[Youtube] What Happened to Airfix? How UK’s Model Empire Vanished

https://youtu.be/bRLzq3kHkx0?si=_dmQrzcOEmiFKARG

What Happened to Airfix? How UK’s Model Empire Vanished If you were a British boy growing up in the 1960s and 70s, Airfix was Saturday morning. The flat box. The grey plastic parts. The smell of polystyrene cement that got on your fingers and never quite came off. It was a ritual — a physical connection to the aircraft your father’s generation had flown. To feed that ritual, a single factory in South London pumped out twenty million kits a year. Spitfires. Lancasters. Tiger tanks. But today that factory is gone. The company that built it was scandalously failed. To understand the downfall of Britain's model empire, you have to start where it all began. With a man, a rubber toy, and a war. Disclaimer: This video is a researched history documentary. The script and story are based on real events and verified sources to the best of our ability. Some visuals are AI generated and used only as illustrative context when authentic archival photos are limited, they are not presented as real photographs of the exact people or locations unless stated. Any archival images or footage shown belong to their respective owners and are used in a transformative way for commentary, education, criticism, and historical analysis under Fair Use. YOUTU.BE  26/04/2026 09:53:04  Generated by Gmail URL Link Preview by cloudHQ