SCALE MODEL NEWS

SMN report: Hasegawa of Japan is bringing us hot new and revised products at a pace-and-a-half. Here a taste of what’s in store - space, sci-fi, aviation, and... girls! Dreamliner The 1:200 scale Boeing 787 Dreamliner comes in two flavours, JAL (Japan Airlines) and ANA (All Nippon Airways), differentiated in several ways, such as the differing engines used by the two airlines. At this scale, the changes are visually minor, but Hasegawa has detailed everything you need for an accurate finished model. Voyager Real-space fans have a treat in store with the 1:48 scale Voyager space probe. Two were launched back in 1977, their mission to record data and information about the outer planets. After swooping past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, they are now drifting into interstellar space, beyond the Solar System.  Golden Record The Hasegawa kit includes a scale representation of the ‘Golden Record’, a video disc containing the sights and sounds of Earth. There’s one aboard each space...

SMN report The last of 195 F-22A Raptors for the US Air Force is now under construction, yet the entire F-22 fleet remains grounded over concerns about the pilot's cockpit breathing system inside the cockpit, which has been under investigation since November 2010, when an F-22 crashed mysteriously in Alaska. No emergency call was received from the pilot, and the assumption is that he passed out from oxygen loss before the crash. No flying high at present It’s a major blow as, without oxygen, Raptor pilots can’t fly at high altitudes. Yet technically, the F-22 remains the most advanced fighter jet on the planet, but its place is largely taken for the time being by the older F-15 Eagle. F-22s may yet fly on what are known as “national security directed missions,” but otherwise the high-tech stealth jet might as well be an expensive brick. Here's hoping the mysterious problem is cracked very soon indeed. Stealth weapons However, all that doesn’t stop the F-22 being a popular choi...