1/84 R-4 Megow F-84 Thunderjet 'Speed-O-Matic' - Wooden Glider Flying Model
Wood and Metal Model Kit, Box Condition: Fair-
Most likely from the late 1940s. This is a pre-fabricated glider kit of the early straight wing F-84. The fuselage is build in 3D while the rudder, wings and elevator are flat. Includes die cute balsawood parts, vacuform canopy, pre-shaped wheels, metal landing gear strut material and full size plans with instructions. The kit has never been started and is complete. The box has suffered significant crushing as shown, but the kit inside is in excellent condition. In the final days of Megow, the 'Speed-O-Matic' system was developed to compete with similar kits from Comet, etc. Other aircraft in this series included a Taylorcraft, Spitfire, Cessna 170, P-51 and F-86. The first four appear to have been rubber powered. Fred Megow was a famous pioneer in the model aircraft field from the late 1920s till 1949. His product lines of semi-prefabricated, solid and stick and tissue kits won him national and extensive world wide distribution - possibly the first modern model manufacture to achieve this. His fascinating story involves trying novel and untested marketing ideas in the Great Depression, followed my explosive world-wide growth. Mr. Megow was a true pioneer in the early days of modeling and a leader in the low price field so that every boy could afford a kit during those difficult times. Megow also produced scale operating train and trackside kits, ship models (large and small) and automotive subjects. Megow's catalogs claim that they were pioneers in HO scale, and there is documentation to support this fact. Megow's early HO train kits served not only to promote this now-popular scale nationally, but were among the very first train kits. Model train kits were responsible for the explosion in model railroad popularity in the late 1930s - please see the article in this website about these kits.
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