The bomber captain was often a very young man carrying an enormous responsibility. Commanding a heavy bomber meant answering for a quarter-million-dollar aircraft and the lives of nine other men, usually before his own twenty-fifth birthday. He flew the plane, but more than that he ran the crew — deciding whether a shot-up bomber could be nursed home or had to be abandoned, whether to hold formation through the flak or fall out of it, and when to give the order every man dreaded: bail out. His gunners, navigator, and bombardier put their lives in his hands on every mission and trusted him to bring them back. Command in the air was a lonely thing.

The figure stands in his A-2 leather flight jacket and officer's peaked cap, yellow Mae West and parachute harness, flight helmet in hand — a captain about to gather his crew. Build the ten-man crew of a hardstand diorama around him with his right-seat man the Co-Pilot, a Heavy Bomber Crewman, and the Ball Turret Gunner.

W. Britain model 10078. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted base. Boxed.