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Berkeley Super-Brigadier Early RC and Payload Contest Flying Model Airplane Kit Exc Wood old Very early radio control (RC) aircraft with a 59 inch wingspan. In the free-flight roll, it meets the old Pan-American Airways Pay-Load Contest requirements for class A and B. Please note the similarity in design to the early free-flight models - most early RC models had this appearance. This type of stability was required due to the difficult nature of RC control in the late 1930s. The kit features shaped and notched wing edges, die-cut plywood firewall, complete metal hardware, cut out windshield, full size plans, rubber wheels and covering material. The model has not been started. The parts are either in factory sealed bag(s) or inventoried 100% complete with all parts and instructions. Berkeley is a very famous manufacture of flying model kits from the Golden Age of flying aviation, about 1932-1954. Founded in 1933 by William Effinger, the company was quite progressive in producing quality kits - it was likely the Berkeley 'Buccaneer' was the first gas powered model in kit form. In the later 1930s, Effinger acquired the services of a very talented Henry Struck. Struck went on to design numerous award-winning kits under the Berkeley name. Berkeley weathered the post WWII recession and emerged as a major kit producer in the late 1940 and 1950s. These were great years for Berkeley and they produced some incredible and large kits. The company went bankrupt in about 1960 however. Fox engines (Duke Fox) bought the company and released the kits alongside his own FOX models and engines. This arrangement did not last, and in the early 1960s the Berkeley name disappeared from hobby shop shelves. $220.00 |