COBI Hawker Typhoon Mk.1B Set 5864

COBI's Hawker Typhoon Mk. 1B is a 1:48 model built from 190 blocks, 20.5 cm long with a 26 cm wingspan, with rotating wheels and printed markings.

The tails came off

The Typhoon had a bad start. It was rushed into service in 1941 to counter the Fw 190, and early aircraft began losing their tails in flight — the rear fuselage separating at the joint, usually killing the pilot.

The cause took two years to pin down and turned out to be a combination of metal fatigue at the transport joint and elevator flutter. Fishplates were riveted around the joint as a fix, and the problem largely stopped. Before it did, the RAF lost more Typhoons and pilots to structural failure and to engine problems than to the enemy.

Then it found its war

As an interceptor the Typhoon was disappointing above medium altitude. Low down it was very fast — over 660 km/h — and it carried four 20 mm cannon.

That made it the right aircraft for something nobody had designed it for: attacking things on the ground. From 1943 Typhoons carried bombs and then rocket projectiles, and in Normandy they became the RAF's principal weapon against German armour and transport, working in cab rank patrols on call to ground controllers.

An aircraft that had nearly been cancelled twice ended the war as one of the most feared machines over the battlefield.

Specifications

Pieces: 190 · Scale: 1:48
Model dimensions: 20.5 × 26 × 10.5 cm (8.1 × 10.2 × 4.1 in)