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Concept Spacecraft - 1950s

This is it: The Golden Age of Concept Spacecraft.

The 1950s marked the official start of the "Space Age."  At White Sands, New Mexico, in Huntsville, Alabama, and at Cape Canaveral, Florida, American rocket scientists -- many of them ex-Germans -- worked sleeplessly to design and perfect launch vehicles that would boost artificial satellites -- and eventually human beings -- into the cosmos.  To drum up public support for this dangerous and expensive undertaking, rocketry experts, including Dr. Werner von Braun, Willey Ley and Krafft Ehricke were enlisted to share their visions of space travel that, God- and Congress-willing, lay just around the proverbial corner. 

Such first-generation plastic model manufacturers as Revell, Monogram, Aurora, Lindberg and Strombecker were more than happy to contribute to this public information campaign by kitting the widest variety of conceptual spacecraft models ever to make their way to hobby store shelves.  No period before or since has yielded such a vast array of imaginative "could be" spacecraft kits as this one.

Picture
BIS ORBITAL WINGED ROCKET
(1952)
Fantastic Plastic
1:288

Picture
VON BRAUN CARGO ROCKET
(1952)
D&E Miniatures
1:480

Picture
VON BRAUN 3-STAGE FERRY ROCKET
(1952)
Fantastic Plastic
1:288

Picture
Von Braun Round-The Moon Ship
(1952)
Fantastic Plastic
1:144

Picture
Von Braun Moonlander
(1952)
Pegasus Hobbies
1:350

Picture
BELL BoMi MX-2276
(1954)
Fantastic Plastic
1:144

Picture
DISNEY MAN-IN-SPACE SHIP
(1955)
Strombecker
1:256

Picture
DISNEY SATELLITE LAUNCHER
(1955)   
Strombecker
1:256

Picture
DISNEY RM-1 LUNAR RECON VEHICLE
(1955)
Strombecker
1:67

Picture
DISNEY SPACE STATION S-1
(1955)
Strombecker
1:300

Picture
BELL RoBO
(1955)
Sharkit
1:72

Picture
ATLAS/SATURN ICBM
(1956)
Hawk Models
1:200

Picture
XSL-01
MANNED SPACE SHIP

(1958)
Revell
1:96

Picture
XSL-01
MOON ROCKET

(1958)
Fantastic Plastic
1:72

Picture
MOON SHIP
(1958)
Revell
1:96

Picture
XSL-O1
MOON SHIP
(1958)
Fantastic Plastic
1:72

Picture
    DISNEYLAND ROCKET
TO THE
MOON
(1958)
Strombecker
1:83

Picture
U.S. MOON SHIP
(1958)
Lindberg Line
1:70

Picture
ORBITAL TRANSPORT ROCKET
(1958)
Lindberg Line
1:200

Picture
 U.S. SPACE STATION
(1958)
Lindberg Line
1:350

Picture
CONVAIR MANNED LUNAR RECONNAISSANCE VEHICLE
(1958)
Strombecker
1:100

Picture
CONVAIR MANNED OBSERVATIONAL SATELLITE
(1958)
Strombecker
1:200

Picture
 WILLEY LEY PASSENGER ROCKET
(1958)

Monogram
1:192

Picture
WILLEY LEY ORBITAL ROCKET
(1958)
Monogram
1:192

Picture
CONVAIR ATLAS MOL
(1958)
Hawk Models
1:110

Picture
CONVAIR SPACE STATION LIFEBOAT
(1958)

Fantastic Plastic
1:48

Picture
CONVAIR MOON LANDER
(1958)

Fantastic Plastic
1:144
Picture
CONVAIR SPACE SHUTTLE
(1959)
Revell
1:160

Picture
SPACE TAXI
(1959)
Monogram
1:48

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