EXHIBITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL PLASTIC MODELLING SOCIETY GLOUCESTER BRANCH

 CHURCHDOWN COMMUNITY CENTRE

 SUNDAY 27 MAY 2012

INTRODUCTION

Seen with the 1/35 scale Tadpole 9001 below is a militarised Model T Ford, although in 4mm few soft vehicles are available from the 1914-1918 era, especially in terms of the Central Power's inventory.

Similarly, the Alvis Saladin, introduced in 1959 as a replacement for the Humber Heavy Armoured Car, was more fully discussed in The Road to Feltham but - as the model below reminded exhibition visitors - continued to serve with British forces keeping the United Nations brokered peace on the divided island of Cyprus until the 1990s.

Although suffering from a tendency to explode when shelled due to their gasoline rather than diesel fuel systems, Sherman tanks were readily available to Israel in the decades after Independence in 1948 and so made ideal hydraulic observation platforms, mine sweepers, missile carriers and the like as more modern tanks such as the British Centurion were acquired.

The Eyal pictured above had its turret replaced with a 27 m (90 foot) tall hydraulically erected platform and was used as a mobile armed observation post near the Suez Canal before the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

The Israelis named the boosted Shrike system Kilshon (Trident), and after Israeli aircraft had teased the Arab air defences into switching on their search and targeting radar, the Kilshon - positioned in readiness near the battlefield - would lock on to the radar's electromagnetic signature and destroy the installation involved.

At least two batteries with 5 Kilshons each were operational. Kilshon was later further developed into the Keres (Hebrew for Hook) system. It used the Standard anti-radiation missile and was prototyped on a Sherman Kilshon chassis but eventually fielded on standard M809 5 ton trucks because the antiquated Shermans were being retired. The Kilshon and Keres were operated for about 20 years by the Air Defence Corps' 153rd Battalion, initially from Palmachim AFB and later on from Ramat David AFB

The SA-2, developed from the more powerful yet less mobile SA-1 deployed around Moscow in 1956, was the first surface to air missile to be used in anger, en masse, and changed the character of air warfare forever.

Known in the USSR as the V-75, the SA-2 was designed to protect both fixed installations and field forces from small groups of attacking aircraft rather than the thousand bomber raids that Josef Stalin had feared when he ordered the SA-1 into production in the early 1950s.  As such the SA-2 could turn through 360 degrees on its launching trailer but could not reload so fast as a missile on a permanent ramp and was not accompanied by radar with such a large target handling capacity.

However, although a typical SA-2 installation would comprise six missiles on mobile launchers in pre-built revetments grouped around central target acquisition and guidance radar, both missiles and radar systems could be rapidly moved on wheeled vehicles to another site if needed, sometimes in as little as four hours.  The picture above shows an SA-2 on its transporting trailer hauled by a six wheeled Zil 157 tractor unit.

Between mid-1958 and 1964 more than 600 SA-2 sites were identified by US intelligence in the USSR, mostly in defence of population centres, industrial complexes, government control buildings, nuclear facilities, ports, long range bomber bases and potentially hostile borders.

SA-2s were also noted on exercise with Russian army units in East Germany from 1960 although as they needed good roads and time to prepare themselves in new positions they again tended to be deployed around fixed high-value locations rather than being prepared to follow a fast-moving westerly invasion.

However, 1960 also saw the SA-2 gain worldwide attention as the missile that shot down the American Lockheed U2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers across Soviet territory from Pakistan to Norway.  Prior to this, the U2 had been thought unreachable by Soviet air defences due to its operational height of 68 000 feet - much higher than even the V-bombers of the Royal Air Force which began flying at low level from 1963.

Similarly, another SA-2 destroyed another U-2 at the start of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, killing the pilot, Major Rudolph Anderson. And the dilemma of the Israelis - of whether to face SAMs at high altitude or anti-aircraft artillery at low level - was first faced by the US Air Force when the USSR began supplying SA-2s to North Vietnam in 1965.

As well as camouflaging their SAMs, the North Vietnamese Army also located their target acquisition and guidance radar further away from the missile revetments, which the Americans were initially loath to target in case they killed Soviet missile technicians and so escalated the war.  Until countermeasures such as "Wild Weasel" electronic jamming aircraft could be deployed against the SAM sites, each pair of radar units could track targets from 70 miles out, acquire four at a time and launch as many as three SA-2s against any one of them.

The SA-2 had a solid fuel lower stage that launched at anywhere between 30 and 60 degrees above the ground and accelerated the missile unguided for about six seconds before the liquid fuelled upper stage ignited and rode a radar beam - generated from the ground to illuminate the target - at up to Mach 3.5.

The SA-2 also gained recognition amongst 1/72 scale modellers following the release of its Airfix kit in 1973.

Known to NATO as the SA-4 Ganef, each long nosed 8.8 metre long missile is effective at a range of between 8 and 55 kilometres and at altitudes of above 100 and below 27 000 metres.  The short-nosed 8.3 SA-4B introduced in 1973 meanwhile has improved close range performance to reduce the dead zone above the tracked erector launcher although this ability reduced the maximum altitude to 24 000 metres and the range to 50 kilometres.  Both versions have a fuselage diameter of 0.86 m, a wing span of 2.3 m and a tail span of 2.73 m. The high explosive warhead weighs 135 kg and is detonated by a proximity fuse.

An SA-4 battery typically features one tracked launcher with short-nosed and one with long-nosed missiles although the two types can be mixed on one vehicle.  An hydraulic platform on top of the armoured vehicle can rotate the missiles through 360 degrees and up to 45 degrees for launching and has crew access hatches on either side.

The torsion bar suspension consists of seven dual rubber-tyred road wheels with the drive sprocket at the front and the idler at the rear, and four track return rollers. The vehicle has an air filtration and overpressure nuclear, biological and chemical system and an infra-red night vision system for the commander and driver ( sitting on the left of the engine at the front) but no amphibious capability.

Like the earlier Bristol Bloodhound, each SA-4 is launched by four solid booster rockets - mounted externally on the body - which fall away after 15 seconds when the surface to air missile is 9 kilometres away from the launcher and travelling at Mach 1.1.  The missile is armed 300 metres from the launcher and while the four tail fins are fixed the two pairs of wings steer the missile through hydraulic power.

An electro-optical fire control system, resistant to electronic counter measures, is used once targets have been initially acquired on E-Band radar - effective at 150 Km range and 30 Km altitude and mounted on a lengthened version of the AT-T heavy artillery tractor with a large van body added, as also used for the SA-6 SAM. Target altitude information can also provided by 240 km range truck or trailer-mounted height-finder H-band radar.

Command and control of each SA-4 is through a continuous wave H-Band radar array mounted on a similar tracked chassis to the missile launcher.  This acquires the incoming target at 120 Km range, tracks it from 80 Km out and illuminates it with a guidance beam for the semi-active homing radar aboard the accelerating SA-4 itself, which also has a continuous wave transponder beacon attached to one of its tail fins for positive tracking.

Reserve missiles are carried on Ural-375 6 x 6 trucks and reloading the tracked erector launcher takes between 10 and 15 minutes.

Introduced in 1939, with a two man crew and a 400 bhp 12 cylinder BD-2 diesel engine, production of the Voroshilovets ceased in 1942 with only 1 123 units built due to the Germans overrunning the KhPZ factory in Kharkov and, later on, the STZ tractor plant in Stalingrad.

By this time the Voroshilovets was being built with the same V-2W 375 bhp 12 cylinder diesel engine as the T-34 tank and as production of this fighting vehicle took priority the tracked artillery prime mover had been re-engined with a V-4 motor before manufacture ended.

Despite its lack of numbers however, the Voroshilovets survived to take part in the battle for Berlin in 1945 and some captured examples were used by the retreating Germans.

Production was also cut due to the strategic demand for tank engines with the power plant being switched from the V-2W to the V-4 - the V-2W being needed for T34s. The longevity of the Voroshilovets was also a surprising aspect - several photos exist of the vehicle in the battle for Berlin in 1945.

On roads, the Voroshilovets could also manage 42 Km / h compared to the 56 Km / h of the 13 ton Stuart tank derived American M5 high speed tractor.

First demonstrated publicly at Tushino in July 1961, the Mi-10 was a development of the 1957 vintage Mi-6 "Hook" with a shallower cabin and a deeper tailboom to give a level and flat under-surface against which its various loads could be hoisted. In addition to the three strong crew, the Mi-10 could accommodate up to 28 passengers internally and either slung loads, cargo container or a special wheeled platform for vehicles, prefabricated buildings or freight pallets between the four long undercarriage legs.

A 1964 development, the Mi-10K, was characterised by landing gear 2m shorter and a rear facing observer's gondola under the nose from which the helicopter can be flown during landings on difficult terrain or when positioning over a load prior to pick up.  In normal flight, the Mi-10K only needed one pilot to control the 3 500 shp generated by its two Soloviev gas turbines. 

It is estimated that only 55 Mi-10 and Mi-10K were built before production finally ceased in 1977.

Powered first by a single Napier Gazelle and - from the HU5 marque - by two Bristol - Siddeley (later Rolls-Royce) Gnome turboshaft engines, the Wessex could be equipped with seating for up to 16 troops or 8 stretchers as well as being armed with wire-guided missiles, rockets, or machine guns.

XS877, constructor's number WA257 and the subject of this beautiful large scale model, first flew on 27 November 1965, was delivered to the Royal Navy on 5 January 1966 and served as a Search and Rescue aircraft aboard the carrier HMS Hermes.  The Westland Wessex HAS 1 later became instructional airframe A2687 before being used for fire training at RNAS Culdrose in 1993 and was finally scrapped at Predannack Fire School in September 1997.

JET AIRCRAFT

The first ever jet-propelled aeroplane to fly was the Heinkel 178 at Marienehe, Germany, on 27 August 1939, powered by a 1 100 lb thrust Heinkel HeS3B gas turbine designed by Dr Hans Pabst von Ohain but based on the initial theoretical work of Frank Whittle, who was then working on a practical jet engine of his own in Britain. 

However, as the German government felt that its conventional piston aircraft were sufficient for its current needs, Heinkel’s jet programme was not greatly encouraged and in 1940 Adolf Hitler personally decreed that all research and development projects that could not be completed by the end of 1941 should be cancelled. 

This hubris, based on the belief that Germany would have made peace with Britain and conquered the USSR by that time, led to research scientists being scattered all over the Third Reich and not being re-assembled until the Red Army had begun its inexorable march on Berlin. By then, two vital years had been lost and - impressive as its jet and rocket inventory became - Germany ran out of time in building these aircraft to repel the Allies.  Sadly for engineering history too, the Heinkel 178 was destroyed in a bombing raid on Berlin.

In March 1945 the entire 616 Squadron moved to Gilze-Rijen , where the Meteor F3s were temporarily painted all over white to try and stop Allied forces firing at them under the impression that they were Messerschmitt 262s.

They were finally allowed to enter enemy territory for armed reconnaissance and ground attack missions on 17 April 1945, by which time 616 Squadron had moved again to Nijmegen. 

However, only two encounters took place with the Luftwaffe. One was when a single Meteor encountered a German Fieseler Storch which managed to land but was then destroyed by the Meteor on the ground. The other was a potential encounter with several German Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf 190s, which was cut short when some Spitfires and Hurricanes appeared on the scene and opened fire on the Meteors, once again thinking they were Messerschmitt 262s.

It went on to serve the Royal Canadian Air Force for over 30 years, was one of Canada's greatest aviation success stories and was the only Canadian designed and built fighter to go into mass production. 

From 1950 to 1958, 692 Canucks were built and at one time were flown by 13 front-line squadrons before the type was retired in 1981.

In 1955 the twin engined fighter was also the first military jet aircraft built outside Britain to appear at the Farnborough Air Show and was the World's first straight winged combat aircraft to exceed Mach 1.

On 4 November 1956, 445 Squadron of the RCAF, equipped with CF-100 Mk. 4Bs, arrived in France to become the first  NATO unit to fly multi-seat all-weather fighters. Three further squadrons of Mk. 4Bs were added to the Canadian contingent in Europe during 1957 and remained until 1962.

The Mark IV was the major Canuck production version with 137 examples of the 330 strong production run being powered by Orenda 8 engines and designated Mark IVAs.  The remaining 193 operational Canucks were powered by Orenda 11 gas turbines and the final 50 airframes were retained by Avro Canada for conversion to Mark V standard. 

The Mark V could be distinguished from its predecessors by longer wings and tailplane and all armament being grouped in wingtip pods rather than a ventral gun pack.  In December 1957 the Belgian Air Force took delivery of 53 ex RCAF Mark V Canucks which gave long and useful service to their new owner.

Although soon outclassed as an all-weather fighter and replaced by the McDonnell Douglas F-101 Voodoo in 1961, the Canuck was found to be strong as well as heavy with an airframe life of 20 000 hours rather than the designed 2 000.  As a result, the "Clunk" survived as a reconnaissance trainer and Electronic Counter Measures aircraft into the 1980s.

The 1/72 scale models on display at Churchdown were made from Hobbycraft Canada kits and represented ( above ) a Canuck Mark IVB of 440 City of Ottowa ( Vampire) Squadron based at Bagotville, Quebec, in 1956 and ( below) a Mark V of 425 ( Alouette ) Squadron from RCAF St Huberts in the same francophone province.

The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo concept began with a Strategic Air Command requirement for an escort fighter and McDonnell's design team under Herman Barkey responded with the heaviest single-seat fighter ever built. Powered by two 5 307 kg Pratt & Whitney J57-P-13 turbojets, the F-101 would carry four 20 mm cannon plus three Hughes GAR-ID or GAR-2A Falcon missiles or 127 mm high-velocity aircraft rockets (HVAR) mounted on rotary bomb doors.

The first production F-101A flew on 29 September 1954 at St Louis, and exceeded Mach 1 on its maiden flight.  However, as Strategic Air Command had by then dropped its escort fighter requirement the 77 F-101As built went to the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing,Tactical Air Command from 2 May 1957.

The first of two YRF-101A service-test reconnaissance Voodoos then flew on 10 May 1956, followed by 35 RF-101A airframes delivered to TAC's 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at Shaw AFB, South Carolina. The reconnaissance Voodoo had a lengthened nose with space for downward or oblique cameras and other sensors and an RF-101A was shot down during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.

Meanwhile, the F-101B was the tandem two-seat all-weather interceptor version of the Voodoo for Air Defense Command, powered by two 5 438kg thrust afterburning J57-P-55 turbojets, which flew on 27 March 1957 at St Louis.

For long-range intercept,  the F-101B could carry two Douglas MB-1 Genie nuclear unguided rockets as well as three Falcons. Deliveries began on 18 March 1959 to the 60th Fighter Interceptor Squadron and the F-101B eventually equipped 16 ADC squadrons, guarding against the Soviet bomber threat to North America.  Very late in their careers, with reconnaissance Voodoos still needed long after the interceptor variant was retired, 22 of the two-seat airframes were converted to RF-101B. The TF-101B was a version of the interceptor with full dual controls. Air National Guard units operated the F-101B between 1970 and 1982.

The F-101C single-seat tactical fighter differed from the F-101A primarily in having the capability to carry a US tactical nuclear weapon, and 47 were delivered to TAC. The RF-101C, the first of which was flown 12 July 1957, was an improved development of the RF-101A with 166 being delivered to TAC squadrons.

The USAF began operating the RF-101C in South East Asia in 1964 and suffered its first combat loss on 21 November 1964 when an RF-101C of the 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron was shot down over Laos. Though not as much publicised as other combat types, the RF-101C remained in combat until 1970. No fewer than 31 airframes were lost in battle, plus another six to operational causes. In the mid-1960s, a few RF-101Cs served with the Nationalist Chinese air force, flying clandestine missions over the mainland.

Other Voodoo variants were the F-101F, the USAF designation for the CF-101F interceptor operated by Canadian forces in place of the controversially cancelled Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow, the RF-101G, a conversion of high-hour RF-101A airframes for reconnaissance duties with the Air National Guard; and the RF-101H, another reconnaissance conversion. One F-101B appeared briefly on the US civil register, as N8234, used for thunderstorm research by Colorado State University. A few CF-101Fs remain in service with Canadian forces for electronic warfare operations out of a total production was 807 Voodoos.

On 3 December 1945 a Vampire piloted by Eric "Winkle" Brown arrived aboard HMS Ocean as the first pure jet aircraft to land on and take off from an aircraft carrier while the first Royal Air Force de Havilland Vampires joined 247 Squadron early in 1946 and took part in the Victory Fly Past on 8 June 1946. With 45 and 72 Squadrons receiving Vampires in September 1946, the three units came together to form the first Vampire wing and were based at Odiham in Hampshire.

In July 1948 six Vampires of 54 Squadron made history by completing the first Transatlantic flight by jet aircraft of the Royal Air Force. After preparation at RAF Kemble they crossed to the United States, refuelling at Iceland, Greenland and Labrador on the way.

The success of the Vampire was phenomenal and more of these aircraft were exported than any other British type. The de Havilland Vampire was also built under licence in several Commonwealth and European countries as well as by English Electric in Lancashire.

Capable of many roles, including day fighter, ground attack fighter/bomber, night fighter and advanced trainer, the Vampire was still in service with many air forces - such as that of the unilaterally independent Rhodesia - as late as the 1970s.

This model of a two seat Sea Vampire T22 was built from the Classic Airframes kit by George Clark of Wallingford IPMS and represents a 1959 era aircraft based at RNAS Yeovilton under the command of Flag Officer Training.

The SC9 was eventually flown to the Battle Damage Research Flight at RAF St Mawgan in 1986 where it stayed until being broken up.  However, the cockpit and nose section was saved and is now owned with the aim of refurbishment by Italian enthusiast and collector Albino Panigarri.

Bearing the number 13027, the Jian-8II is a single-set, twin-engine, supersonic fighter aircraft developed by Shenyang-based 601 Aircraft Design Institute and Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) and based on the 1969 vintage Jian-8, itself having evolved from the Jian-7, a copy of the Soviet MiG-21.  Originally developed to counter high altitude Soviet bombers  the Jian-8II has involved into an all-weather multirole fighter with constantly developing beyond-visual-range air-to-air combat and surface attack capabilities

Compared to the Jian-8, the forward fuselage the Jian-8II was completely redesigned, with the original nose air inlet moved to the sides of the fore fuselage to provide space for a lager-size radar. The original two underpowered WP-7 turbojet engines were replaced by the new WP-13AII and the fighter was given a new fire-control radar with extended range coupled with an interception fire-control computer.  An autopilot was also added for all-weather interception and ground attack abilities with semi-active radar-homing medium range air to air missiles and air-to-ground rockets stored on six under wing and one ventral pylon..

The first J-8II prototype was completed in March 1984, and was test flown for the first time on 12 June. Since then however, development of the Jian-8II has been characterised by the changing moods of Chinese foreign policy.

In 1986 the the ‘Peace Pearl’ Sino-U.S. cooperation programme, which aimed to jointly counter the threat of the Soviet Union, saw SAC working with Grumman to upgrade the Jian-8II with  the Westinghouse AN/APG-66(V) radar, 1553B MIL-STD data bus, fire-control computer, head-up display (HUD), cockpit multifunctional displays (MFD), navigation system, and ejection seat.  However, although two of the Chinese fighters were tested at Edwards Air Force Base, the 1989 Tianamen Square massacre brought a sudden embargo on China by the USA.

During the 1990s however, both Russia and Israel are believed to have helped development of the Jian-8II, the latest versions of which feature flight refuelling probes, glass cockpit technology, new radar, avionics and powerplants.

Sporting canard wings nearest to the camera meanwhile, the Chengdu J-10 is a multirole all-weather fighter aircraft designed and produced by the People's Republic of China's Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation. Known as "Vigorous Dragon", the J-10 - which entered service in 2005 - is the most important aircraft designed in the past 20 years in the Chinese Aviation Industry.

The programme to develop the J-10, known as Project 8610, started in the mid-1980s. The aircraft was originally intended to be a high-performance air-superiority fighter to counter the then emerging fourth-generation fighters such as F-16 and MiG-29, but the end of the Cold War and changing requirements shifted the development towards a multirole fighter with both air-to-air and ground attack mission capabilities.

The development of the J-10 was reportedly assisted by Israel, which provided the technologies of its cancelled IAI Lavi lightweight fighter including the aerodynamic design and the software for the “fly-by-wire” flight control system. The development programme faced enormous difficulty in the early 1990s when China faced arms embargo imposed by the United States and European Union. In the mid-1990s Russian became involved in the J-10 development and supplied its AL-31F turbofan jet engine to power the aircraft.  The J-10 was first flown on 22 March 1998, with six prototypes produced for flight tests.

The single engined J-10 adopts the tailless delta-canard aerodynamic layout originally developed for the cancelled Chinese J-9 fighter.  When the aircraft pitches up, instead of forcing the tail down decreasing overall lift, the canard lifts the nose, increasing the overall lift. Because the canard is picking up the fresh air stream instead of the wake behind the main wing, the aircraft can achieve better control authority with a smaller-size control surface, thus resulting in less drag and less weight.

However, this configuration is inherently aerodynamically unstable, which provides a high level of agility, particularly at supersonic speeds but requires a sophisticated computerised control system, or “fly-by-wire” (FBW), to provide artificial stabilisation and gust elevation to give good control characteristics throughout the flight envelope. The J-10 uses a digital quadruplex FBW system developed by the 611 Institute and, as is the case with the Eurofighter Typhoon, the onboard digital flight control computer ‘flies’ the aircraft for the pilot, providing automatic flight coordination and keeping the aircraft from entering potentially dangerous situations - freeing the pilot to concentrate on combat.

China thus may have become the third nation in the world to develop and test-fly a full-size stealth combat aircraft demonstrator after the United States and Russia, although analysts have questioned both the low observable nature of the canard wings and other physical features as well as the role of cyber-espionage and the recovery of a Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk shot down by the Serbian army in its completion.

Although larger and presumably heavier than both the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor and the  Sukhoi T-50, the Mighty Dragon seems to have a front section based on the former and a fuselage and tail similar to the latter, with swept back all-moving fins rather than the trapezoidal shapes of the F-22. 

The J-20 may however also become the first operational combat aircraft that carries sufficient fuel to supercruise throughout its missions, doubling its sortie rate and also offering the pilot the luxury of fly by wire controls and a glass cockpit.  As such it may have a more important role as a light maritime bomber than an air superiority fighter.

PROPELLER AIRCRAFT

Following the initial failure of Operation Barbarossa - the Nazi invasion of the USSR which began on 22 June 1941 - to secure an immediate decisive victory, Adolf Hitler had rejected the advice of General Erich von Manstein to concentrate on destroying the Red Army around Moscow and sought both to continue the Siege of Leningrad in the north and to capture the Caucasus oilfields between the Black and Caspian seas in the south.  This would, it was hoped, provide much needed oil for Germany while denying it to the defending Communists.

Furthermore, on 13 July 1942, Hitler demanded that Army Group B of his southern forces would take the strategic Volga River crossing city of Stalingrad while Army Group A attacked Rostov at the northern end of the Sea of Azov, a body of water north of the Black Sea and linked to it through the Kerch Straits dividing the Crimean Peninsula to the west and the Taman Peninsula to the East. 

Rostov fell to the Germans on 22 July 1942 after which Führer Directive 45 ordered Army Group A with its specialist mountain troops to capture the Caucasus oilfields. 

On 9 August 1942 infantry units of the Army Group A's Seventeenth Army captured Krasnodar, the capital of the rich agricultural region of Kuban, just to the east of the Taman Peninsula, while the 5th SS Panzer Division captured its first oilfield further east at Maykop.

By 18 November 1942 Field Marshal Siegmund List and his men had reached further south and east than any other German formation on the Russian Front although as soon as the end of July 1942 List had at his disposal just 10 infantry divisions, 3 Panzer and 2 motorized divisions, along with a half dozen Romanian and Slovak divisions, to conquer an area the size of France.  By November too, Russian sabotage had destroyed vital equipment to make the Caucasus oilfields temporarily unusable and Army Group A's fuel supply lines were stretched to breaking point.

Indeed, by 1 February 1943 Army Group A had fallen back to areas around Rostov and also Krasnodar in Kuban following a bitterly cold winter, stiffened Soviet resistance under the command of Marshal Semen Budenny and resources being diverted to bolster the increasingly desperate Army Group B at Stalingrad.  Despite plan for the Seventeenth Army to capture several ports along the eastern coast of the Black Sea only the northernmost, Novorossiysk, had fallen on 6 September 1942 after being attacked by 6 German divisions.

Dislodging the Germans from what became known as the Kuban Bridgehead took until their evacuation to the Crimean Peninsula in October 1943 and was greatly augmented by increasingly confident Soviet air power overcoming determined and skilled Luftwaffe opposition. 

In fact, Soviet historians have suggested that the months of April and May 1943 over Kuban were as important to the outcome of their Great Patriotic War as the June 1942 Battle of Midway was in America's conflict with Japan.  It was a battle fought with such intensity that General K. V. Vershinin, the main Soviet air commander of the sector, claimed on some days he could see an aircraft fall every ten minutes, and it was not unusual for as many as 100 air battles to take place in a day.

The German Fourth Luftflotte (Air Fleet), which included the elite Udet, Molders and Green Hearts JGs (Jagdgeschwader, equivalents of Groups), was pitted against the Fourth and Fifth Air Armies, along with three air corps from STAVKA reserves.  Both air forces were roughly equal in size at about 1000 combat aircraft each with Luftwaffe fighter units mainly equipped with Bf 109 G 2/-4's and Fw 190 As against a mixture of the latest Yakovlev and Lavochkin fighters, along with large numbers of 11-2 Sturmoviks and Pe-2 bombers. In addition, there was a steady flow of lend-lease aircraft: Bell P-39 Airacobras, Douglas A-20 Havocs (pictured above), Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk / Kittyhawk and Supermarine Spitfire Vbs.

Formed in 1938, the 36th Fighter Aviation Regiment was renamed the 57th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment on 8 February 1943 while the unit was still converting from the Polikarpov I-16 to the Spitfire Vb.

Of the 149 Merlin engined Supermaine Vb fighters exported from Britain to the USSR, 143 arrived undamaged and the first 35 were unloaded at the port of Basra, Iraq, from the SS "City of Derby" on 10 January 1943.  The rest of the Spitfires were to arrive in March, but in February 1943 the first batch were assembled and moved to nearby Abadan for handover to Soviet technicians. 

It was also at Abadan that red stars with black outlines replaced factory-finished British insignia and once flown to the USSR via Tehran the 57th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment Spitfires received the new unit badge on the tail fins and a yellow lightning bolt along each side of the fuselage.

In a mock battle at the end of March 1943 it was found that both the Bell P-39 Airacobra and Supermarine Spitfire could out climb and out turn the new Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov  LaGG-3 but that both the Russian and American built fighters could out dive the Spitfire.  This was possibly due to the Spitfire's relatively light construction and high power to weight ratio.

On 24 April 1943 however the 57th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment relocated to Popovicheskaya stanitsa in Kuban as part of the Fourth Air Army and were in action four days later against Junkers Ju-87s.  However, one of the Spitfires was shot down by Hauptmann Gunther Rall, the commander of 8 Staffel JG 52, who later recalled:

"I wrote a summary of the battle, in which I noted the appearance of the Spitfires on the Eastern front. My group commander asked me for the time being not to discuss what had happened. ‘Perhaps you were mistaken, Rall? All this will only alarm your comrades.’ I responded that it was more likely that tomorrow we would encounter a large number of Spitfires in our sector of the front"

In fact the next day 256 fighters - including those of the 57th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment - escorted Petlyakov Pe-2  and Il-2 Shturmikov bomber aircraft against German positions and engaged in dogfights with both Fw 190s and Me 109s, or "Skinnies" as the Soviet pilots called them.

In fact the design similarity between the Spitfire and the Me 109 could be a two edged sword.  Although likely to draw friendly fire in the heat of battle, on one occasion at least some Ju-87 Stuka pilots mistook Soviet-flown Spitfires for Messerschmitts and had to scatter when they opened fire!

Soviet pilots also soon learned that their Spitfires could use the torque of their propellers to turn to the right much more easily than the Me 109, whose propeller, turning to the left as seen from the cockpit, could more easily turn port.  The Spitfire's metal construction was also more resistant to canon and machine gun fire than the wooden LaGG-3 and the lighter controls could also be set up for an individual pilot.

However, in the close range dogfights over Kuban, many pilots also felt that the Spitfire Vb's armament of two 20mm and four machine guns in the wings were too spread out compared to the LaGG-3's machine gun fitted in the V of its 12 cylinder engine and the Bell P-39 Airacomet whose unusual mid-engined layout had been dictated by the fitment of a 37mm canon firing through the propeller boss.

Similarly, the Mark V - despite being the most produced of any Spitfire marque - was by then more than 2 years old and technically outclassed by both the Fw 190 and the 1942 vintage Spitfire Mark IX.  The Spitfire was also designed as a high altitude fighter and developed less power and speed during the mid and low altitude battles over Kuban, while on the ground its narrow track undercarriage, relatively weak tyres and wooden Rotol propellers were not suitable to the many rough airfields that the Soviet Air Force was obliged to use.  In the same way, although the Merlin 45 engine was generally well liked by pilots for its smoothness and by ground staff as easy to maintain, breakdowns of the over-complicated water pump often led to coolant failures and the lack of a two stage supercharger was deplored.

By June 1943 too, vast numbers of P-39 Airacobra were arriving in the USSR and given the relative availability of replacement parts for the two aircraft - such as the Spitfire's pressurised carbon dioxide emergency undercarriage lowering system - the Soviet Air Force phased out is tired, over-worked Spitfires in favour of the American nosewheel fighter.

Numerically the largest group of squadrons to operate the Havoc were the ten Turbinlite units that had a brief existence from September 1942 to January 1943, when the entire idea was abandoned.

The Helmore / GEC Turbinlite was a massive  2 700 000 000 candle power 1 200 amp spotlight that was installed in the nose of an airborne interception radar fitted Havoc or similar Boston. A total of 21 Havoc I (Turbinlites), 39 Havoc II (Turbinlites) and at least three Boston III (Turbinlites) were produced. The lead acid batteries for the Turbinlite were carried in the bomb bay but only allowed two minutes of illumination.

The idea was that the Havoc would use its radar to find a German aircraft, then catch it in the spotlight and let a normal day fighter attack it. This approach was employed because the metre wavelength AI Mk IV radar sets of the time - attached to distinctive arrowhead shaped aerials - were too big for single seat fighter aircraft but the twin engined machines that could carry them were too slow to catch German intruders such as the Dornier 17 and Heinkel 111.

At first the Havocs operated in Turbinlite flights, starting with No.1422 Flight (Air Illumination Unit) working alongside Hawker Hurricane ( pictured above)  squadrons, but the two aircraft rarely met up, and so in September 1942 ten Turbinlite squadrons were formed, operating a mix of Havocs, Bostons and Hurricanes. This improved the cooperation between the two types of aircraft, but only one enemy aircraft ( and one unfortunate Short Stirling, from which the crew escaped!) were shot down.

As lighter, smaller and more accurate centimetric radar equipped faster Bristol Beaufighter and de Havilland Mosquito night fighters began to appear the Turbinlite concept was abandoned, and all ten squadrons were disbanded early in 1943. 

Boston IIIs fitted with Turbinlite equipment also served with 771 Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm based at RNAS Tern at Twatt in Orkney but the system lost out to the Leigh Light in illuminating U-boats surfaced at night.

When World War I ended, the German Air Force was disbanded under the Treaty of Versailles, which required the German government to abandon all military aviation by 1 October 1919.

However, by 1922, it was legal for Germany to design and manufacture commercial aircraft, and one of the first modern medium bombers to emerge from this process was the Heinkel He 111.

The first prototype He 111 first flew in February 1935 as an enlarged, twin-engine version of the single-engine 1933 vintage He 70 mail plane, which had set 8 world speed records. The second prototype, the He 111 V2 had shorter wings and was the first civil transport prototype, capable of carrying 10 passengers and mail. The third prototype,He 111 V3 also had shorter wings and was the first true bomber prototype. Six He 111C series airliners were derived from the fourth prototype, the He 111 V4 and went into service with Lufthansa in 1936, powered by a variety of engines including BMW 132 radials.

The first production models ( as modelled above by Robert Hepple from the 1/72 scale Roden kit ) had an orthodox stepped windshield and an elliptical wing - as favoured by designers, Siegfried and Walter Gunter - although the turning point for the bomber version of the He 111 was the installation of 1,000 hp Daimler Benz DB 600A engines in 1936. The first two mass-production versions, He 111E and F experienced great success with the Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War and were able to outrun many of the fighters sent against them.

In fact, the experience in Spain generated a false sense of security in which the Germans thought that the He 111's light armament and speed would be sufficient in the coming war. Thus, although it was out of date, the large numbers in which it had been produced made the He 111 the Luftwaffe's primary bomber for far too long in the war, availability being more persuasive than practicality for this serviceable, but highly vulnerable, aircraft.

Modern fighters like the Supermarine Spitfire and the Hawker Hurricane proved the He 111's inadequacy during the Battle of Britain. As soon as possible, the Luftwaffe replaced the Heinkel with the Junkers Ju 88, reassigning the Heinkel to night operations and other specialized tasks until, by war's end, it was being used primarily as a transport.

More than 7,300 had been built for the Luftwaffe by autumn, 1944, with another 236 He 111 H (as modelled  below from the Revell - formerly Hasegawa - kit by Robert Hepple) being built by the Spanish manufacturer, CASA, during and after the war as the CASA 2.111.

Some of these Spanish built aircraft were fitted with Jumo 211 engines, and later examples with Rolls-Royce Merlins. In service with the Luftwaffe from 1937 to 1945, the Heinkels remained in Spanish service until 1965 and were later used in the 1969 Guy Hamilton film "The Battle of Britain".
 

It is always nice when modellers take time and effort not only to evoke history but to pay tribute to the companies that made their modelling possible.  In this case the pre-Pearl Harbour United States Army Air Force was recalled by the grouping of models made from vacuum formed kits by Rareplanes, founded by Gordon Stevens in 1969 with a Seversky P-35 and available up to 2000, when the firm closed in the face of increasing numbers of injection moulded kits and resin models.  Having made some vacuum-formed models myself - and found how easy it is to take too much off a part without being able to put anything back - I can only applaud the standard of work on this diorama. 

The figures were instantly recognisable as Airfix ( the USAAF set having provided garage mechanics and military policeman in other contexts too ) and the very British Nissen Hut was once a giveaway on the back of a cereal packet.

First flown on 16 February 1932, the Martin B-10 was the first modern all-metal monocoque monoplane bomber to be produced in quantity and also the first to feature variable pitch propellers, thick wings with flaps, integral fuel tanks, internal bomb storage, rotating gun turrets, retractable landing gear and an early version of the Norden bomb sight..  All crew positions were enclosed, and with a top speed of 200 mph the B-10 was as fast as most fighter aircraft of the day and half as fast again as contemporary biplane bombers.

Beating competition from Boeing and Douglas to meet a USAAF requirement for an advanced bomber, the Martin B-10 was first used in early 1934 to replace private mail carriers - proving the best Army aeroplane for the job - before ten of Peyton M.Magruder's Wright Cyclone powered machines spent July and August that year flying from Washington DC to Fairbanks, Alaska and back as both a training exercise and proof that the United States could reinforce its outposts by air.

Among the B-10s export customers was The Netherlands, with 120 purchased to police what would become Indonesia, and Thailand, which only retired its Martin bombers in 1949.

The Northrop P-61 Black Widow will be a familiar topic to regular Gloucestershire Transport History readers in terms of its wind tunnel models and this splendid 1/48 scale model made an interesting contrast with the North American DT-28B Trojan pictured below.

Representing a US Navy Test Pilot's School example, it was built from the 1/48 scale Monogram kit with Quickboost engine and cowl, True Details wheels and Aeromaster decals.

North American T-28As were built from 1950 to 1953 - powered by an 800 bhp Wright R-1300 radial engine with a 2 blade constant speed propeller - and used as trainers by the United States Air Force, following on from the success of the company's tailwheel T-6 Texan, better known in Britain as the Harvard.

Also using the 1935 vintage two seater with the supersonic propeller tips  - and calling it the SNJ - was the US Navy which evaluated the T-28 as its replacement in 1952.  However, the Navy asked North American to replace the Wright R-1300 with the larger Wright R-1820, increasing horsepower from 800 to 1425, and changing to a 3 blade constant speed propeller for the T-28B variant.

The bigger engine also required a larger, rounder cowl as opposed to the A model’s tapered covering. Other major physical differences were 3 exhaust stacks on each side of the B’s versus 2 on each side for the A’s, a lower profile canopy, and a speed brake. 

The 1955 vintage T-28C was a T-28B with a tail hook for use on aircraft carriers, but 148 T-28A models in storage at Davis-Monthan AFB in were modified by Sud-Aviation in France in 1959 to create the Fennec, powered by a Wright R-1820-76A engine and fitted with hard points and armour for use in counter-insurgency operations in Algeria from 1960 to 1962.

US military T-28Bs were also sent to do similar work in Vietnam from 1961 and from then until 1969 a number of A models were brought up to B/C engine specification and - along with existing Bs and Cs - strengthened and armoured to create the T-28D.

The last US military T-28s were phased out in 1984.

Although by definition not a propelled aircraft, many early pilots would have first encountered fixed wing flight aboard a glider like the Camm Primary, modelled here from scratch in 1/24 scale.  Designed by F.J. Camm, details of this basic, minimalist - yet full sized - machine first appeared in his "Model Aircraft Book" of 1936.  Intended for home construction, Camm claimed the Primary was almost as good as many of the more advanced sailplanes of the era.

Frederick James Camm ( 1895 - 1959 ) was the younger brother of Sydney Camm - famous for his Hurricane, Typhoon, Hunter and Harrier aircraft designs for Hawker - and was himself most famous as a technical author, founding the "Practical" series of magazines for Sir George Newnes, who also published the Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Ekranoplan use so called ground effect – the extra lift of large wings when close to the ground or the surface of a large body of water.  When using ground effect, the amount of energy used to move in level flight is greatly reduced, which is why these ekranoplan - originally developed by the Soviet Union as high-speed military transports based mostly on the shores of the Caspian and Black Seas - mainly have so many engines on forward nacelles so that their efflux can flow over the wings and maximise lift.  Unlike a conventional aeroplane, an ekranoplan cannot fly efficiently above the influence of ground effect and is limited in performance by its wing size.

Rather like Sir Christopher Cockerill's hovercraft of the 1950s, ekranoplan are neither completely ships or aircraft in the conventional sense but in 2005 they were recognised by the International Maritime Organization and are thus perhaps, like hovercraft that ride on a cushion of air that they make themselves, viewed as a development of hydrofoils.  However, like the hovercraft, ekranoplan can also skim over mud flats, ice and flat snow and would make a magnificent sight flying up the Severn Estuary under the motorway bridges!

Indeed, Russian development of ekranoplan began in the 1960s with the work of Rostislav Alexeyev at the Soviet Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau, based on experiments carried out in Finland and Sweden in the 1930s.  Manned and unmanned prototypes weighing up to 8 tons led to the development of the 550 ton, 20' long ekranoplan pictured above, dubbed the Caspian Sea Monster by US intelligence when it first appeared on satellite photographs.  In tests, this was found to fly most efficiently at 66' above sea level at 200 mph, although it did achieve a top speed of 460 mph.

This substituted the Caspian Sea Monster's turbojets ( some of which were only used on take off ) for contrarotating propellers on the tall tail and turbine intakes set high on the nose as in all cases ekranoplan need to take off into the wind and - over water -  into the waves as well.

Two major problems also faced by Soviet ekranoplan were poor longitudinal stability and a need for reliable navigation at high speed so close to the water - an issue that still haunts ekranoplan today - as turning too sharply or hitting a big wave could have the same disastrous effect as a low flying aeroplane touching the ground with its wing.  Similarly, ekranoplan can easily pitch up and flip over backwards - rather like Donald Campbell in 1967 - and for high speed operation need clear visibility and plenty of open space without smaller vessels in the way.

However, having boat-shaped hulls, ekranoplan can easily alight on water in the event of power failure and can also taxi into sufficiently large moorings near town centres.

A special floating dock was built to maintain these vehicles but a second example, named "Spasatel" and intended for rescue duties, was never completed due to the dissolution of the USSR.

However, smaller civilian ekranoplans are still being developed and built in Russia with the Ministry of Internal Affairs owning three for rescue work, just as the RNLI in Britain use hovercraft on mud flats. 

At the same time that Russian ekranoplan were being developed, similar vehicles were being invented in the USA by Alexander Lippsch who had previously invented the Messerschmitt 163 Komet rocket fighter and then worked for Convair on their post-World War Two delta winged jets.  After many changes of ownership, Lippsch's original X-112 concept is now being pursued in Germany, Singapore and America.

Built in collaboration with seaplane builders Beriev - who had already flown the small Be-1 ekranoplan -  the prototype VVA-14 was designed to develop in stages with the M1 phase taking off from a runway powered by jet engines at the rear and the M2 phase adding jets at the front to blast lifting air under the catamaran hull before a battery of Short SC1 type vertical lift engines were installed.  The VVA-14M3 would finally be achieved by adding operational fly by wire controls, magnetic anomaly detectors and anti-submarine weapons.

The VVA-14M1 flew on 4 September 1972, and although engines at the front of the now-lengthened fuselage were added the envisaged inflatable pontoons had to be replaced by grey rigid ones under the white central fuselage.  However, the vertical lift engines were never delivered and so the airframe could only be designated VVA-14M1P as depicted in the model,

Despite the death of Robert Bartini in 1974, amphibious flight testing of the VVA-14M1P began on 11 June 1975 although after only 107 flights lasting a total of 103 hours it was retired to the Russian Federation Central Air Force Museum, Monino, where the fuselage is on show carring the Aeroflot number 10687 rather than the military number 19172 that it flew with.

Also of note are the 8" guns in the turret forward of the conning tower and the aircraft launching ramp and hangar at the stern - both of which were developed from British experiments.

His Majesty's submarine M-1 was launched in June 1917 and spent the last part of the Great War in the Mediterranean away from combat zones despite being fitted with a 12" gun fixed in a turret in front of the conning tower.  Originally conceived as a coastal bombardment system ( Much as the Germans had bombarded Scarborough from the North Sea on 16 December 1914 ) M-1 was later viewed as a ship killer, using her 15 000 yard range gun instead of torpedoes while semi-submerged.  However, this would have required very accurate aiming as M-1 could only reload its artillery when vulnerably surfaced.

Furthermore, by 1923 it was found that water corrosion to the gun barrel caused extensive damage during firing and on 12 November 1925 M-1 sank with all hands during a dive after the bows of the Swedish registered SS Vidar collided with its turret and ripped it off, flooding the rest of the hull.

Of her M Class sister ships M-4 was scrapped while still partly built, M-3 was converted to a mine layer in 1927 and scrapped in 1932, while following the loss of M1 the 12" gun on M-2 was replaced by a hangar and hydraulic catapult for launching a Gloucestershire-built Parnall Peto biplane which could be recovered after a reconnaissance flight by a crane.

However, M-2 was also lost with all hands, during a training dive on 26 January 1932 and later discovered with her hangar doors open and Parnall Peto N255 - only one of two built -still inside, suggesting that either the hangar doors were opened prematurely or that rear hydroplane failure had caused M-2 to sink at the stern allowing the hangar to flood.

The Royal Navy would never launch a manned flying machine from a submarine again, and a final attempt to put large guns on submarines with HMS X-1 in 1925 failed largely due to engine and mechanical issues.

However, despite the misfortunes of the Royal Navy - and the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty banning submarines from attacking merchant ships -  France launched Surcouf at Cherbourg in 1929 as the lead boat of a prospective fleet of seven commerce raiders. 

Named after the French pirate Robert Surcouf, it was at 361 feet long the largest submarine in the World and would only be exceeded in pre-nuclear times by the Japanese I-400 boats of 1944. Powered by two large 3,800-horsepower Sulzer diesel engines, Surcouf's top speed was 18 knots on the surface and ten submerged with a range of 10,000 miles.  The 3 304 ton submarine could also carry enough supplies for a 90 day cruise for a crew of eight officers and 110 enlisted men and, perhaps uniquely, featured a brig for 40 people rescued from merchant ships to be sunk or captured. 

Surcouf, it had been suggested, should also carry motor launches to pick up these captives but instead a Besson MN-411 floatplane was carried in a hanger aft of the tower both to scout for survivors and spot for the main battery.

The exact nature of Surcouf's torpedo armament is subject to debate among historians but the provision of two 37mm and other smaller anti-aircraft guns reflected the fact that the submarine took over two minutes to dive to forty feet and would be more likely to engage attacking aircraft like a surface vessel rather than flee under the waves.

However, Surcouf also rolled badly on the surface, was difficult to control in a dive, was never fitted with radar and, due to their position just above sea level, the two 8" guns had only a seven mile range compared to the expected 15 miles of similar guns in the turret on a battleship.

Having helped escort British convoy KJ-2 from Jamaica on 26 September 1939, Surcouf sailed from her home port of Brest in May 1940 to escape the approaching Germans and was docked at Plymouth when on 3 July 1940 the Royal Navy destroyed the French fleet docked at Mers-el-Kebir to prevent it falling into Nazi hands.

As Royal Naval personnel boarded the French ships docked in Britain to take control, one French and three British men died in a fire fight aboard Surcouf and of the remaining crew only two officers and 14 men agreed to join the Free French Navy, the rest being interned.  Relations with the Royal Navy continued to be strained, and it proved difficult to find any French men in England with any knowledge of the sea to crew Surcouf.

Indeed, Surcouf's following war record would reflect the fact that the Allies had little idea what to do with such an unusual submarine and after escorting two convoys from Halifax, Nova Scotia, she was sent to patrol for U-boats off Bermuda in May 1941, during which time two diving mishaps and a chlorine gas leak almost killed the crew. 

After being repaired in America - still neutral before 7 December 1941 - but without the specialised parts left behind in Cherbourg, Surcouf then led the 24 December 1941 invasion of the Vichy-held islands of St Pierre and Miquelon by forces loyal to General Charles De Gaulle: thus liberating the first territory from Axis control but greatly upsetting the Monroe Doctrine of the USA , which had also recently negotiated the neutrality of Vichy French colonies.

On 7 February 1942 Surcouf was ordered to join Free French forces on Tahiti in the Pacific and so travelled back to Bermuda en route to the Atlantic approach of the Panama Canal.  Due to the St Pierre and Miquelon invasion, further repairs in New Hampshire were impossible and when Surcouf set sail on the surface - never to be seen again - on 12 February 1942 she was in poor mechanical condition.  Among the 129 souls aboard were three Britons of the Royal Navy's liaison team: Temporary Second Lieutenant Roger Burney RNVR, Telegraphist Bernard Gough and Petty Officer Telegraphist George Mitchell.

Wild conspiracy theories about the Bermuda Triangle aside, it is most likely that Surcouf was accidentally rammed on the night of 18 February 1942 by the old American freighter Thompson Lykes, which had just left the Panama Canal.  However, in his book "Who Sank Surcouf?" author James Rusbridger states the records of the American 6th Heavy Bomber Group operating out of Panama show them sinking a large submarine on the morning of 19 February 1942. Since other records prove that no Axis submarine was lost in that area on that date, it could only have been Surcouf.

Whatever really happened, a conning tower shaped memorial to the brave but ill-starred submarine stands today in Cherbourg harbour, overlooking the sea.  The name Surcouf was later applied to a T47 Class fleet escort (1964-1972) of the French Navy and is currently carried by stealth Lafayette Class frigate F771, in service since 1993.

Less mysterious but just as controversial at the end of their careers were models of  three Royal Navy ships that started life being known as "through deck cruisers" - HMS Ark Royal (R07, nearest the camera) HMS illustrious (R06, middle) and HMS Invincible (R05, top of picture), represented at different stages of their careers.

The Invincible class design began as a 6,000 ton guided-missile armed, helicopter carrying anti-submarine escort cruiser intended to complement the much larger CVA-01 class fleet aircraft carrier. However, as CVA-01 was cancelled in 1966, the smaller ship was tasked with combining its established roles with command and control for the associated fleet.

As a result, its projected size grew to 19 000 tons as a "through deck cruiser" ( partly a euphemism for aircraft carrier following the CVA-01 cancellation ) format was selected ahead of a layout with heavy missile batteries ahead of the superstructure and a helicopter deck aft.  HMS Invincible was thus ordered from Vickers ( Shipbuilding ) at Barrow in Furness on 17 April 1973 and first commissioned on 11 July 1980.  Her Majesty's ships Illustrious and Ark Royal were built by Swan Hunters on the River Tyne and first commissioned on 20 June 1982 and 1 November 1985 respectively.

In addition to anti-submarine Sea King helicopters and Sea Dart anti-aircraft missiles, it was also felt that the new Invincible class vessels should be protected against Soviet reconnaissance aircraft by Sea Harriers, developed from the RAF's Harrier GR1 and, before that, the Hawker P1127 that had landed on the fourth HMS Ark Royal in February 1963 and the subsequent Hawker Kestrel that had touched down on the commando ( helicopter only ) carrier HMS Bulwark.

To more efficiently launch fully laden Sea Harriers from its short - 170 metre - deck, HMS Invincible was fitted with a 7 degree ski jump.  A similar curved ramp was fitted to HMS Illustrious and a 12 degree ski jump was specified for the fifth HMS Ark Royal.  However, the earlier ships were modified in uniform with HMS Ark Royal's ski jump in the 1990s.

As a secondary role, all three Invincible class vessels would also carry assault helicopters to reinforce NATO's northern flank in Norway, a task for which the current HMS Ocean was commissioned in 1998.

In the 1990s all three ships had their Sea Dart systems removed and the forecastle filled in to maximise flight deck space although after the 1982 Falklands (in which HMS Invincible served with the older HMS Hermes) conflict two different close-in weapons systems were added: Invincible and Illustrious ending up with Goalkeeper systems while HMS Ark Royal retained the earlier Vulcan Phalanx, identifiable by the white "R2-D2" radome on top of each gun.

HMS Invincible was decommissioned in 2005 and sold for scrap to a Turkish breaker in 2011 and HMS Ark Royal was similarly decommissioned in 2010. Following the retirement of the BAe Systems Sea Harrier on 1 April 1986 and the joint RN/RAF GR7 Harrier in 2010 only HMS Illustrious of the Invincible Class remains in RN service, flying Westland Merlin helicopters in the Anti Submarine Warfare role.  HMS Illustrious will be replaced as Royal Navy flagship by HMS Ocean after her 2014 refit until the latest Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers become available.

The Invincible Class aircraft carriers may have a bleak future and nobody knows where Surcouf is, but RMS Titanic,  launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast on 31 May 1911 has become an icon both as the "unsinkable" White Star liner of books, film and TV and as the silent wreck found in 1985 by Bob Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanograhic Institute.  This Revell model captures the melancholy grandeur of its latter state, complete with bows and stern in different seabed locations after the tragic collision with an iceberg  and loss of over 1 500 lives a century ago on 14 April 1912.

SPACE

Ending the IPMS show on a high however was a display of spacecraft with my old friend the Grumman Lunar Module appearing both on a lunar surface and folded under the Apollo Command Module and escape tower of the uppermost part of a Saturn V launcher.

However, no astronaut would have flown in space - let alone reached the Moon - without the launch to orbit of America's first successful satellite Explorer 1 on 31 January 1958, depicted here by Robert Hepple using the 1/6 scale kit first released by ITC in 1959 and re-released by Glencoe in 1991.

Explorer 1 - built by the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory -  was launched from Cape Canaveral on board a Juno 1 rocket modified from the US Army's Jupiter-C Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile. The 80 inch long, six inch diameter unmanned vehicle followed the first two Soviet Sputniks into orbit after the US Navy's Vanguard satellite had exploded on the launch pad on 6 December 1957.

At 31 lb, one sixth of the weight of Sputnik 1 launched on 4 October 1957, Explorer 1 was part of America's contribution to International Geophysical Year and remained attached to the fourth stage of its launch booster below the four whip aerials broadcasting signals from the first transistorised instruments to be flown in space.  Active until 23 May 1958, Explorer 1 was to make 58 376 orbits before re-entering the atmosphere on 31 March 1970, by which time it had discovered the Van Allen belts of protons and electrons - trapped by the Earth's magnetic field just as a magnet under a sheet of paper traps iron filings.