Saturday, December 5, 2009

Wanna Know What U.S. Warplanes You’ll Tangle With In The Future? Visit An Aerospace Model Shop.

At Northrop Grumman’s model shop in El Segundo, California, Gary Miley applies gel to form a mold he will use to create a model blank. (Chad Slattery)

From Air And Space Smithsonian:

Shortly after 9 p.m. on a rainy February night in Los Angeles, Tony Chong switched on his home computer, logged into eBay, and began his nightly aircraft hunt. For more than two decades, Chong had been making exquisite aircraft models at Northrop Grumman’s display model shop—and collecting the rare desktop models his company and other U.S. airplane makers distributed to promote their programs. Often the listings on eBay were for castoffs, but that night in 2005 one model gave him a jolt: Painted in mottled camouflage and balanced on a familiar pentagon base, it was an 18-inch-long concept model of a Northrop Grumman FB-23 advanced bomber.

Read more ....

My Comment: This is a fascinating read on the future of military aviation .... read it all.

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