In 1953, Santa was
looking for something new to fly on Christmas Eve. Whilst browsing a catalogue
from Convair Aviation (which he'd picked up intending to buy a Tradewind or
perhaps a C-99) he came across the Pogo, a prototype VTOL aircraft of the
tailsitter design. He immediately saw the usefulness...no more parachute drops
down chimneys! No more landings alongside the house, then scrambling up a
slippery roof to only drop down into the chimney. No, this plane was perfect!
He set his elves to
modify the stock Pogo, adding extra long outriggers to drop down and allow a
good footing on even the most steeply sloped roof. He had the elves paint the
plane to look like a Christmas tree (An idea that was used again in 1968 on the
XB-70) and with a golden prop and spinner, it was pretty spiffy to look at.
Santa was very happy with how it turned out. Sadly, it didn't live up to his
expectations.
The exhaust of the
turboprop was responsible for more missing shingles than the Great Hurricane of
1902, and several houses actually caught fire. Only the swift work by his elves
and some very full reindeer saved the day. 1953 turned out to be the solo
performance of the Polar Pogo.
Click on
images below to see larger images
I used the basic good old
Lindberg Pogo kit, with decals made on my inkjet printer at home. Other
decorations were added with white, gold and silver paint pens. The plane
depicts the initial rollout scheme, before the outrigger wheels were
replaced with ice crampons.
Alvis 3.1
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