Aircraft Trading Cards

[A346]

Ich möchte hier kurz ein bisschen Werbung für neue Flugzeugsammelkarten machen. Todd Trainor aus den USA hatte die Idee dazu und hat dies mit Bildern von A.net-Fotografen aus über 16 Ländern umgesetzt. Wie er darauf kam: siehe unten.

http://www.AlphaTangoCharlie.com


Q. Who is Alpha Tango Charlie?

A. Alpha Tango Charlie is a new startup business currently run by one person, me: Todd Trainor. The intent is to combine my interest and experience in aviation with the idea of encouraging kids to explore aviation into a self-sustaining business that sells aircraft trading cards, trivia cards, DVDs, posters, and other aviation related merchandise.

Q. How did this get started?

A. I am a private pilot flying a Cessna Cardinal RG, who, like may of us, often takes young kids and adults for their first airplane rides. One time I was asked by my young nephew (a future aviator) if aircraft trading cards were available to buy. After some quick research I soon found out that virtually none are available, and certainly not easily available. After very little thought, I decided to give it a try as a small business. I had just sold my last small business of twelve years (The UPS Store) and I was ready to start something new and exciting. I spent 10 months researching the topic, working with kids to see what they'd like, contacting manufactures and photographers, and building a business plan. A very small prototype was revealed at the August 2006 Brighton Fly-In. But the end of February 2007 the first series of cards, called Maiden Flight, became available for public purchase and distribution.

Q. Describe the trading cards.

A. The 88-card base-set features a high-quality color photo of an aircraft on the front side, with interesting and fun facts about the aircraft on the back side. Aircraft from all categories of aviation are featured on these cards, including military jets, World War I, World War II, jet airliners, helicopters, antiques, classics, early propeller airliners, gliders, ultra-lights, twin-engine airplanes, business jets, contemporary single-engine airplanes and other airplanes likely to be observed flying at a local airport or seen in an aviation museum.

Additionally, there are 22 aviation trivia cards, each with four questions on the front and answers on the back. The trivia cards are intended to be a fun way to teach aviation history and aviation facts. To add to the trivia theme, each trivia card is uniquely numbered with an aircraft altimeter picture on the back displaying an altitude setting to indicate the card number.

Each pack of cards contains ten cards - eight randomly-selected aircraft cards and two randomly-selected aviation trivia cards - wrapped in a clear plastic. The suggested retail price is $3.00 per pack.

To help increase the interest in aviation, each pack will also contain one of eleven randomly-selected bonus cards that feature: information about finding an aviation museum, listing of the aviation phonetic alphabet, instructions on how to find a local air show this summer, aircraft spotter cards to recording aircraft sightings, a chart of aircraft registration prefixes to identify an aircraft’s home country, a sample pilot checklist, a list of aviation careers and other cards containing interesting facts about aviation.

Q. Why is it called "Maiden Flight"?

The first series, release in February 2007, is a limited-edition market test, called Maiden Flight. Only 230 cases were produced. The purpose of Maiden Flight is to see if there is truly retail interest in aircraft trading cards. That last time aircraft trading cards were widely published and distributed was in the 1950s. Maiden Flight is next step in the business plan to see if "this idea will fly." Packaging features were keep very simple in order to keep costs low. If Maiden Flight is successful, then the next series, possibly named Maiden Voyage, may be an upgraded and enhanced version of the Maiden Flight series, but with enhanced packaging features, a larger print run and wider distribution.

Q. Who is the man behind the cards?

A. I was born into an aviation family in 1964. My father, Tom Trainor, owned and restored several Aeronca Ks during my childhood. We'd spend many Saturday morning flying to Michigan-area Dawn-Patrols in search of a good pancake breakfast, a bomb-drop contest and a spot landing competition. The Aeronca K was built in 1939 and sported a meager 38-hp two-cylinder engine. Being an IT person and an early user of the Internet, I quickly obtained the Aeronca.com domain and started documenting as much as I could about the Aeronca K, and eventually expanded to many other types of Aeronca. My biggest project is to scan the original Aeronca factory drawings and post them on the web for the world to use.

Upon graduating college and landing a got IT job at Dow Chemical, I earned my private pilot certificate at age 25 and flew a Cherokee 180D with partnership of 4 other friends. Soon I started helping dad restore another Aeronca K; Which is now proudly displayed at the Pioneer Museum at Oshkosh, WI. After a few years I moved to a house on Brighton airport (45G) where I bought a Cardinal RG and built a hangar. I have a wonderful day job at HP as a project manager working on the next great thing in IT enterprise computing: Networked Storage.

Born with both the aviation-bug and the entrepreneurial-spirit, I have finally found a business idea that matches my passion for aviation with my drive to be a small business owner. Prior to Alpha Tango Charlie, I owned a T-shirt business and The UPS Store.