The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft

NASA’s Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) fleet consisted of two modified Boeing 747s. The iconic N905NA, a retired American Airlines 747-100, conducted the Approach and Landing Tests with the Space Shuttle Enterprise in the late 70s, still sporting its natural metal finish with an American Airlines red, white, and blue cheatline. N905NA had a long second career with NASA, finishing its service in fall of 2012 after ferrying Discovery, Enterprise, and Endeavor to their final display locations, and ultimately arriving in Houston, TX, to start a third career as a museum display, eternally ferrying the Space Shuttle replica Independence.

This 1/48 scale decal set, available from Iliad Design, provides markings options for six different Spitfires flown during WWII in the China Burma Indian theater. Markings are included for one natural metal, one dark green, and four camouflaged aircraft flown by British Indian pilots. The Iliad set includes multiple national insignias and roundels for each aircraft, along with the red lightning bolts for British Indian fighter pilot and instructor Frank Carey.

The six options are:

Back in 2008 I built a Dragon Su-24, with the Zvezda nose to review Olimp’s Fencer decal sheet. In the ensuing years, the landing gear was broken on the kit. The Fencer was otherwise OK, but the nose gear was trashed. So when they offered Scale Aircraft Conversions’ new Su-24 metal landing gear for review, I jumped at the chance.

What you get is a new nose gear leg, and two main landing gear legs. They’re nicely cast in white metal, and very easy to work with. I include a comparison photo of the Zvezda gear and the SAC gear. They’re identical, except the SAC gear will last a LOT longer.