Who made these gliders?

[JQW]

Back in the 1970s to early 1980s may shops sold a particular brand of toy glider. I would usually get one bought when we visited the seaside. They would get played with a lot until something eventually broke.

The fuselage was made from a hard yellow polystyrene, whilst the wings and horizontal tail were made from a softer light-blue foam. They came in several sizes.

Any idea as to who made them?

[Heather74]

Re: Who made these gliders?

A few threads that might help.
DoYouRemember.co.uk forums - Threads Tagged with gliders

[JQW]

Re: Who made these gliders?

The previous posts mainly refer to the cheaper models that you can still find in some newsagents. Thanks, anyway.

The ones I'm after were far stronger, but I can't for the life of me remember who made them or what they were called. They came in similar packaging to Guillow's current balsa-wood gliders, but as far as I'm aware no polystyrene aircraft of this size ever carried the Guillow's brand. I presume that they were made somewhere in North America.

Edit: I've found a link here to a thread regarding the same gliders:

Foam gliders from the 70s - ModelFlying Forum Messages

There's a link there to a photo of the rubber band models in the same range, and identifies the manufacturer as being North Pacific Products, Inc. They were taken over by Guillow's (see above) in the late 1990s. I'm not sure when these things stopped being made, but they're not in the current Guillow's catalogue.

[sixtyten]

Re: Who made these gliders?

I posted a North pacific glider ad somewhere.. misc memories thread I think

The names I remember making them were Scalecraft, North pacific and Hales

[Heather74]

Re: Who made these gliders?

Here we go Taken from memory shared.

[sixtyten]

Re: Who made these gliders?

Thats the one. the North Pacific one I posted was for their range of Kites

[JQW]

Re: Who made these gliders?

I remember the Scalecraft kits. I had at least 4 of them over the years; a Spitfire, a Cessena Floatplane, a Routemaster Bus and a motor launch in RAF markings. They took a couple of hours or so to assemble, including wiring up the motor. I even attempted to join their modellers club, as advertised on the back of one of their instruction sheets, but they'd suspended the operation by the time I'd applied. I did end up with a Scalecraft badge for free, though, as compensation.

They disappeared of the market around 1980.

[suzannewozere2]

Re: Who made these gliders?

I think Hawkins bazaar do the wooden ones.

[Hair Bear]

Re: Who made these gliders?

Quercetti Sirius perhaps.

[Moondog]

Re: Who made these gliders?

i used to love them as a kid, but they always ended up doing loop the loops and crashing into things lol