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Bellanca Peacemaker, Bamboo Fleet

 During the Battle of the Philippines, in 1941, the FEAF (Far East Air Force) of the USAAC, suffered enormous losses, during the retreat to Bataan and Corregidor, the fighting in the jungle was desperate, the surrounded and isolated troops had to be supplied and to be able to evacuate their wounded, to do so, there were no longer military aircraft, so the available civil aircraft were introduced into service, forming what was known as the Bamboo Fleet.

This was the "Old Number Nine", a Bellanca Peacemaker, which flew at night, over the battlefield, without weapons and without escort, landing on improvised runways, opened with machete, received by the Japanese anti-aircraft artillery, with urgent loads of medicines and ammunition, taking off under fire and flying hundreds of kilometers at night, as fast as possible so that daylight would not surprise them in a dangerous area, infested with enemy fighters, All this, in an old plane, repaired a thousand times, slow and with very basic instruments.

Model used an old Lindberg Piper in 1/48, added with pieces made with scratch, to represent a Bellanca in 1/72, paint El Viejo Marino, all with a brush.

Republic Ford JB-2 / KGW-1 Loon

 The V-1 flying bomb was an impact in air combat, bombing a target, without risking pilots or planes, it was revolutionary, the first example of a self-guided missile, which we now know as a cruise missile, the idea immediately caught on in all the forces. airlines in the world, which began to develop their own models, but they were decades behind in technology, so the most natural thing was that they copied the V-1.

The curious thing is that the Americans began to copy the V-1, before being mass produced, when they were able to get their hands on the destroyed body of a prototype. The effort was so great that the first models were delivered in September 1944, few Months after the first V-1 was launched, the reverse engineering did not work very well, and corrections had to be made, so it was not ready until April 1945, when its mass production was authorized, by then Germany had been almost defeated, so its use against Japan was planned.

Its development after the war was very limited, it was overshadowed by the V-2, more powerful, with greater range and more difficult to intercept, however, the USN saw that it was an excellent weapon to increase the power of fire from their submarines, which paved the way for the Polaris Missiles

This model is from Scratch, using a main exterior tank from an F-4, and material from a milk bottle and a straw, the paint is Old Marine, all with a brush.

Welcome to American Wings

 Welcome to American Wings, a Blog dedicated to teh Art of Modelling US Airplanes, mainly in 1/72 scale, from the USAF, USAAF and USAAC eras, here I wiĺl talk about camouflages, models, history, and so on, will be a fun place, to our hobbie.