Retail Archives - Everything I know about life I learned from model aeroplanes

January 22, 2022January 26, 2022

Can’t help acting on impulse

We are constantly encouraged to buy stuff we don’t really want, ideally without thinking about it. The Airfix Red Stripe era was peak Mad Men and our young consumer was up against some serious marketing. But in those days, it wasn’t confronting us in every single waking moment.

A long-running perfume ad campaign went on about how men in particular “can’t help acting on impulse”, but the sensory cues coaxing us into impulse buying model aeroplanes were definitely visual. Overdramatic box art really came into its own – if an exotic aircraft wasn’t tempting enough on its own, all sorts of mayhem would be going on in the background.

January 9, 2022January 21, 2022

The weekend project fallacy

The idea of any model being a ‘weekend project’ in adult life really was the triumph of hope over experience. Deep down I knew what a realistic timescale looked like, but every so often reality got pushed into the back seat. Fortunately this never, ever happened on any real life aerospace projects I got involved with.

The weekend project fallacy teaches us about realism, delusion and project schedule slippage. Yet more of those pesky cognitive biases, it would seem. Daniel Kahnemann never mentioned Airfix kits in Thinking Fast and Slow but I have my suspicions.

March 25, 2020November 7, 2024

Janes All The World’s Aircraft – a childhood ambition finally achieved

As a small boy, I had several copies of the Observer’s Book of Aircraft. But what I really, really wanted was Janes All the World’s Aircraft, aka JAWA. (Not to be confused with the Czech motorcycles of the same name). Can’t recall how I learned about this magical book detailing every current aircraft in the world, but my vague sense of wonder still persists.

Along with memories of going into the charming old fashioned bookshop in Enfield Town. And a numbing sense of shock when a nice man told us the astronomical cost. The original price in 1965 was £8 8s 0d – more than £160 in today’s money. That was a lot of pocket money and was just never going to happen. All very disappointing.