If the Processed Plastic Space Shuttle 'Enterprise' was the VW Beetle of shuttles, this version of the 'Columbia' is the Cadillac! The 'Enterprise' was a real nice scaled down toy consisting of only the shuttle itself. There have been a couple of different color variations of this toy, but this version has the main propellant tank in red and two separate booster rockets in silver/gray along with the shuttle primarily in white. Everything is designed to jettison and drop off leaving the shuttle to 'fly' off under kid-power! Beautifully executed it is a rather complicated toy for Processed Plastic standards with a whole lot going on. As you can tell by the instructions printed on appliques attached directly to the toy components, there are two steps to take to activate the features:
1) Pressing a button on top of the shuttle releases the two booster rockets which are connected the large red propellant tank
2) Pulling back on the lever atop the shuttle allows it to disconnect from the propellant tank.
...and then, just as with the 'Enterprise', the cargo bay opens up revealing a spacious interior in which one could add a satellite (I haven't tried that yet - gotta do it some day!
Overall the toy measures 16" (40.64cm) H. The propellant tank is 14" (35.56cm) H x 2 1/2" (6.35cm) diameter. The booster rockets are 13" (33.02cm) H x 1 1/2" (3.81cm) diameter at the flair. The shuttle is 9 1/4" (23.49cm) L x 7" (17.78cm) wingspan x 3 1/4" (8.25cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina
Here's my sequence of photos showing the Space Shuttle 'Columbia' landing upon completion of STS-4 on July 4th, 1982 at Edwards AFB, CA The shuttle was much further away than the photos make appear. It was a good thing I had my 400mm lens back then to at least get these shots!
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