The Styrofoam Glider Squadron: North American Aviation

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Glider with "Power Prop" - #9 North American Mustang MK2

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Famous Profile Glider - North American P-51

Here is another one of my random E-bay purchases. I bought 5 of these Famous Profile Gliders which are P-51 Mustangs. They were made by a company called Crunden Martin Manufacturing Company in St. Louis, MO. There are still price tags on the packaging which show that the gliders sold for $0.59 each. These gliders are interesting to say the least. They are a combination of balsa & styrofoam. The fuselage is balsa. The wings & the horizontal stabilizer are made of styrofoam. The package comes with 2 decals to put on each side of the fuselage. The decals are supposed to stick together to form the vertical stabilizer. The decals are very shiny and have some very nice looking graphics on them. However, the combination of the fuselage decals and the styrofoam wings / horizontal stabilizer looks a little funny. There were 2 star insignia to put on the wings, but I didn't do that for these pictures. I have a feeling that these gliders are really old, and the glue on the decals must have lost most of its adhesiveness over the years. Maybe someday I will try glue the decals on to the fuselage with some fresh glue, or possibly even create a new fuselage complete with vertical stabilizer and glue the decals to it.