A friend of mine, and former mentor, is laid up at home recovering from open heart surgery. When I was working for him about 4 years ago, I recall he mentioned that he flew reconnaissance for the US Air Force, including missions over the Soviet Union. I’m thinking that this would have been during the early or middle '70s.
I thought he might enjoy it if I sent him a model kit of a fighter jet from that era - something to work on while he’s out of comission. But I don’t know anything about military aircraft. Anybody suggestions?
During the late 1940s and all of the 1950s, we had several different aircraft that overflew the edges of the Soviet Union on elint, comint and photint missions. These included the EC-121, EC-130, U-2, RB-57, EB-47, RB-47, EC-47, C-97, C-54, T-33, T-39, B-29, B-50, B-45 and probably a few more. Francis Gary Powers was flying a U-2 over Sverdlovsk, USSR, on May 1, 1960 when he was shot down and captured. President Eisenhower made a promise that there would never be anymore manned overflights of the Soviet Union. We have been able to keep that promise because of the advent of satellite photography which is more comprehensive and better quality. We have continued to fly perifery missions around the borders of the USSR with EC-135s, RC-135s, SR-71s, U-2s, EC-121s and a few other platforms. You probably should ask your friend what type of aircraft he flew so that you could make one of that flavor.
Yardbird has the right idea…
Ask him which a/c he flew - and make one of those. I can pretty much guarantee he’ll get a bigger kick out of seing a replica of a familiar aircraft than one he never flew.
I took your advice and finally decided to contact him (ruin the surprise factor) to find out . Turns out he was an Air Force instructor and flight examiner (flew checkrides on rated pilots) on the T-37 twin engine jet, and was first pilot on the T-38.
Anyone have a recommendation on a specific model kit?
The T-37 was the Cessna Dragonfly. My little brother has the 1/72 scale Hasegawa kit of the attack version. It looks like a pretty good little kit. As for the T-38,I belive that Sword just came out with a new 1/72nd scale kit. I think that the only problems were a gap between the fuselage and the wing roots, incorrect main gear wells, and that there was a bunch of tiny photoetched pieces that were ummm…real small. Hasegawa had one out, but it was basically a glorified F-5F. Oh yeah, me being a primarily aircraft builder and not having hardly any idea about new armor models (I was watching that new Academy M-3 Lee, 'cause I love Lees!), I was wondering if you have any idea about a new Comet tank. I got this off of some website that advertises here on the forums:
(BRC35010) British Cruiser Tank A34 Comet Tank 4n1 by Bronco Models
I saw it in the hobby shop today as well, and it is probably the first case of nostalgia I’ve had in my 15+ years of life, as the old Matchbox kit was the first model I ever built by myself. If you have any idea if it is any good or not, I would appreciate that.
To follow-up what Broadsword said… There aren’t too many kits marketed as “T-37”, but both Academy and Hasegawa make 1:72 A-37A/B versions. Additionally, there are a few after-market options for decals. As far as the T-38, this is more available in both 1:48 and 1:72. I think Fujimi makes a T-38. Sword did recently release and “T-38”. I agree that is probably a glorified F-5F. There are several after-market options for decals and resin upgrades as well. Hope this helps. Frank