Vic Balshaw
Major General
Username: Vic Balshaw
First name: Vic
Category: Judge – Non competing
Scale: 1/48
Manufacturer: Dragon Kit Number 5522 – Ta 154 Moskito.
Model Type: Ta 154 V-3 Moskito Nachtjäger "TE+FG".
Extras: Mostly OOB which has etched detail included with the kit plus some selected resin detail from the Verlinden 1547 detail set and minimal scratch building.
This is my first entry into GB 10.
References: Wikipedia.org
The Ta 154 came into being as a possible deterrent against the marauding British Mosquito's to which the Luftwaffe had no match. Designed by Kurt Tank the first prototype V1 with Jumo 211F engines flew on 1 July 1943, the airframe was mainly of all wood construction which for the time was an unusual venture in the them modern wartime aircraft industry. The second Ta 154 V2 soon followed and was fitted with Jumo 211N engines and became a handling test bed. V1 was then sent to Rechlin-Lärz Airfield for fly-off testing against the Heinkel He 219 and the new Junkers Ju 388, it was during these trials that the Fw 154 reached almost 700 km/h (440 mph) and easily outflew the other two planes which by the way were fully armed and equipped with radar.
The first armed example of the Ta 154 was the V3 prototype, which also was the first to fit the Jumo 211R engines, the added weight of the guns and drag of the 32-dipole element Matratze radar antennas for the FuG 212 Lichtenstein radar slowed the plane by a full 75 km/h, although it was still somewhat faster than the He 219. The remaining prototypes ,5in all were redesignated Ta 154A-0 with some having a raised canopy giving a better vision to the rear of the aircraft.
The Ta 154 was initially designed for fitment of the Jumo 211R but production problems made this unavailable so the more powerful Jumo 213A was considered but this to was suffering long delays in delivery and as a consequence the Ta 154 program spent most of the next year testing various prototypes with Erprobungskommando 154 at Langenhagen. During these tests the Ta 154 showed an alarming tendency to break its landing gear, consequently about half of the V series were lost.
By June 1944, the Jumo 213A engine began to arriving in some numbers which enabled the production of Ta 154A-1s to commence. However, just prior to delivery of the engines, the only factory making the Tego-Film (glue) in Wuppertal was bombed out by the Royal Air Force. So a replacement had to be hastily found but in July several Ta 154A-1s crashed with wing structure failure attributed to the plywood delaminating. Test revealed that the replacement glue was not so strong and was found to react chemically, apparently in a corrosive manner with the plywood in the Ta 154's structure. This same problem also critically affected the Heinkel He 162 Spatz, Ernst Heinkel's "Volksjäger" jet fighter program.
As a consequence of the glue problem Kurt Tank halted production in August 1944, and the RLM eventually cancelled the entire project the next month. At the time about 50 production aircraft had been completed, and a number of the A-0 pre-production planes were modified up to the production standard. Some of the planes served with NJG 3, and a few were later used as training aircraft for jet pilots.
First name: Vic
Category: Judge – Non competing
Scale: 1/48
Manufacturer: Dragon Kit Number 5522 – Ta 154 Moskito.
Model Type: Ta 154 V-3 Moskito Nachtjäger "TE+FG".
Extras: Mostly OOB which has etched detail included with the kit plus some selected resin detail from the Verlinden 1547 detail set and minimal scratch building.
This is my first entry into GB 10.
References: Wikipedia.org
The Ta 154 came into being as a possible deterrent against the marauding British Mosquito's to which the Luftwaffe had no match. Designed by Kurt Tank the first prototype V1 with Jumo 211F engines flew on 1 July 1943, the airframe was mainly of all wood construction which for the time was an unusual venture in the them modern wartime aircraft industry. The second Ta 154 V2 soon followed and was fitted with Jumo 211N engines and became a handling test bed. V1 was then sent to Rechlin-Lärz Airfield for fly-off testing against the Heinkel He 219 and the new Junkers Ju 388, it was during these trials that the Fw 154 reached almost 700 km/h (440 mph) and easily outflew the other two planes which by the way were fully armed and equipped with radar.
The first armed example of the Ta 154 was the V3 prototype, which also was the first to fit the Jumo 211R engines, the added weight of the guns and drag of the 32-dipole element Matratze radar antennas for the FuG 212 Lichtenstein radar slowed the plane by a full 75 km/h, although it was still somewhat faster than the He 219. The remaining prototypes ,5in all were redesignated Ta 154A-0 with some having a raised canopy giving a better vision to the rear of the aircraft.
The Ta 154 was initially designed for fitment of the Jumo 211R but production problems made this unavailable so the more powerful Jumo 213A was considered but this to was suffering long delays in delivery and as a consequence the Ta 154 program spent most of the next year testing various prototypes with Erprobungskommando 154 at Langenhagen. During these tests the Ta 154 showed an alarming tendency to break its landing gear, consequently about half of the V series were lost.
By June 1944, the Jumo 213A engine began to arriving in some numbers which enabled the production of Ta 154A-1s to commence. However, just prior to delivery of the engines, the only factory making the Tego-Film (glue) in Wuppertal was bombed out by the Royal Air Force. So a replacement had to be hastily found but in July several Ta 154A-1s crashed with wing structure failure attributed to the plywood delaminating. Test revealed that the replacement glue was not so strong and was found to react chemically, apparently in a corrosive manner with the plywood in the Ta 154's structure. This same problem also critically affected the Heinkel He 162 Spatz, Ernst Heinkel's "Volksjäger" jet fighter program.
As a consequence of the glue problem Kurt Tank halted production in August 1944, and the RLM eventually cancelled the entire project the next month. At the time about 50 production aircraft had been completed, and a number of the A-0 pre-production planes were modified up to the production standard. Some of the planes served with NJG 3, and a few were later used as training aircraft for jet pilots.
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