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.
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.
BIS ORBITAL WINGED ROCKET
(1952) Fantastic Plastic 1:288 |
VON BRAUN CARGO ROCKET
(1952) D&E Miniatures 1:480 |
VON BRAUN 3-STAGE FERRY ROCKET
(1952) Fantastic Plastic 1:288 |
Von Braun Round-The Moon Ship
(1952) Fantastic Plastic 1:144 |
Von Braun Moonlander
(1952) Pegasus Hobbies 1:350 |
BELL BoMi MX-2276
(1954) Fantastic Plastic 1:144 |
DISNEY MAN-IN-SPACE SHIP
(1955) Strombecker 1:256 |
DISNEY SATELLITE LAUNCHER
(1955) Strombecker 1:256 |
DISNEY RM-1 LUNAR RECON VEHICLE
(1955) Strombecker 1:67 |
DISNEY SPACE STATION S-1
(1955) Strombecker 1:300 |
BELL RoBO
(1955) Sharkit 1:72 |
ATLAS/SATURN ICBM
(1956) Hawk Models 1:200 |
XSL-01
MANNED SPACE SHIP (1958) Revell 1:96 |
XSL-01
MOON ROCKET (1958) Fantastic Plastic 1:72 |
MOON SHIP
(1958) Revell 1:96 |
XSL-O1
MOON SHIP (1958) Fantastic Plastic 1:72 |
DISNEYLAND ROCKET
TO THE MOON (1958) Strombecker 1:83 |
U.S. MOON SHIP
(1958) Lindberg Line 1:70 |
ORBITAL TRANSPORT ROCKET
(1958) Lindberg Line 1:200 |
U.S. SPACE STATION
(1958) Lindberg Line 1:350 |
CONVAIR MANNED LUNAR RECONNAISSANCE VEHICLE
(1958) Strombecker 1:100 |
CONVAIR MANNED OBSERVATIONAL SATELLITE
(1958) Strombecker 1:200 |
WILLEY LEY PASSENGER ROCKET
(1958) Monogram 1:192 |
WILLEY LEY ORBITAL ROCKET
(1958) Monogram 1:192 |
CONVAIR ATLAS MOL
(1958) Hawk Models 1:110 |
CONVAIR SPACE STATION LIFEBOAT
(1958) Fantastic Plastic 1:48 |
CONVAIR MOON LANDER
(1958) Fantastic Plastic 1:144 |
CONVAIR SPACE SHUTTLE
(1959) Revell 1:160 |
SPACE TAXI
(1959) Monogram 1:48 |