COBI Beechcraft T-6 Texan II US Navy Set 26625

COBI's Beechcraft T-6 Texan II in US Navy 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 red and white naval training scheme carries the modex 010 and Navy insignia. All markings are printed; the set contains no stickers.

Ejection seats in a training aircraft

A student pilot on an early solo is the least experienced person who will ever fly this aeroplane, and the T-6 is built on that assumption.

Both seats are Martin-Baker ejection seats, and either occupant can fire both — an instructor can eject a student who has frozen. The canopy is designed to be shattered by the seats on the way out rather than jettisoned first, because a fraction of a second matters. The cockpit is pressurised and has its own oxygen generator, so a trainee learns high-altitude procedures for real rather than in theory.

The PT6A-68 turboprop gives around 1,100 shaft horsepower for an aircraft weighing under three tonnes, a top speed of 574 km/h and a range near 1,000 km — enough to fly aerobatics, spins and high-g turns that behave like the fast jets the student is heading towards.

Why this one is red

Red and white is the United States Navy's training scheme, worn by aircraft at the naval flight training wings. The Air Force flies the same aeroplane in blue and white. A pilot's first hundred hours look identical in both services; only the paint says which one.

In the COBI range

COBI makes this aircraft in three liveries at 1:48: this Navy red and white, the US Air Force blue and white (26624), and the Royal Air Force version (26626).

Specifications

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