Roden 1/144 Boeing 720 'United' Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

United Airlines was the first commercial airline to adopt Boeing's new Model 720, which was intended to provide a more economical solution to short-to-medium haul routes than the Model 707. While the type was reliable, it wasn't the commercial success originally envisioned by Boeing and they later developed the 727 and 737 to cater to short-to-medium range flight operations.

Here's another release of the Roden 1/144 scale Boeing 720. The kit is molded in light gray styrene and presented on six parts trees plus one tree of clear parts. The JT3C turbojets are a little large for this scale but nicely detailed. I suspect we'll see some aftermarket pods coming to correct these.

The cockpit transparency is produced as a cap similar to the approach used by Minicraft which makes it nice to glue and fill the parts without harming the cockpit windows themselves. Unlike Minicraft, this kit also provides the main cabin windows as clear parts rather than decals.

Markings are provided for N7205U, the fifth 720 to be delived into United's fleet.

This is a nice kit of Boeing variant not often seen in scale and definitely not on the ramp any longer. As a smaller version of the 707, this 720 is a close cousin to the KC-135. It will provide an interesting addition to your scale flightline!

My sincere thanks to Squadron Mail Order for this review sample!