Special Hobby 1/72 Delta Mk II/III RCAF Aircraft Kit

Having left Northrop Aircraft Corp. (Stearman-Northrop) controlled by Boeing, Jack K. Northrop along with his partner Donald Douglas established a new company, called Northrop Corp. The company’s premises were based at Inglewood, California. In 1932, Northrop  followed his earlier and successful cargo and mail types the Alfa and Gamma and designed a new one, named the Delta. It was an all-metal, single-engined low-wing monoplane with fixed undercarriage covered in spats. The type was intended to be used on short domestic routes and was built in several versions, differing by their powerplant and also the shape of the pilot’s cockpit canopy. The first versions known as the Delta 1A, 1B and 1C featured a narrow canopy housing only one pilot. Following versions, the 1D and 1E already had a wider cockpit enabling a crew of two to sit there and they also had a much massive dorsal section of the fuselage. Unfortunately, one of the first Delta 1A machines crashed in Mexico while being delivered to a customer. This accident was also one of the reasons for the US government to ban the usage of single-engined types for regular passenger transport. Aircraft already produced were bought by private subjects or used by companies for business trip purposes.  One of the Delta 1Ds, with construction number 74, was used by the US Coast Guard and later it was handed over to the US Corps of Engineers and flown in African Ethiopia during the Second World War. Delta 1D c/n42 first saw service with Ellsworth’s Antarctica Flight, then was bought by the Australian government and following the outbreak of WW2 it was transferred to the RAAF. Some other Deltas were lucky to have seen war service even earlier as three of them had been acquired by the Spanish government, though two of them fell into the hands of Spanish Nationalist Forces making the Delta the type to fight or be used on both sides of the conflict. In 1936, Canada bought licence rights, thus partially making up for Northrop’s  business failure with the type. The Canadian machines were produced by Vickers company in versions Mk.I to Mk.III. While the Mk.I and Mk.II versions differed from their American predecessors only in details, the Mk.III featured a completely redesigned tail unit. Canadian Deltas saw service in a multitude of roles, they were used as photographic machines and for aerial survey, following the outbreak of WW2 they began also flying reconnaissance missions, anti-submarine patrols and were also used for training purposes. Many of them were also fitted with a pair of floats or skis.

This kit brings the option to build one of two Delta Mk.II airplanes or one in the Mk.III version which sported a new tail fin. All of these three machines flew in natural metal overall, one was used during 1937, the two others were seen in service in the WW2 era. The model comes on five grey injection molded styrene sprues accompanied by one with clear parts specific for this Canadian variety of the Delta.