Research Archives - Everything I know about life I learned from model aeroplanes

January 9, 2022January 21, 2022

The weekend project fallacy

The idea of any model being a ‘weekend project’ in adult life really was the triumph of hope over experience. Deep down I knew what a realistic timescale looked like, but every so often reality got pushed into the back seat. Fortunately this never, ever happened on any real life aerospace projects I got involved with.

The weekend project fallacy teaches us about realism, delusion and project schedule slippage. Yet more of those pesky cognitive biases, it would seem. Daniel Kahnemann never mentioned Airfix kits in Thinking Fast and Slow but I have my suspicions.

November 8, 2021January 10, 2022

If you go chasing rabbits… a new Dornier Do217 reference, auf Englisch

After struggling with a variety of languages it’s a slight relief to find a new Dornier Do217 reference in English – Osprey Combat Aircraft 139, Do217 Units of World War 2 currently at a decent price from Books etc.

The author is Chris Goss so it’s going to be a good one. As one would expect, the usual Osprey format focusing on units and operational history, but with some good photos and colour schemes.

July 22, 2021January 10, 2022

Further down the rabbit hole – even more Dornier Do217 books

The Book of Armaments

After determined searching and a bit of retail, some more Dornier Do217 books arrived. One in German, two in Polish, but with lots of pictures and diagrams (fortunately for some of us).

What started out as “a couple of books off eBay for some pictures” turned into a Holy Grail-like obsessive quest for the definitive Do217 reference. Spoiler alert: there isn’t one – yet.

October 28, 2020January 10, 2022

Down the rabbit hole – Dornier Do217 references

Dornier Do217 Famous Airplanes of the World 145

Once again, apparently simple questions turn out not to have simple answers. Like just about everything else these days, Dornier Do217 references have a few gaps and a fair amount of ambiguous information. In various languages, including German and Japanese.

Looking for a few pictures of the real aircraft modelled by Airfix and a few odd bits of information about the Do217E turned into a real rabbit hole. I now have a small but growing collection of Do217 books, each with its own distinct pieces of the (incomplete) puzzle.

August 7, 2020June 27, 2024

The Airfix Junkers Ju88 – some signs of progress

Inevitably, some of the things the Airfix Junkers Ju88 teaches us are similar to lessons learned from the Do217E kit. But five years had passed by the time the Ju88 appeared, and the state of the art had moved on. Most of the learning is about reliable sources (or otherwise) and how a story gets subtly modified each time it’s told.

June 13, 2020January 10, 2022

Air travel pre-Ryanair – the Airfix MiG-15 in Polish markings

Obviously, model aeroplanes teach you stuff about aviation history – they tend to be models of old aeroplanes, after all. From its original 1958 release to the final 2008 incarnation, one option was to finish your Airfix MiG-15 in Polish markings. Presumably the model was supposed to look something like a real life aeroplane, but which one? Not a real issue for my original 2/- Airfix MiG-15, but over time I got curious (or so people told me).

What started as a 2 minute search on Google developed into yet another rabbit hole…

March 25, 2020November 7, 2024

Janes All The World’s Aircraft – a childhood ambition finally achieved

As a small boy, I had several copies of the Observer’s Book of Aircraft. But what I really, really wanted was Janes All the World’s Aircraft, aka JAWA. (Not to be confused with the Czech motorcycles of the same name). Can’t recall how I learned about this magical book detailing every current aircraft in the world, but my vague sense of wonder still persists.

Along with memories of going into the charming old fashioned bookshop in Enfield Town. And a numbing sense of shock when a nice man told us the astronomical cost. The original price in 1965 was £8 8s 0d – more than £160 in today’s money. That was a lot of pocket money and was just never going to happen. All very disappointing.

November 7, 2019January 10, 2022

How did I get here? The journey to becoming an ex-modeller

“And you may ask yourself – how did I get here?” Words about a mid-life crisis, apparently, which may also explain how I ended up with so many 1/48 Ju188 kits in 2004. But that’s another story. This is about how I first got into model aeroplanes, some stuff inbetween, and how I got out.