Swedish Airforce Arado Ar 80, April 1938

[nönöbär]

Swedish Airforce Arado Ar 80, April 1938

The plane

In the mid 1930s, the RLM (Reichsluftfahrtministerium) started a competition for a modern fighter plane. Several German aircraft manufacturers were invited to take part, and in the end, the Bf 109 won the competition, becoming the standard fighter of the Luftwaffe.
One other competitor was Arado with its Ar 80. However, the plane never had a chance, too heavy, no retractable landing gear and under-powered, it was no match with the 109. This would have been the end of the Ar 80, but another chance for the plane materialized.
At the same time, Sweden was looking for a new fighter aircraft. Interested in the winning Bf 109, Germany refused to sell the modern fighter, but offered the Ar80 instead.
Sweden, already panning to buy the Ju 86 bomber, was not interested at first, but Arado offered them an option to build the Ar 80 in license.
So finally Sweden accepted the deal and after 13 Ar 80 build at Arado, another 42 were build in Sweden itself.
Improved with a more powerful engine, the plane was finally able to reach speeds close to 500 kph, which was a significant improvement compared to the original design.

The Ar 80 was used in Swedish service during the entire WW2, protecting Swedish borders against allied and axis aircraft. In most cases, damaged bombers tried to land in the safety of Swedish neutral territory, but during the war, a total of 5 aircraft, 3 German, one British and one American were shot down by the Ar 80.

Soon after the end of the war, all remaining Ar 80 were decommissioned, today only two of them are on display in aircraft museums in Sweden.

The model shows a Ar 80 in April of 1938.









The model

The model is a 1/72 Huma kit of the Arado Ar 80. With only 29 parts, it did fit very well, no sanding was required at all. Build OOB, painted with Revel Aqua Color and decals used form the spare part box.

[Dizzyfugu]

Well done, a sleek aircraft. 

[zenrat]

 

Looks vaguely Stukaish.  I like it.

[Old Wombat]

 

[Flyer]

That is a nice looking aircraft, have to remember to look for one. Nice build too. 

[PR19_Kit]

That's really good, both the model and the backstory. 

I'd never even heard of an Ar80 before seeing your build, but it's logical that Huma would have done one nonetheless.

[nönöbär]

In real life, only three of those were build, so its not a very common one.
They wanted to make a retractable landing gear, but were not able to make it work. Therefore, the competition was flown with a fixed landing gear, making it quite obsolete compared with the Bf 109.

[NARSES2]

Looks vaguely Stukaish.  I like it.

I can see where your coming from with that comparison, mind you I can see it armed with a torpedo ?

Looks very good nonbar 

[Hotte]

Very nice Arado 

Hotte

[Robomog]

Nice looking aircraft,  impressive diorama base  did you build that yourself ?

Mog
>^-.-^<

[chrisonord]

Very nice, and as Zenrat says it does look very Stuka.

[Pellson]

Really nice!

[loupgarou]

Sleek and elegant. (apart from thewindscreen).
Retractable undercarriages should have been forbidden by the Geneva Convention, spats are so nicer. 

[NARSES2]

Retractable undercarriages should have been forbidden by the Geneva Convention, spats are so nicer. 

And come in so many different styles 

[su27rules]

Looks very good