OLD-TIMERS
WHERE DID MY MONOKOTE GO?
By Bob Angel | samrcflier@verizon.net
I SOMETIMES LOOK to AMA’s Model Aviation Hall of Fame (HOF) and History Project biographies for a column subject and generally prefer to choose someone whom I’ve at least met and/or who is otherwise well known in the modeling community. It’s also helpful when other source information exists besides just a HOF biography.
This month, I’ll begin with Sidney (Sid) and Carolyn Axelrod, who were the first husband and wife team to be honored in the HOF. As far as I know, they might be the only such team. I toss that out so that if others do exist, it might generate some reader response.
Attending a model contest with a man might not be considered much of a date by every young lady, but in this case, Carol began attending contests with Sid in 1938 and, in 1941, they married. The US entered World War II late in 1941, and Sid served in the U.S. Navy as a machinist’s mate.
Sid grew up in Chicago during the Depression. He’d often pay 3¢ for a trolley ride to nearby Cicero, Illinois, where Carl Goldberg and other skilled modelers flew both rubber- and gasoline-powered models in a vacant lot on the edge of town. Sid became a charter member of the well-known Chicago Aeronauts club.
People were generally more frugal during those early days, even before the Great Depression hit. Lots of stories appear in the HOF memories about shared accommodations at contests, as well as some of the horseplay and antics that occurred when modelers essentially “took over” a hotel at a major event.
Hotel rooms were often sublet, with many more modelers occupying a room than the name count on the hotel register. It wasn’t uncommon for modelers to sleep on a couch, a floor, or even in a bathtub. In fact, Sid once alternately shared a bathtub bed with future AMA President Johnny Clemens by sleeping in shifts. Johnny, in turn, reported that he was sharing his shift with a couple of model aircraft when a large firecracker went off, causing him to crush the models.
Similar to many who became a part of the model industry, Sid was a model builder from an early age and became a fairly successful competitor, winning many events along the way. However, the main thrust of his HOF nomination came from another direction. Sid became one of the founders and the president of the well-known Top Flite Company. In just a few years, Top Flite was one of the largest suppliers of model kits and accessories.
Sid is credited with developing the machinery to mass-produce wooden propellers, which became one of the company’s early profitable items. It produced propellers at a peak rate of more than two million annually.
I personally helped them out as best I could by breaking lots of Power Prop- and Top Flite-brand propellers. As teenagers, many of us collected useless, broken propeller hubs on a long cord to display for reasons long forgotten.
Sid also developed and patented MonoKote covering material, which became one of the earliest and best-known iron-on coverings. I suspect few modelers realize that MonoKote was manufactured right here in the good, old USA by General Formulations in Sparta, Michigan.
A list of all of the Top Flite kits that were produced would be much too long to share here, but they included George Aldrich’s Nobler and Flite Streak, Phil Kraft’s Kwik-Fly, and Dave Platt’s S.E.5. There were many other well-known kits available, plus lots of smaller and less familiar ones, along with almost every accessory that was ever needed by modelers.
Carolyn found her way into the HOF with Sid through her services to the modeling community. For a number of years, she attended the Nats meets, teaching and helping youngsters to assemble and fly Delta Darts. Those were simple, little rubber-powered models with triangular wing planforms that often introduced newcomers to model building and flying.
Carolyn and Sid were early AMA members, but in 1976, Life memberships of AMA numbers L22 and L23 were purchased for their 35th wedding anniversary.
Where's My MonoKote?
In fact, where is Top Flite? When a new business or product is introduced, it’s never hard to find lots of information about it in the form of advertisements, columnist reviews, and even feature articles in
multiple publications. But when a product or business fades slowly into the sunset, it often goes unnoticed for some time until questions are asked in forums and club newsletters.
So it happened that some very popular Top Flite items began to disappear from the model market a few years ago. The most popular colors of MonoKote became less available around the same time that Tower Hobbies filed for bankruptcy. Tower had become probably the biggest seller of MonoKote. Other film coverings also became hard to find, and soon, other former Top Flite offerings, including film irons and kits themselves, were simply no longer on the market.
Today, Tower Hobbies has recovered from bankruptcy, but its stock of supplies for model aircraft kit builders has been largely replaced by model cars, model trains, and related supplies, with few well-known model aircraft items being offered.
I have no close contacts or industry connections, so I’m probably in the dark as much as most modelers. I can only observe that, over time, Top Flite and its products are no longer with us and are unlikely to return. Zeroing in on MonoKote in particular, it’s hard to fathom why someone hasn’t bought out and resurrected what, for years, was probably the most popular brand to which every other covering material was compared.
Some of the problems are, no doubt, because of the decline in kit- and scratch-building. As more model fliers began purchasing preconstructed and factory-covered models, MonoKote was usually replaced with less-costly covering materials on those largely prefabricated aircraft.
It’s hard to imagine why it took many of us so long to recognize that Top Flite and its products, which we thought were just “temporarily out of stock,” were never going to come back. When a friend mentioned that he couldn’t find a replacement Top Flite MonoKote film iron, I considered giving him my in-use iron and pulling a new on-hand spare from its box. But I became a tad selfish and held off because I was just beginning to recognize the pattern and that I might need that new replacement iron soon myself.
Today, you can still find some MonoKote covering materials, as long as you’re willing to settle for the least popular oddball colors and at higher prices. Keep in mind that unless covering material has been stored in a cool dark place, its shelf life might be over.
During its heyday, Tower Hobbies pretty much dominated the industry. At one time, you could order a free 1/4-inch-thick catalog from which you could easily select everything you needed to scratch- or kit-build a model airplane, along with engines and all field support supplies—and you could expect doorstep delivery usually in about a week or less. Such were the good old days.
SOURCES:
The AMA History Project Presents:
Biography of Sidney (Sid) and Carolyn Axelrod
www.modelaircraft.org/sites/default/files/files/AxelrodSidneyAndCarolyn.pdf
The AMA History Project Presents:
History of the Chicago Aeronauts
www.modelaircraft.org/sites/default/files/files/ChicagoAeronauts.pdf
Tower Hobbies
800-637-6050
www.towerhobbies.com
Society of Antique Modelers (SAM)
www.antiquemodeler.org
