Jump-jet kitsets fly off shelves

Press, 4 June 1982, Page 1

Jump-jet kitsets fly off shelves

Forget about Sopwith Camels, Messerschmitt 109 s, or, MiG 21s. Model kitsets of the British BAe Harrier jump-jet are in vogue because of the Falkland Islands crisis. Mr L. W. Wakelin (above), of Christies Model Shop in Cashel Street, holds the only Harrier kitset that he could get from his supplier yesterday. Those who have yet to buy their jump-jets may have to wait until new stocks arrive in Christchurch. About one out of every four people who came into the shop enquired about a Harrier, said Mr Wakelin. A shipment of the model was not expected for about a month. There had been a demand for the Westland Lynx heli-

copter, of the type that the Royal Navy was using in the Falklands, said Mr B. Stacey of The Hobby Shop, in Hereford Street. The demand for kitsets of McDonnell Douglas Skyhawks and Dassault-Bre-guet Mirage 111 fighters was not as strong, although one shop reported that of about 12 Skyhawk kits in stock when the Falkland crisis started, only two were left. Model sales do not just correspond to war apparently. There is an upsurge in interest in kitsets of the United, States space shuttle Columbia when the craft is set into orbit, and there was a demand for the Boeing 747 when Air New Zealand decided to buy the jet for its international fleet.