- B-17 Flying FortressFor more than 3 grueling year’s courageous air crews of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress attacked strategic targets. The B-17 was one of the most popular bombers with the American public. The reason was the sheer beauty of Boeing’s Flying Fortress. It was still seen as an elegant aircraft even with the chin turrets and […]
- M-130 China Clipper Pan Am 1/72This high quality replica is handcrafted from mahogany and comes with a wooden base. Length is 15 an d wingspan is 21" " […]
- C-119 Flying BoxcarFairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar The Navy and Marine Corps name was R4Q for the American military transport aircraft built by Fairchild as the C-119 Flying Boxcar. The transport aircraft was built to carry troops and cargo that could be delivered by parachute. The first C-119 rolled out in November 1947 and the last one after […]
Model Ford Thunderbird
Ford Thunderbird
The Ford Thunderbird began in 1955 and has seen around 13 different generations of the design in the last 50 plus years. Ford intended the Thunderbird to be a very personal Luxury car. It was never intended to be the sports car like the Chevrolet Corvette. Over the years the Thunderbird's have been upsized and downsized two seats to 4 seats cars.
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Yat Ming Scale 1:18 - 1955 ford Thunderbird with Removable Hard Top, Yellow List Price: $29.99 Sale Price: $24.99  |
Production stopped in 1997 and in 2002 a new 2-seat model was re-launched and brought the Thunderbird back to life.
There are three men that get the credit for the original Thunderbird. And wouldn’t you know it a retired GM executive lured from retirement by Henry Ford II; Lewis Crusoe to work with George Walker a vice-president and chief stylist for Ford and Frank Hershey a Ford designer. Walker and Crusoe met in France in October 1951. Crusoe liked a sports he saw and ask Walker can’t we have something like that? This part of the story is a little unclear but Walker said we are already working on it.
After the meeting Walker called chief stylist Frank Hershey and told him about the conversation. Frank liked the idea and began working on a design right away.
The idea was for a two passenger car in the ball park of 2500 lbs with the up and coming V8 slated for 1954. The car was to have top speed of over 100 mph. They presented a painted clay model to Crusoe in May of 1953 and he approved it in September after doing a little compare with some of the European trends. Henry Ford II approved the final design to compete with the new Corvette.
The name for the new design proved to be a major problem for Ford. The weird stuff they came up with just did not work. Stuff like (Artcturus, Beaver, Coronado, Detroiter, El Tigre and Savile) strange stuff for sure. The brilliant idea of Crusoe was to offer a $250 new suit to the person that could come up with a better name. Alden Giberson submitted Thunderbird on a list that was the final selection. He never claimed his prize but settled for a $95 suit with an extra pair of pants.
Ford has sold 4.2 million Thunderbirds in the last 50 years in about 13 different versions.
Vintage model car collectors will find quite a few of these to add to their car collections. Over the years there were a number of them that were special creations.
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US $1.25
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- HMS Victory 1765Back in 1758 the Royal Navy ordered a new first-rate new ship from the commissioner of the Chatham Dockyard. This seemed strange at the time because the Royal Navy went for smaller faster ships that were very maneuverable. The ships plans were based on the HMS Royal George and were presented in June 1759. The […]
- USS YorktownUSS Yorktown (CV/CVA/CVS-10) One of the distinguished Essex-class aircraft carries the USS Yorktown was built during the II World War for the U.S. Navy. The USS Yorktown is the forth ship to carry the name for the United States Navy. While under construction her planned name was to be Bon Homme Richard. But it was […]
- The History of the 7 Ships Named USS EnterpriseThe famous and historic name Enterprise dates back to the Revolutionary War. The 7 Naval predecessors have carried the famous name to date. To date the most decorated of the 7 is the aircraft carrier nick named “The Big E”. During all the battles and damage she received in World War II she never became […]