Kit Provenance

[David Hoover]

I had an old model airplane kit given to me last week by a member of the club I belong to.  It's a R/C club and the kit had been given to him by a friend along with a pile of other stuff.  Since he doesn't fly control line he passed the kit along to me.  As well, he was curious as to the manufacturer and whether or not the kit should be saved for posterity.  I was quite touched that he thought of me.

Anyway, it's a kit of the Ercoupe produced by the Capitol Model Aircraft Co. of Brooklyn, New York.  I've never heard of that company, although that doesn't mean a lot since my knowledge of the old kit manufacturers is rather limited.  The copyright on the plans is 1946 and it was designed for a spark ignition engine.  The plans (three sheets, full size) show installation details of the batteries and coil for the ignition system.  I haven't looked through it in great detail so I have no idea if all of the wood is there or not.  I do know that some parts have been cut out.  There's a lot of strip wood and a bunch of blocks.  One of the blocks looks discoloured as if it got wet at some time but neither the box or plans appear to have ever been touched by water.  There is tape on the corners of the top sheet of plans so clearly, some one did set out to build it at some time.  The corners of the outer (lid) box are coming apart and have been taped with masking tape.

First, I'd like to find out about the Capitol Model Aircraft Co.  How long were they around, did they have an extensive product line or just a few items and what ultimately became of them - folded, bought out by a larger outfit etc?  Second, I'd like an opinion of the value of the kit, not in dollars, but whether or not it's something a collector might be interested in or should someone just build it for fun.  It's not something I would be inclined to build - I don't think that it's structure would be up to my typical landings but I'm sure that I could find some one who would have a go at it.

Thanks in advance for whatever information you can provide.

[FLOYD CARTER]

That's an Ohlsson & Rice "19" shown.  So the model is pretty small.  All that fuselage planking with small strips puts it into the "frustrating" category.

Floyd

[ChrisSarnowski]

Here's a picture of a kit I found on oldmodelkits.com

[Tim Wescott]

That's an Ohlsson & Rice "19" shown.  So the model is pretty small.  All that fuselage planking with small strips puts it into the "frustrating" category.

If you squint, you can see "For Class "A" Engines" right below the "ERCOUPE"

Man, keep that one away from me -- I'll build it.  I like Ercoupes.

[David Hoover]

Just thought that I'd bump this to the top of the list to see if anyone has had further thoughts on this in the couple of months since I originally posted.  I'll be going to the club meeting on Thursday night and right now I don't much information to give the gentleman who gave me the kit.  So if anyone out there can tell me anything about the Capitol Model Aircraft Co. I'm all ears.

[Mike Keville]

Capitol Models was a late 1940s kit manufacturer.  Unless I'm mistaken (often happens) their Ercoupe was among the designs flown by Davey Slagle - the "wunderkind" who won Nats Stunt three times in the late '40s.  This kit is an extremely rare and valuable addition to anyone's collection.

[David Hoover]

Thanks, Mike.  That's exactly the kind of information I'm after.

[Steve Helmick]

I recall seeing the advertisements in some old magazines from the early '50's. The balsa may have been sawed from war surplus life rafts, explaining the water stain. Many post war kit manufacturers apparently did that.  Steve

[De Hill]

Capitol Models was a late 1940s kit manufacturer.  Unless I'm mistaken (often happens) their Ercoupe was among the designs flown by Davey Slagle - the "wunderkind" who won Nats Stunt three times in the late '40s.  This kit is an extremely rare and valuable addition to anyone's collection.

The Ercoupe was a popular controline kit during the late 1940's. It was kitted by at least 3 manufacturers. Capitol, Custom Models (Great Bend Kansas) and Snafu (California.)

Dave Slagle, most famous nats winning airplane was the "Checkala Roma".  It was a highly modified Snafu Ercoupe that used a symmetrical airfoil made up from taking two flat bottomed ribs from the Ercoupe, placing them bottom to bottom, and getting the symmetrical airfoil from that. Wild Bill Netzeband built a replica of the Checkala Roma. It is in the AMA museum.