Universal Model Airplane News, 1933–34
We have just been cataloguing nine copies of Universal Model Airplane News. Our copies of this American monthly magazine start in March 1933 and go to December 1934. What caught my eye straight away were the startling, full-colour, hand-drawn covers, all by Josef Kothia (or Kothla), an artist I unfortunately can’t readily find any trace of.
His work, and sometimes the advert on the back cover, is the extent of the colour, with content within all in black and white. The magazine started in 1929 as Model Airplane News, and the title changed a few times in its first few years, becoming Universal Model Airplane News in 1932. Our copies all have this title, with the strapline ‘The only magazine devoted exclusively to experimental aviation’. The title changed again in the following years, back to Model Airplane News, and it remains in print today.
It looks to me to be remarkably good value for money, at 15c (rising to 20c) – I say this because it is mostly editorial with not a great deal of advertising. What advertising there is includes lots of model airplanes (as you might expect), where the Cleveland Model and Supply Co. would sell you a kit for as little as 25c. There are also toy cars and ships, balsa wood, and spares such as miniature tyres, propellors, and lots of cement. There’s the occasional advert for air rifles too. Editorial includes pages of scale plans, and articles on aerodynamics, pilot heroes and derring-do, specific aeroplanes (real and scale) and a Q and A.
These model airplanes actually flew – not far, admittedly, but with reports of staying in the air for several minutes at a time. In due course, the models got bigger, radio controlled and acquired motors, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves now.
Incidentally, the Internet Archive has the first 61 volumes freely available to peruse online, although to see the rather special full colour covers, you’ll need to visit us to see our selection.
