Potez 25 Aéropostale/Aeroposta conversion- Guillaumet F-AJDZ Andes forced landing - Azur/FRROM 1/72

 

Five civil Potez 25 saw service in Argentina with Aéropostale/Aeroposta: F-AJDX, F-AJDY, F-AJDZ, F-AJZS, F-AJZR. This is one of two models built kitbashing the TOE and A2 Lorraine Azur/Special Hobby kits plus some scratch, representing the plane that was made internationally famous when Guillaumet -out of fuel and fighting a snow storm- had a forced landing in the area of Laguna Diamante, in the Andes, on a flight back from Chile. Days later, and after walking a very long distance in harsh weather conditions, he was rescued by locals and eventually returned to civilization. The plane was later recovered, and it’s during that effort that some photos were taken of the machine, allowing us to attempt a better description of it. Besides modifying the kits to represent these machines, you will need of course civil decals, of which FRROM provides one set for multiple machines, including this one, and Arctic Decals another for the bi-color F-AJDX, subject of my other build.

Several changes are needed to transform the version/s provided in the kit/s into the civil planes in service in Argentina.

For the step-by-step building article describing the necessary alterations to the kits -plus some historical notes- please go here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/01/potez-25-aeropostaleaeroposta-argentina.html

The twin build of F-AJZX can be accessed here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/01/potez-25-f-ajdx-aeropostale-aeroposta.html

To provide some context of the magnitude of the importance of the French presence on Argentina’s aviation development and the development of international and intercontinental routes, here is a brief contemporary account from “Aviation” magazine:

My thanks to Francisco Halbritter, Gilles Fontaine and Mika Jernfors, among others, for the help and comments received while building the models. 

Photos show that this particular plane did not have registrations on either wing, or the data placard close to the tail. Other Aéropostale planes did have them, though:

 I had forgotten to add the stiffeners for the wing rigging (the two rods that hold the rigging together at the crossing):

 

 

Commemorative stamps from the Argentinean Post Office, I believe from 2014: