1/72 Portuguese Air Force

WW2 Era _(1939-1945)

Airplane	Box	Actual model
-P47D Thunderbolt
-Supermarine Spitfire MkV

Colonial War Series_(1961-1974)

Airplane	Box	Actual model
-T6G Texan (Havard)
-Lockheed T33 Thunderbird
-F-84 Thunderjet
-F-86 Sabre
-Fiat G-91 "Gina"
-Alouette III "Lobo mau" (Bad Wolf)"

See Airplanes from other Countries

(bellow is the trancript of the history of these airplanes, which only together we can see how they are intertwined)

The T-6 was a biplace training aircraft, that was also a good platform for air support. Portuguese airforce received these as part of an agreement between Portugal and United States of America. In the early fifties was used mainly as a trainer, however, in the early sixties, with the begining of the Colonial War, this was one of the first models to be shipped. It was upgraded with machine guns, bombs and rockets supports, where they've done a great job. They were effective. Portugal was the last country to use them, being scrapped out in 1978.
The T33 was the first Jet trainer that Portuguese Air Force had. It was meant to be the trainer for the P-80, the single pilot version. However, later on, the F84 came instead. At the time this airplane arrived to Portugal, in 1953, it was still a state of the art airplane... During WW2, Portugal managed to be out of the battlefield. Franco in Spain had chosen a different length in the train tracks, which made every train to stop at the border to switch the wheels, and produced a good "last stand" point, which meant that the German Blitzkrieg would not work. As the Iberian penninsule was not considered a big threat, the Germans didn't made a big effort to get in. Moreover, at the time, it was impossible to say what would the outcome be, so, Portugal tried to be "neutral"... Would trade to keep the war out, but would not do any favours to any side... Until American almost "forced us" to accept an agreement for them to use the Lages base in Azores. It was imperative for the bombers, resource transports, everything to supply in there, near the middle of the Atlantic. But, in return to let them use the base, we demanded that they could supply us with the state of the art armement, so that if Germany would try to get back at us for favoring the ally side, we would have resources to defend ourselfs. And the next series of airplanes came because of that deal... The problem is that most of the people saw them still flying nearly 20-30 years after being bought, and forgot their history, and the image that remained was that we only had rusted old airplanes, nothing new...
As part of the deal for the Lages Airbase in Azores, Portugal managed to get acess to the state of the art airplanes. The F-84 came in 1953, as it was brand new, still a very recent machine. Better than the P-80, which we were going to have, but we were proposed the deal of receiving this one, much more recent. In fact, this was a good machine, even if it took too long to take off. It was shipped to the Colonies, in 1961, as the Colonial War was starting... It was effective in providing air support, even if, after some time, was hard to get parts to repair them... There was a Weapons embargo, which made it difficult for them to fly... Even though, it had 125 of these, being "putted down" in 1974.
 The F-86 Sabre was one of the most sucessfull early jet airplanes. Portugal got them in 1957, in the "keep up" of the Lages deal... It was our best airplane ever! It was state of the art, gradually replacing the F-84. But, in 1961, they were shipped to Africa, for the colonies, as a "demoter", not meant to be used, but to try to keep the Colonial War out... But the international pressure, as they've claimed that we got these airplanes under the "NATO treaty", as the cold war was just starting, made us get them back to mainland... There were also external pressures to "release" the colonies, not because of humanitary or "freedom" motif, but because everyone wanted to trade with the colonies, they didn't wanted them to be free, but so that "they" could trade with them... And that is the sad part: the pressure was for political and economical interest, not for the people interest... Because of that, a military embargo was made on Portugal, this was the last airplane we would get from the States for years... It is sad that everyone interest was only oil, even from the Russian who later on supplied the Strela..
The Alouette III is a small light utilitary helicopter. It has a lot of conversions possible, from air cannon to small troops transport. Portugal acquire them in 1963, as a complement to the Alouette II. This became an icon of the Colonial War, as a commando/ sky diver transport (canibais) or equiped with a cannon pointing on the left side. We had 142, and was one of the important troop support aircraft. Usually, some were unarmed as an evacuation, or transport, followed by the ones with the cannon. The small detail about the quality of this helicopter is that it was used as a stunt aircraft, by expert pilots, doing coordinated movements on shows, and it is still flying... After over 50 years, they are still used, because it is really light, easy to fly, and a reliable machine for instruction. Went to war, got back, and still wasn't retired. It's not old. It... gathered expertiese!
 So, in 1966 no one would sell us any planes... United States refused to sell F-86 to us, and we needed them for air support... And we went to Germany! They had a few Fiat G-91, a scaled down version of the sabre, meant to be the "europe small defense jet". These were ordered by Turkey and Greece, who droped out on the last minute, after they were built. Germany, who appreciated the Portuguese "neutrality" during WW2, sold them to us, in exchange of we let them also train their crew in Beja. This was the airplane which we kept for longer, went to war and got back, even winning the "Tigermeet" in 1980 and 85, while facing F4 phantoms II, F-16, Mirage F1 and F-111... With this small little get, we beat them all... Last flight was in 1993, over 75.000 hours of flight, over 27 years... It was brand new when we got them, with a lot of potencial, and we kept them for so long, that people forgot that... Just saw an "old airplane"...