Douglas ZB-18A 39-25 United States Air Force

These are 1/72 scale decals for Douglas ZB-18A 39-25, United States Air Force — an aircraft with one of the most extraordinary biographical histories of any surviving American military aircraft.

The B-18 Bolo was the Douglas entry that won the 1935 USAAC bomber competition over the Boeing Model 299 — the aircraft that would eventually become the B-17 Flying Fortress. Built in 1939 for the U.S. Army Air Corps, 39-25 was eventually transferred to the Cuban Air Force in 1958, as the United States equipped its Cold War allies with surplus military hardware.

Then history intervened. Following Fidel Castro's revolution and the rapid deterioration of U.S.-Cuban relations, the aircraft was impounded in 1961 — caught on the wrong side of the political divide at one of the most tense moments of the Cold War. Impressed back into USAF service, it was subsequently transferred to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in 1962, where it is preserved today as one of the last surviving examples of the type.

The “Z” prefix denotes an obsolete type no longer assigned to combat duties — fitting for an aircraft that had lived through the prewar USAAC, World War II, the Cuban revolution, and the early Cold War before finding its final home in a museum. A truly remarkable survivor with a story unlike any other in the catalog. Please allow some time for decal printing and shipping.