COBI F-35A Lightning II Set 5831

COBI's F-35A Lightning II is a 1:48 model built from 576 blocks, 32.5 cm long, under Lockheed Martin licence in Norwegian Air Force markings. The cockpit opens for a pilot figure with helmet and oxygen mask and hose, and a brick display stand with a nameplate is included. All markings are printed; no stickers.

Norwegian F-35s have something no others do

Look at the spine behind the cockpit. Norway's aircraft carry a brake parachute in a pod there, and they are the only F-35s in the world fitted with one.

The reason is the same as it was for Norway's F-16s: short runways, cut into difficult terrain, covered in ice for months of the year. Wheel brakes on a frozen surface accomplish very little, and an aircraft touching down at 250 km/h with nothing to slow it has a problem no amount of pilot skill solves.

Norway paid for the modification itself and had it developed as part of the programme, which is unusual — the F-35 is deliberately built as one design for everybody, and national variations are discouraged precisely because they fragment the supply chain. Norway made the case that without it the aircraft could not operate from Norwegian bases at all, and won.

The Netherlands later adopted the same pod, and the design is now available to other operators with the same problem.

Norway's programme

Launched in 2008 for 52 aircraft, with the first reaching operational readiness in 2019. They replaced the F-16s that had served for over forty years.

In the COBI range

Set 5904 is the F-35A in Polish markings and 5940 the 1:300 mini. Sets 5895, 5912 and 5830 are the short-takeoff F-35B in Italian, US Marine and RAF colours. Set 5913 is the Norwegian F-16AM, with its own brake chute.

Specifications

Pieces: 576 · Figures: 1 pilot · Scale: 1:48 · Licensed by Lockheed Martin · No stickers
Model dimensions: 32.5 × 21.5 × 10 cm (12.8 × 8.5 × 3.9 in)