Thanks to Hauler-Brengun for providing this item for review and thanks to IPMS/USA for allowing me to review it.

What started out as an airliner with a market forecast of 250 units ended up being one of the best-selling and most popular airliners in the world. The Boeing 727 entered service in 1964 and the last 727 was completed in 1984. During that time 1,832 727s were built. It was very popular with both domestic and foreign airlines alike because of its range, short runway capabilities, and versatility. It could carry up to 189 passenger. One of its passengers made the 727 an unforgettable piece of American history. A man dubbed “D. B. Cooper” jumped from a Northwestern 727 with $200,000 in ransom, and into the history books as well as oblivion.

This is my first review for IPMS, and it involves one of my favorite kit manufacturers, Airfix. Like many folks my age, I built Airfix kits as a youngster and have been impressed with the quality of newly tooled kits they are currently releasing. To begin, I love the box art for this kit. It shows an action scene with the plane flying over some Russian tanks, but more importantly it provides reference material for painting the scheme shown on the box, which is the scheme I chose to paint on the model.

History

Sir Geoffrey DeHavilland began designing airplanes before World War I, and although his first effort, the No. 1 Biplane of 1909, crashed on its first flight, his subsequent designs all made up for his initial failure, and he went on to become one of the world’s foremost aircraft designers. His most famous product during World War I, the Airco DH-4 and later variants, became a mainstay in both military and civil aviation after the war, and by the mid twenties, his new company, DeHavilland Aircraft, was producing substantial numbers of the DH-60 Moth, a light biplane designed for training and touring. This was an open cockpit tandem type powered by a variety of engines, some designed in DeHavilland’s shops, and it served to establish DeHavilland’s reputation for producing light, economical, safe, and efficient training airplanes for civil use.