1/48 High Plane Bearcat American Jet

Gallery Article by Ermanno Bonafin on Feb 15 2016

 

      

The American Jet is none other than the famous Conquest 1, which in 1969 won the world speed record at Andrews AB with 483 mph (about 777 kmh), with a Lockheed test pilot at the controls, Darryl Greenamyer (which later will become an astronaut).

The plane was heavily modified by replacing the standard canopy with Formula One racer Cosmic Wind canopy, also was suppressing the air vents in the wings, applying a fairing in the tail, significantly shortening the wings, sealing the flaps in the closed position and any other slot, mounting a spinner of a P-51H and installing the propeller of a Skyraider. The problem is that the propeller had a diameter so large, that the take-off and landing had to be made on the three points, to prevent it hitting the runway!

The plane won in Reno in the Unlimited category in '65, '66, '67, '68, '69 and '71.

Today it is in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, which is part of the Smithsonian Museum, as its owner and pilot Greenamyer in the1977 exchanged it with another Bearcat to be restored.

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I found some of these models on the internet, but they are all of a kind of yellow that is too intense. Taking as comparison with the yellow of Pennzoil logo, and with the help with the picture of the real plane in the museum, I reproduced the color with 16 parts of Tamiya X8 and 13 part with Tamiya X2.

The kit is nice and easy to build. Decals are very good and react well with Microscale.  The nose cone is painted with Alclad Airframe Aluminum.

My best from Italy!

Ermanno Bonafin

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Photos and text © by Ermanno Bonafin