1:144 Roden Douglas C-47 Skytrain - RD0308

Overview
WWII twin-engine workhorse military transport developed from the
DC-3 airliner. Kit has fine engraved panel lines, no interior,
separately molded fuselage boarding hatch, raised relief radial
engine faces, well rendered nacelles, detailed landing gear,
single piece 3-blade propellers, filigree antennae and
injection-molded transparent parts. Decals and color painting
reference for a single USAAF aircraft: C-47B s/n 41-308676 of the
53rd Wing, 101st Airborne Division, UK, July 1944.

"Four things won the Second World War - the bazooka, the Jeep,
the atom bomb, and the C-47 Gooney Bird." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Transport aircraft are seldom numbered among the great planes;
they are simply too mundane and are usually relegated to back
page accounts. The C-47 Skytrain, affectionately ?the Gooney
Bird,? defies this trend with undeniable credentials. Its
preceding civilian incarnation, the DC-3 (Douglas Commercial
Model 3) was truly innovative when it first flew in 1935 ?
combining many advanced and unrelated features employed in other
contemporary aircraft to establish the formula for most of the
viable designs that followed it. These included:

Circular cross-section fuselage to maximize internal cargo
capacity
Smooth curved aerodynamic contours throughout to minimize dynamic
drag
Multicellular stressed skin wing construction
Cantilever wings and tailplanes
Retractable undercarriage
Wing flaps and variable-pitch propellers to balance slow landing
speeds, short field capability and high-speed cruising
The resulting synthesis was an aircraft that was rugged, stable,
fast and spacious ? a major military tool and a peerless force
that revolutionized commercial aviation.

Roden?s new Douglas C-47 Skytrain is the Ukrainian company?s
latest issue in 1/144 scale. Like many kits with similar small
dimensions, this one lacks any interior detail, but outside it is
tooled to up to date standards.

All panel lines are engraved. Sink marks are not evident on the
outer surfaces, and flash is minimal. The cargo door is molded
separately.

The Pratt & Whitney Twin wasp radial engines are represented in
clear relief, and the landing gear is appropriately fine.

All transparent parts are injection-molded; there decals for a
single USAAF aircraft.