The early decades of the 20th Century were years of explosive innovation.  In just two brief generations, "aeroplanes" that were little more than powered kites evolved into powerful aircraft that could comfortably cross entire oceans, climb high into the stratosphere, or deliver thousands of pounds of bombs to targets half a continent away.  Although the term "X-Plane" had yet to be coined, it was the experimental prototype, the untested, one-of-a-kind dream machine, that defined -- and then re-defined -- the possible, paving the way for the vast array of mainstream aircraft to follow.

Because injection molding did not exist prior to World War II, no plastic models of these early aircraft designs were produced during the era itself.  However, in subsequent decades, manufacturers would produce a small but significant number of polystyrene and resin kits that successfully captured in miniature the dreams and ambitions of this seminal epoch.

PKZ-2 OBSERVATION HELICOPTER  (1918) 

LIPPISCH DELTA 1 (1931)

FOCKE-WULF FW.42 (1933)

BRISTOL 138A - RESEARCH PLANE (1936)

NIEMAN KhAI-3 (1936)

Grokhovsky G-38 "Light Cruiser" (1938)

 BLOHM & VOSS BV-141 (1938)

De HAVILLAND TK.5 (1939)

X-Planes & Prototypes

1900-1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000 and Beyond