Has anyone else been fortunate enough to view the Eugene Kettering Collection at the Museum of the USAF? From the museum’s website:
"This collection of over six hundred miniature model aircraft shows the evolution of aerospace technology during the 20th century.
From the first biplanes to modern jumbo jets, these models represent a technological transformation that was anything but small.
Donated by aviation enthusiast Eugene Kettering, the son of inventor Charles F. Kettering, the collection reflected his family’s fascination with machine technology. Eugene made a career developing diesel locomotives for General Motors, and he collected models of both airplanes and locomotives. He had these aircraft models custom-made out of balsa wood to an exact scale of four millimeters to a foot. Kettering hand-crafted a few of the models himself."
For a modeler, it is truly something to behold. The collection was taken off display a while back, but when I was there recently the staff were in the process of placing all of the models back in the public eye. These photos are just a small part of the collection.
The models were originally all built to 1/76th scale although in recent years the collection has been expanded with 1/72 kits. The models are all displayed in flight. There are no details to speak of. No cockpits, landing gear, no super detailed engines. Still, to my eye, this…
is more impressive than this:
I began to realize several years ago that if anyone is interested in accumulating a comprehensive collection of constant-scale aircraft their efforts will be futile in any scale larger than 1/72nd. Really, just where is anyone going to display their 1/48th B-52, KC-135 and C-141? So that’s the way I went and I’ve never looked back, leaving all those 48th and 32nd scale kits to languish in plastic totes in the garage. Lately though, maybe a year ago, I started thinking that even 1/72 will create a huge problem as I started to assemble some large aircraft. Sure, some have done it on a grand scale. Paul Boyer comes to mind. On a whim I bought a couple of 1/144 scale jets and have been collecting them since, and recently started building Academy’s new B-52H - a fantastic kit. Maybe, just maybe this is really the way to go after all, in order to wind up with something even remotely close to what’s shown above. Just thinking out loud.
This is the cockpit bits for a Sukhoi Su-24M.