Oldest toy plane I own, a Farman Goliath

[Tone]

This is the oldest toy plane that I own. It is a Farman F60 or Goliath. Sue Richardson's book states it was made in 1919! Like the real thing, it was made in France.

The castings are two main pieces. The wings are all together and fit into notches in the lower fuselage. The plane has spinning props, open windows, and even spoked wheels that turn. Its proportions are way off, however.













The bottom is marked "France" although the manufacturer is "Simon et Rivollet" an early die cast toy maker, along with Dowst and Planck.



Line drawing of a Farman Goliath by Alexis Dawydoff from the 1954 book Airplanes of the World.

[grwebster]

Thanks Tone, now I know what SR means.

[hovermd]

What is the size of this airplane?

[grwebster]

Tiny, the size of the small toosietoys.
Say, Tone, when did Tootisetoy and SR do the Bleriot? Must have been before the Goliath, no?
Don't have any references here to do the home work.

[tekno]

A great Tootsie - SR reference is here - http://www.tootsietoys.info/Tootsietoys-Aircraft.html

[grwebster]

Thanks, Tekno, for that link, a great article.
GR

[Tone]

Here's the little Tootsietoy Blériot charm I have - I thought it had a long production span lasting into the 20s or even 30s, that's why I didn't consider it to be older than the SR Farman.

I have seen this packed in a box with other small die-cast toy "charms," probably from the Roaring 20s.

[grwebster]

Tone,
The Farman Goliath first flew in 1919. The Bleriot was flying by 1909 when it flew the first Channel crossing. It appears that both the Tootsie and the SR were produced right afterwards to capitalize on the newspaper photos and extensive coverage.
The referenced article was interesting but left out the orange and black 1920s biplane variant, that I only saw once from, as I recall, Dave Sokol's collection in the 1980s.
Dave was the first big collector of toy airplanes and started before any others, even before Sy Merrall or Perry Eichor. Back then there a big NJ toy show and he used to have a table full of the real early aircraft toys. All types including cast iron.
He sold his collection at auction in its entirety, and became a flight surgeon in the USAF, he told me he flew a mission to Libyia. I believe he retired to Arizona by the 1990s and I have not heard from him since. He knew a lot about all the early toys, too bad he didn't do a book on the subject.