Heading into the Great War, British pilots were expected to distinguish friendly planes from enemy aircraft by markings and colors alone. But they also helped train civilian spotters - domestic volunteers who watched the skies and tracked planes, friendly or otherwise, across coastal U.S. Some were built out of wood by schoolchildren - others by model-making companies, volunteers and cadets from paper, cardboard, plaster or injection-molded plastic.įinished models were used in military settings to teach soldiers how to quickly identify all kinds of aircraft. These helped familiarize observers with the outlines of planes from all possible angles.ĭue to wartime shortages, most models were made of non-strategic materials. Some were detailed for use in educational films or for marking identification, but many were simply painted black to simulate a silhouette. These “ recognition models” (also known as “ID” or “spotter” models) were seen as critical to the war effort. These models likewise will be important in the training of civilians in enemy plane detection, an essential element in civilian defense.” They will be used for training military personnel in aircraft recognition and range estimation in gunnery practice. “They won’t be used in a display gallery or to show the handiwork of one’s leisure time. “Your country needs scale model planes for the emergency,” read a public call for identification models. Call for model builders during WWII via the Friend or Foe? Museum Across the country, kids were asked to create 500,000 scale aircraft models to help millions of civilians and soldiers tell friends from enemies during World War II.
Navy Bureau of Aeronautics put out a call to action, aimed not at recruiting adult volunteers or teen enlistees but schoolchildren. Following the 1941 aerial attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S.
0 kommentar(er)
