P-51 Mustang Tuskegee Airmen "Red Tails" 1:48 Scale Model Kit (5276)

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P-51 Mustang® Tuskegee Airmen "Red Tails" 1:48 Scale Plastic Model Airplane Kit. This is a 10" long plastic aircraft. This easy to build model requires no glue to assemble and comes with a base for the model to sit on and a Screwdriver. The parts are delivered already painted and decorated. Individually packed in a window box. 

The Tuskegee Airmen is the popular name of a group of African American pilots who fought in World War II. Formally, they formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the U.S. Army Air Corps. They were initially equipped with Curtiss P-40 Warhawks fighter-bomber aircraft, briefly with Bell P-39 Airacobras (March 1944), later with Republic P-47 Thunderbolts (June–July 1944), and finally with the aircraft with which they became most commonly associated, the North American P-51 Mustang (July 1944). When the pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group painted the tails of their P-47s and later, P-51s, red, the nickname "Red Tails" was coined.

North American P-51D Mustang

Designed to meet an RAF requirement for fighter-bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, the P-51 Mustang was first flown on October 26th, 1940. This versatile aircraft was capable of escorting bombers on long-range missions, engaging in dogfights, and dropping down to destroy German targets on the ground. At least eight versions of the P-51 were produced, but it was the definitive P-51D that gave the Mustang its classic warbird appearance. Britain and the US both tested the airframe with the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, which gave the aircraft tremendous performance gains. The Truman Senate War Investigating Committee called the Mustang "the most aerodynamically perfect pursuit plane in existence."

 

Age Recommendation: 8 years and up