Original Item: Only One Available. During World War Two there was a mass of teaching materials used by the armed forces to train gunners and aircrew in the identification of aircraft, ships and ground vehicles. The ability of servicemen to identify "friend or foe" in an instant was crucial to combat survival and the subject of recognition was taught in just about every World War II service school. Trained spotters were important to the war effort and to aid them 1:72 scale plastic models were made. The manufacturers Cruver and Design Center for airplane models are well known as being the primary providers of almost all production models in plastic.

Cruver produced two versions of the JU-90, the first version (this one) and a modified model designated JU-90B. This is a beautiful, original (cellulose acetate) Cruver model with no distortion or deterioration. Underbody designation reads:

GERMAN JUNKERS 90
cast date of 9-42
Cruver Circle C logo

This model is huge with a wingspan is 19 1/2" and fuselage length 15" and is offered in excellent condition.

The Junkers Ju 90 was a 40-seat, four-engine airliner developed for and used by Deutsche Luft Hansa shortly before World War II. It was based on the rejected Ju 89 bomber. During the war, the Luftwaffe impressed them as military transports.

In April 1939, the RLM asked Junkers for a further development of the Ju 90 for military transport purposes. The Ju 90V5 and V6 were the prototypes of this military design. They got a new wing with a straight inner section leading edge, of greater span (19%) and area (11%). The landing gear was strengthened with twin main wheels and the fins were more rounded, lacking the characteristic horn balance nick of the earlier models. The windows were replaced by 10 small portholes a side. The Ju 90 V5 flew first on 5 December 1939. A special feature of both the V5 and V6 was a powered boarding ramp in the floor of the rear section of the fuselage for loading cars and larger cargo freight. This Trapoklappe ramp, when lowered, was powerful enough to raise the fuselage to the horizontal flying position. Both aircraft were retroactively fitted with the much more powerful, unitized Kraftei-mount 1,200 kW (1,600 hp) BMW 801MA radials, with the first suffix letter "M" signifying the initial Motoranlage format of unitized powerplant installation design promulgated by the RLM. Ju 90s were also used as tugs for heavy gliders.

The two last prototypes – the V7 and V8 – fed directly into the Ju 290 development program. The former had a fuselage extension of 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) and the addition of dihedral to the tailplane to solve a yaw instability. A reconnaissance prototype aerodynamically similar to the V7, the V8 was armed, however, with two 20 mm MG 151/20 cannons and up to nine 13 mm (.51 in) MG 131 machine guns in two dorsal, one ventral, and one tail position.