SCALE: 1/160

INITIAL RELEASE: 1959

MEDIUM: Polystyrene

RARITY: Original (5)

RARITY: Re-Release (3)

ABOUT THE DESIGN

ABOUT THE KIT

Yet one more conceptual spacecraft designed from prolific aerospace engineer Krafft Ehricke, this 1959 release accurately predicted the function -- but not the form -- of the actual U.S. Space Shuttle.  This five-man spacecraft was to be launched via a disposable booster and achieve orbit using a drop-away second stage.  Before returning to Earth, the orbiter would drop its third-stage "power unit" and return home as an unpowered glider.  The manned module was, one assumes, reusable.

Released briefly in the late 1950s, the Convair Space Shuttle was re-released as a retro space "pirate ship" in Revell's funky "Space Pursuit" set of 1968.  It resurfaced again in 1996 as part of Revell/Monogram's "Special Subjects Program," a "nostalgia" campaign aimed at aging Baby Boomers. 

This is a build-up of the 1990's re-issue.