Convair Space Station Lifeboat (1958)

Scale: 1/48
Initial Release: 2021
Medium: Resin
Kit Rarity: 2
Length: 6.5 Inches

About the Design

When German-born aerospace engineer Krafft Ehricke was designing his Atlas missile-based manned orbiting laboratory (MOL) for San Diego-based Convair Aviation in the late 1950s, he had to consider how astronauts might return quickly to earth in the event the orbiting station experienced a catastrophic failure.

His solution was to include two "lifeboats," simple wedge-shaped "lifting bodies" each capable of holding two astronauts. These "lifeboats," which would be permanently docked to the station, were equipped with simple engines for maneuvering and re-entry, and a landing skid that could allow them to make a "hard landing" on a smooth, flat surface, such as a salt flat. 

Ehricke was so enamored with his elegant design that he included it on a number of his subsequent spacecraft concepts, often serving as a command module.

About the Kit

The Convair Space Station Lifeboat kit was released by Fantastic Plastic Models in early 2021. It was a relatively simple kit, consisting of a three-piece "shell," engines, landing skid, and a simplified interior. The decal sheet by JBOT permitted the builder to choose a variety of marking schemes.

This kit was based on Ehricke's actual drawings, and differs significantly from the lifeboats included in HAWK Models' Atlas MOL kit from the late 1950s. The actual design is slimmer and more arrow-head shaped than the HAWK interpretation, which is flatter and more equilateral. 

This model was built from an original issue.