Special Hobby 72400 Vickers Vildebeest Mk.III

The Vickers Vildebeest was a British bomber, torpedo and military cooperation aircraft from the interwar period and the beginning of World War II. The prototype flight took place in 1928, and serial production started in 1931. The drive - in the Vildebeest III version - was provided by a single engine Bristol Pegasus II-M3 with a power of 635 hp. The length of the aircraft was 11.2 meters with a wingspan of 14.94 meters. The deck armament consisted of two 7.7 mm machine guns. The machine could also carry a load of bombs weighing up to 500 kilograms or a single torpedo of similar mass. M. The machine was developed as a successor to the Hawker Horsley aircraft, and work on it began in 1926. In their course, the aim was to create a bomb-torpedo machine intended for operation from land bases with a maximum flight range of 1800-2000 kilometers. The machine, after a series of tests, entered service in 1933 and went mainly to units operating in the Far East - in Singapore, Malaya and India. Machines of this type took part in the initial struggles with Japanese aggression at the turn of 1941/1942. Relatively soon, however, they were replaced by Bristol Blenheim and Bristol planes Beaufort . It's worth mentioning that Vickers Vildebeest was also exported and took part in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).