29 Jun 2014

U.S. Civilian Airport Tractor / ROK Navy Flight Deck Tractor Model

This vehicle was manufactured in the U.S. by Eagle company as an airport tractor tug. It can be seen at airports – mainly local ones in the U.S. and Canada – towing carts, ground support equipment or small aircraft up to business jet size. The tractor is light and thus it is not capable of handling airliners and heavy military aircraft. Its compact size however has appealed to the Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy where it is in service as a flight deck tractor. A number of such tractors currently serve on the amphibious assault ship Dokdo (LPH 6111) moving UH-1H and UH-60P helicopters around the decks. They will probably serve on the following ships of this class too.
Interestingly, this type of tractor has also been sighted recently on some of the U.S. Navy's shore stations: photograph.

This 1:72 scale model kit is from F4Models (cat. # 7013). The kit contains resin and photo etched parts, decals and instruction sheet.
Some photographs of the real vehicles: ROK Navy (scroll to the middle of the page there), civilian.

This tractor kit can accompany your model of a small private plane - say, a Cessna or a Beechcraft being towed to a hangar for parking, or it can sit next to a model of a regional jet or turboprop with a train of baggage carts brought for loading.

10 Jun 2014

Royal Navy 1940s-1950s Flight Deck Tractor Model

This tiny tractor, known as Clarkat, was derived from an industrial tow vehicle and first saw service with the Royal Navy in 1944. The tractors facilitated flight deck operations on the Royal Navy's fleet and escort carriers during the final stages of the World War II. They continued in their service throughout the Korean War and have finally been withdrawn from carriers in the mid 1950s with the advent of much heavier jet aircraft. Along with their mother ships, a number of such tractors continued to serve on the Royal Australian Navy's HMAS Sydney and the French Navy's R95 Arromanches.

This 1:72 scale model kit (F4Models cat. # 7026) contains resin and photo etched parts. On a carrier deck diorama the model can accompany such Royal Navy aircraft as Avenger, Corsair, Barracuda, Firefly, Sea Fury, Sea Hornet or Firebrand.
A 1:48 scale kit of the same tractor was also produced (F4Models cat. # 4002).
Here are some historic photographs that show this tractor in action: link, link.