The Lockheed X-7 was designed as an unmanned testbed for ramjet engine design at the beginning of the 1950s. In tests it achieved a maximum speed of 4,637km/h, a record for the fastest air-breathing aircraft.

The Lockheed X-7 was an unmanned testbed for ramjet engines which was designed in 1950 by Kelly Johnson.

Between April 1951 and July 1960 X-7s made 130 flights in a variety of configurations testing ramjet engine designs, communications equipment under high acceleration, aerodynamics, booster propellants, thermodynamics, parachutes and, in a modified form as the AQM-60, United States surface to air missile defence systems.

It was air launched with a rocket booster which accelerated the X-7 to mach 1.5 when the ramjet was ignited.

At the end of a flight it returned to ground by parachute, landing on its long nose spike to protect the rest of the aircraft from damage.

This model represents a X-7 in the mid 1950s.

Anigrand 1:72 kit completed by Leigh Edmonds in October 2017.