JB-2 "Loon" American Pulse-Jet Missile (1944)

Scale: 1/72
Initial Release: 2004
Medium: Styrene
Kit Rarity: 3

About the Design

The JB-2 Loon was America's "reverse-engineered" version of Germany's infamous V-1 "Buzz Bomb," which rained terror over the British Isles beginning in 1944. The airframe was built by the Republic Aviation Corporation, the primitive pulse-jet engine by the Ford Motor Company, both based on fragments of German V-1's recovered in England. The U.S. intended to use hundreds of Loons as part of its planned invasion of the Japanese home islands, but the plan became moot when the Japanese surrendered following the detonation of the first atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

The first Loon was successfully test flown at Florida's Elgin Field in October 1944, with subsequent tests conducted at the White Sands Proving Grounds near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Data gathered from these tests led to the subsequent development of the Regulus I, Regulus II and Snark cruise missiles of the 1950s. 

About the Kit

This injection-molded plastic and etched brass kit from MAC Distribution of the Czech Republic was first released in 2003. The model came with both the "Loon" missile and its rocket-powered launch sled. The launch "rail" was fashioned from hobby shop styrene.

This model was built from an original issue.