The Aircraft

The Heinkel 162 series was a last-ditch effort by the RLM to stop the destruction of Germany’s industries, transportation system and energy distribution by Allied bombing. The project began in September of 1944, with the prototypes first flown in December.

The He-162A versions were mostly wood construction, with the single turbojet engine. It ended up being the fastest jet fighter flown during WW2. The wood construction turned out to be highly problematical, as the glue used was not compatible with the wood, and the second prototype flight ended with one aileron coming apart, and the aircraft crashed, killing the pilot.

The latest journal of Cross & Cockade International - Autumn 2017, features a photograph of a Sopwith Camel, C8372, of 50 Squadron. The outside rear cover features five color profiles by David Méchin of Georges Madon’s aerial mounts. If you check out the website link above, you can get additional sample pics of the current issue.

Cross & Cockade International is a non-profit UK based group known as the First World War Aviation Historical Society that publishes their journal four times a year. They also provide a free newsletter (sign up on their website) and occasionally publish WWI themed books like the Sopwith Dolphin monograph I reviewed earlier for IPMS USA. This Journal is the sister of the US Journal, Over The Front.

History

The B-47 was the first swept-wing jet bomber in the US Air Force’s inventory, serving the USAF from 1951 to 1969. The US Navy flew some EB-47Es until 1977. Development began in 1943, and the design changed several times until Boeing came up with a 6-jet aircraft with the engines in pods under the wings. Because of the size of the engine pods, the main landing gear was set up as a “bicycle”, with 2 main gear under the fuselage, and smaller outriggers under the engine pods. With this setup, the B-47 could not rotate the nose on takeoff. The main gear was set so the aircraft sat at optimum takeoff angle at all times. The B-47 was subsonic, but extremely fast for a 1950s, setting a number of time and distance records, with speeds around 600 miles per hour.

This is the third book in this new Osprey series authored by Peter E. Davies. The previous tomes include the Bell X-1 (1), North American X-15 (3), and the future book on the North American XB-170 Valkyrie (7). Peter lives in Bristol, U.K. and as authored or co-authored at least nineteen book on modern American combat aircraft, many with Osprey Publishing. He was published by the Naval Institute Press in 1997 with his hardcover book, The Harrier Story, co-authored with Anthony M. Thornborough. His Schiffer Military History hard cover on the Gray Ghosts, U.S. Navy and Marine Corps F-4 Phantoms published in 2000 is considered a must have. Peter published a hardcover book with Crowood Press, North American F-100 Super Sabre, in 2003. He has also covered many aircraft in Osprey’s Combat Aircraft series, Osprey’s Air Vanguard series, and Osprey’s Duel series.

This set is designed to be used on the MiG-29UB kit released by Trumpeter last year. It includes not only the full color set SS593 to upgrade the front and rear cockpits and both ejection seats, but also a second brass fret of external details. The detail on both sets is outstanding and the color set is beautifully printed. Based on the colors used for the cockpit side consoles, it looks like Eduard used a later build MiG-29UB as the side consoles and instrument panels are in a medium grey, not the bright blue-green color seen on many other Russian/Soviet aircraft. Unfortunately, the instructions do not include any painting references for the cockpit or other kit parts, so you must do your own matching. To my eye, the grey looked pretty close to the Testors Dark Ghost Grey (FS 36320) I recently used on a F/A-18E build, so I used this color as the base interior color.