2000 “German Warplanes of World War II”
10-card set of airplane cards by Rockwell Publishing, United Kingdom

• Series Title: German Warplanes of World War II
• Issued by: Rockwell Publishing Company
• Country of origin: United Kingdom
• Year issued: 2000
• Type of card: Cigarette card
• Number of Cards: 10
• Numbering: 1 to 10 on reverse side
• Card dimensions: 67.8 × 36.1 mm

Overview

During the late 1990s and early 2000's, the Rockwell Publishing Company (UK), published numerous aviation related cigarette-card style 10-card sets. These commercially available 10-card sets featured attractive artwork of the subject aircraft on the front side of the card, accompanied with a with a brief narrative on the reverse side. This particular set "German Warplanes of World War II" (front side title) and “ German Warplanes of the Second World War” (reverse side title) was available in three different card set sizes: (1) 67.8 × 3.61 mm (standard cigarette card size), (2) 79.8 × 62.2 mm (“L” size), and (3) 90.2 × 63.2 mm (“LT” size). For this series, both the fronts and Backs of the cards are presented in a “landscape” (horizontal) format. The fronts of the cards feature a side view of a prominent World War II Luftwaffe aircraft. The aircraft image is centered on the card with a thin black rectangular borderline and a substantial border surround. The card front contains three lines of text: (1) “Rockwell Cards” (upper left-hand corner); (2) “German Warplanes of World War II” (lower right-hand corner); and (3) the name of the aircraft (lower right-hand corner, immediately above the set title).

The reverse side of the cards feature white Background with a vertical stack of informative text surrounded by a gray dotted rectangle with an ample white border surround. The vertical stack of information includes: (1) The secondary title of the card set, “German Warplanes of the Second World War”; (2) The card number and the aircraft designation; (3) A descriptive text about the aircraft; (4) The publisher (ROCKWELL PUBLISHING); and (5) The copyright tag line “Made in England ©Rockwell 2000” … “www.rockwellcards.co.uk ” … “illustration ©Aerospace Limited”.

We tried to access the Rockwell Publishing website noted on the Back of the card, but were not successful. However, the Rockwell cards are readily available online from companies such as the London Cigarette Card Co., Ltd. and of course ebay. The Rockwell cards are reasonably priced and are a convenient way for entry-level airplane card collectors to expand and augment their collections.

Image Guide

The following images shown the fronts and Backs of the Rockwell Cards 2000 "German Warplanes of World War II" 10-card set. Behind each thumbnail is a 600-dpi image. Note: all the following images have been computer enhanced for presentation purposes (i.e., blemishes removed, cards re-centered, and colors enhanced).

Series Checklist

Contributors

John Shupek — John is retired Aeronautical/Aerospace Engineer that lives in Southern California. John's 36 year aerospace career/adventure started in the mid-1960s when he worked for Pratt & Whitney at their “FRDC” … Florida Research and Development Center, West Palm Beach, Florida. John was part of the P&W jet engine design team for the CIA/USAF's Lockheed A-12/SR-71A “Oxcart/Blackbird” engines (J58/JT11D-20). He also worked on the RL-10 rocket engine and the JTF-17A which was P&W's entry into the United States' SST competition between Boeing and Lockheed. Several years later, John moved Back to California and worked at the AiResearch Mfg. Company at LAX and Torrance. He originally worked on the thermal design of the HRE (Hypersonic Ramjet Engine) which was a supersonic combustion Mach 7 ramjet engine that was to be tested on the North American X-15. John did about three more years of jet engine design work before he disappeared for 13 years into the classified DOE “GCEP” (Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plant) Atomic Energy program for the enrichment of U₂₃₅. After the GCEP program was cancelled by the DOE in 1985, John was hired by Northrop Aircraft to do the thermal design for Northrop's entry into the ATF (Advanced Tactical Fighter) competition, the Northrop YF-23A “Black Widow II” stealth supercruise fighter. He also worked on the Northrop Grumman B-2A “Spirit” stealth bomber. After several years on a classified stealth missile program, John worked the remainder of his Aerospace career as one of Northrop Grumman's Program Directors on the United States Navy's F/A-18E/F “Super Hornet” jet fighter program.

During John's career at Northrop Grumman he served for five years as Northrop's “Vintage Aircraft Club” Commissioner and the Curator and Webmaster for the Western Museum of Flight in Hawthorne, California. Several years later, John was the volunteer webmaster (for about 3 years) for the Yanks Air Museum, Chino, California. He also served as President and webmaster for two different NPO's after his retirement. The Whittier Historical Society & Museum and Whittier Meals on Wheels.

John's love of aviation history and aviation photography lead to the establishment of this Skytamer.com website in 1998. The Skytamer.com site has continued to expand and will always grow and will never be completed. It's sort of analogous to a snowball rolling down a hill without any trees to stop it. In approximately 2002, John remembered that he had collected Topps “Wings” (ACC# R707-4) airplane trading cards while in High School. Somehow the cards had disappeared over the years. So at this point, he started to re-collect airplane trading cards via eBay and become an airplane card “Image Collector” rather than a “Card Collector” per se. After John scans an airplane card for the website, he has no further use for it and he puts it Back into circulation via eBay. John's mission statement for the Skytamer.com is basically to restore and preserve high-quality card images/artwork associated with the various airplane card sets from the early 1900s to the present. These cards are wonderful historical “snapshots” into aviation history showing which aviation events and aircraft were important at that point in time. For the Skytamer.com website, basically if it is a trading card collection that features things that fly, but doesn't have feathers, it eligible for the consideration on the Skytamer.com website. John always welcome inputs and high resolution scans (600-dpi) that can be used on this website. John can be reached via the “Contact Us” navigation button on the left.

References

1. Card Images, 600-dpi card scans from the Skytamer Images collection, 2013