S
ometimes it’s diicult to
imagine humble beginnings.
The Wright Brothers irst
lew in 1903, and the following
decade saw long-distance lights
over the oceans. In WWI aviation
took a radical turn, from science
to killing machines. The 1920-
30s brought out new ideas of
mass personal transportation.
In WWII the jet age was just
beginning, and we then had some
of the fastest aircraft imaginable:
the supersonic Concorde and
the SR-71. These and many
like them owe a lot to a small
orange aircraft, the Bell X-1.
Possibly one of the most
important aircraft of our time,
the dynamic orange fuselage
speeding across a blue sky,
breaking the sound barrier, made
Chuck Yeager a household name
overnight. Designed as the jet age
was beginning, there were three
Bell X-1 aircraft built. The 6062,or as it’s more famously known,
the “Glamorous Glennis,” was
built to test and better understand
supersonic and transonic light.THE KIT
The Eduard X-1 was irst released
in 1998. For a long time, this kit was
much sought after, so thankfully
Eduard decided to put it into
production again. Do not let the fact
that this is an older tooling put you
of. The plastic is very good and the
kit also includes some beautifully
cast resin wheels, a set of window
masks, and a metal fret of etched
painted parts that includes three
diferent types of instrument
panels and seat belts, as well as a
few detailing parts for the airframe.
And if you still aren’t satisied,
Eduard also separately released a
new etched metal set (48909). This
includes more detailed inserts for
the wheel bays and door coversBUSTER
Eduard 1/48 Bell X-1 by Jared Demes
MACH
62 • DECEMBER 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
BY SACCO DE VRIES
BELL X-1
BY JARED DEMES
1/48