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Throwback Thursday: OS2N-1

Monogram OS2U converted to an N-1 by saying N instead of U. It might be more complicated then that, but yolo. The Naval Aircraft Factory took on building Kingfishers after Vought was told to focus on Corsairs in '42. This one served with [...]

Ich sehe was, was du nicht siehst...

While the Japanese might be more known for their submarine-born aircraft, they were not the only ones to have toyed with the idea. The Arado 231 "U-bootsauge" was an early '41 attempt to make a submersible-deployed observation [...]

The Badercane

‘The RAF needs men, not schoolboys.’ Douglas Bader's Commandant had admonished him after he crashed at Woodley Aerodrome in 1931, having tried to roll his Bristol Bulldog at "naught feet." Needless to say, the biplane became [...]

Boulton, Paul, Thorn, and Barker.

Welcome to the Whipple Special (named after a notorious contest attendee who built nothing unless he could build at least two of them) of the Airfix and (newer) Classic Airframes Defiants. As we live in the Golden Age of Modeling, kits are [...]

The V-173 "Flying Pancake," did it stack up?

Aerodynamics are a funny thing. In the 1930s, flight was only three decades old. People who had never seen a man fly let alone an aircraft at one time were still very much alive, in fact only middle aged. As new as the concept was, [...]

Hungary? I Nardi knew her.

This is the 1/48 Special Hobby Nardi FN 305. It was purchased nearly two decades ago at the Hannants store in person during a trip to England (it was a thrill as a kid to walk through the Sunderland at Hendon), started, then very nearly [...]

The Aftermarket Trap: Italieri Reggiane 2002.

The Italieri 1/48th scale Reggiane Re.2002 kit is "fine." It's a "fine" kit that goes together with no fit issues and you can slap paint on it and be happy with it. But "fine" stops at being a model kit that [...]

Amy Johnson’s DH.60G Gipsy Moth

Amy Johnson (1903-1941) was a record-setting English pilot who was very active during the thirties. In 1930, the 26 year old Johnson became the first woman to fly solo from Great Britain to Australia, flying from Croydon to Darwin, a [...]