BACKGROUND

In early 1945 Skoda-Kauba began work on this ramjet fighter. Built around a Sanger ramjet, the duct formed a large part of the fuselage structure, but the walls of the combustion chamber and exhaust nozzle were to be left exposed to the airstream for cooling. The cockpit was located in the extreme nose of the aircraft where the pilot lay prone on top of the ramjet intake. There were two fuel tanks in the area behind the cockpit and a small fuel tank in each wing. A tail unit was mounted on the end of a boom above the rear of the ram jet unit. The wings were small and unswept. Since the aircraft has to reach a certain speed before the ramjet could operate, take-off was to be accomplished by use of booster rockets on a jettisonable tricycle undercarriage. Landing was done on a retractable skid. Armament consisted of a single MK 108 30mm cannon mounted above the cockpit and protruding through the top of the canopy.

Although ramjets were tested with several different aircraft, no project aircraft with this type of power were completed. (References based on those from Dan Johnson’s Luft 46 site-see link below)

The Kit

Type: Resin
Parts: 19

Overall a nice kit of a little known aircraft design...a rarity amongst rarities. All the resin parts look to be of high quality with good casting of main parts that have nice subtle detailing. As with most resin kits there is some flash, so clean up and pre-preparation is necessary. Both the aircraft and its dolly are represented.

The wings are of butt fit so will need reinforcing through the wing roots, with brass rod for example, otherwise the kit should go together well with no great problems.

CLEAR PARTS

One vac canopy that looks okay.

METAL PARTS

A&V supplies some metal parts with most of their models and in this case these are of the axles for the dolly. Quality is only average in this case and one is broken. Not a real problem as brass rod will make an admirable substitute.

ETCHED PARTS

1 small but decent fret including antenae, seat belts etc.

DECALS

A&V seem to have a standard set of Luftwaffe decals with little if no variation so, although of good quality, the modeler may wish to add more from the spares box or buy an after-market set.

INSTRUCTIONS

Although understandable they really are abysmal, being nothing but a very bad photocopy. The illustrations are likewise poor. As this kit does not give many picture opportunities I’ve done a few camouflage suggestions to illustrate a few possibilities.

VALUE

For a resin limited-run kit this is not bad value.

CONCLUSIONS

This kit should make a very nice model of this chunky little fighter. Although mainly for those with experience of resin kits it would not cause undue problems for modelers tackling this medium for the first time. For those who like to pack in the detail some research maybe advisable concerning prone-pilot cockpits.