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About Us
The History of Cleveland Model & Supply Company
Page 2 of 3
By 1930, the company was enjoying national acceptance following an ambitious, national advertising program in Model Airplane News, a relationship that the company maintains to this day.
Cleveland’s second major kit, the 1/16th-scale SF-2, was of the Travel Air, Model R, “Mystery Ship”. This kit was offered in late 1930 after Doug Davis won the 1929 Cleveland Air Races “Free For All”, which was the forerunner of the Thompson Trophy Race. Each following year, a kit of the Thompson Trophy Race winner was introduced. Cleveland Model & Supply Company model designs of these aircraft were, and still are, regarded as the most authentic available because of Mr. Packard’s access to the race aircraft hangared at the Cleveland Municipal Airport. This allowed him to take measurements, make sketches and to photograph the aircraft. The plan for SF-2 is still available.
In 1937, Cleveland Model & Supply Company entered gas-powered model aviation with the introduction of two, 1/6th-scale kits of the Stinson SR-7, “Reliant”, and the Reawin “Speedster”. The 62-inch span “Reliant” was priced at $8.50, while the 64-inch span “Speedster” was priced at $4.85. The introduction of these two models followed Maxwell Bassett’s world record flight of 35 minutes, 39 seconds with a Brown Junior-powered model on 28 May 1934 in Camden, New Jersey.
Also in 1937, the company moved to a 9000 square foot building located at 4508 Lorain Avenue; a few blocks east of the original West 57th street location. By this time, the company had developed into a multi-hobby enterprise known world-wide for its scale rubber and gas-powered model aircraft, model railroads, model ships and hobby equipment.
In 1938 the company began offering a line of free-flight, gas-powered models known as “Playboys” of various wing spans. The series culminated in 1940 with the introduction of the “Playboy Senior”, an 80-inch span model offered either as a cabin monoplane or as a polyhedral, pylon-mounted monoplane. The model remains today one of the most popular and most successful designs recognized by the Society of Antique Modelers (SAM).