It is with great pride and honour that I would like to introduce my partnership with maxFlite. The concept behind maxFlite’s product is quite simple: we all have fond childhood memories of playing with small foam gliders with propellers. In most cases, these gliders were as much fun as they were flimsy and unrealistic. MaxFlite offers the same type of fun glider – only much more durable and better-looking.

We have worked together to create 14 different glider types, all finely detailed. Fellow illustrator Chris Sandham-Bailey also contributed with an A6M Zero. The types range from major World War II fighters to modern turboprop trainers:

• Col. John Lander’s P-51 Mustang “Big Beautiful Doll”, one of the most colourful Mustangs in the ETO.
• British ace-of-aces Johnnie Johnson’s Spitfire Mk XIV
• Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Hurricane Mk II, carrying the colours of Squadron Leader Arthur ‘Darkie’ Clowes’ machine during the Battle of Britain.
• Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 “Christl” as flown by Major Gerhard Barkhorn, who, with 301 aerial victories, was the second most successful fighter ace of all time.
• Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-8 “Red 19” as flown by Unteroffizier Ernst Schröder, which has the motto of the famous Cologne carnival, “Kölle Alaaf”, painted on the left side, and “Edelgard” on the other—the name of the pilot’s first love.
• Republic P-47 Thunderbolt “No Guts No Glory” as flown  by Captain Benjamin Mayo in 1944.
• Mitsubishi A6M2 Model 21 Zero, JJ170 of the Konoike Kokutai (fighter wing), stationed in the Ibaraki Prefecture in 1944.
• The Curtiss P-40M Warhawk “Jacky C II” warbird. You can admire the original in the American Airpower Museum in New York.
• The Yakovlev Yak-3 of Wing Commander Louis Delfino of the French Fighter Group Normandie-Niémen, which served on the Eastern Front.
• Italian fighter ace Luigi Gorrini’s Macchi MC.205 Veltro.
• An Embraer 312 Tucano the Brazilian Air Force’s air demonstration squadron, popularly known as the ‘Smoke Squadron’ (Portuguese: Esquadrilha da Fumaça).
• Pilatus PC-21 No. 101, HB-HZC, the prototype of the PC-21.
• A Pilatus PC-7 bearing the former orange & black markings of the PC-7 Team.
• French ace of aces Pierre Clostermann’s Hawker Tempest Mk V “Le Grand Charles”.
• Dewoitine D.520 No. 266, flown by Sous-Lieutenant René Pomier-Layrargues, Groupe de Chasse (Fighter Wing) II/7, 5 June 1940, Beauvais. Pilot René Pomier-Layrargues scored two aerial victories over Me 109s on 5 June 1940, one of which was flown by fighter ace Werner Mölders.

If you’re looking for a great Christmas present for kids (or adults ! ) at an affordable price, you’ll find that maxFlite’s gliders are a great combination of fun, art and historical accuracy and detail. The aircraft are roughly 40 cm in length and wingspan. Some people have already adapted the gliders with electric motors and control surfaces to use them as RC models. I’ll be posting more on this later, but I must say that it’s great fun to imagine my illustrations buzzing around the skies !

You can purchase the models directly from the secure maxFlite online shop.

1. D.520 n°277 of Groupe de Chasse III/6 flown by Adjudant-chef Pierre Le Gloan, who shot down 5 Italian aircraft on 15 May 1940.

2. D.520 n°2 was used by the Groupe de Chasse Doret to attack German resistance pockets on the Atlantic coast in 1944. It had previously been used by the Germans for advanced fighter training before being captured by the Free French.

The Dewoitine D.520 was called “the French Spitfire” and was the most advanced fighter in service in the Armée de l’Air at the time of the German invasion. It proved to be a match for the German Bf 109 but was not available in sufficient numbers. It served with the Vichy government and also with Germany as an advanced trainer as well as with allies of the Reich.

1. D.520 of GC I/3 at Cannes-Mandelieu airfield, April-May 1940. The two-tone camouflage was unusual.

2. D.520 of the Corps Franc Pommiès, a Free French unit, in August 1944.

3. Bulgarian D.520 flying with the Luftwaffe, in the III (Bulg.)/JG6 based at Bojourishte, February 1944.

4. D.520 of the 1st squadron of GC I/3, May 1940. This aircraft, No 98, was flown by Sgt. Chef Paul Bellefin and wears the standard French camouflage scheme: brown, green and grey uppersurfaces, with grey-blue undersurfaces.

5. German D.520 of JG 101, a “Jagdfliegerschule”, i.e. a fighter school based at Pau-Nord airfield in France, March 1944.

6. D.520 n°139, damaged at Douala airfield, Cameroun, 1940.