In the years following WWII, Bell Aviation hired former German rocket engineers Walter Dornberger and Kraft Ehrike to work on long-range spacecraft concepts for both military and civilian purposes. One of these was the BoMi (Bomber Missile), a "boost-glide" concept not unlike the "Silverbird" posited 15 years earlier by Eugene Sanger. The first stab at the BoMi concept was dubbed the MX-2276. It was a three-stage system composed of a horizontally launched piloted first stage, a disposable second stage, and a piloted third stage designed to "skip" over the upper atmosphere before dropping its payload on an enemy target and then returning to Earth.

The precursor to the X-20 Dyna-Soar, the MX-2276 concept was ultimately scrapped as too complex and replaced by a winged orbiter to be launched atop a conventional booster.

This 1:144 scale resin kit has a total of 22 parts and is over 10 inches in length when completed. The master was done by Alfred Wong, decals are by JBOT, and the casting was done by Masterpiece Models.

Review by: Allen Ury

Entry created: March 27, 2010