COBI Beechcraft T-6 Texan II US Air Force Set 26624

COBI's Beechcraft T-6 Texan II in US Air Force colours is a 1:48 model built from 197 blocks, 17.5 cm long with a 23 cm wingspan, with an opening cockpit, a turning propeller and rotating wheels. The blue and white training scheme carries the tail code RA and USAF star-and-bar insignia. All markings are printed; the set contains no stickers.

An American aeroplane from Switzerland

The T-6 Texan II is not an American design. It is a Pilatus PC-9, built in Stans in central Switzerland, which Beechcraft licensed and then rebuilt so thoroughly for the American competition that only about a tenth of the parts remained common.

What changed was everything a military trainer needs and a civilian one does not: a pressurised cockpit, ejection seats, an onboard oxygen generator, a stronger airframe for higher g, and a more powerful Pratt & Whitney PT6A turboprop. The result won the competition to replace both the US Air Force's T-37 and the Navy's T-34, which is why a single type now trains pilots for both services in different colours.

The name comes from the T-6 Texan of the Second World War — the aircraft that taught a generation of American pilots to fly, and which is no relation whatever to this one beyond the job.

In the COBI range

COBI makes this aircraft in three liveries at 1:48: this Air Force blue and white, the US Navy red and white (26625), and the Royal Air Force version (26626).

Specifications

Pieces: 197 · Scale: 1:48 · Livery: US Air Force, blue and white · No stickers
Model dimensions: 17.5 × 23 × 5.5 cm (6.9 × 9.1 × 2.2 in)