Why Bomarc?

Because you are wanting one? Seems to always happen to me!

Think that ~they're~ expensive, check out the prices ~if~ you stumble across an Aurora or Comet version sometime!

Jerry,

Just a guess but the Bomarc figured in the recent miniseries on the Avro Arrow. Eisenhower talked the PM of Canada into buying the Bomarcs as a cheap alternative to the Arrow. The post script is the Arrow a fantastic plane was scrapped, and the bomarc which didn't really work was deployed only to be phased out after a short time. There's a scene where Eisenhower and the PM are fishing in a small boat - surrounded by Secret Service personnel. Eisenhower who didn't like high tech races - it wasn't good for GM and the stock market explains you can't trust the Military Industrial Complex - dump the Arrow and buy Bomarrcs. It actually got my interest for a few days. Then I remembered as a kid I passed on the kit when it first came out. And I built almost any kit with a rocket engine. It just seemed like a few parts and an uninteresting model.

The other comment I have to make is that ebay seems really spastic. In one month a clearance house was offering the Tamiys Enterprize for about $70, and somebody on ebay paid $500 for a second hand one.

Val Kraut

No, I don't want one. It seems that the Bomarc kits, Revell, Aurora, Comet have commanded high prices for the past five years. I just don't understand why the Bomarc is so popular. Jerry 47

I think you have put your finger on it in that the Canadian connection is probably a reason for the popularity of the BOMARC (it was an acronym, all caps, I am not shouting) kit on eBay. Would be interesting to see how many of the bids come from Canada. If so, modelers with a genuine interest in aerospace history are bidding. The BOMARC is totally tied into the Avro Arrow story. One of the supposed reasons for scrubbing the Arrow and going for the BOMARC was that the new threat would be ICBMs which the Arrow could not deal with. (Sputnik was put into orbit on the same day that the first Arrow was rolled out). Nobody in power seems to have twigged to the fact that the BOMARC couldn't handle ICBMs either, or they concealed that. I did build that kit and concur with Val's assessment. It was only its involvement in the Arrow affair that led me to do it. The BOMARC was a dismal failure. There is a real BOMARC in the Canadian Aviation Museum in Ottawa, on display but unobtrusively in a corner. This one is probably doing more useful service in an educational role than any of the others ever did operationally. Cheers, Doc H

the regulus has a cool twist too. the snark was butt ugly in a wonderfull way.

Um, cool-looking missile? I think the Bomarcs, Reguli(uses) and Snarks have a certain eye appeal. JMHO

Bill Banaszak, MFE

Also, I think some of the attraction to the BOMARC, could be subliminally influenced. It was, at one point, given the fighter/pursuit designation F-99; and this adds to the "coolness factor".

Is "BOMARC" the official way to spell it? I ask, since it is not *totally* an acronym. The "MARC" was for "Michigan Aerospace Research Center", and the "BO" was for "Boeing"....so technically/grammatically....I guess it should be "BoMARC".

More of an "abbrevi-nym"....lol

:o)

Here in Bangor Maine we have a small industrial park called the Bomarc Industrial park that utilizes the buildings left over the Bomarc base. Each missle silo has been made into a business of some kind. Silo 7 is a book store. Waste not , want not we say.

Doug Wagner

I also always liked the Snark for some reason. One program talked about them test flying these off the coast of California - Catalina Island I think. They had a bunch of failures and described the local ocean as "Snark infested waters"

Val Kraut "

Actually, it's a very good example of an acronym, unlike many of the current abbreviations that are referred to as acronyms.

MB

Actually, I have seen it spelled both "BOMARC", mostly by military people and in official documents, and "Bomarc" in newspapers and "literary works" (histories, etc.,), I would not fall on my sword about which is "correcter". Actually, I like Greg's idea of "BoMARC". :-) If you do a BOMARC (however you spell it), you might consider the Canadian colour scheme of overall light grey and quite large full-colour roundels. Actually looked quite good. IIRC, the kit scheme was USAF black with white telemetry stripes. Cheers, Doc

Here is a neat little article, where a guy "cloned" the classic Estes flying model kit, and did it in Canadian markings:

The Boeing website

The use of the Bomarc in Canada is quite fascinating. For those interested in the Revell kit, I finished this kit in the Canadian markings and wrote a review along with photos on ARC. here's the link:

Look under Gallery/Jet Aircraft/Bomarc for a bit of the history of the Canadian Bomarc along with a build article. Enjoy! Mike