Aurora 1/107 Convair 990 Jet Mainliner, 397-198

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Aurora 1/107 Convair 990 Jet Mainliner, 397-198 plastic model kit

1/107 397-198 Aurora Convair 990 Jet Mainliner

Plastic Model Kit,   Box Condition: VG+

Very rare kit from 1962. First and only issue. This is the largest injection molded kit ever made of the very fast Convair 990 airliner. The box has excellent color and sheen with four solid corners and no repairs. There are no price tags or price tag marks. The box would grade higher than 'VG+', but there is a tape tear from the factory tape on one long side when the box was originally opened. The model is molded in the correct white and clear plastic, with the large clear triangle display stand and full color United decals. The kit has never been started. The small parts are still in the internal factory sealed bag and the parts that were never factory sealed have been inventoried 100% complete including decals and instructions. Decals and instructions are both flat with slight yellowing being the only flaw. NOTE: shipping insurance is required with this kit. The Convair 990 and its near sister 880 were very high performance airliners. Unfortunately they did not find favor with commercial operators. The commerical failure of the 990 caused Aurora to pull these molds from production shortly after the introduction of the kit. The 990 was a larger and faster (Mach .91) airliner than the 880, but it failed to meet it's range criteria for east to west crossings of the USA. As a result, only 37 were made. Interestingly enough, several 990s continued to be operated by private owners and NASA operated two for decades after the last one was phased out of commercial service. Only 65 880s were produced from 1959 to 1962. The aircraft was designed to be smaller and faster than the DC-8 and 707 - this market did not develop, however, and if it did it could have been served with less expensive designs.

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