1/144 Minicraft NB-52A with X-15

by Tom Valaoras

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 This is a replica of the X-15/NB-52A Mothership from the mission dated April 20th, 1962.  Neil Armstrong was the pilot of the X-15 ship number 3 (66672).  This was the famed “re-entry skip”.   During re-entry into the atmosphere the X-15, due to too shallow an angle of attack, actually “bounced off of the atmosphere”.  This altered the mission profile such that Neil almost landed at Los Angeles International Airport (one of the emergency runways on the list)  He did safely land at Rogers Dry Lakebed next to Edwards Air Force Base, and the rest was history.  This was the longest mission of all X-15 missions flown:  12 minutes, 28 seconds.  The information gathered during this mission was pivotal in the understanding of re-entry physics, since at the time they did not have computer simulated models available.

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This model was originally a Minicraft 1/144 scale B-52H.  I used a Golden Dragon Productions X-15 with home-made decals (the decals provided were of poor quality), along with accessory details provided by my spares box.

Meteor Productions (R.I.P.) provided the conversion kit along with the NB-52A decals.  The parts fit well enough and the decals were excellent.  Testors metallic aluminum and aluminum foil (to simulate skin stress) was used, along with a home-made concoction of day-glo orange.  The X-15 photo album by Tony Landis was an excellent resource.

Tom

Photos and text © by Tom Valaoras