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A Golden Eagle flies yonder The base for this model was a vintage RarePlane vacuform kit, rather basic and with a problematic "clear" acetate fuselage that gave more than one headache. Fortunately a beautiful set from Arctic Decals helped with the build. Much had to be improved on and added to the basic vac, and for those curious here is the step-by-step building post: The first ever built Lockheed Vega was presumed lost at sea on its way to Hawaii during the Dole air race. This competition attracted many pilots and designers, many of which had ad-hoc machines created for this event, not always blessed with sound engineering or aerodynamic qualities*. The news of the time tended to minimize the ill fate of many of the competitors and a number of the planes, centering in the achievements of the winners. Many of the participants paid a heavy price, and some of them the ultimate price. It's interesting that this very public setback did not affect the career of the Lockheed Vega, nor Lockheed's name, both on their way to fame, recognition, and achievements. In an era of clumsy biplanes (and even a few stubborn triplanes**) the elegant, refined, and harmonious lines of the Vega easily overshadowed almost all contemporary planes. The aesthetic qualities of the design are evident, even today. Aviation wasn't then mature enough to accomplish the feat of a completely safe flight in mass to an archipelago situated in the middle of the Pacific, something Dole shamelessly ignored -or chose to ignore- (too much money and power almost invariably produce selective blindness) so many participants ended up paying with their lives. But times were rapidly changing, and records, competitions and extraordinary feats of design, piloting and navigation will eventually open the world to the wings of mankind. Here is a photo of the race start lineup: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dole_Air_Race#/media/File:Dole_Air_Race_-_8091692321.jpg *Among them the Bryant Monoplane, something I would very much like to scratch: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/8091680924 **One of them, the Catron & Fisk "Pride of Los Angeles", notoriously trying to participate in the race: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catron_%26_Fisk_CF-10#/media/File:Pride_of_Los_Angeles.jpg

A build from 6 years ago: Every country and every time has its pioneers, many times unrecognized for one reason or another. Argentina is not exception and the work of Mr. Virgilio Carlos Mira did not get perhaps all the support it deserved. Mira developed its own designs from the remains of an early Bleriot monoplane. These designs evolved into a series of successful machines of which we present here the third iteration, the Mira 3 “Golondrina” (swallow). This plane flew through the 20’s and incorporated some devices that were practical, affordable, functional and clever. Some information can be found mainly in “Historia de la Industria Aeronautica Argentina”, by Francisco Halbritter, also in “Los Registros R 1928-38” by Gabriel Pavlovcic and the A.A.H.S. Journal of summer 1968. It should be noted, though, that as it is common with obscure types, some data found in these sources is not totally correct, and that there is some mislabeling regarding the five or so versions that were built. The first reference contains a plan that is absolutely off the mark for the stated version, the third. When compared with actual photos of the Mira III the plan is almost useless. The deviations are so many that it would be impractical to detail them all here. I started after gathering references by correcting the plan to provide for a better base for scratchbuilding. A few items as you can see in the photos are from my ever-dwindling stash of Aeroclub white metal aftermarket details. The rest of the model follows more or less scratch techniques that I have presented already many times, the images anyway tell the story. The rigging is relatively simple and the colors are based on a model that used to be at Aeroparque airport in Buenos Aires, Argentina, of which fellow modeler Armando Gil took a photo.