Sud Ouest Aviation Vautou IIB by Special Hobby

1/72 scale
Kit No. 72415
Retail: $42.00
Decals: Four versions – all Armee de l’Air
Comments: Engraved panel lines and recessed rivet detail; resin and photo etch detail parts

History

The Sud-Ouest Aviation (SNCASO) S.O. 4050 Vautour II (French for vulture) was a jet-powered bomber, interceptor, and attack aircraft developed and manufactured by the Sud Aviation aircraft company for the Armee de l’Air in the mid-1950’s. The Vautour was operated by France’s Armée de l’Air, having been originally developed by Sud Aviation in response to a French requirement for a jet aircraft for bombing, low-level attack and all-weather interception operations.

Entering service in 1956, the Vautour equipped the Force de Frappe (after 1961, Force de Dissuasion, France’s nuclear deterrent force) under the Commandement des Forces Aériennes Stratégiques (Strategic Air Force, the French equivalent of the U.S. Strategic Air Command). Each Vautour in this force was responsible for carrying a nuclear weapon.

The Vautour IIB bomber was not fitted with radar or any of the contemporary navigational aids and attack systems that were installed upon several aircraft performing the same role during this era. Aiming of the armaments was performed by a bombardier, who mainly did his bomb-aiming from the glazed nose section using a World War II era American-built Norden bombsight. The relative ineffectiveness of this bombsight is now common knowledge, but in the 1950’s it was considered an adequate if not quite state-of-the-art solution to the Vautour’s lack of radar.

Nonetheless, the Vautour’s shortcomings as a bomber, not merely its lack of radar but also other available, advanced navigation/attack systems and lack of range compared to other strategic bombers, led to the Armee de l’Air replacing it with the more capable Dassault Mirage IV beginning in the mid-1960’s. The Vautour never saw combat with the French Air Force, and was retired in 1979. 149 aircraft had been built when production ended.

The only other customer for the Vautour was Israel, which in 1957 began replacing its British de Havilland Mosquitos with the Vautour IIB. During its service with the Israeli Air Force (IAF), the type undertook various missions and roles, and was soon deployed in combat as a bomber and night fighter. In addition, a number of aircraft were converted for reconnaissance and electronic warfare operations. Vautours were used during the wars between Israel and its neighbors, including the Six-Day War and the War of Attrition.

Only one air-to-air kill was recorded by a Vautour. During the Six Day War on June 6, 1967, Captain Ben-Zion Zohar downed an Iraqi Hawker Hunter during an air-to-air engagement. Vautours were more often used for bombing and ground strafing and it was reportedly considered by Israel to be comparable to the Soviet-built Ilyushin Il-28 medium bomber that equipped its regional adversaries. Between the Six-Day War and the War of Attrition, a total of 15 Vautours were recorded as lost in combat. During the early 1970’s, the IAF replaced the Vautour with the American Douglas A-4 Skyhawk.

The Kit

Special Hobby’s Vautour IIB jet bomber consists of 94 plastic parts on four sprues, including 9 clear parts for the canopy and navigation lights. In addition, there are 39 resin parts, a photo etch fret containing 41 metal detail parts, and a film insert for the main instrument panel. The photo etch parts allow modelers to detail the cockpit with seat straps, a main instrument panel, and rudder pedals.

The interior layout includes a detailed cockpit and a separate nose compartment for the bombardier, whose position in the glazed nose appears to include a Norden bombsight. Both the pilot and bombardier’s seat assemblies include separately mounted arm rests and seat straps. There are detailed inserts for the two engine nacelles showing their internal workings, but the instructions call for separate panels to cover them in the final assembly step, however some modelers will want to cement them in the open position.

The landing gear are nicely detailed, and like the American B-47, the main landing gear retract along the center line of the fuselage. The swept wings include separately mounted wing fences, likewise there is a separately mounted rudder on the vertical tail. But despite the fact that this is a bomber, there is no effort to provide a bomb bay – modelers will have to be satisfied with the kit’s crisp external detail. The instructions call out Gunze Sangyo colors only.

Markings

The kit includes markings for four versions of Armee de l’Air bombers, all of them appearing in overall natural metal with six-position roundels of the French Air Force:

  • 1) Vautour IIB, No. 627, Serial 92-AP, Escadre de Bombardement. This aircraft bears a black flash at the top of its vertical tail.
  • 2) Vautour IIB, No. 638, Armee de l’Air, based at RAF Wethersfield, Great Britain, Armed Forces Day, June 17, 1961. This is the only one of the four aircraft to have the French tri-color marking on its rudder, and bears a light grey flash at the top of its vertical tail.
  • 3) Vautour IIB, No. 634, Serial JD, Escadron de Remorquage 05/106, circa 1978. This aircraft bears a black flash at the top of its vertical tail.
  • 4) Vautour IIB, No. 621, Serial 92-AN, Escadre de Bombardement “Aquitane.” This aircraft bears a black flash at the top of its vertical tail.

Conclusion

This is a crisply detailed kit of an important if interim Armee de l’Air bomber of the Cold War. Highly recommended.

Reference

wikipedia.org

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