Glider:Strato Ready-to-Fly Glider #100

Since the Wright Brothers first took flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903, Americans have been fascinated with flight. Card games, board games, toys, books, movies, and other means of entertainment popularized the adventure, the romance, and the heroism of manned flight. Charles Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight and the hundreds of barnstormers that entertained appreciative crowds in each American town put a dashing face on the endeavor and gave young boys everywhere someone to emulate. Easy to assemble plane models became a favorite toy of future pilots and aces. Paul Guillow, a U.S. Navy ace of the Great War, developed kits for making models of the historic aircraft he flew into battle. The first kits instructed boys in how to cut out their own aircraft from the sheets of balsa wood supplied. By 1940, Guillow supplied model kits that required kids only to assemble cut glider parts. The fun began just that much sooner. These gliders, not very durable, but certainly cheap, entertained aspiring pilots for much of the 20th century.