1/72 Douglas O-46A (USAAF two-seat observation monoplane)

This is a resin model kit, which comes unassembled and unpainted. So glue, model paints and other basic modelling tools are additionally required.

A development of an earlier Douglas-designed observation aircraft, the 0-43, the Douglas O-46A was delivered to the US Army Air Corps in May 1936. The aircraft was a single-engined, parasol-winged monoplane, powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1535-7 engine. Although 71 aircraft were ordered, 90 were eventually delivered, the last entering service in April 1937.
The aircraft carried a crew of two and was armed with two .30 cal Browning machine guns; one in the wing and a flexible mounted gun in the observer's cockpit. The O-46A served with the USAAC as an observation aircraft until 1940, when it was realised that the type was too slow and heavy when compared with the fighter aircraft then being brought into service. It was also too large and heavy to operate from dirt strips, which it was expected to do in the role of Army cooperation aircraft.
The majority of the O-46A's were transferred to the National Guard, but some aircraft did see active duty overseas, two aircraft of the 2 nd Observation Squadron being destroyed when the Japanese attacked the Philippines on 8 December 1941. The O-46A was finally declared obsolete in 1942 and relegated to training und utility duties as the L-46A.
One Douglas O-46A machines survives. It was presented to the USAF Museum in 1975 and is painted in the markings of an aircraft assigned to Wright Field Material Division in Ww2.