May 2012 Notable Toys — Aircraft

Kids can launch Megatech's Firefly® to incredible heights with the included launcher. It spirals back to earth thanks to its uniquely designed fins. The high intensity LED allows kids launch it day or night. With this feature they'll never lose sight of it during flight.
— In a March 2012 survey, John Taylor, owner of O.P Taylor's in Brevard, N.C., told TDmonthly that he sold more than 2,000 Fireflies last year. He keeps them by the register as an impulse item, and on nights with a lot of foot traffic, he'll give one to a kid and ask them to play with it in front of the store a while.
 

Legendary pilot and scientist James “Jimmy” Doolittle won the coveted 100-mile Thompson Trophy Race in 1932 flying a Gee Bee Super-Sportster at an average speed of more than 252 m.p.h. The stubby, bumblebee-like craft named after its manufacturer, Granville Brothers, was powerful, fast and dangerous due to its giant engine, short wings, rearward cockpit and teardrop shape. Aircraft Models Corp. have been producers of the best handmade Mahogany Aircraft Models for decades. We offer a wide variety of handcrafted model planes and military plaques. Museum-quality models that a collector and pilot would proudly display as a symbol for their passion in aviation and their endearing memories of the past. "All our models are completely hand crafted in kiln-dried Philippine Mahogany; no form resins or decals are ever used," Rafael Salonga, sales manager at Aircaft Models Corp., told TDmonthly. Launch date: July 1992.

Regal Elite launches its new "Glove Force" technology, which allows users to direct their 'copters by turning their wrists left or right, with the help of a small thumb-controlled throttle. Launch date: Spring 2012.

Prepare for take-off with this pocket-sized, take-anywhere, air-powered rocket launcher that blasts foam rockets 50 feet. Real rocket launch action that’s safe for indoors and out. Launch date: Spring 2012.