Celebrating the Centennial of Naval Aviation in 1/72 Scale
2010 USN/USMC/USCG 1/72 Aircraft Kit Survey

by J. Michael McMurtrey

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As 2011 marks the centennial of U.S. naval aviation, aircraft modelers might be interested in this list of US
naval aircraft — including those of the Marines and Coast Guard, as well as captured enemy aircraft tested by the US Navy — which are available as 1/72 scale kits. Why 1/72? There are far more kits of naval aircraft available in this scale than any other. Plus, it’s my favorite, in spite of advancing age and weakening eyes.

This is an updated version of an article I prepared for the 75th Anniversary of US naval aviation and which
was published in a 1986 issue of the old IPMS-USA Update. It is amazing to compare the two and realize
what developments have occurred, both in naval aeronautical technology and the scale modeling hobby,
but especially the latter. My 1986 list included 168 specific aircraft types available in kit form from thirtythree
manufacturers — some injected, some vacuum-formed — and only three conversion kits and no resin
kits. Many of these names (Classic Plane, Contrails, Eagle’s Talon, Esci, Ertl, Formaplane, Frog, Griffin,
Hawk, Matchbox, Monogram, Rareplane, Veeday, Victor 66) are no longer with us or have been absorbed
by others.

This update lists 345 aircraft types (including the original 168) from 192 different companies (including the original 33), many of which, especially the producers of resin kits, were not in existence in 1986, and some of which were unknown to me at the time. This list also includes catalog numbers, where known (some manufacturers did not use them); my original list did not.

The document is a 395KB file presented in PDF format and may be downloaded by following this link:

2010 USN/USMC/USCG 1/72 Aircraft Kit Survey

Text & Images Copyright © 2010 by J. Michael McMurtrey
Page Created 20 December, 2010
Last Updated 20 December, 2010

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