Guillow's Advertisement
March 1955 Air Trails

March 1955 Air Trails

March 1955 Air Trails Cover - Airplanes and RocketsTable of Contents

These pages from vintage modeling magazines like Flying Aces, Air Trails, American Modeler, American Aircraft Modeler, Young Men, Flying Models, Model Airplane News, R/C Modeler, captured the era. All copyrights acknowledged.

This particular advertisement by Guillow's is from page 7 of the March 1955 issue of Air Trails magazine. What caught my attention about the ad was the image of the Barnstormer control line model because it shows the lines exiting the right wing, meaning that it flies in a clockwise direction rather than the now-standard counterclockwise direction. Guillow's is still in operation today.

Major Lester D. Gardner, founder of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences (now the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics - AIAA), is honored in the ad. Major Gardner was a friend and confidant of the Wright Brothers and was responsible for the original Wright Flyer being preserved and displayed in the Smithsonian Institute's National Air and Space Museum.

Use the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator to see what items cost in today's dollars. For instance, that $5.95 "Barnstormer" would be $51.92 in 2013 money. That's the low end of the price range for similarly sized models today; e.g., the Brodak Buster kit for a .19 to .40 engine costs $75.

All copyrights (if any) are hereby acknowledged.

 

Guillow's advertisement from the the March 1955 edition of Air Trails - Airplanes and Rockets

Guillow's Advertisement

 

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