Hello Gang - Y'all ready for Christmas?? Not me! The tree is up, the train is running underneath and the stockings have been hung up but are still empty. I still need to get stocking stuffers - mostly just chocolate Santa's and such - and presents for the granddaughter (the others just get a few dinero in the stockings - gone are the days when I drive all over town for presents!!!).
Today's tin isn't some flashy, sleek airliner or jet fighter. Nope. Today we feature a workhorse of an aircraft: Daiya's Vertol 107 helicopter.
In 1955 Piasecki became Vertol and work started on a new medium lift tandem rotor helicopter first dubbed the Vertol 107 which first flew in 1958. In 1960 Boeing acquired Vertol and the company became Boeing Vertol. The 107 was then developed for the Marines as the CH-46 Sea Knight with the rear landing gear housed in two nacelles jutting out from the fuselage.
The Army wanted a heavy lift transport helicopter and ordered the larger spin-off of the Vertol 107, the Model 114, which eventually became the CH-47 Chinook. The box art would lead you to believe the toy helo has a rear loading ramp, but in fact there is none.
The entire fuselage bottom - up to where it meets the top of the fuselage near the rear motor housing - is a one-piece stamping with no provisions for a door. The toy measures 14"L x 3 1/8"W x 6 5/8"H. The rotor span of 10 1/2" adds additional length - actually from front rotor to rear rotor it's about 18 1/2"L.
From Vegas Air Field
Ed
That toy is a bit of a hybrid. The box top say Vertol 107, but the separate engines flanking the rear rotor pylon and the full length sponsons down the lower fuselage sides are features of the CH-47 Chinook. The CH-46 and UH-46 Sea Knights have much shorter sponsons at the rear only, and engines faired in to the base of the rear rotor pylon. The toy does not look to have any engines at all ?
ReplyDeleteThe real Model 107 was built in Japan by Kawasaki for the Japanese market.
Glorious, just glorious! The lithography on this one is just perfect, including that wonderful cockpit and pilot. That must have been a dream to play with as a tot! SFZ
ReplyDeleteThat feels a lot more like my childhood toy, the rotors are a complete match. I wonder if out there somewhere, there's a version in olive drab with either orange or yellow multiple narrow stripes on the blade ends?
ReplyDeleteAs a kid, I wouldn't have liked this, as it's too toy like and glitzy, but as a display cabinet item today, I think it looks dazzling.
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