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The time period during which the A-plane concept flourished , 1950-1961, coincide with both the emergence of the plastic kit industry in the USA with brands like HAWK, O-LIN (LINDBERG LINE), AURORA and REVELL and the heating up of the "Cold war" first in Korea then in Viet-Nam through what could have been the final incident at Cuba in 1962 . For our present subject this period can be characterized by
A strong presence of the "militaro-industrial complex" in the media which continued its wartime presence throughout the period via a lot of "technological marvel" type advertising that was to culminate in the "Race for Space" from 1958 onward. By a strong belief in technology , especially aerospace technology , as a way to better the living conditions of the human race . A belief which is unfortunately no longer among us. By a sublimation of the Cold War into a technological competition : being the first with the latest gadget (supersonic aircraft, A-bombs, H-bombs, missiles, satellites, transistors, lasers, computers…) By an effective climate of technological disinformation which was a logical fall-out of the Cold War mutating into a Science War as refered in the preceding item . This leads to rumors of German secret "miracle" weapons being produced by the Soviets and the leakage of horribly touched up pictures of fake aircraft .
All this to arrive at
Kit manufacturers were strongly carried toward the latest subject matter (even before the subject matter actualy flew) by the competition . The competition for the latest technological marvel was also on the shelves of the toy shops . Their sources could not be as rigorously researched when they treated in a hurry (not to be beaten by a competitor with the "first kit of…") subjects that due to their strategic nature were obviously classified. It is therefore not possible to compare the accuracy of those models to the latest wave of "Messerspit" coming today from Japan…
And this resulted in the models we will review here
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