Vintage RYAN STM 48" Scale Capitol Models Rubber Old Time Free Flight KIT

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Capitol Model Aircraft Company produced this scale rubber powered free flight RYAN STM Army Trainer kit in 1940. It appears to be complete with all the printwood sheets, balsa blocks and even a semi-carved balsa propeller. The thrust button and wire propeller shaft were not in the box but I have plenty on hand to include one of each for you. As you can see, the ends of the box are a disaster. How it managed to survive for 74 years without any of the balsa wood inside being broken is a mystery for the ages. There was no shrink wrap back then and hobby shops were concerned that as customers pulled open the kit boxes they would lose something. Everything seems to be here though. (P.S. Speaking as a retired college business professor and model builder for over over 65 years, I think that when kits began to be sent out with shrink wrap, so that would-be buyers couldn't see what was inside the kits, that sales probably dropped off. I know I stopped buying anything I could not open and see the quality and completeness of what was inside until I got home. I noticed that shrinkwrap kit labels had artwork rather than actual pictures of a completed model and there was/is little way to determine what size model the kit will build. And then we wonder what happened to kids building models.) The original plan in this kit had darkened (as my photo read more

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