COBI F-35B Lightning II Set 5912

COBI's F-35B Lightning II is a 1:48 model built from 614 blocks, 32.5 cm long, produced under licence from Lockheed Martin in US Marine Corps markings. The cockpit and weapons bay open, the controls move, the wheels roll on rubber tires, and AGM-88G AARGM-ER missiles are included. A pilot figure, a display base and a plate with the US flag complete the set. All markings are printed; no stickers.

The helmet costs as much as a house

The F-35 has no head-up display. The glass panel every other fighter has in front of the pilot is missing, and the reason is what he is wearing.

The helmet is built individually for each pilot, with the interior scanned and moulded to his head so the optics sit in exactly the right place. It projects flight information, targeting data and thermal imagery directly onto the visor. And it is fed by six infrared cameras built into the airframe, which means that when the pilot looks down at the floor of the cockpit, he sees the ground beneath the aircraft.

He can look through the aeroplane in any direction. That is the point of it, and it is why there is no HUD: the helmet does the job everywhere rather than only straight ahead.

Each one costs around 400,000 dollars, and a pilot cannot fly the aircraft in another pilot's helmet.

The B

This is the Marine Corps version, with a lift fan behind the cockpit and a swivelling rear nozzle that let it take off in a few hundred metres and land vertically — from small carriers, from assault ships and from strips near the front line.

In the COBI range

Set 5895 is the F-35B in Italian markings and 5904 the F-35A Husarz in Polish colours.

Specifications

Pieces: 614 · Figures: 1 pilot · Scale: 1:48 · Licensed by Lockheed Martin · No stickers
Model dimensions: 32.5 × 21.5 × 9.5 cm (12.8 × 8.5 × 3.7 in)