1:144 Boeing B 707-124 'Landing Flaps' (For X Scale Kit)

The 707 with the suffix twenty-four

Boeing gave every customer a two-digit number of its own, which was attached after the designation of the series. The suffix 24 belonged to Continental Airlines, so the 707-124 is a machine of the basic short 707-120 series built for precisely that carrier. Continental began flying with it at the end of the 1950s, when jet operation was only coming into being and crews were learning to handle noisy engines which on takeoff on a hot day needed water injection. The customer code stayed with an aircraft even after it was sold to a further owner, so even years later it can be traced who the machine was originally intended for.

The wing in the landing configuration

The 707 has flaps led on tracks which run out under the wing in elongated fairings. When the wing gets into the landing configuration, a flap travels back and tilts down, a slot stays between it and the wing and the whole rear outline is lengthened. The set allows precisely this shape to be built.

The procedure calls for one straight cut along the trailing edge and a little patience in leveling the surface. Before the gluing comes it is worth putting the parts together dry and checking whether both halves of the wing sit symmetrically – an asymmetrically set flap is the one mistake even a layman notices on a finished model. It pays to paint before the fitting, because a brush gets into an open slot only with difficulty. Anyone who collects early jet airliners will appreciate that the same work can set a machine on approach apart from a sister piece in cruising flight. A pair on a shelf then does not look like two identical models but like two moments of the same flight.