This
is the 1/144 Revell kit with decals from F-DCAL. Really difficult to think
how you could improve this kit! Aluminium paint from Gunze as was
flat white. Most of my time went on the exhaust staining, Gunze soot then
dilute Tamiya earth tones and
a bit of grey.
Click on
images below to see larger images
With
a max take off weight of 63 tons it could haul 65-95 passengers at 340 mph
to a distance of 5,000 miles. Powered
by 18 cylinder Wright R-3350 Duplex Cyclone 55 litre engines. This was the
unique triple turbo compound engine where the turbo not only forced air
into the carburetor but also had a direct drive to the crankshaft to
augment the power.
The
Air France service from Paris to New York took 14.5 hours and Paris to Tokyo
taking a bone-aching 45 h. The long journeys were lightened by air
France’s excellent cuisine.
Andrew Johnson
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