Berkeley Pitt's Special Little Stinker Signed By Betty Skelton - 25.5 Inch Wingspan Flying Aircraft

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Berkeley Pitt's Special Little Stinker Signed By Betty Skelton - 25.5 Inch Wingspan Flying Aircraft plastic model kit

Berkeley Pitt's Special Little Stinker Signed By Betty Skelton - 25.5 Inch Wingspan Flying Aircraft

Wood Model Kit,   Box Condition: Good

The plans were signed by the world-famous stunt & speed pilot Betty Skelton on 9-23-51 in Rapid City South Dakota. The personal note and signature are big and beautiful. This is appropriate, since this Berkeley kit is a model of her exact aircraft! Also included is a news paper biographical article and photo of Skelton. The actual kit is large-scale and highly detailed. Originally designed for .19 to .33 gas powered control line, it can be converted to electric power. Features precision die cut parts in balsa and plywood, fully finished and slotted leading and trailing edges for both wings, all planking and sheeting material, a beautiful metal cowl and metal wheel pants, fully finished main and tail wheels, completely formed landing gear struts and brace, extensive hardware packet, covering tissue, three huge decal sheets with every red stripe and red area included, one small 'The Little Stinker' decal sheet and beautiful plans with instructions. Never started and complete. Berkeley is a very famous manufacturer 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.

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