Scale Model World 2025 Talks
Chris Pocock “The U-2 – Seventy Years At 70,000 Feet”
Newport Suite – 13:00-14:00 Saturday
Bob Ericson was one of the select group of USAF pilots who were recruited in 1956 by the CIA to fly the U-2 over the Soviet Union. He subsequently flew this extraordinary spyplane for 30 years, 16 years with The Agency followed by another 15 years with NASA. This book tells the story of how a small town boy grew up to serve his country with distinction, how he survived a crash in this most difficult-to-fly airplane, and how he was nearly shot down over the Soviet Union. It also describes Bob’s flight over Cuba in 1962 that set off the Cuba Missile Crisis; his missions over Tibet, China and North Vietnam; and his remarkable save of a crippled U-2 for NASA.
Chris Pocock is the premier U-2 historian. His previous books on the Dragon Lady have been acclaimed by aircraft enthusiasts, Cold War academics, and the U-2 community.
John Vasco “Zerstörer”
Newport Suite – 14:00-15:00 Saturday
John Vasco has researched the Messerschmitt Bf 110 for 45 years, resulting in his writing or co-writing nine books on the type, with two going to second editions. His collaboration with world-renowned researcher and author Peter Cornwell resulted in the publication of their work ‘Zerstörer, The Messerschmitt 110 and its unit in 1940’, published in 1995.
John and Peter researched primary documents in England and Germany, as well as travelling to Germany each year in the 1980s and 1990s to interview veterans. Since then, John has been commissioned by other publishing companies to produce works on the Bf 110 on their behalf. The latest work to be published, by Wing leader, is a second edition of his out-of-print book with Peter Cornwell, the launch of which occurred on 27th September 2025 at the Battle of Britain Museum in Hawkinge, Kent.
John spent over 2000 hours updating and re-writing the work, the result of which is 121,000 words and over 500 photographs. This work is available on the ‘Bookworld’ stand at IPMS Telford, and John will be available on Saturday 8th November to sign copies.
John will also be giving a talk in the Centre on the Bf 110 in the Battle of Britain on the same day, with particular emphasis on the camouflage, markings, and emblems, carried by the Bf 110 units involved. He will also be demolishing the myths and misconceptions that have surrounded the Bf 110 in the Battle of Britain for many decades.
This is a talk that all aficionados of the Bf 110 will not want to miss.
Mike Verrier
Newport Suite – 15:00-16:00 Saturday
Author Mike Verier charts a hidden chain of events that spans seventy years of aviation and modelling history.
A surprising connection that links two American Indian tribes, a wild horse, a venomous reptile and the USAF turns out to be………..‘box art’.
While examining the military and political factors that connect four major aircraft types Mike takes in researching your subjects, the perils of authorship, and how important box art is.