Guillow. - Collect Air

Insider's
Report
on
theModel
Industry
.
the
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story
I Tucked away in a quiet comer of a
sedate New England
town is one of
modeldom's most widely known and oldest model airplane kit manufacturers,
the Paul K. Guillow firm of Wakefield,
Mass.
This business organization was started
back in 1924 by an enthusiastic ex-Navy
pilot of World War One, Paul Guillow.
Paul's first production
was set
"plant"
up in a barn at the back of the family
plot. His initial
offerings were 6-inch
span "shelf scale" models of six World
War One aircraft. These kits which sold
for lOc apiece contained sheet balsa for
wings, block balsb for fuselage, sandpaper, a 3-view plan, a vial of cement,
2 vials of colored dope, wheels and strut
mateiial.
Many oldtimers at the modeling game
can recall trudging down to their local
variety store for these. Since balsawood
was not marked with outlined parts or
die-cut in the early '20's, Paul printed
full-size templates on the back of each
cardboard box which could be traced or
cut out.
The lasting qualities of a Guillow kit
and the never-ending appeal of WW-I
designs are underscored by the latest
Guillow kits: a Fokker Dr.l Triplane of
20" span for rubber powering or the new
Cub .024 or Cox .020 glow plug engines.
Other brand new 18" World War One'ers
by the Massachusetts firm include a
Bristol Bullet, Nieuport 27 and Fokker
D-8.
But there's 34 years difference and
a'bout 7 million board feet of balsawood
between those 1924 jobs and these new
PKW planes. Now, all balsawood sheet
parts are die cut; cowlings, wheels, machine guns and propeller are finishedmolded of sturdy plastic. Today these
models can really fly, not just grace a
mantle.
In the early days the exuberant Mr,
Mrs. Gerlrude Guillow, president of Poul K. Guillow, Inc., ond Eorl Smith, Genercl
Monoger, with certificote of merit oword presenled to concern.
Guillow
was accustomed to traveling
50,000 miles every l2 months to demonstrate and sell his merchandise to "5 and
10" buyers around the country. After the
hobby business began to build up he was
able to reduce the number of his "calls"
and confine them primarily
to the leading toy, chain and hobby distributors.
(When you think of those 50,000 miles,
remember that was before the 707. even
the DC-3 !)
A tour through the elaborate 3-color
Guillow catalog today reveals that the
firm is manufecturing about 7 ready-tofly gliders and rubber powered planes of
simple construction, 30 flying kits for
mostly rubber powering, and l8 gas
powered planes. The largest craft in the
PKG stable is a radio control trainer.
"The Explorer," which spans 56 inches,
takes a variety of power plants and R/C
systems,
The task of operating such a large
enterprise is the responsibility of Mrs.
Gertrude Guillow, the widow of the
founder who died in 1951; she serves as
president. Earl Smith, general manager,
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Low Andrews,
Guillow designer,
wirh R,uCkit Plcne'
Amcficoniloddor - Dccembq 19do
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joined the firm in 1933; Lou Andrews,
internationally
known
contest
winner
and model designer, is the company's
design engineer; William Colwell, production engineer, is about the only nonNew Englander in an executive capacity
-he's from Arizona.
One of Mrs. Guillow's first acts in
assuming the presidency was to incorporate the concern to perpetuate the
name snd efforts of her late husband. In
addition to overseeing company operations, Mrs. Guillow is active in promoting beneficial company/employee
relations. Many of the 50 or more Guillow
workers have been with the concern for
more than l0 years, some for better than
25. In addition, the charming lady is
very active in community
affairs.
Earl Smith is the quiet New England
type who prefers a "soft-sell" technique
to the loud, brassy way of doing business. Probably few people in the modelhobby industry have as varied a background as Earl. He has served the Guillow company as a draftsman, designer,
sales manager, planner and promotion
expert in his climb. to General Manager.
Along with design engineer Andrews,
Smith has worked steadily to elevate
kits from the state where only a "Philadelphia lawyer" could figure them out,
to todey's prefabbed,
easily-assembled
flyable affairs. Plugging the theme that
"balsa flies better" the Guillow aim is
to produce a product that has designedin "flyability."
That this goal has been
achieved is attested to by the fact that
Guillow kits are "staple" items in hobby
shops, variety
stores and toy depertments here and abroad.
Some of the best known contest planes
which started on Lou Andrews' drawing
board have won awards in all types of
competitions up through the internetional level. Lou, himself, was responsible
for the national stunt design in 1951 and
'52. Andrews,
who started competitive
flying with the pre-war Junior Aviation
(Continued on pale 52)
25
Guillow
(Continued
Itom
page 25)
League of Boston scored impressive victories in the Plymouth
international
competitions. Some of his U-Control designs in current production include the
"Barnstormer,"
"Galaxy," "Rat Racer"
and a series of "Profile Trainers," Guillow also kits free flight designs by such
notables as National Champion "Woody"
Blanchard and Lew Mahieu,
But
although
there are plenty
of
World
War Two fighters, plus scale
trainers and lightplanes in the "line,"
close examination
of the Guillow production line and sales charts prove conclusively that World War One kits are
here to stay. The solid position occupied
by the firm in the minds of modelers
and the model-hobby industry was not
easily obtained. It took a lot of dreaming, planning, and good hard work which
started with a World War One aviator
American lr/,odclet - Dcccmbq l95O
and continues with a dediceted group of
Guillowites.
The Academy of Model Aeronautics
each year awards the Paul K. Guillow
Memorial
Trophy to a model builder
"for outstanding achievement in the field
of model aviation." That pretty much
sums up how lots of folks look upon the
Wakefield firm ,
one that has continued to rack up outstanding industry
achievements in hobby-modeling.