Skybirds was a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

name for a series of 1:72 scale wood and metal aircraft

model kit A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

s produced during the 1930s and 1940s, manufactured by the A. J. Holladay & Co. Some of the Skybird-branded products were

die-cast Die casting is a metal casting process that is characterized by forcing molten metal under high pressure into a mold cavity. The mold cavity is created using two hardened tool steel dies which have been machined into shape and work similarly t ...

scale model A scale model is a physical model which is geometrically similar to an object (known as the prototype). Scale models are generally smaller than large prototypes such as vehicles, buildings, or people; but may be larger than small prototypes ...

cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...

military vehicles A military vehicle is any vehicle for land-based military transport and activity, including combat vehicles; both specifically designed for, or significantly used by military and armed forces. Most military vehicles require off-road capabilitie ...

figurine A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with cl ...

s, among others.

History

These kits were designed by pilot and aviation journalist

James Hay Stevens James Hay Stevens ''Air pictorial: journal of the Air League'' (1973), Volume 35 (page 146) (10 November 1913 – 1973) was an aviation journalist, editor of ''Aircraft Engineering'' (1945-1957) magazine, illustrator and pilot. He created the Skyb ...

and comprised shaped wooden blanks with

cast metal In metalworking and jewelry making, casting is a process in which a liquid metal is delivered into a mold (usually by a crucible) that contains a negative impression (i.e., a three-dimensional negative image) of the intended shape. The metal is ...

detail parts. The kits were intended to educate their assemblers of the aircraft. They were designed to be built similarly to real aircraft construction. The kits were supposedly approved by "educational and air-minded organisations". These were the first

model aircraft A model aircraft is a small unmanned aircraft. Many are replicas of real aircraft. Model aircraft are divided into two basic groups: flying and non-flying. Non-flying models are also termed static, display, or shelf models. Aircraft manufactur ...

kits in the world made to a constant scale of 1:72. This scale was later adopted by many other model manufacturers, such as

Frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

and

Airfix Airfix is a British brand and former manufacturing company which produced injection-moulded plastic scale model kits. In the U.K., the name 'Airfix' is synonymous with plastic models of this type, often simply referred to as "an airfix kit" even ...

. Around 80 different Skybirds kits were released from 1932 onwards, marketed towards those aged 12 and over. Subjects ranged from

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

military aircraft, plus a number of inter-war period civilian types. The company endorsed the foundation of clubs, specifically for model-making. Together, these formed the ''Skybird League'' which had its own magazine of which new issues were published four times a year. Photographs of aircraft models built could be submitted into competitions, in order to be displayed within the windows of the

Hamleys Hamleys is a British multinational toy retailer, owned by Reliance Retail. The world's oldest toy store, it was founded by William Hamley as "Noah's Ark" in High Holborn, London, in 1760. It moved to its current site on Regent Street in London's ...

toyshop in London.Page 172 of It was marvelled, by customers, that a photograph of a completed model, if finished properly, looked identical to the original article. Of course, this was somewhat easier to achieve with a completed model in the 1930s due to the fact that all photography was monochromatic. The kits encouraged photographers to experiment with scale and trickery to make the model seem more like an actual vehicle. Magazine readers sent their photographs to Skybirds, hoping them to be published within an upcoming issue. Modellers were also encouraged to produce a

diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...

of their completed vehicle, setting it amidst scratch-built accessories. During the

, modelling became a vital part of morale for children. They could participate within the dogfights above them during the

Battle Of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

. It is possible that model making popularised the

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...

, despite it being statistically out-performed and out-numbered throughout the conflict by the, then, more-successful

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

. Manufacture ceased in 1942, and in 1945 the company closed but was soon relaunched under new management. However the Skybirds range did not survive the company's acquisition by Zang shortly afterwards.

References

External links

Avia Mini News Book Review: ''Skybird Notes'' by A G Sinclair

''Taking to the Air An Illustrated History of Flight''
by Lily Ford, Model manufacturers of the United Kingdom Defunct toy manufacturers Model aircraft {{toy-stub