Fassberg Flyer – kit from LEGO® bricks

Description

The Berlin Airlift 1948/49

The Berlin Airlift was organised by the Western Allies after the Soviet occupying forces blocked all land and water transport routes between West Berlin and West Germany on 24^th June 1948. The catalyst was the currency reform implemented in the three western zones on 20^th June. Under the leadership of the military governor of the US zone, Lucius D. Clay, the Western Allies then set up the largest operation of its kind to date to keep the 2.2 million inhabitants of West Berlin alive.

Until the end of the blockade on 12^th May 1949, flights took off every minute from several airfields in West Germany to the airfields of Tempelhof and Gatow in West Berlin, the temporary Tegel airfield set up for this occasion, as well as British seaplanes to the Havel. They transported everything needed in West Berlin and everything produced in Berlin for export back and forth by air. The aeroplanes were in use until the end of September 1949 and were gradually withdrawn until the usual transport routes were re-established.

In this regard, the term Rosinenbomber (lit. raisin bomber) came into being after the young American pilot Gail S. Halvorsen (himself known as the ‘Candy Bomber’) began dropping small parachutes filled with sweets for the children gathered under the incoming planes. An entire operation named ‘Little Vittles’ emerged, and Halvorsen later became commander of Tempelhof Airport from 1970 to 1974. He remained in close contact with Berlin and the society Luftbrücke Frankfurt-Berlin e. V. until the end of his life in February 2022.

The Airlift Museum in Faßberg

The Luftbrückenmuseum was opened in Faßberg, Lower Saxony in March 1990. The airfield in Faßberg, originally created in the 1930s as a covert location for the Luftwaffe (German Air Force), was primarily used to transport coal during the Berlin Airlift. The museum is dedicated to the deployment of British and American soldiers at this location, with a Douglas C-47 on display outside. It looks like a plane that was involved in the airlift but is not the original.

Built in 1943, the original was used after the airlift in Norway, in the USA and most recently in Guatemala, where it finally crashed in 1994 and suffered irreparable damage. The display specimen from the same year was originally in service at the US Army Air Force, then with the Turkish Air Force from 1949 to 1995. After the agreed transfer to the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces), the aircraft was finally brought to Faßberg on board an Airbus Beluga in 1998, where it was installed at the museum after an overhaul.

The model by Ralf J. Klumb

After Ralf constructed models of the C-47 (civilian Douglas DC 3) and C-54 (DC 4), he approached several organisations that keep the memory of the Berlin Airlift alive. The Airlift Museum in Faßberg was one of these, and during a personal meeting at the airfield festival in Gatow in summer 2023 with the first chairman of the society, Wing Commander Ludger Osterkamp, we agreed to include this kit in our range.

The model is approximately 1:160 scale and has replica prints of the Faßberg prototype.

The four printed parts contained in this kit were provided by our partner, IN creare, from Braunschweig.

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Colour of the model: grey

Number of original LEGO® bricks: 102

Measurements of the model: 14.4 x 12.1 x 6.6 cm

Scale: approx. 1:160

Difficulty level: beginner