Aeroclassics April Release Hints

Now Chinese New Year has been and gone the manufacturers are getting back into the swing of things. Aeroclassics rarely pause for breath over the period anyway and as it is nearly April the hints from the Mata Hari over at 400ScaleHangar are out. What might April bring from the major classics and modern Airbus maker?

Aeroclassics had started undertaking pre-release announcements like everyone else does however they appear to have reverted to old ways and now are announcing as the models are ready. I quite like this as it is a bit more exciting and the pre-release announcements didn't appear to have any impact on the accuracy of what was being made anyway. Plus it means the Mata Hari is reborn and giving hints of what is to come.

This month's hints, as always in the form of the registration prefixes, are as follows:

B-  , CF-  , EC- , JA , N , PK- , VH- , & XA-

Even though Westerners moan Aeroclassics has actually been releasing a lot less Chinese airliners than in the past so the B- reg is welcome for me. Almost certainly these will be one or more A320 and A330 family aircraft. I'd like to see a Yunnan Hongtu A321 but I suspect these will be A320/21neos or A330s for the big three.

The CF- prefix denotes a Canadian release from the 1960s or early 70s. Aeroclassics makes a lot of Canadians and I'm not really sure what is left on the current moulds. I suspect it is another DC-8 but I'm not sure what is left to be done?

The EC- is also a puzzle. There are lots of classic Spanish aircraft to make and top of my list is probably an Air Spain DC-8, which would fit with Aeroclassics recent mould choices. I suspect however this is going to be a modern Airbus - Vueling, Level or somesuch.

The JA- is most likely going to be a DC-10-40 (some other JAL livery variant) or an A320 perhaps (Peach Air maybe?).

The N reg could be almost anything - there are always so many to be made. Going by recent mould usage it could be an F-27, 737-200 or 727-200 but again I suspect it may be an A320 family member - Alaska A321neo maybe?

Aeroclassics produces a decent number of Indonesian releases and now I know these are stimulated by our friendly Waffleman. So I suspect another relatively obscure A300, A310, F28 or 737 from the 1990/2000s.

The last two regos are possibly the easiest to guess since over on 400SH Andrew has admitted that two of the guesses have been accurate and I suspect it is these two. The Australian is probably a QantasLink A320 whilst I suspect (following recent trends for Mexican trijets) the XA- is an Aeromexico DC-10:

Of course these guesses could all be wrong so don't hold me to it. That's all part of the fun!