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Meet the Airsail Team

THE BOOMERANG DID COME BACK!
To satisfy the need for an immediate source of income, several of the old Airsail designs were re-introduced. Fortuitously, this move coincided with a recent resurgence in vintage aviation, and kick-started the company back into life.

Multi-channel radio control was now well established and the aero-modelling public demanded kit sets to build and fly. The Airsail International design team 's introduction of the Volksplane satisfied this demand temporarily but the public wanted something larger than a .20 powered scale design.

The model trade went off on a wild tangent at his juncture (late 1980s) when the radio controlled car craze hit the model shop shelves. Every school kid wanted an R/C car and to judge from market figures, just about every kid got one! Model shop proprietors couldn't satisfy the insatiable demand for cars, radios, motors and spare parts. It was a boom time for the model trade, and other retailers leaped on the band wagon and began stocking cars.

The craze stopped as quickly as it started and suddenly nobody was buying cars. Inevitably, retailers who had over extended themselves foundered, leaving the market to Airsail International and a few other established manufacturers. Brian and his team continued to do what they did best - designing and manufacturing quality model aircraft kit sets and accessories. The next R/C design, introduced in 1998, was the .20 powered de Havilland Beaver, which has proved to be their best selling design so far.

Success persuaded them to open a retail premises adjacent to the Penrose factory, where modellers could come in for help and advice from expert aero-modellers. The company benefited too with increased retail margins, immediate payment over the counter, reduced over heads and less invoicing, packaging, insuring and freighting the goods to their customers. The gamble paid off and within three years the retail operation was almost 50% of the total turnover.

Airsail International is now the TOP aero-modelling shop in the country, with a nationwide retinue of customers who can shop on line. A significant export trade has also developed over recent years to Canada, Australia, South Africa, Great Britain, Germany, the USA and Europe.

New designs have continued to emanate from this innovative company. The rubber powered CT-4 Airtrainer came after the Beaver and turned into another winner. Not satisfied with this success, Brian and David collaborated together to produce the Auster AOP-9 as something different from the thousands of model Piper Cubs darkening the skies. Then in the Spring of 1994 the cheeky little de Havilland Chipmunk appeared, first as the RAF trainer version and later, when export demand arose, a RCAF version with blown canopy.

Two other director/shareholders , Gene Mashlan, a fellow aero-modeller and aeronautical engineer, and his wife Jan joined the team at this juncture. These new directors, resident in the UK, provide valuable feedback on market developments on their side of the world.

The list of new designs may never stop. A quarter scale Auster AOP-9 was kitted to satisfy a German requirement for a glider tug in 2000. The Piper Tomahawk, introduced in 2002, surprised everybody by being their fastest seller and is beginning to overtake the de Havilland Beaver in numbers sold.

Always innovative, Airsail International has now introduced the ELECTRIC Voltimer

This has proved immensely popular locally, and export numbers are also satisfactory due to its ability to teach new modellers how to build rather than just buying an Almost Ready to Fly (A.R.F.) model , which can be assembled today and flown tomorrow. Airsail International caters for other facets of modelling too : The K.Z.Kiwi R/C yacht helped modellers suffering from America's Cup Fever and gliders, rubber powered and control line models are still marketed by the company.

Airsail International prides itself in recognizing developing trends and recognizes that aeromodelers today are very different from 21 years ago. A.R.F. models enable people who don't have the time to assemble kits to still participate in the R/C hobby, often for almost the same expenditure as the same model would have cost in 'Build It Yourself' format.

Its almost impossible to predict the future of this wonderful hobby. Airsail International have been in the hobby business since Len Perry sold his first rubber powered A.R.F. immediately after the war and have advanced through die cut wooden parts and pre-shaped components to the present, where we have multi-channel proportional transmitters with programmable mixing and multi-model memories, flight simulators, on board cameras, Almost Ready to Fly Quarter Scale Models, on board telemetry, autopilots, buddy boxes, on board starters, radial engines and turbo jets. Helicopters have developed faster and further than their full size counterparts

(Don't believe me? Have you ever seen a full size Jet Ranger hovering inverted a few inches above the ground?)

Today's seriously competitive aero-modeller can spend as much on his hobby as golfers, fishermen and hunters do. A modern jet powered Hawker Hunter will cost the best part of $10,000 on the flight line but whereas Len's first design probably had the life expectancy of a balloon in a rose garden, today's model longevity is dependant solely on the operator. Models can last many years.

Most damage to models occurs getting them in and out of the car or workshop.

Airsail International's continuing success is assured by the active participation of directors and staff on the competition scene, keeping in touch with modern techniques and changes in market trends.

Since Airsail International's appointment as New Zealand agents for the German Behotec jet turbines, Brian has focused his attention on the new jet turbines, designing and building 'The Bullfrog' jet powered model to teach himself the different techniques of jet flying (Shades of the Wright Bros and Len Perry). Already a prototype Vampire is scheduled for production.

Airsail International are also the New Zealand agents for JR Proportional radio control equipment, and Bulk Balsa Wood from Papa New Ginea.

With a staff of six, three fulltime staff and three part time staff all with strong aero-modelling competition connections, ranging from tiny R/C indoor models to third scale aerobatic aircraft. The company sponsors a number of nation-wide competitions in New Zealand, in conjunction with JR radio control, which include: