I had steered clear of the Airfix Buccaneer S.2 kit for many years because I recalled the ancient Blackburn NA.39 kit that I had been given as a present – which means it was before 1965 – which had all the faults of those early Airfix kits. It also had a folding nose and other…

In the early 1930s European countries with overseas possessions, such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France, began setting up air routes to their colonies and other places where they had influence. The French had three main air routes; to Saigon in south east Asia, to possessions in Africa and through them across the…

From 1943 the United States Navy became interested in the development of jet engine powered fighters. However application of the new engine to naval use presented problems that did not impede development of land based jet powered aeroplanes. The three most serious problems the new engine presented were a long take-off run, a high landing…

During the early 1930s the multi-place twin-engined long range fighter concept became popular and the first of them was the Potez 63 series, developed in response to a French air ministry requirement of 1934. The prototype first flew on 25 April 1936 but it was damaged in a crash landing and the second prototype, a…

Design of the Loire 130 commenced in 1933 to meet the French navy’s requirement for an all-purpose shipboard catapult-launched three seater seaplane. The prototype flew for the first time in November 1934 and competed with five other contestants for the contract, eventually winning in August 1936. Two versions were ordered, the 130M (Metropole) and the…

The deHavilland Company used a deHavilland Vampire fitted with a Ghost engine to set a new world air speed record in May 1947. Previously the British government had not been very interested in an up-rated Vampire fighter but the new record got their attention, work started on developing the Venom as a ground attack fighter…

The Heinkel He178 was the world’s first jet powered aeroplane. It was specially designed and built as a testbed for the revolutionary gas jet turbine engine that the Heinkel company had been developing for the previous three years. The principle of the gas jet had been known for centuries but it was only in the…

Win One! Lose One! It’s been a month in which resin kits have spent a lot of time on my workbench, mostly by accident. Over the years I’ve collected quite a few of the now rare Dujin resin kits of interesting but obscure aeroplanes. I keep them in an archive box and occasionally pull one…

The North American P-51 is one of the most written about aeroplanes in the history of aviation. Designed and constructed in 120 days to meet the desperate needs of the British government in April 1940 it was a good aeroplane which became great when powered by the famous Rolls Royce Merlin engine. It was the…

Dewoitine is one of the best known names in French aviation, mainly because of the Dewoitine D.520 fighter, the ‘French Spitfire’, that served with distinction in the short Battle of France in mid 1940.  Emile Dewoitine began constructing aeroplanes in 1923 and produced several good designs in the 1920s. Work began on the D.37 series…

I ended up with two kits of the Heller 1/72 Aerospatiale Alouette III, one the original boxing from 1980 and the other the 1989 boxing with lots of additional bits and pieces to make one with a winch and other civil additions. I never intended to have two kits of this particular aircraft but you…