COBI Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey First Flight Edition Set 5835

COBI's Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey First Flight Edition is a 1:48 model built from 1,136 blocks, 39 cm long with a 50 cm span, produced under licence from Bell Helicopter Textron. The engine nacelles set at any angle, the rotors turn, the cabin doors open with steps, the cockpit takes figures and the rear loading ramp opens. Two figures of the first test pilots in their distinctive flight gear are included, plus a reinforced black stand with double supports and a plate with the Bell logo. All markings are printed; no stickers.

The paint is the point

This edition reproduces the prototype's test scheme, and test paint is not decoration. High-visibility panels, contrasting sections and reference markings exist so that engineers watching from the ground and from chase aircraft can see the aircraft's exact attitude and the position of every moving surface, frame by frame, on film.

The V-22 needed that more than most. Its first flight was on 19 March 1989, and the thing it had to prove was the conversion — rotating twelve-metre rotors from vertical to horizontal while airborne, a manoeuvre no production aircraft had performed. Engineers needed to see precisely where the nacelles were at every moment.

Why it cannot land like an aeroplane

With the nacelles horizontal the rotors are far too large in diameter to clear the ground. An Osprey cannot make a conventional runway landing at all: the blades would strike the surface.

So every landing is vertical or short, with the nacelles tilted. That single geometric fact is why the aircraft is what it is, and it is visible on this model the moment you turn the nacelles forward and set it down.

One service said no

The Osprey serves with the US Marine Corps, the Navy and Air Force special operations. The US Army is the only branch that never took it — it had assessed the tiltrotor and concluded the cost and complexity were not worth it for its missions.

In the COBI range

Set 5836 is the same aircraft in standard service markings with 1,090 pieces.

Specifications

Pieces: 1,136 · Figures: 2 test pilots · Scale: 1:48 · Licensed by Bell · No stickers
Model dimensions: 39 × 50 × 15 cm (15.4 × 19.7 × 5.9 in)