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Showing results for tags 'AW52'.
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I reckon I might get this one done as I only have one other build on at the moment and that is at the painting stage. So what better than the AW52 'Flying Wing'. This was designed at the end of WW2 to test out theories around laminar air flow. To get a higher speed, jet engines were used (although top speed was disappointingly below what was expected)and a tailess swept flying wing shape was used as that was fashionable (the DH108, early Comet studies and some 'V' bomber designs all looked at tailess designs). Two AW52s were built, the first flying in November 1947. One crashed, giving its pilot the dubious distinction of the first pilot to use a martin-Baker ejection seat. The other was broken up in 1954. Laminar flow was rarely achieved as any surface irregularity, like a dead insect, broke the flow up. The Mikro Mir kit is a shortish run affair in grey injection moulded plastic with a small largely redundant PE sheet and some 3D decals for the cockpit. No resin or canopy masks and only a small decal sheet is provided for both white painted airframes. The kit surface detail is good, and both engines are sort of provided in full. Not enough combustion chambers are provided, but it doesn't matter anyway, as the engines are buried deep in the wings. The detail provided for the engines is a bit overkill in my opinion. There is some flash on the parts and very little in the way of assistance to fit parts together. The instructions sometimes depict parts that are not moulded as shown. This is going to be interesting. So far, some parts stuck together. Virtually all needed some fettling to fit together. Good job the model will be one colour, even if it is white. -
This is a build that has finished after being started in the Prototypes, Special Schemes etc GB. The AW52 was built to test the feasibility of the flying wing planform and also laminar flow, for a projected flying wing airliner. Two were built, the first one flew in late 1947 and crashed in May 1949, the pilot John Lancaster, becoming the first British pilot to make an emergency ejection. This airframe, TS363, being the depicted by the model. The kit is by Mikro Mi,r is a bit of a curates egg, but eventually built up into quite an imposing model. The WIP is here
