The Little World

Hoover. Not Herbert, you herbert. Hoover like in vacuum cleaner. The brand name.

Except, in England it isn’t a brand name – it’s the name of a class of product – the vacuum cleaner. People don’t vacuum the house, they hoover it. Losing that capital letter was the greatest piece of industrial and advertising good fortune that the firm could ever have. They got out of the telephone book and into the dictionary.

So indeed with Piper…and the airplane that did it was the Piper J-3. The Piper Cub. Just as 90% of people will say ” Nelson ” when you ask for an admiral’s name or ” Lancaster ” when you ask for the name of a bomber, so they’ll return ” Piper Cub ” when you enquire about a light plane. They may never have seen one, but the name is in their mind.

Well the KP kit of the J3 is on my workbench right now and I think it is the smallest airplane I’ve ever built in 1:72 scale. Two clean sprue trees and a clear plastic set that should be the benchmark for the rest of the hobby. One good instruction sheet and dinky decals.

And a million images on the internet of Cubs still flying. There was never any doubt what colour this one will be and I am just praying that the single pair of decals I’ll use – the side flashes – will come off the sheet cleanly.

This will not be a job – this will be a treat.