SCALE MODEL AIRCRAFT

The ill fated Latecoere 300 "Croix du Sud" (Southern Cross) is one of the most famous planes of French aviation history, for having paved the way to commercial operations across the Southern Atlantic in many crossings and distance records, and also because French aviator Jean Mermoz - a true national heroe at the time - disappeared with its entire crew onboard during one of these transatlantic flights on 7 December 1936. According to their last radio transmission, the probable cause is a malfunction of a propeller variable pitch system, a novelty at the time, and main cause for reliability problems on this aircaft. The prop still turning would have destroyed control cables when separating from the starboard aft 650 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Nbr engine.

Thanks to Michel Leonardi for sending the pics of this beautiful model.

Michel made major modifications to the cockpit area and engine nacelles to convert the Aerovac 1/72 Latecoere 302 kit to a 300.

The registration marks are made using templates in Tamiya masking tape.

Humbrol colors # 34, 85, and 27002 were used to coat the model.

And the main reference material:

- "Les Avions de Mermoz" (Editions d'ALONG)

- "L'Aeropostale" (Arthaud)