1:32 Curtiss Jenny JN-4 PREMIUM

A second life in the 1920s

When the war ended in 1918, the United States was left with thousands of training Curtisses for which the army had no use. They were therefore sold cheaply into civilian hands and thereby opened the era of the barnstormers. The Jenny carried passengers on short rides, towed advertising banners and over country fairs wing walking was performed from its surfaces. Charles Lindbergh's first aircraft of his own was precisely a surplus machine of this type, bought in 1923.

The mail and flights without a radio

Aircraft of this family also stood at the beginnings of the regular air mail in the United States. The pilot set off with a map on his knee, without communications and with an engine that demanded constant attention; a forced landing in a field was part of the plan, not an accident. It was precisely this era that gave the type the reputation it holds to this day.

The PREMIUM edition in 1:32

The set captures the JN-4 version and carries the PREMIUM label, with which the brand designates a more richly equipped version. The real subject, with a span of 13.3 meters, comes out after reduction at forty-one centimeters, so the finished biplane needs a proper amount of room on a shelf. The building time depends above all on the bracing between the surfaces and on how much care the builder devotes to the pair of open cockpits, into which there is a good view once it is finished.

The real subject can be approached in two ways. Either as a strictly military training machine in the uniform coat of paint of the end of the war, or as a brightly painted civil aircraft of the 1920s, of the kind that carried curious passengers over their home town for a few dollars.