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Originally designed as a half scale model of a planned jet airliner it became apparent during the design phase that the layout was unsuitable and but it continued as research a/c for investigating the characteristics of swept wings. Three were built. The first used a Vampire front fuselage and was used for low speed research. It crashed after spinning at low altitude. The second was used for high speed work but crashed whist practising for an attempt on the world speed record. The third, modelled here, had a modified fuselage having a more pointed nose and a lowered, more streamlined, canopy. It first flew in July 1947 and in September 1948 became the first British a/c to exceed the speed of sound, although completely out of control at the time! It was passed to the RAE in November 1949 for further research but crashed in September 1950 for reasons unknown but believed to be pilot incapacitation due to lack of oxygen. I once heard Eric Brown describe it as the most dangerous aircraft that he had flown. This resin kit was produced by Planet models and went together fairly easily. There are three basic components, the upper and lower halves of the wing/fuselage and the rudder, all nicely moulded and free from pinholes. The most notable problem being the fit of the upper front fuselage – it doesn’t and requires filler to correct a large gap between the front portions ahead of the canopy. I realised later that I should have spent some time thinning the rear sections of the wing to produce a sharper trailing edge. The kit is supplied with two vacform canopies. Unfortunately there is a flaw in that the frame which runs down the centre of the forward section is not quite in the centre. I had to trim the top of the pilot's seat to stop it fouling the canopy.. Not a big deal as it is hardly visible. One final problem appeared whilst fitting the u/c. The a/c sits slightly nose up and the model does not. It is partly due to the mainwheels being oversize, compared to Barrie Hygates drawing, and something else which I could not work out. I ended up shortening the legs to get it to look right. In fact the original legs looked far too long to retract into the wells whereas the shorter legs look to be about the right length. The finish is Alclad Airframe Aluminium over gloss black enamel followed by a light coat of Alclad Aluminium to reduce the shine. John Whilst putting it in the display cabinet I was reminded that I had seen that wing planform before... I had always thought of the 108 as being small but, as a half-scale model of the proposed DH 106 it had a span of 39ft (about 12m) Compare it with its American equivalent the Northrop X-4

Now that I getting close to the end of the Hawker Typhoon, I decided to make a start on my next one, it is the rather nice Academy P38 Lightning. I will be building it in Chinese National Air Force colours as used in the civil war. I have the Blue Rider decal sheet which has the decasl for the F5E recon variant but has enough other decals for me do do the normal P38L variant by using the one for other fighters. I also have the Eduard PE set and Master barrels replacement set (after trying these on the Typhoon I think these will be an automatic upgrade when available). So here is the inevetible kit pictures and the start I made last night waiting for the oil wash on the Tiffy to dry. IMGA0960 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0962 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0961 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0963 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0967 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0968 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0969 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0970 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0971 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0975 by neil Connor, on Flickr Thats it so far, the PE has been well fitting so far even the five parts that went into the wheel well by needed no trimming to fit. I need to find the correct USAF interior green as I only have RAF interior green before I can go any further on the cockpit, if anyone knows the Tamiya number tht would be helpful. As usual any comment are welcome.

The World Army Air Force ‘Viper’ is a single-seat strike aircraft capable of 3,000mph. Developed by International Engineering (2068), it was adopted by the Red Arrows Aerobatic Display Team for the 2070 display season.

Zvezda is finally making a Mig-29! (At least I think this is not another version of the old rebox?) http://www.zvezda.org.ru/samolety-1-72/7278/

Hi folks, second Hurricane of the day.Revells mkII in desert colours,same comments as earlier post as far as construction is concerned overall a nice little build experience,thanks for taking the time to look.