FLY INTO ORBIT WITH THE HERPA 1:250 SCALE SKYLON AEROSPACEPLANE

REPORT BY MAT IRVINE
It may not be too many years before the British-designed Skylon single-stage-to-orbit aerospaceplane soars into orbit. Until then we can dream on with this Herpa 1:250 scale model kit.

Skylon is the brainchild of quietly-spoken engineer Alan Bond (above), who in times past has worked for aerospace companies BAC and Rolls-Royce, but now designs with his own company, Reaction Engines Ltd, to develop ideas for a high-tech spaceplane. He wants to build a craft able to take off from a runway, travel into orbit, then return to a runway landing, like the now-retired Space Shuttle. But unlike the only partially reusable Shuttle, Bond’s Skylon should be able to do the trip without needing expensive throwaway boosters.

High-tech Sabre
To achieve this aim, Alan has designed the unique Sabre engine (above), which combines jet and rocket propulsion, so that the same engine can be used for flight in the atmosphere and in space. As planned, the Skylon will have a pair of Sabres, mounted one at each wingtip.

Herpa model
And now you can get a model of the Skylon. Made by Herpa, it is to 1:250 scale and can - just about - be classed as a kit, as you have to attach the wings to the fuselage, then join together two components to assemble the stand. Even to 1:250 scale, the finished model Skylon isn’t exactly small - from nose to tail, the model measures some 340 mm (13.3 in) long.

Scale issue
It’s a pity the model isn’t to a popular standard scale, but as it’s of such an unusual subject - one that’s not even built yet - it’s both a surprise and a pleasure to see it in model form at all, and here’s to Herpa for bringing the Skylon model to market.

BIS direct
The model is available direct from the website of the renowned British Interplanetary Society, of which Alan is a Fellow, and one of the speakers (above) at a recent ‘space day’ entitled From Imagination To Reality. This was held at the BIS London HQ in mid-September, where, as well as discussing Skylon, Alan also waxed lyrical on one of his strongest early influences.

Pilot of the Future
That influence is one that Alan maintains started him on the path to Skylon: it was the space hero Dan Dare of the Eagle, a mega-successful weekly comic that fired the imaginations of millions of boys in the 1950s and 1960s. Above, Alan holds a 1:6 scale figure of Dan Dare, dressed smartly in Space Fleet green, as visualised by Frank Hampson for the Eagle, first issue April 14, 1950.

Buy the 1:250 scale Herpa Skylon model here. 
 
Other Herpa models - in all sorts of scales - here.

Visit Reactions Engines here.

Other spacecraft models available here.

Mr J note: Dan Dare influenced an entire generation, including me. Visit Starcruzer to read about Dan and his exploits, plus notes on his creator Frank Hampson.

CLASSIC SCI-FI COLLECTIBLE DIECASTS FROM A TOY FAIR

SMN chanced upon a handsome diecast two-vehicle boxed set last weekend, a cleanish example of a 1992 Corgi release featuring the lead hero from an old UK comic called the Eagle. Launched in 1950, Eagle was a mega-success, with weekly sales regularly exceeding a million-plus. Its quality production (half in full-colour) made the Eagle unique at the time of launch, as did its lead character: a ‘pilot of the future’ called Dan Dare, whose adventures battling evil aliens such as the ‘melon headed’ Mekon inspired an entire generation of young readers to look up to the stars. Sad to say, successive UK governments proceeded to trash much of the UK’s aerospace industry in the years that followed, but that’s another story...

The 1:43 scale Corgi set features Bedford CA and Volkswagen panel vans, emblazoned with pictures of Dan Dare and the dread Mekon. The diecasts themselves are of fairly average quality, but the bright decals and well-produced box packaging turn them into a charming collectible set for lovers of the genre. The images are taken from the year-long adventure Prisoners of Space that began in May 1954. It’s actually one of the less successful stories, with art that came nowhere near the levels set by Dan Dare’s creator, Frank Hampson, but no matter: Corgi made a fine job of decorating its diecast vehicles. The box works for its living too, with frames from a mini-adventure called Operation Triceratops running around the sides. This story was an eight-pager that ran in the 1954 Eagle Annual.

Is the set an investment? Probably not, as it’s worth only about £10-20 GBP ($17-35 USD) despite the limited 7500 production run. On the bright side, this price range keeps the set firmly buyable for Dan Dare and Eagle collectors.

Incidentally, in 1990 Hawk Books published a full-size reproduction volume featuring both stories. There are newer versions available from Virgin which are are cheaper, but reduced in size. Take your pick!

The pictures show, top to bottom:
1 The boxed set, complete with numbered certificate.
2 Bedford CA van.
3 VW van.
4 Hawk Books hardback jacket.
5 Page from the Prisoners of Space strip.

Have a look at the Corgi sets we found on eBay here. If they've been sold by now, a fresh search may bring up some replacements, and also try looking for the Hawk Books hardback if you fancy one.

Copies of the reduced-size Virgin Prisoners of Space can be found here.

BLAST FROM THE PAST - WHO REMEMBERS EAGLEWALL?

FROM MAT IRVINE
Sometimes ‘new’ is ‘old’. Recently an old friend of mine Jason Joiner - who runs the popular Collectormania events - handed me a kit that I hadn’t seen for decades, the Eaglewall Design-A-Plane. This dates from the early 1960s, so certainly counts as a ‘blast from the past’.

The Eaglewall company began in the mid-1950s in what is often described as the ‘sleepy town of Dorking’, in Surrey, UK. Initially, Eaglewall made a series of cheap aircraft kits issued in polythene bags - as of course Airfix did at that time. These first kits were issued under the ‘Vulcan’ name, but a tie-in then took place with the popular British Eagle boys’ comic, and this name was used on the boxes, later extended to Eaglewall. Most kits were of individual 1:96 scale aircraft, and ships to 1:1200 scale, but then there was... the Design-A-Plane.

The Design-A-Plane let you construct an amazing 4,000-plus different aircraft designs from the one kit, which had a set number of parts and a ‘computer’. This computer, (which was actually more a paper slide-rule, and really not even that), allowed you to select a scale, then which bits from four sets of bagged parts to select for making your own design - the actual figure was supposed to be 4,104, but no, I haven’t yet confirmed it!

The four ‘real' aircraft in the box were an international group - Dassault Mystére, Gloster Javelin, MiG-15, North American F-86 Sabre - but by combining their parts you could come up with the thousands of other designs. The components could be assembled and reassembled time and again, for no glue was needed. The decals could also be removed and stuck down again too. These included national insignia, plus walkway markings and jet exhaust warnings.

The instructions claimed the whole idea was backed and validated by Remington Rand’s Univac computer, used for ‘real’ aircraft which, to quote: “Has speeded and advanced by many years the development of high speed jet aircraft and missiles...”

Design-A-Plane is an interesting piece of modelling history, though the kit wasn’t British - Eaglewall’s product was a reissue of the American Pyro company’s original, and Eaglewall also reissued the Pyro Design-A-Car kit.

If you can visit the store, Dorking Models has a display of Eaglewall kits, and viewers are welcome. You can also read more in the excellent Arthur Ward book Classic Kits: Collecting the Greatest Model Kits in the World from Airfix to Tamiya.


Visit Dorking Models here.

You can buy Classic Kits by Arthur Ward at Amazon here.

Check out Collectormania events here.