Latecoere 28-5 by SBS

1/72 scale
Kit No. 7002
Price: $80.00
Decals: One version – French Aeronavale
Comments: Resin; engraved panel lines; photo-etched details; film insert for main instrument panel

“I’ve been over the calculations, and they confirm the specialists’ opinions…our design is unachievable. There is only one thing left for us to do: Achieve it.”

                                                                                                      ~ Pierre-Georges Latecoere

History

The Latécoère 28 was a successful French long-haul mail plane and passenger airliner of the 1930’s. It was the mainstay of Air France’s predecessor, Aéropostale in its efforts to establish intercontinental air mail services and support French colonies and cultural influence between the wars.

Its pilots included famous poets and French men of letters such as Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Jean Mermoz and Henri Guillaumet as well as many other Armee de l’Air veterans from World War I.  In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s the Latecoere 28 became an aviation legend, linking France to West Africa and South America by air in the period between the world wars with regular, reliable airmail and passenger service.

Considered the best modern commercial aircraft of its generation, the Latecoere 28 regularly flew thousands of kilometers between France and South America, transporting mail and passengers. In 1930, this aircraft held 21 French records out of 25 and 12 world records out of 32. A flight made to Argentina with this aircraft was memorialized by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in his book, “Vol de nuit” (Night Flight).  Hollywood took an interest in these exploits and in 1933, Night Flight would hit the silver screen — starring Clark Gable and Lionel Barrymore.

The Latécoère 28 was a development of the Latécoère 26. It was braced high-wing single-engine monoplane initially powered by a Renault 12Jbr engine. The Latécoère 28 had a fixed tailwheel undercarriage and enclosed cockpit for two crew. The cabin was fitted for eight-passengers with access to a washroom. It was initially built with Renault engines which were soon replaced by Hispano Suiza 12Lbr giving 500 hp (370 kW). The floatplane version had the Hispano Suiza 12Lbr giving 650 hp (480 kW).

The Latecoere 28.5 came from a distinguished line of aircraft. A total of about fifty planes of several versions were built between 1927 and 1932. The sole Latecoere 28.2 was a mail carrier and established several payload/speed world records in 1931, and was the first to make a postal delivery crossing of the South Atlantic when Jean Mermoz flew it from Dakar to Natal in 21 hours and a half aboard the Comte-de-La Vaulx (prototype No. 919) on May 12, 1930.

Unfortunately the plane was lost at sea during the return flight (with no loss of life, nor of mail). The first of five Latecoerse 28.3 mail carriers was flown by Mermoz on April 11-12, 1930 to achieve a world closed-circuit distance record for seaplanes of 4308km (2,676 miles). In 1930, the Latecoere 28.5 appeared, structurally strengthened for use as a military floatplane for Aeronavale and powered by a 650 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Nbr engine.

 

Operational Service

The first aircraft were used by Aéropostale on the African mail routes connecting Casablanca and Dakar. The aircraft also inaugurated a Paris-Madrid service. It became famous in South America because of the regular mail service it ensured, from France to Argentina, and further on. The Latecore 28 made it possible to send a letter from Paris to Santiago de Chile in what seemed at the time an astonishingly short four days. Previously, the mail steamships had taken weeks or months.

The Latecoere 28 series’ greatest fame was as a mail and passenger carrier; it had a very limited military career. The subject of this kit, the Latecore 28-5, was operated by the Aeronavale. Venezuela bought three for use as bombers, and the government of France gave several to the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War.

 

The Kit

The Latecoere 28.5 is cast in grey resin and consists of just 43 parts, including 4 clear resin parts for the windshileld and windows. In addition, there are 28 photo-etched parts providing additional detail in the cockpit and on the exterior surfaces. The PE details add realism to the cockpit floor and include a main instrument panel and seat straps for the cockpit assembly. Detailed seats and a separate bomber-style control yoke round this assembly out.

There is no attempt to provide parts for a main cabin, but this does not detract from the kit in the least given the painstaking detail of the cast resin nose which is to be cemented to the rather box-like fuselage. Separately mounted parts for the radiator and ventilator grills augment this part nicely. The floats, like the nose, are single pieces of cast resin and also exhibit impressive detail. The “N” struts connecting them to the fuselage are pleasantly thick and look rather rugged, unlike many such parts in floatplane kits.

The two-piece wing features realistic stressed-fabric molding and separately mounted ailerons, just as the tail assembly features separately mounted rudder and elevators. The two-bladed airscrew consists of a crisply cast spinner and two separate parts for the propeller blades.

 

There is no painting guide of any kind for the kit’s interior parts, but there is a two-view schematic providing a paint guide for the finished kit. Modelers will be free to use their artistic imagination as to specific shades of color, since there is no chart linking to recommended colors to any particular brand of paint. The first option is for an aircraft in dark red or burgundy with a silver nose, and white wings and tail surfaces; the second is for an aircraft in French Navy Grey (although to this modeler’s eye it looks a lot like the Intermediate Blue used by the U.S. Navy during WWII), also with white wings and tail surfaces.

 

Markings

While there are suggestions for two paint schemes, there is only one set of markings; the paint schemes represent the same plane at different phases of its career. The decals are for aircraft No. 920 in the Latecoere 28.5 series. They have realistic color and are perfectly in register. As this is an Aeronavale aircraft, there are French roundels with the Aeronavale anchor superimposed over them, but there are also just decals for just the anchors should modelers decide to paint their own roundels.  Both the early (dark red) and late (French Navy Grey) paint schemes call for the inclusion of the “Le Fregate” logo on the side of the fuselage, recalling the purpose of this navalized aircraft (The Frigate).

Conclusion

While it has relatively few parts, this kit is highly detailed and looks both highly accurate and designed with buildability in mind; the thickness of the struts is consistent with the photo of the Latecoere 28.5 on the cover of the instructions, but will also be appreciated by any modeler who has struggled with bi-plane or parasol wing kits whose struts are woefully inadequate for the load-bearing duty they are called on to perform. A crisply detailed kit of a legendary plane from the Golden Age of Aviation. Highly recommended.

References

• all-aero.com
• aviastar.org
• dictionary.sensagent.com
• www.cercledesmachinesvolantes.com/nouveau-projet-pour-le-cmv-le-latecoere-28/