1/8 9-3 Berkeley Shoestring Goodyear Racer Controliner - 28 3/8 Inch Wingspan Control Line/U-Control Flying Model Airplane
Wood Model Kit, Box Condition: Good
Large scale 1950s model for .14 to .36 sized gas engines. Ideal for flight or as a scale display. Features genuine Jim Walker U-Control System parts, shaped and notched leading and trailing edges, full color decals (two large sheets), formed sheet metal landing gear main strut, formed steel wheel pants, die-cut balsa and hardwood parts, formed metal spinner, formed metal cowl cheeks, formed clear plastic canopy (still in excellent condition and not yellowed), 'Step-Keel' Assembly Jig for the fuselage and much more. Never started and inventoried complete with all parts and paperwork present. 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.
This item has been sold.
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