American Gyro AG-4 Crusader (1935)

Crusader AG-4 experimental passenger aircraft - AviS Models Box Art

Scale: 1/72
Initial Release: 2019
Medium: Styrene
Kit Rarity: 2

About the Design

The American Gyro AG-4 Crusader was a beautiful, streamlined little aluminum-skinned civilian aircraft designed in 1933 by Thomas Miles Shelton. Created for the private aircraft market, it had a highly distinctive retro-future design featuring a teardrop-shaped passenger cabin flanked by twin boom-mounted Menasco C4-2 piston engines supported by fixed landing gear. The AG-4 made its maiden flight at the Denver Airport in 1935, but the plane never went into production as American Gyro's parent company, Crusader Aircraft, fell into bankruptcy three years later in the midst of an investor fraud scandal.

About the Kit

Release in 2019 by AviS Models of Ukraine, this injection-molded resin kit included an interior with cockpit control panel and four passenger seats. Oddly, the entire teardrop-shaped main body was molded in clear plastic (two parts), requiring the builder to carefully mask off the window and then paint the entire body to achieve the clear-window effect.

This model was built from an original issue.