Sunday, January 5, 2014

Argentinian Nieuport 28 of Vicente Almandos Almonacid

Argentinian pilot Vicente Almandos Almonacid (1882-1953) volunteered for the French Foreign Legion before transferring to the French Air Force as a bomber pilot. He was decorated on several occasions, and he invented a bomb release mechanism before the war ended. To celebrate the end of the war he flew an aircraft under one of the bridges spanning the Seine in Paris repeatedly. Almonacid eventually returned to Argentina. He then tried crossing the Andes in 1919, but crashed, survived, and tried again on March 20, 1920. This time he made it to Chile in the Nieuport 28 shown below. Being his birthplace, the airport serving the city of La Rioja in Argentina has been named after Almonacid.

The kit is a 1960s vintage Nieuport 28 that is rather heavy in the detailing, but it comes together well and quickly.

 Almonacid



















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