COBI Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 GiNA Set 5843

COBI's Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 is a 1:48 model built from 576 blocks, 24 cm long, in the special Battle of Britain commemorative markings worn by an RAF aircraft. The cockpit opens, the ailerons and wheels move, and the landing gear detaches for display on the included stand. A nameplate is included, and all markings are printed — no stickers.

It cannot fly without the computers

The Typhoon is aerodynamically unstable on purpose. Its centre of gravity sits behind the centre of lift, which means that left alone the aircraft would tumble out of control within moments.

The reason for building it that way is agility. A stable aircraft resists changes of direction — that is what stable means — and an unstable one turns with almost no effort, because it is already trying to depart. A flight control computer makes small corrections dozens of times a second to keep it pointed where the pilot wants, and the pilot's stick sends a request to that computer rather than a command to the control surfaces.

There is no mechanical linkage and no manual reversion. If the computers stop, the aircraft is unflyable, which is why there are four of them running independently and voting on every decision.

The markings

This scheme commemorates the Battle of Britain — an RAF tradition of painting a current front-line aircraft in historical colours. There is a neat symmetry in it: the Typhoon defends British airspace on quick reaction alert today, which is precisely the job the Hurricanes and Spitfires in these colours were doing in 1940.

In the COBI range

Set 5728 and set 5762 are Hawker Hurricanes of the Battle of Britain, at 1:32.

Specifications

Pieces: 576 · Scale: 1:48 · Display stand and nameplate included · No stickers
Model dimensions: 24 × 19.5 × 9.5 cm (9.4 × 7.7 × 3.7 in)