Model Description
Herpa 1/200th scale 573177 U.S. Air Force Douglas C-54 Skymaster “Raisin Bomber” – 44-9063. Available to pre-order at Flying Tigers.
From June 24, 1948 to May 12, 1949, the Soviet Union blocked all access routes by sea and land to the western sectors of Berlin. This was intended to force the Western Allies to withdraw from Berlin, which the USSR claimed for itself. The United States, the United Kingdom and France then supplied the West Berlin population with food and coal by air. In the first two months of Operation Vittles, C-47s were almost exclusively available in large quantities in Europe. From autumn 1948 onwards, they were quickly replaced by the much more powerful four-engine C-54. By January 1949, no fewer than 240 Douglas “Skymasters” were in use around the clock. The last flight of the airlift took off from the Rhein-Main Air Base on September 30, 1949. On the occasion of the end of the Airlift 75 years ago, this “Raisin Bomber” appears on a scale of 1:200, as it is exhibited today on the site of the former Rhein-Main Air Base, today’s Frankfurt Airport. Completed in March 1945 with the military serial number 44-9063, the C-54 is part of the memorial that commemorates this largest humanitarian aid operation by air to date and its victims.
RRP £89.00
