Do you mean this one.
Revell did produce the Ar 555.
Yes, I built that one, but the one I’m talking about looks similar but is a WW2 German bomber that was to fly one way to the US, bomb their target and parachute out to be recovered by U-boat. It had jet engines on the top of it.
I was a big fan of the hypothetical planes of the 1980s and 90s. The Testors F-19 and MiG-37 Ferret (my personal favorite), the Stingbat stealth helicopter, this B-2 stealth bomber and the Testors Thunderdart and SR-75 Penetrator. This last one was quite a setup. One day, I should finish it.
That was the Arado Ar E555. Revell Germany also did a 1/288 scale “Sanger Space Transporter”, which was a ramjet powered aircraft mother ship carrying a piggy back rocket orbiter.
Do pigs really carry their young in this manner? Or was that how we used to take piggies to market? Should I be traumatized that my parents often carried me this way? My mother did mention from time to time that she wanted to slaughter me. [:P]
Speaking of slaughter, the Silbervogel has been under the knife over the weekend. I’ll be making a bomb bay and relocating the main gear further aft. Still trying to figure a strong way to attach the thin horizontal stabs.
It’s looking real ugly right now. [:O]. Will post pics this week.
I wasn’t sure if you meant the German one or the US. But ye, thats the 555. Built that kit a few years back, nice kit.
Thats the first time i have heard of the intention for the crew to bale out. The Silbervogel was intended to land on Japanese Islands in the pacific, though a post war study found it would not have survived re-entry as designed. The plan submitted in 1942 called for useing the Azores as a re-fuelling point.
Yeah, the range was only able to be one way. It is doubtful it would have been effective even if everything worked as good or slightly better than was hoped. Hit NYC or DC and go back over the ocean and eject to an awaiting U-boat. Not much of a plan and every successful sortie cost one aircraft.
Reminiscent of the thinly disguised one use airfields up in Northern Canada.
Bill
So over the weekend I glued the wing halves together. They only needed a little scraping down from the inisde. I have a ceramic scraper that works great for this kind of thing. Sorry, I forgot to take a photo; I’ll follow up with one. I also glued the fins to the horizontal stabs to see how strong the butt joints were. They seem OK.
I glued the landing gear doors shut and cut out the bomb bay doors.
So now I am committed to relocating the gear aft. I can’t see how the thing could land with gear so far forward. Oh yeah, one way missions ending with a bail out? Then no landing gear would be needed! I’m going to add some anyway, wishful thinking and all that. I was going to start the bomb bay last night but fell asleep on the floor again. Drats. I have chosen a bomb design that looks just as kooky as the Silbervogel.
This thing looks like something that would have been seen on “The Man in the High Castle”.
Definitely an attention getter when it’s sitting on the shelf!
Here is a sketch I made using information from Unicraft’s German A-Bomb set:
I KNEW it would be handy one day! My bomb of choice is the SA 4000. The Unicraft set was foisted on a friend who is endowed with greater modeling horsepower than me. The dang resin felt like Pez candy, and was bubbly as a can of soda!
That looks cool!!! Odd about the landing gear, I’d think maybe the weight would be forward in a normal plane but here the big heavy rocket engines would be in the stern so that doesn’t make much sense.
I read somewhere the Germans probably wouldn’t have had an A-bomb until 1960 or so at the earliest. A good number of the best German atomic scientists and engineers were Jewish. Executing your best experts, shoving them in camps, or pushing them to flee overseas wasn’t the best idea.
The Japanese were far closer to having the Bomb than the Germans. They at least were on the right track. They thankfully didn’t have the enriched uranium to build the thing. And having the Imperial Navy and Imperial Army running two entirely separate programs didn’t help.