1:144 Vickers Vanguard 'Landing Flaps' (For Airfix Kit)

A turboprop giant that came a few years too late

The Vickers Vanguard was to follow on from the success of the Viscount: a longer and wider fuselage, four Rolls-Royce Tyne engines and a cabin for roughly one hundred thirty passengers. It first flew in 1959 and was brought into service by the British BEA and the Canadian Trans-Canada Air Lines. But jets were entering long and medium routes at exactly that time and the carriers lost interest in the propeller giant – just under fifty of them were built. The type found a second life as the Merchantman freighter, in which it carried goods into the 1990s.

Flaps down

In a photograph taken on landing the wing of an airliner looks completely different from the one on a model out of the box. The flaps travel back and down, slots open between them and the wing, and the inside of the rear part of the wing and the guide tracks are revealed. The set makes this condition possible: it has the flaps as separate castings and with them a shaped trailing edge, which is set in place of the strip that has been cut away.

The work can be managed calmly while the wing is still free and not joined to the fuselage – a straight cut is then markedly easier to make and there is room to reach with a file. It pays to go by photographs of the real machine, because the angle of extension differs depending on whether the aircraft is still descending or already touching down. The reward is a model that on a shelf looks like an aircraft in its last turn, not like an exhibit in cruise configuration.

The set also suits those who build the Vanguard as a pair with the Viscount. The difference in the high-lift devices of the two wings is then visible at first glance, and the two machines side by side tell the story of one British line of design from success to embarrassment.