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.

Originally developed as an intermediate-range version of Boeing’s highly successful 707, the 720’s fuselage was shorter by 7 feet 9 inches. A reduced fuel capacity enabled a lighter structure, and with aerodynamic improvements in the form of full-span leading-edge flaps, the aircraft was actually a bit more operationally versatile than the 707, except in range. With an original designation of 707-020, the aircraft was externally similar to the 707-120, so in order to eliminate confusion, Boeing renamed it the 720, and it stands as the only airliner in the “Seven Series” not to end with the numeral seven. Demand for the reduced-capacity aircraft was lukewarm at best, so Boeing only produced 154 720’s (and the improved follow-on 720B’s). The mainstream model manufacturers have largely ignored the type. Roden’s Boeing 720 is a welcome addition to the 1/144 scale airliner enthusiasts’ collections because it fills a void.

Much has been written about the world's most successful rocket powered research aircraft, the X-15. This airplane was designed to be a vehicle to provide aerodynamic, flight dynamic and structural data for use in the future development of hypersonic aircraft, all before anyone had even broken Mach 3. In October, 1954, NACA decided on the need for a manned hypersonic research vehicle, one that would fly up to Mach 7 and over 126,000 feet in altitude. By the end of the program the X-15 had reached a top speed of Mach 6.7 and an altitude of 347,800 feet during the course of 199 flights.

The authors; John Anderson, curator of aerodynamics at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and Richard Passman, chief aerodynamicist on the Bell X-2 have crafted an excellent introductory story for this aircraft.

Basically, they do this by explaining the X-15 and how it worked, then going into details of the twelve pilots who flew this machine. The six chapters are: