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:

Another excellent turned metal (brass) pitot assembly from Master Model. IPMS USA sincerely appreciates the support of Master Model, who continue to provide first-class products to improve already great models…. THANK YOU!

This one is as simple as it gets; a pitot tube combined with the Pitot Boom which fits on the nose of the Italeri 1/72 B-58 Hustler. Looking at the kit item and Master Model’s replacement, it is easy to see why you should buy this one. First, the kit item is really way too short; Master Model fixes that. Use superglue or epoxy to install, the fit is perfect and doesn’t need anything else. There is an excellent instruction sheet as well, other aftermarket companies should follow this lead.

Introduction

The Sikorsky Sea King helicopter was developed in the late 1950s for the US Navy’s growing anti-submarine warfare role. Becoming operational in 1961, the Sea King would serve with the US Navy until 2006, and continues in service with other operators to this day. Over its lifetime, the Sea King would spawn multiple variants and revisions. This included versions to meet USAF and USCG roles, such as the well known HH-3E Jolly Green Giant combat search-and-rescue helicopters. Additionally, licensed-built versions of the Sea King were made by Mitsubishi, Agusta, and Westland. The British-built Westland Sea King variants differ in quite a few points from the Sikorsky-built Sea Kings, and are the basis for Cyber-Hobby’s 1/72 Sea King kits.

First off I’d like to thank Scale Aircraft Conversions for making this detail set available for review and thank IMPS/USA for allowing me to do the review.

Most of us are familiar with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. But, for the one or two who are wondering what an Fw190 is, the following synopsis is provided. During World War II the Fw 190 was a German single-seat fighter aircraft powered by a single radial engine. It and its sister aircraft, the Bf109, made up the majority of the Luftwaffe’s fighter aircraft. The Fw190 is arguably the best fighter Germany had in its inventory. It was used in a variety of rolls including day fighter, night fighter, fighter-bomber, and ground-attack aircraft. It was very popular with the Luftwaffe pilots. And so it is with today’s modelers. At any show you will see a number of Fw190s on the table vying for recognition. One way to make your model look as crisp and sharp as possible is through the use of after-market parts.

The Hasegawa F-4 Series Phantom II models have been a standard for the modeling community for a number of years. They have offered virtually every variant ever produced and flown in all services around the world. This specific release is Celebrating the dawn of carrier landings. On January 18, 1911, the first successful aircraft landing on a ship occurred when pilot Eugene Ely landed his plane onto the USS Pennsylvania (ACR-4). In 1986, Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Four (VX-4) celebrated the 75th anniversary of this historic occasion by adding special "Vandy 75" insignia to select F-4S Phantom IIs.