Optica

The Optica, designed by John Edgley and built by Brooklands Aerospace, had an unusual configuration with a fully glazed forward cabin seating three across, Behind it was situated a Lycoming flat-six engine powering a ducted fan, twin boom cantilever tailplane with twin rudders and a high-mounted single elevator. The fixed tricycle undercarriage had the nosewheel offset to the left. The wings were unswept and untapered, and the aircraft was of a fairly standard all-metal construction with stressed aluminium skin. The aircraft's distinctive appearance led to it being known as the "bug-eye"

It first flew on 14 December 1979, powered by a 150 hp Lycoming O-320 engine The Optica,is now powered by a more powerful Lycoming O-540, A crash of police Optica G-KATY on 15 May 1985 killed two members of the Hampshire Constabulary, The cause was suspected to be a stall: insufficient airspeed during a turn causing instability. The reason for the low speed was never established. This led to the bankruptcy of Edgley, with Optica Industries being formed in October 1985 to continue production and 25 were built before a fire caused by arson destroyed the factory and all but one flying Optica. The company was reformed again as Brooklands Aircraft, and the Optica returned to production, ceasing in March 1990, when Brooklands Aircraft went bankrupt.

So to the kit, first, hats off to sharkit for making this odd shaped kit . the kit is a LTD edition short run kit with a hefty price tag (£41) made in cream resin, a few bubbles here and there, fine scribed lines on major parts. the main fus is nicley made and fits well in the duct body, speaking of which why oh why did sharkit make the duct with one wing and not two? as trying to mount the wing to the duct will be a pig as its too thin to make any decent mount, the tail section is nice but again will need some brass rod to stiffen up the mount to the wings, the flaps are missing the rib detail but thats an easy fix. the cockpit seats are nice but the center cosole has no detail and no joy stick. the vac-form, of which there are two, are good and clear but how you will ever cut them to fit correctly i dont know, that brings me to the glazing frame it is a work of art, but fit inside the vac-form parts so is in effect incorrect and slightly incorrect in shape, i plan on vac-forming a new part 😉. the decals are nice and thin and are for a production A/C, again i am planning on a IDF A/C i think i have the detail some where.