With the 50th anniversary of the Roswell Incident looming, CNI News has learned that the Testors Corporation is nearing completion of its long-awaited "Roswell UFO" plastic model kit. According to Testors Vice President for Sales Ernie Petit, the final molds for the model have just been completed and the first trial kits will be manufactured on March 17.
"After that, it takes a few weeks to tweak the mold so the models are perfect," Petit said. "Then we photograph the model, make the boxes -- and then we're done." The model should be in stores by mid-May. Testors hopes the kit will be one of their hottest sellers this year.
Petit told CNI News that the Roswell UFO model is based entirely on research and drawings provided by California-based artist and Roswell researcher William L. (Bill) McDonald, who worked with Testors product designer John Andrews to create the model.
The model is a 1/48 scale representation of a craft that McDonald says is going to surprise many people, because it looks nothing like a "flying saucer." Instead, MacDonald says his eyewitness sources described a craft that looks more like an advanced jet plane. He believes the real Roswell UFO led directly to major advances in jet aircraft design, including such radical shapes as the SR-71 Blackbird.
1997 could be a very big year for McDonald. Besides the Testors model on which he'll earn royalties, he's also working on a highly illustrated book about the Roswell UFO.
And, to start the year with a bang, Bill and his wife Lori Marie have a new baby boy. William Louis McDonald Jr. was born on the afternoon of January 10 in San Clemente, California. With a physician standing by, Bill Sr. delivered the baby himself, even helping with the stitching afterward.
"If more dads would do this," he told CNI News, "there'd be a lot less deadbeat dads in the world. This really makes you feel closer to your wife."
CNI News congratulates Bill and Lori McDonald on their new addition.
Original file name: CNI - Roswell UFO model
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