Wings of the Great War’s 1:72 scale Royal Flying Corps Nieuport 17 Fighter – Lt. William “Billy” Bishop, 60 Squadron, Filescamp, France, March 1917
Until we have evidence to the contrary, we are now presuming that AF-X, Luft-X and Wings of the Great War are no longer being made and have therefore been discontinued by our distributor. Any orders that have been submitted to us thus far for the pair of pre-ordered Wings of the Great War aircraft (WW19002 and WW11004) we were expecting along with any items marked as back ordered will now be cancelled. If our distributor has concrete proof that these lines will be continued then we will re-open the ordering window again and update our site accordingly.
So, news has been flooding in of late concerning the release schedule. To begin with, we now have a fair idea of which Eaglemoss Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica items are expected in November, and which have likely been pushed back to a late year arrival. Rather than list everything here, we’ve updated our Eaglemoss sections and release schedule accordingly. Bear in mind that Destination Star Trek, which is currently being held in Birmingham, England, will undoubtedly show off some new items, which we’ll add to our web site the minute the news rolls in.
We were under the impression that both Wings of the Great War and Luft-X were terminally ill and on their respective death beds and that we weren’t likely to see anything new from either line, much less receive our back orders, which have been languishing for months on end. Well, we’ve been set straight, so-to-speak, and can now happily report that both lines are expected to resume production in early 2020. We’re not sure what is happening with their distant cousin, AF-X, a similarly conceived line unveiled earlier this year, that has received little in the way of further reinforcements beyond the lone X-15 produced to date. Reading between the lines, that means AF-X will likely take a back seat until both Luft-X and Wings of the Great War have resumed their aerial campaigns.
Modelcollect seems to be back in the swing of things after lolling about with their fantasy-based Fist of War series. Two BMP-3s are schedule for a late year release and we’re willing to bet that other more-traditional AFVs are probably falling in behind them. While the Company has been making 1:35 scale model kits, it remains to be seen if they are giving the go ahead to a pre-assembled line of military vehicles.
As we indicated in a previous post, Dragon has caught its breath and is finally resuming production of their iconic Dragon Armor line. Three replicas, all based upon the Stryker family of Infantry Carrier Vehicles, are slated for a November roll out, although the manufacturer has been known to delay releases for extended periods of time. Stiff upper lip and all that chums as we await their release and hopefully more new items as we head into the new year.
That’s it for now, but expect further updates as we transition to a November war footing.
AF-X 1:72 scale US North American X-15A Hypersonic Rocket-Powered Aircraft – X-15 Flight 191, Michael J. Adams, Delamar Dry Lake, NV, November 15th, 1967
Earlier this month we discussed how newcomer AF-X intended to kick off its new line of high-flying aircraft with a 1:72 scale rendition of the X-15 hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft (AFXP001). Due out shortly, we decided to delve a little deeper into this project by shedding some light on the history of this particular aircraft.
X-15 Flight 3-65-97, also known as
X-15 Flight 191, was a test flight of the North American X-15
experimental aircraft. It took place on November 15th, 1967, and was
piloted by Michael J. Adams. It ended in tragedy when the aircraft broke
apart minutes after launch due to technical difficulties, killing the
pilot and destroying the plane.
Adams’ seventh X-15 flight took place on November 15, 1967, in the
number three aircraft. At 10:30 in the morning on November 15, the
X-15-3 dropped away from underneath the wing of NB-52B mothership at
45,000 ft (14,000 m) over Delamar Dry Lake.
While in powered flight, an electrical disturbance distracted Adams and
slightly degraded the control of the aircraft; having adequate backup
controls, Adams continued. At 10:33 he reached a peak altitude of
266,000 ft (81,000 m). In the NASA 1 control room, mission controller
Pete Knight monitored the mission with a team of engineers.
As the X-15 climbed, Adams began a planned wing-rocking (rolling)
maneuver so an on-board camera could scan the horizon. At the conclusion
of the wing-rocking portion of the climb, the X-15 had begun a slow
drift in heading; 40 seconds later, when the aircraft had reached its
maximum altitude, it was off heading by 15 degrees to the left. As Adams
came over the top, the drift briefly halted as the aircraft’s nose
yawed 15 degrees back to the correct attitude. Then the drift to the
left began again; within 30 seconds, Adams’ descending flight path was
at right angles to the attitude of the aircraft. At 230,000 ft (70,000
m), while descending into the rapidly increasing density of the
atmosphere, the X-15 entered a Mach 5 spin.
In the NASA 1 control room, there was no way to monitor the heading of
the aircraft, so the situation was unknown to the engineers monitoring
the flight. Normal conversation continued between Knight and Adams, with
Knight advising Adams that he was “a little bit high,” but in “real
good shape.” Adams radioed that the aircraft “[seemed] squirrelly,” and
moments later repeatedly told Knight that he had entered a spin. The
ground controllers sought to get the X-15 straightened out, but there
was no recommended spin recovery technique for the X-15, and engineers
knew nothing about the aircraft’s supersonic spin tendencies. The chase
pilots, realizing that the X-15 would never make Rogers Dry Lake, headed
for the emergency lakes, Ballarat and Cuddeback, in case Adams
attempted an emergency landing.
Adams held the X-15’s controls against the spin, using both the flight
controls and the reaction control jets in the nose and wings. He managed
to recover from the spin at 118,000 feet and went into an inverted Mach
4.7 dive at an angle between 40 and 45 degrees. In theory, Adams was in
a good position to roll upright, pull out of the dive and set up a
landing. However, due to high gain in the adaptive control system, the
X-15 went into a limit-cycle with rapid pitching motion of increasing
severity, still in a dive at 160,000 feet per minute. As the X-15 neared
65,000 ft (20,000 m), it was diving at Mach 3.93 and experiencing more
than 15 g vertically, and 8g laterally.
The aircraft broke up northeast of the town of Johannesburg 10 minutes
and 35 seconds after launch. An Air Force pilot, who was filling in for
another chase pilot, spotted the main wreckage northwest of Cuddeback
Lake. The aircraft was destroyed, and Adams was killed.
