire Is and IIs that had fought the Battle of Britain and the next generation Spitfire III with a new wing and more powerful Merlin XX engine. Delays in developing the Spitfire III and problems with the Merlin XX engine led…

Decades ago I bought the old Aurora 1/48 S Tank kit and banged it together. It looked pretty magnificent, which had more to do with what the tank looks like than my modelling skills. While I admit to a certain weakness for tank models I try to control the impulse by making only French tanks.…

For a decade after World War II engineers and aeroplane designers struggled to work through the new technologies the war had thrown up and the defense challenges that new technologies (most importantly the atomic bomb) presented. Defense planners saw the need for an interceptor that could reach high altitudes very quickly to shoot down attacking…

Like its smaller compatriot the Douglas C-47, the C-46 began life as a passenger aeroplane, first flying in March 1940. It was, however, larger than the C-47 (or Douglas DC-3) with capacity to carry 36 passengers rather than 21. The large capacity fuselage soon attracted the attention of the United States military authorities for cargo,…

Design of the first United States jet powered bombers began in 1944 but the final shape for the Boeing B-47 was only finalised after American engineers learned of German aeronautical research into swept wings. In early 1946 a contract was awarded for two XB-47 prototypes and the first one flew on 17 December 1947. Eventually…

Along with the Lockheed Constellation and Super Constellation and Douglas DC-6 and DC-7 the Boeing Stratocruiser represented the peak of piston engine airliners. They dominated the world’s airways during the 1950s until the arrival of the first jet airliners and exuded an aura of romanticism and luxuriousness that 707s and 747 simply don’t have. The…

In January 1959 French and German aeroplane manufacturing companies created the Transporter Allianze to design and build a new medium range short take off and landing transport to serve with French and German military forces, replacing the ageing Nord Noratlas cargo aeroplanes. The first Transall flew in 1963 and the first production run of 50…