I was reading a topic on the aerodrome forum from a few years ago while contemplating buying a copy of the Karaya Halberstadt kit and a guy from Karaya was part of the thread himself and he said that a 48 scale Martinsyde Elephant was in development. Does anyone know if this ever came to fruition as I can't find any trace of it and would quite like an elephant in my collection.

No Elephant but they did do 4 versions of the Buzzard.

Click here.

Darn!

I was hoping that there was a 48 scale elephant out there somewhere that I could hunt down and bag

Pegasus 1/72 is the only Elephant I can recall.

Ahhh that is a real shame as I would have loved to get my hands on one. On the Aerodrome website it was a chap called Radek(username Karaya1) who I guess is part of Karaya who said they were finishing off the details on a 1/48 scale Martinsyde Elephant and a Salmson 2A2 (This thread was back in 2009)

It's listed on their web site ...

http://www.karaya.pl/en/karaya/2/martinsyde-f-4-buzzard-kar48027.html?ref=%2Fen%2Fkaraya%2F2%2F3%2F1%2Fitems.html



Terri

Ah well that's a buzzard and not an elephant. Different animal though I must add the one pictured is a very splendid specimen!

Hi Martyn

I imagine the Salmson project was rendered void by GasPatch's beautiful release. I'd still love to see an Elephant in 1:48 (although I'm sure Karaya won't complain about the extra sales of their Buzzard series through some of our mis-identifications here! ).

All the best

Rowan

Does anyone here know anyone involved with Karaya who could let us know if the Elephant is likely to appear at some point. I would love to get my hands on one (Particularly in the markings of Scottish ace John Inglis Gilmour) The chap rather amazingly managed to score three victories in the Ekephant (albatros D.1(shared) and two eindeckers) no small feat in an aircraft that was pretty slow and difficult to manoeuvre

It's not a Buzzard, it's mattress. Anyway, that was its nickname.

After the Polish Air Force showed an interest, Handley Page shipped one aircraft to Poland in 1921. Initially had the serial number H7780 but was given the civil registration G-EAWE on 14th January 1921, just before it left Britain.

The ferry flight, in several stages, lasted from 21st to 29th January. Soon after its arrival in Warsaw (probably early February) it was displayed to a Polish air commission headed by ppłk. pil. Antoni Buckiewicz. Three demonstration flights were made, the first two by F/Lt Percy from Briatin and the third by ppor. Stefan Pawikowski.

The commission compared the Buzzard to the Balilla an Spad XIII. It was found that the Buzzard was more stable in flight and could turn in an equal or smaller radius. The 80 -100 km/h take-off and landing speed was estimated as higher than the Balilla but barrel rolls were slower, with some resistance. Although the the test results were overall favourable, no more machines were purchased. Later the display machine was purchased from Handley Page, which may have been as late as 1923.

The aircraft was test flown in Warsaw on the 23rd May 1923 and transferred from the Eskadra of Experimental Section of Military Air research Centre on 19th June. In early August it took part in the 2nd Air Tour of Poland flown by kpt. Pil. Józef Hendricks. It withdrew on the 4th August, during the first stage, due to engine failure.

Early in 1925 it was taken over by gen. pil. Włodzimierz Zagórski, AOC Polish Air Force (head of Department IV of Aerial Navigation). He used it until May 1926 and was responsible for the red and white stripes scheme. After Marshal Piłsudski's coup in mid-May 1926, Zagórski lost his job but the aircraft continued in service for a little longer. On 9th July it was being flown by por. pil. Bohdan Butkiewicz, an instructor of the Eskadra Szkolna of the 1st Pułk Lotniczy. When landing at Moków airfield he suffered injuries when the aircraft overturned due to a broken undercarriage cable. It sustained serious damage and it is unlikely that it was ever repaired.