Thomas-Morse MB-3 AS.63334 US Army Air Service

These are 1/72 scale decals for the Thomas-Morse MB-3, serial AS.63334, assigned to the 1st Pursuit Group, United States Army Air Service — America's premier pursuit fighter of the early 1920s, serving with the most storied fighter unit in American military aviation history.

The Thomas-Morse MB-3 was the first American-designed fighter to enter large-scale production for the postwar U.S. Army Air Service, replacing the wartime SPAD XIIIs that had equipped American pursuit squadrons during World War I. A single-seat biplane powered by a Wright H-3 (Hispano-Suiza) water-cooled engine and armed with twin synchronized .30-caliber machine guns, the MB-3 represented the state of the art in American fighter design in the early 1920s — though its service life would be relatively brief as the rapid pace of aviation development quickly rendered it obsolete. The production contract for 200 MB-3As was notably awarded to Boeing rather than Thomas-Morse, marking one of Boeing's earliest significant military aircraft contracts.

The 1st Pursuit Group, based at Selfridge Field, Michigan, was the U.S. Army Air Service's — and later Air Corps' — premier fighter unit, tracing its lineage to the pursuit squadrons that had fought over the Western Front in World War I. Home to some of the most celebrated aviators in American history and the proving ground for American pursuit tactics and doctrine throughout the interwar period, the 1st Pursuit Group flew the MB-3 during the formative years of American airpower — a period when the very future of military aviation as an independent fighting arm was being debated and defined.

A rare and early subject from the dawn of American pursuit aviation in the interwar era. Please allow some time for decal printing and shipping.