F/A-18E SUPER HORNET The end of the Cold War led to a period of military budget cuts and considerable restructuring. At the same time, U.S. Naval Aviation faced a number of problems. The McDonnell Douglas A-12 Avenger II Advanced Tactical Aircraft (ATA) was canceled in 1991 after the program ran into serious problems; it was intended to replace the…
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KI-21-1B “SALLY” JAPANESE HEAVY BOMBER The Mitsubishi Ki-21, formal designation “Type 97 Heavy Bomber” (九七式重爆撃機, Kyūnana-shiki jūbakugekiki) was a Japanese heavy bomber during World War II. It began operations during the Second Sino-Japanese War participating in the Nomonhan Incident, and in the first stages of the Pacific War, including the Malayan, Burmese, Dutch East Indies and New Guinea Campaigns. It was also used to attack targets as far-flung as western China, India and northern Australia.…
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F/A-18E SUPER HORNET The Navy directed that the YF-17 be redesigned into the larger F/A-18 Hornet to meet a requirement for a multi-role fighter to complement the larger and more expensive Grumman F-14 Tomcat serving in fleet defense interceptor and air superiority roles. The Hornet proved to be effective but limited in combat radius. The concept of…
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PILOT PAINTING Like motorcyclists, U.S. Navy pilots “dress for the slide, not the ride.” Their gear is meant for frost, flames, and flotation. Even the very first pilot to operate from a ship carried safety equipment: Eugene Ely, attempting his landing on the deck of the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania in 1911, took the controls…
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F-35A LIGHTNING II The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. Lockheed Martin is the prime F-35 contractor, with principal partners Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. The aircraft has three main variants: the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) F-35A, the short…
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F/A-18E SUPER HORNET The Boeing F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet are a series of American supersonic twin-engine, carrier-capable, multirole fighter aircraft derived from the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, in service with the armed forces of the U.S., Australia, and Kuwait. The F/A-18E single-seat and F/A-18F tandem-seat variants are larger and more advanced versions of the F/A-18C and D Hornet, respectively. The Super Hornet has an internal 20mm M61A2 rotary…
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IL-2 SHTURMOVIK The Ilyushin Il-2 (Russian: Илью́шин Ил-2) is a ground-attack plane that was produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the Second World War. The word shturmovík (Cyrillic: штурмовик), the generic Russian term for a ground-attack aircraft, became a synecdoche for the Il-2 in English sources, where it is commonly rendered Shturmovik, Stormovik[3] and Sturmovik.[4] To Il-2 pilots, the aircraft was known by the diminutive “Ilyusha”. To the soldiers…
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F-4G PHANTOM II WILD WEASEL EPISODE.12 In this episode we glue down the canopy, mask up the air-intakes, prime the canopy and our engine area ready for spraying, spray on mr hobby’s Natural metal finish, buffing NMF and more. Special Tools: Airbrush Consumables: Mr Hobby Mr metal color, Tamiya Masking tape Find Products In Store
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HELLCAT F6F-3 The Grumman F6F Hellcat is an American carrier-based fighter aircraft of World War II. Designed to replace the earlier F4F Wildcat and to counter the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero, it was the United States Navy‘s dominant fighter in the second half of the Pacific War. In gaining that role, it prevailed over its faster competitor, the Vought F4U Corsair, which initially had problems with visibility…
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F-4G PHANTOM II WILD WEASEL EPISODE.11 In this episode we show cutting canopy masks, using maskel by humbrol, cutting angles with tamiya masking tape, weathering some more of the cockpit, adding a rainbow effect to the instrement dsplay panel and more. Special Tools: Blade Consumables: Maskel by humbrol, Tamiya Masking tape Find Products In Store
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