Aero Mail
If you have a letter to the editor, please submit it to MA Editor-in-Chief Jay Smith at 5161 E. Memorial Dr., Muncie, IN 47302, or email to [email protected].
Carl Goldberg
I enjoyed your Carl Goldberg article in the November Model Aviation. It brought back some pleasant memories.
I met Carl at the '41 Nats, which was held on the south side of Chicago. I was only a teen at the time, but he took the time to talk to me about his new Sailplane kit.
In the early '40s, I went to high school across the street from Carl's shop on Western Avenue in Chicago. The school was all boys and there were about 3,000 of us so when school let out, there was no way to catch a streetcar until after the crowd thinned out. I would go over to Carl's shop and hang around and enjoy browsing while I waited.
There were not many kits there but a lot of building supplies. Carl's mother was usually working the shop because Carl was out a lot. The most memorable memory of that place was that there was a zither on the counter next to the cash register. Yes, a real zither. We were not allowed to touch it but sometimes, with some coaxing, she would play something.
I moved away in '42 and did not see Carl again until the '72 Nats at Glenview. He was busy, but still took the time to reminisce a little bit about the '40s. Carl was a true gentleman and a great person.
—Bill Hebestreit
I wanted tocommend you on the fantastic article you wrote about Carl Goldberg in the November 2012 issue of Model Aviation.
I have been building and flying model planes for over 58 years ... a number were designed and manufactured by Carl and his company, including the Skylane Jr. Falcon and the Jr. Skylark, to name a few.
Although I personally never owned one, the Goldberg Falcon 56 was one of the most popular trainers around in the seventies and early eighties. I must have trained close to 10 new pilots on that particular model design during that period.
You could tell that he had experience designing free flight models by looking at the light materials included in his kits. The kit plans were easy to read and understand and there was additional printed material to assist in testing and flying the model, the sign of a true experienced modeller.
My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting and visiting with both Carl and Beth when we sat together at the 1983 Nats banquet at Westover AFB. And as your article reflects, both Carl and Beth were very friendly and gracious individuals, and it was a real pleasure and honor being able to have dinner with them. You would have never guessed that they owned one of the most successful model airplane manufacturing companies for many years.
Thanks again for writing such a fine article. The old photos added a lot to make the article complete.
—Don Gray
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
