History

Ordered in 1943, the first F8F flew in 1944. The XF8F-1 had a speed of 424 mph was armed with four .50 caliber guns in the wings and could carry two 1000lb bombs. Deliveries of the F8F-1 began in May 1945 but due to the end of the war the order was cut to 770 from 2900. Later Grumman received a contract for 126 F8F-1Bs which had four 20mm cannons instead of the .50 guns. The F8F-2 was introduced in 1948 and 293 of the -2 Bearcats were built by Grumman with the biggest differences being a taller fin & rudder and a revised cowling. Besides the U.S. Navy & Marine Corps F8Fs were used by Thailand, South Vietnam and France.

Italian historian Paolo Varriale has taken a new look at the Aviatik’s (Berg) D.I service in WWI.

A single seat fighter designed by Julius von Berg, the Aviatik D.I first flew October 16, 1916, unfortunately killing the test pilot. Approximately 677 airframes were built, and that constituted nearly 43% of the fighters accepted by the Austro-Hungarian Army Air Service. The Aviatik (Berg) D.I was light and fast, but suffered from poor manufacturing quality leading to an adverse reputation for shedding wings.

Early last year I was excited to see that Revell was going to release two new NASCAR kits sometime in the 4th quarter of 2015. I was equally excited because these would be of the newer Generation 6 style of cars and Ford Fusions. Well the bubble burst when I discovered that these kits would be SnapTite kits. Excited for the kids and snap builders, but a little disappointed that we haven’t had a new glue-style NASCAR kit in almost two decades.

I understand Revell plans to rectify this situation in 2017-18, based on the sales of these snap kits. At $24 dollars each I am really skeptical that they will be able to penetrate the youth market with these kits.