I never thought I would see a plastic model manufactured of this airplane, after all, only 3.6 of these planes were ever built. When this kit from Ukrainian company Sova-M popped up, I snatched it up as soon as I could. I have a personal connection to this little-known plane. In the early 1980s, the NGT Program (Next Generation Trainer) sought to find a suitable replacement for the T-37. I was a T-37 instructor pilot at the time and was lucky to chosen to be part of a team of instructors who would make a recommendation on which plane we thought would be the best choice. There were a number of aircraft in the competition, and we got the chance to fly in most of these planes, which included the CASA 101 and the Pilatus turboprop (if I recall correctly it was the PC-7). The T-46A, an entry from Fairchild-Republic, was available only as a full-scale mockup. I have to admit, it was cool just sitting in the T-46A mockup.

Let's shift the story to the T-46A. In 1981, the NGT program was searching for a replacement for the T-37 primary jet trainer. The program had a long list of requirements, including the need to be able to enter a spin and then recover easily. Student pilots were required to enter a spin in the T-37 and then take appropriate actions to recover the airplane. There are very few military planes that allow spin training of any kind, so it was important that students see what a spin looked like and how to recover just in case they encountered a spin in their later aircraft. Fairchild-Republic, the same people who brought us the A-10, entered a design for a plane they called the T-46A. The design looked like something you would get if an A-10 and T-37 mated and had a baby. The T-46 shared many characteristics of the A-10: It had a twin tail and shared many components, including the stick, throttle, ejection seats, and many of the instruments. Like the other competitors, the T-46 had a light ground attack capability. The problem was that Fairchild didn't have a sample of the plane to test, while all the other competitors already had demonstrators. Fairchild built a demonstrator that was 62% in size, and used it as a proof-of-concept plane. After a year of trials, Fairchild won the NGT contract in 1982. They were to deliver several aircraft for testing, followed by 600+ trainers to replace the T-37. The first T-46 flew in 1985, which was about 6 months later than scheduled. Three planes were finally delivered for testing. Although few problems were encountered in the testing, another problem had come up that eventually doomed the program. In the year between the first demonstrator and the third, the cost-per-plane had risen from $1.5 million to $3 million. Also in 1985, Congress was trying to cut expenditures in the Federal Budget. Sadly, the T-46A and its escalating costs made it an easy target and the program was cancelled after just 3.6 airframes (the .6 is the 62% scale airframe). This also proved to be the end of Fairchild-Republic. The A-10 assembly line was already shut down, and they had no other planes being produced. With the loss of this contract, Fairchild permanently closed their Republic factory. In 2001, the Air Force replaced the T-37 (by this time the T-37 had been in service for over 40 years) with the T-6 Texan II (Pilatus PC-9).

Now, on to the kit. As far as I know, this is the first plastic kit of the T-46. Anigrand released a 1/72 resin kit of the T-46 a while back, but I don't know of anyone who has built it. The kit comes from Sova-M, a Ukrainian company that is marketed by Modelsvit. This is one of the new era limited run kits coming out of the Ukraine, with some nice plastic parts, a photoetch fret, and canopy masks. There are decals for one plane. Everything in the box looks nice, so far, but I definitely plan to heed the sage advice to test fit, adjust as necessary, test fit again, and then glue. I have always thought the ejections seats make or break a model, so I decided to replace the kits seats with some nice resin seats designed for the A-10/F-15A, which should be the seat that would have been used in the actual plane. I am toying with the idea of figuring out a paint scheme that might have been used on this plane if it had entered service rather than the bland all-white paint scheme on the demonstrators. This will be a game-time decision.

That's enough intro into this cool plane. I will be jumping into the build in the next few days. Cheers everyone.

9 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Indeed, a superb entry, my friend @gblair! I had no idea this plane existed, yet it looks so important now that I look at it.

Marc (@mas): Thanks. I figure at some point we will all have 3D printers and will just buy the files to print our models.

Spiros (@fiveten): Thanks. I never thought there would be a kit when there were only 3 prototypes and a 62% proof of concept plane. It is also amazing that they all survived in museums.

John (@johnb): Thanks. Sova-M isn't well-known, but have made a number of kits, usually of some fairly obscure planes. I suspect they don't make many of each kit.

These are great reference pics, my friend @gblair!

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb). There is also a good cockpit diagram in the pamphlet I have, so hopefully it won't be too difficult to add some stuff to the cockpit.

Very cool build, George. You are doing first class work fixing the cockpit. I had never heard of this aircraft. It's great how modeling - along with personal photos and a story to tell - can preserve history. It's odd to me that a turboprop like the PC-9 could replace a jet like the T-37 or be a better choice than another jet, the T-46A. The T-46A is a really attractive design with interesting features connecting it to the A-10. Too bad it never went into service. It looks like it could still compete as both a trainer and light attack aircraft.

Excellent start, George @gblair
Those seats are a huge improvement over the original ones. Great work to get them fit this nicely.

Superb job there, my friend @gblair! The cockpit, a most prominent feature in these small trainers, really shines, will offer striking looks to the completed model!