THE JET AGE RESERVE COLLECTION

MODULAR DISPLAY CABINETS

Making or collecting model aircraft, trains, buses or other vehicles is a rewarding hobby that stimulates interest in history,engineering, economics, geography and other topics, but always presents the problem of where and how to store and display the collection. As has been recounted on other pages, the models must be protected from dust, moisture and accidental collision damage but mere storage in opaque boxes robs both the modeller and collector and any other interested party of easy viewing.

Similarly, although many model railway and road vehicles are now sold in partly transparent boxes - such as the Gloucester RCW built coal wagons seen above - keeping them in these means that they are separated from the rest of the collection and cannot be readily compared with items of the same ilk. Moreover, the packaging for die cast model aircraft is usually bulky and completed plastic model aircraft rarely fit the kit box from which they came!

Similarly, apart from those designed for large scale model cars with pre-moulded transparent covers fitting relatively small plastic bases, such boxes are difficult and expensive to manufacture with more than one transparent face. For example, the display box with five transparent faces large enough to hold its 1/10 scale skeletal model Gloster Gladiator (pictured above) represented a major financial investment for the Jet Age Museum.

The new approach to cabinet construction with which the Jet Age Reserve Model Collection has been pleased to co-operate though uses only readily available materials and minimal skills to create - as can be seen courtesy of these photographs taken by my friend David Bunbury - a very pleasing and effective result.

At the heart of the new design is the Baby Bookcase sold through Argos Catalogue shops and also online at www.argos.co.uk . At the start of 2008 this could be found at the top of page 206 of the Argos Catalogue - under Lounge furniture - and cost £ 9.99.

A larger version - the Small Extra Deep Bookcase - costing £19.99, similarly featured two adjustable shelves and was available in the same range of wood finishes - Oak, Beech, Maple and Pine.

The Indonesian made Baby Bookcase ( Catalogue numbers 609/ 0083, 609/ 0090, 609/ 0100 and 610/ 9455 depending on the finish required ) externally measured 650mm wide, 165mm deep and 825mm high. A Maple version fully completed as per the instructions is on the right of the picture above but to the left - under the framed photograph - is the prototype modular display cabinet. This had the internal dimensions of 619mm x 160mm x 734mm.

The modular display cabinet comprised four outer planks and a stiffening plinth and back panel - held together by the wooden dowels, screws and tacks provided - and assembled with just a hammer ( with nail guide included in the package ) and a Phillips type screwdriver - ideally a ratchet one to drive the countersunk screws completely home. The two adjustable shelves were however set aside for recycling into other Baby Bookcases ( along with the plastic coated steel holding spigots provided if needs be ) and replaced with 6mm thickness perspex shelves measuring 619 x 150mm.

In the prototype example seen above, four shelves are used to display a total of 20 Spitfire-sized ( or smaller 1/72 scale ) aircraft, allowing underside detail to be appreciated on all but those on the bottom row. Further experiments have resulted in a Mark II cabinet with five shelves and a nominal capacity of 25 aircraft. In this instance, the top shelf is mounted on spigots inserted in the top set of holes and subsequent shelves on spigots in every other set of holes. The original prototype cabinet has now been upgraded to Mark II standard and a second cabinet - built from scratch to Mark II standards - has begun trials in the same location.

As an alternative, the original shelves could be cut down to the same dimensions if a smaller number of larger, heavier models were to be displayed. As it was though, the 6mm perspex did not sag at all under the light weight of the plastic aircraft and seemed stiff enough to cope with die cast model road vehicles - either marshalled in straight lines or angle parked - or trains on lengths of suitable track which would also help spread the load evenly.

Once the shelves were fitted tight against the back wall of the cabinet and the model aircraft placed in the desired order, the unit was sealed by placing a 6mm perspex sheet measuring 619mm x 734mm against the front of the shelves. This allowed the front of the large perspex sheet to be rebated 4mm into the cabinet, thus reducing the possibility of it accidentally falling out. However, although it seemed to be a snug fit and the imposition of load on the top horizontal plank would have further stabilised it, a tack was driven into the top of the left hand plank as an extra precaution.

In the future though, a more elegant safety device would be a lid with four vertical sides just long enough to halt any escaping perspex but short enough to allow the contents of the cabinet to be seen. This would also further load the top plank but be easily removable when access was required. In fact, for display from both sides, the stiffening back panel could also be replaced by 6mm perspex, although the integrity of the whole cabinet might be compromised if both perspex sheets were to be removed at once! The shelves would also have to be suitably narrowed, perhaps making such a double-sided transparent cabinet suitable for road and rail vehicles only rather than even small aircraft.

All the 6mm perspex used in this project was supplied by the well known firm of Haden-Browne Plastics ( 01452 525314 Fax 01452 300671 ) of 278 Barton Street Gloucester GL1 4JJ.

Despite being fitted with an 860 bhp Hispano-Suiza engine, one 20mm canon and two 7.5mm machine guns, the sturdy and highly manoeverable Moraine Saulnier MS 406 was still too slow and poorly armed for the Messerschmitt 109 opposing it in the 1940 Battle of France. 573 examples were built and some were exported to Finland where a more powerful Klimov M-105P inline engine was fitted to improve performance against Soviet fighter aircraft.

Along with the P-40, the Airacobra was one of the few U.S. fighters available in large numbers at the start of the war. While its lack of a turbosupercharger made it ineffective at about 12,000 feet - and while it was generally outclassed by the Mitsubishi Zero - it served well in the early months of the war in the Pacific. It was relatively free of mechanical defects and breakdowns; like most American aircraft it could absorb a lot of enemy gunfire and still return its pilot back to base.

USAAF ace Bud Anderson first flew the P-39 in late 1942, from Hamilton Field in Novato California while training with the 328th Fighter Group. As he relates in "To Fly and To Fight":

"It was a good-looking airplane. If looks counted for anything, it would have been a great airplane. And the Russians absolutely loved them, and wound up with most of them. Under 15,000 feet, the P-39, called the Airacobra, was a decent if underpowered performer. But the Airacobra was mincemeat above 15,000 feet, and useless in Western Europe, where virtually all of the flying and fighting was at double that altitude.

But in October of 1942, I was thrilled to be flying it. It was unique, with its engine behind the cockpit, and the propeller drive shaft running between the pilot's legs. It had a tricycle landing gear, unlike anything in our arsenal except the P-38. And the cockpit was more like a car's, with a door instead of a swing-up or sliding canopy, and windows that actually rolled up and down with a crank. You could taxi the thing while resting your elbows on the sill, like cruising the boulevard on a Saturday night."

When the guns fired, the pilot could smell the gunpowder in the cockpit. Bud Anderson loved that smell.

A third mission for the P-39 was reconnaissance, both air and ground. A fourth mission was "free hunt", wherein pairs of experienced Soviet fighter pilots were permitted to conduct deep penetrations of German airspace over land or sea to search for air or ground targets. A fifth mission for the P-39 was ground attack, primarily of soft targets such as troop concentrations, road convoys or trains, and airfields.

Contrary to popular myth, the P-39 was not employed as a "tank-buster" for two very good reasons. The M4 37mm cannon was slow-firing and only had 30 rounds of ammunition, and the Soviets never received M80 Armour Piercing Shot for this cannon through Lend-Lease. (Even had they received AP ammunition, it was only capable of penetrating 1 inch of armour at 500 yards. After 1943 there were not many German tanks that vulnerable, especially from the top quadrant.) The United States government did deliver approximately 1.2 million M54 High Explosive shells, however, and Soviet P-39 aces put them to good use against both air and soft ground targets.

The P-39, which achieved so little air combat success in other theatres of war, was effective on the Eastern Front due to the nature of the air war itself. Neither the Germans nor the Soviets engaged in high-altitude, long-range, strategic bombing and the bulk of Soviet war industry had been moved east of the Ural mountains beyond the range of the Luftwaffe. German medium level and dive bombers went out every day, escorted by Bf-109s and FW-190s, to find and attack Soviet Army ground units.

These bombers, and by necessity their escorting fighters, flew at altitudes well within the high performance envelope of the P-39-under 15,000 feet. The P-39, with its nose armament alone, had devastating air-to-air firepower. A hit on a German bomber with a single 37mm round was frequently sufficient to disable or destroy it. The Red Air Force compensated for the P-39's short range by locating their tactical airfields extremely close to the front line-often within artillery range. And during surge periods, when German air activity was intense, Soviet P-39 pilots were known to fly five and even six or more sorties in a single day. Within this combat environment, the P-39 Airacobra was as worthy of respect as the more famous P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt, and P-51 Mustang.

Though the new Grumman TBF Avenger was entering production as its intended replacement, the TBD-1 was the Pacific Fleet's sole torpedo plane for the first part of the war against Japan. It seemingly did well in the raids of February-March 1942 and in the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May, serving in both the torpedo attack and high-level bombing roles.

However, in the space of an hour on 4 June 1942, during the Battle of Midway, the TBD entered the annals of Naval history as a synonym for costly futility. Three squadrons of TBD-1s made heroic torpedo attacks on the Japanese carrier force, losing all but four of forty-one aircraft while achieving no hits. Old and slow, with a weak defensive armament and without self-sealing fuel tanks, the TBD had proven horribly vulnerable to enemy fighters, though this vulnerability was to a great extent typical of all torpedo attacks against well-defended ships.

At the end of the Midway battle, the Navy had just thirty-nine TBDs left. New Avengers quickly took their place on Pacific Fleet flight decks, but the older planes continued to serve (briefly) in the Atlantic Fleet and in training squadrons until late 1943. The twenty-one TBDs left in the US Navy inventory at the start of 1944 were mainly employed as stationary hulks for maintainance training, and all were gone by the end of that year. There are no surviving TBDs today, though hope exists for recovery, restoration and exhibit of a plane lost at sea.

The TBD's short production life, and specialized intended employment, precluded much variety in the type. The first production unit was converted to a floatplane, designated TBD-1A, and used for tests well into World War II. With the 1941 adoption of popular names for Navy aircraft, the TBD began to be called the "Devastator", but for most of its operational life, it was just known as the TBD-1.

The prototype, the XF4F-2, first flew on 2 September 1937 and the prototype of an improved version, the XF4F-3, was renamed the F4F and was ordered by the US Navy in August 1939. The first five aircraft off the assembly line were sent to Canada, with the next 90 (designated "Martlet Mk I" ) going to the 804 Squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm where, in December 1940, two Martlets ( nicknamed "Peanut Specials) made history by becoming the first American-made aircraft to down a German plane in World War II.

The first US Navy F4F-3 was flown on 20 August 1940, powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engine with 1,200 horsepower. The subsequent F4F-4, incorporating several improvements including folding wings, six guns and self-sealing fuel tanks, was delivered in November 1941.

It was then that the name "Wildcat" was first given to the F4F. As war raged around the world, the Wildcat's reputation and utilization grew immensely. It flew with the US Navy and US Marines in all of the major Pacific battles, and in North Africa with the Navy.

In mid 1942, Grumman realized that it needed to concentrate on the production of its new F6F Hellcat fighter, and so it contracted with the General Motors Company to build the Wildcat under the designation FM-1. The first FM-1 flew on 31 August 1942, and over 1,150 of them were produced, hundreds of which went to the Fleet Air Arm as the "Martlet Mk V."

General Motors next developed an improved version, called the FM-2 ("Wildcat Mk VI" in the Fleet Air Arm), which was powered by a Wright R-1820 engine with 1,350 horsepower. It featured a taller vertical tail than the FM-1. Over 4,700 FM-2s were built before the Wildcat was eclipsed by the more capable fighters which appeared later in the war.

Production of the F8F-1 began just six months after the first flight of the prototype, and the first airplane was delivered to the US Navy's VF-19 squadron on 21 May 1945. The Navy's order totaled 2,033 airplanes, and Grumman contracted with General Motors to build the Bearcat under license, with the designation F8FM-1. Only a few Bearcats had been delivered to the Navy when the end of the war halted production. Grumman cancelled 1,258 of its Bearcats, and General Motors cancelled its entire order of 1,876. Production resumed after the war, and several variants were made, including the F8F-1B, with four 20mm cannon in place of the previously-fitted 12.7mm (0.5 inch) machine guns; several night fighter variants (F8F-1N and F8F-2N); and a photo-reconnaissance version (F8F-2P). Production continued until May 1949.

At least 24 US Navy squadrons flew the Bearcat, some until as late as 1952, after which a number of aircraft were sold to the French Armee de l'Air for combat operations in Indo-China. Another 129 Bearcats were sold to the Thai Air Force.

Designed by twin brothers Walter and Siegfried Gunter, the Heinkel 112 was one of four planes designed to compete for the Luftwaffe's 1933 fighter contract, which was eventually be won by the Messerschmitt Bf 109. Small numbers were used for a short time by the Luftwaffe and small runs were completed for several other countries, but less than one hundred Heinkel 112 were completed in total. It remains one of the most obscure German production fighter designs.

In the early 1930s the German authorities started placing orders for new aircraft, initially training and utility aircraft. Heinkel, as one of the most experienced firms in the country, received contracts for a number of two seat aircraft including the He 45, He 46 and He 50. The company also worked on single seat fighter designs, which culminated in the He 49, and later with the improved He 51.

When the He 51 was tested in combat in the Spanish Civil War, it was shown that speed was far more important than maneuverability. The Luftwaffe took this experience to heart, and started a series of design projects for much more modern aircraft. One of these projects, Rüstungsflugzeug IV, called for a day fighter with a top speed of 400 km/h at 6,000 m (250 mph at 19,500 ft) which it could maintain for 20 minutes out of a total endurance of 90 minutes. It also needed to be armed with at least three machine guns with 1,000 rounds each, or one 20 mm cannon with 200 rounds. The specification required that the wing loading should be below 100 kg/m² - a way of defining the plane's ability to turn and climb. The priorities for the plane were level speed, climb speed, and then maneuverability in that order.

In October 1933 Nazi Luftwaffe supremo Hermann Goring sent out a letter requesting aircraft companies consider the design of a "high speed courier aircraft" – a thinly veiled request for a new fighter. In May 1934 this request was made official and the Technisches Amt sent out a request for a single seat interceptor for the Rüstungsflugzeug IV role, this time under the guise of a "sports aircraft". The specification was first sent to the most experienced fighter designers - Heinkel, Arado, and Focke-Wulf.

The request was later sent to newcomer Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (Bavarian Aircraft Manufacturers, or BFW), on the strength of their Bf 108Taifun advanced sports plane design. Each company was asked to build three prototypes for competitive testing. By the spring of 1935 both the Arado and Focke-Wulf planes were ready, the BFW arriving in March, and the He 112 in April.

Heinkel's design was created primarily by Walter and Siegfried Günter, whose designs would dominate most of Heinkel's work. They started work on what was initially known as Projekt 1015 in late 1933 under the guise of the original courier airplane, based around the BMW XV radial engine. Work was already underway when the official request went out on May 2, and on May 5 the design was renamed the He 112.

The primary source of inspiration for the He 112 is their earlier He 70 Blitz (Lightning) design. The Blitz was a single engine, 4-passenger plane originally designed for use by German national airline Lufthansa, and it in turn was inspired by the famous Lockheed Model 9 Orion mail plane. Like many civilian designs of the time the plane was pressed into military service, and was used as a two seat bomber / reconnaissance type and served in this role in Spain.

The Blitz introduced a number of new construction techniques to the Heinkel company. It was their first low wing monoplane, their first with retractable gear and their first all-metal monocoque design. Its elliptical, reverse-gull wing planform would also be seen on a number of later projects. The Blitz could almost meet the new fighter requirements itself, so it is not surprising that the Günters would choose to work with the existing design as much as possible.

In many ways the resulting 112 design was a scaled down He 70. Like the He 70 the 112 was constructed entirely of metal, using a two spar wing and a monocoque fuselage with flush mounted rivets. The gear retracted outward from the low point of the wing's gull-bend, which resulted in a fairly wide 9 m track, giving the plane excellent ground handling. Its only features from an older era were its open cockpit and fuselage spine behind the headrest, which were included to provide excellent vision and make the biplane trained pilots feel more comfortable.

The first prototype, He 112 V1, was completed on 1 September 1935 but as the envisaged Junkers Jumo 210 engine was unavailable a 695 hp Rolls-Royce Kestrel Mk IIS was fitted. Initial test flights at the factory revealed that drag was much higher than expected and that the plane was not going to be as fast as originally predicted. The V1 was sent off to be tested by the German Air Ministry (RLM) in December at Travemünde.

The second prototype, V2, was completed on 16 November 1935 with the planned 640 hp Jumo 210C engine and a three bladed propeller, but was otherwise identical to the V1.

Meanwhile the data from the V1 factory flights was studied to discover where the unexpected drag was coming from. The Günter brothers identified the large and thick wing as the main culprit and V2 was kept at the factory and modified with a thinner, clipped wing, which was expected to improve the speed of the plane by 25 to 30 km/h (15 to 18 mph) and allow it to compete with the BFW built Messerschmitt 109. This made the Heinkel 112 creep over the wing loading requirements in the specifications, but with the 109 way over the limit this wasn't seen as a problem and the V2 was sent off for testing.

The V3 took to the air in January 1936. Minor changes included a larger radiator, fuselage spine and vertical stabilizer, but it was otherwise largely the same as the clipped wing V2. Other changes included a single cover over the exhaust ports instead of the more common "stack", and it also included modifications to allow the armament to be installed in the cowling. It was expected to join the V2 in testing, but instead was assigned back to Heinkel in early 1937 for tests with rocket propulsion. During a test the rocket exploded and the plane was destroyed, but in an amazing effort the V3 was rebuilt with several changes including an enclosed cockpit.

The Heinkel 112 V1 arrived at Travemunde on 8 February 1936 with the other three competitors landing by the beginning of March. Right away the Focke-Wulf Fw 159 and Arado Ar 80 proved to be lacking in performance and - plagued with problems - were eliminated from serious consideration.

At this point the Heinkel 112 was still the favorite over the "unknown" Me Bf 109, but opinions changed when the 109 V2 arrived on 21 March 1936. All the competitor aircraft had initially been equipped with the Rolls Royce Kestrel, but the 109 V2 had the Jumo. From that point on it started to outperform the Heinkel 112 in almost every way, and even the arrival of the Jumo engined 112 V2 on 15 April 1936 did little to address this imbalance.

As would be expected the Heinkel 112 had better turn performance due to its larger wing, but the 109 was faster at all altitudes and had considerably better agility and aerobatic abilities. During spin tests on 2 March 1936 the 109 V2 showed no problems while the 112 V2 crashed. Repairs were made to the plane and it was returned in April, but it crashed again and was written off. The V1 was then returned to Heinkel on 17 April 1936 and fitted with the V2's clipped wings.

Meanwhile news arrived from Britain that Supermarine had received a contract for full scale production of the Spitfire, a far more advanced than any existing German aircraft.

This caused a wave of concern in the higher command of the Luftwaffe. Time now took on as much importance as any quality of the plane itself, and the RLM was ready to put any reasonable design into production. That reasonable design was the Bf 109, which in addition to demonstrating better performance was considerably easier to build due to less compound curves and simpler construction throughout. On the 12 March 1936 the Commission wrote up the outcome of their meetings in a document called "Bf 109 Priority Procurement". There were some within the RLM who still favored the Heinkel design, and as a result the RLM then sent out contracts for 15 "zero series" planes from both companies.

Testing continued until October, at which point some of the additional zero series planes had arrived. At the end of September there were four He 112s being tested, yet none was a match for the 109.

From October on the Bf 109 appears to have been selected as the winner of the contest. Although no clear date is given, in the book "Stormy Life" it is Stuka mastermind Ernst Udet himself that delivers the news to Heinkel that the 109 had entered series production in 1936. He is quoted as saying "Pawn your crate off on the Turks or the Japs or the Rumanians. They'll lap it up."

Perhaps he was not so far wrong, with a number of air forces looking to upgrade from biplanes and various designs from the early 1930s, the possibility for foreign sales was promising.

Heinkel had expected orders for additional aircraft beyond the initial three prototypes, and was able to respond quickly to the new contract for the 15 zero series aircraft. The new planes would be given the series designation He 112A-0. The first of these new planes, the V4, was completed in June 1936. It included the more powerful 210Da engine with a two speed supercharger that brought the power to 690 hp (507 kW) for takeoff. The only other change was a slight reduction in the size of the vertical stabilizer.

In July both the V5 and V6 were completed. V5 was built identically to the V4 with the 210Da engine, and it also sported two fuselage mounted 7.92 mm MG17 machine guns. The V6 on the other hand was completed as the pattern plane for the A series production run, and thus included the 210C engine instead of the more powerful but less available Da. The only other change was a modification to the radiator, but this modification would not appear on later A-0 series models. V6 suffered a forced landing on 1 August 1936 and was repaired and joined V4 for testing in October.

The last of the prototype A-0 series was the V8, which was completed in October 1936. It switched engines entirely and used the Daimler-Benz DB 600Aa, along with a three bladed fully adjustable all metal propeller. The engine was a huge change for the plane, producing 910 hp (670 kW) for takeoff and offering 33.9 l displacement at 686 kg (2069 in³ in at 1510 lb), compared that to the Jumo 210Da's 690 hp (510 kW) from 19.7L (1202 in³) at about the same weight. The V8 was seen primarily as a testbed for the new engine, and more importantly, its cooling systems. The DB 600Aa used a dry liner in the engine that resulted in poor heat flow, so more of the heat was removed by the oil as opposed to the water, requiring changes to the cooling systems.

In March of 1937 the plane was assigned to rocket propulsion tests at Peenemunde. It completed these tests later that summer (without exploding) and was returned to the factory where it was converted back into a normal model. At the end of the year it was sent to Spain, where it was seriously damaged on 18 July 1938. Once again it was put back together and was flying four months later. Its fate after this time is not recorded.

At this point the prototype stage was ostensibly over, and Heinkel continued building the A-0 as production line models. The naming changed adding a production number to the end of the name, so the next six planes were known as 112A-01 through 112A-06. All of these included the 210C engine, and were essentially identical to V6, with the exception of the radiator.

These planes were used in just as varied a manner as the earlier V series had been. A-01 flew in October 1936 and was used as the prototype for a future 112C-0 carrier based aircraft. It was later destroyed during rocket tests. A-02 flew in November, and then joined the earlier V models at Rechlin-Larz airfield for further testing in the contest. A-03 and A-04 were both completed in December, A-03 was a show aircraft and was flown by Heinkel pilots at various air shows and exhibitions, A-04 was kept at Heinkel for various tests.

The last two models of the A-0 series, A-05 and A-06, were completed in March of 1937. They were both shipped to Japan as the initial machines of the 30 for the Imperial Japanese Navy with an option for 100 more. The first four were shipped in December 1937 with another eight heading east in the spring, and promises for the rest to arrive in May. However, before delivery the Luftwaffe unexpectedly took over twelve of the planes to bolster its forces during the Sudetenland Crisis. The planes were then returned to Heinkel in November 1938, but the Japanese refused to accept them this late and Heinkel was left holding the aircraft.

Unfortunately this model was damaged beyond realistic repair on its return from the display cabinet experiment in April 2008 and is therefore no longer on the strength of the Jet Age Reserve Model Collection