By building and flying model airplanes, many believed, children would grow up to become pilots and usher in a real air age. In the late 1930s, miniature gasoline engines came on the market and lent model building a new level of realism, just as gathering war clouds added a new seriousness to visions of the aviation future. This news photograph of two contestants in a flying meet illustrates the new nationalistic and even militaristic spirit that entered model aviation on the eve of the Second World War.

Credits - Author’s collection