On April 6th 1917 the United States of America declared war on Germany and soon the American Expeditionary Forces were organized for combat in Europe. The purchase of British and French vehicles to resolve this problem was immediately set in motion. The American licenced built DH 4 was powered with the Liberty 12 cylinder 400hp motor. Roden''s natural progression of kits gives us a decent scale example of this aircraft.

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Thanks!

Thanks for the review Stephen , nicely done .

Currently reading Over the Front Vol 25 # 2 which covers the Men who flew this aircraft type . This kit would make a nice project .

Hi Stephen:

Nice review. I have read mixed reviews about this kit, after reading your review, I think I may tackle this.

Thanks Terri & Mark.

I had to go back and do some digging but it seems that Aeroclub did a 1:48 white metal version of the Liberty 12 cylinder engine. I will contact them and see if its available. Maybe rareplane Detective could help? (One of our fine sponsors).

AEF DH 4 airframes in France at the end of the war,

What a sad picture that is! Can't imagine the amount of history that went up in smoke on this occasion........

Cheers,
Lance

Sad picture indeed.

However the true story is these were airframes designed for war and these were the write-offs (High time, damage beyond economical repair, battledamaged, Etc), If you noticethere are no engines or props, though I do see wheels. In the USA at this time there were over 3000 of the 5000 American DH4s building or in crates; these would last the Air Force until 1930, and the postal service longer(there were still afew flying in 1956 to appear in "Spirit of St. Louis" as mail planes and barnstormers). These wrecks are wood frames nothing else, no use sending scrap wood back to the USA.

Captn Tommy