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SCALE: 1/72 |
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INITIAL RELEASE: 2008 |
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MEDIUM: Resin |
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RARITY: (2) |
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LENGTH: 7" |
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LRV Missile Bay |
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ABOUT THE DESIGN |
ABOUT THE KIT |
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In the early 1960s, the U.S. Air
Force purportedly began development of a modified flying saucer-like
airframe for use as a spaceborne nuclear weapons platform. Dubbed the
"Lenticular Re-Entry Vehicle" (LRV), the craft was to be launched atop either a
Saturn-like multi-stage rocket or one of the nuclear-powered rockets then
under development. The LRV would park in a
300-nautical-mile-high orbit where it would wait in "Fail Safe" mode for
several weeks before either launching its nuclear weapons at the Soviet
Union/China/North Korea or returning to earth. Landing would be via
controlled re-entry and a glide landing on a dry lakebed. Although this "Black Budget" project may never have gotten beyond the design stage, there is some physical evidence that prototype vehicles were indeed test-flown in the 1960s. One such intriguing piece of evidence is a strange "honeycomb" cross-section of an exploded disc recovered near Brisbane, Australia in 1966. |
This Fantastic Plastic Models kit
was released in early December, 2008. The kit was unusual in that it
featured a complete missile bay interior (complete with four nuclear missiles)
as well as a separate shuttle, which would be used to ferry nuclear-armed
missiles from the LRV to a separate orbiting weapons platform. For information on kit price and availability, CLICK HERE. |
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Original Box Art |
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Concept Spacecraft |
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