Vintage 1930s Girard Spirit of St. Louis Pressed Steel Wind Up Friction Airplane

 Here we have a very nice and RARE vintage Spirit of St. Louis Airplane, #N-X-211, made by Girard, circa 1930s. A terrific addition to your collection.

This wind up friction powered toy airplane is in Very Good condition with some surface scratches and wear. It measures approx. 9-1/2" long. Wind-up and friction mechanisms works as expected and the plane rolls forward as the propeller spins. Comes complete with attached key. A wonderful example of a very nice collectible wind up toy, offered to you with no reserve.

Officially known as the Ryan NYP (for New York to Paris), the single engine monoplane was designed by Donald A. Hall of the aircraft manufacturer Ryan Airlines located in San Diego, CA, and was named The Spirit of St. Louis in honor of Lindbergh's supporters in his then hometown of St. Louis, MO. To save design time the NYP was loosely based on the company's 1926 Ryan M-2 mailplane with the main difference being the 4,000 mile range of the NYP, and as a non-standard design the Government assigned it the registration number N-X-211 (for "experimental"). Hall documented his design in "Engineering Data on the Spirit of St. Louis" which he prepared for the US NACA and is included as an appendix to Lindbergh's 1953 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Spirit of St. Louis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_St._Louis