INTERMEDIATE BUILD
Dean Large tackles Dora Wings’ newly tooled 1/48 Lockheed Vega 5B, which represents the record-setting aircraft flown by Amelia Earhart.
It seems strange to think of such a small single-engine aircraft as an airliner, but the Lockheed Vega was designed and built for this exact purpose. In many cases, though, the passenger capacity was considered too small for commercial use, and the type was adopted by a range of record-breaking pilots. As such, the airframe depicted (Vega 5B NR-7952) is better known as the runabout of legendary aviator Amelia Earhart.
This was the aircraft she used when becoming the first solo woman to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean during her famous flight on May 20-21, 1932. Earhart also became the first female to achieve the same feat across the United States on August 24-25 in the same machine, nicknamed the ‘Little Red Bus’, and as such it’s preserved at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC.
The Vega is the subject of Dora Wings’ newly tooled 1/48 kit, which was presented as a ‘short-run’ offering. This means many parts lack locating pins, with some also suffering from flash, while other items on AMW’s sample had a slightly roughened texture…
