1941 “Airplanes of America” (D3)
By: John A. Shupek (Skytamer.com)
- Series Title: “Airplanes of America”
- American Card Catalog Reference Number: D3
- Issued by: Krug Baking Company
- Issued via: Krug Baking Company Weekly Bulletins
- Country: United States Of America
- Number of Airplane Cards and/or Weekly Bulletins: 42
- Card Numbering: 1 to 42 (untrimmed card); unnumbered (trimmed card)
- Type of Card: Bakery PD (package design) airplane card
- Card Dimensions: 82 × 90 mm (trimmed)
- Circa: 1941
- Checklist: Download Checklist
Historical Overview
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During the early 1940s in the United States of America, it was quite common and convenient to have essential food products delivered by truck directly to our homes. Many of us can also remember the “milk” and the “bakery” delivery trucks bringing us their dairy and bakery food products directly to our homes up through the mid-1950s. In fact, if you were a child during that timeframe, you would look forward to grabbing the bottles of milk first thing in the mornings … to get the cream directly off the top of the bottle. Those were the days before homogenized milk, and therefore the cream and the milk would separate with the cream floating to the top of the milk bottle. Other essential products such as coal, were also delivered directly to our home via a coal-truck and “chuted” into our basement forming a large pile of coal in a separate area next to our coal-burning furnace. It was our father's duty to get up before everybody else, go down into the basement, and shovel coal directly into the furnace. If your basement had wheels, it would be the equivalent to that of the “firebox” in a steam locomotive. If you have ever watched the movie A Christmas Story, you remember Ralphy's father (played by Darren McGavin) and his daily battle with the “&*@!%#$” coal-burning furnace. That's pretty much exactly the way it was.
Overview —1941 Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America” (D3) Series
During this timeframe, the Krug Baking Company used their home delivery truck services to: (a) Deliver and promote their products with their customers, (b) provide baking recipes via their “Weekly Bulletins” using their products … thus increasing their sales, and (c) to initiate numerous special advertising promotions such as the “Airplanes of America” album and the its 42 “PD” (package design) airplane cards. Since the Krug Baking Company's delivery trucks home delivered on a daily basis, they employed the use of their “Weekly Bulletin” as an advertising tool, and as a means of delivering the airplane cards directly to their customers.
The initial Krug Baking Company's advertisements for the “Airplanes of America” promotion indicated that there were only 40-airplane cards in the set. This was evidently an advertising error since the set actually contained 42-airplane cards (see the Krug's advertisements on the right). This error was later corrected, we know not when, showing that the Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America” set actually contained 42-airplane cards (see advertisement on right). The Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America” album/airplane-card set was later assigned the American Card Catalog designation of “D3”.
The three “main” collectibles for the Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America” (D3) set include: (1) The Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America” 28-page album with mounting frames for each of the 42 airplane cards from their “Weekly Bulletins”; (2) The 42 Krug Baking Company's “Weekly Bulletins”, each one containing an uncut airplane card. The first Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America” (D3) “Weekly Bulletin” was dated for the week of 7-13 January 1941 (Tuesday through Monday). This “Weekly Bulletin” contained card № 1 — Curtis sic Y.P.-37; and (3) The Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America” (D3) 8-card “Flier” that most collectors are familiar with. The actual purpose of the “Flier” is unknown. However, the Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America” 8-card “Flier” could have been used as: (1) an initial “kick-off” advertisement for their “Airplanes of America” (D3) airplane card series, or (2) it could have been also been introduced after the eighth “Weekly Bulletin” was issued, and used as a “Catch-up” advertisement for late starters of the D3 “Airplanes of America” series.
Krug Baking Company's (D3) “Airplanes of America — Weekly Bulletins”
The Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America” (D3) series of was initiated via their “Weekly Bulletins”. The “Weekly Bulletins” were tri-fold (6-page) advertisements that were delivered to Krug Baking Company customers on a weekly basis. Each of these “Weekly Bulletins” contained one airplane page and five recipe/advertising pages. The “Airplanes of America” (D3) campaign lasted for 42 weeks during 1941, and consisted of 42 “Weekly Bulletins” each containing a different uncut airplane card, and the “Airplanes of America” 28-page album. At the end of the “Airplanes of America” (D3) advertising campaign, the Krug Baking Company provided its customers with a “final chance” offer to obtain the set's “Airplanes of America” album (see advertisement on right). Some examples of the Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America” (D3) “Weekly Bulletins” are shown below.
Krug Baking Company's (D3) “Airplane Cards”
The next step in the process of collecting the Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America” (D3) series of 42 “Airplane Cards” was to physically destroy the individual “Weekly Bulletins” by cutting out the individual airplane cards, and then mount them in the “Airplanes of America” album. As noted earlier, the album contain 42 mounting frames for displaying each of the “Airplanes of America” airplane cards. However, It should be noted that the mounting frames were blank, without designator to indicate which card was to go in that spot. The uncut airplane cards contained a dashed cut-line directly beneath the card's title and descriptive text. directly beneath the dashed cut-line was the set's title “Airplanes of America” and the number of the airplane card. When the airplane card was properly cut from the “Weekly Bulletin”, it literally came an anonymous unnumbered card. Examples of both the “uncut” and the “cut” airplane cards are shown below.
After all of the “Airplanes of America” airplane cards were trimmed from their respective “Weekly Bulletins”, we had a set of 42 airplane cards ready for mounting in the album. The 42 “Airplanes of America” airplane cards are shown below. The following airplane thumbnail images all have 600-dpi images behind them. Just click on the thumbnail image to view the 600-dpi card image. In addition, in tabular form we have included 600-dpi images of all 42 of the original scans.
| “Airplanes of America” 42-Airplane Cards ORIGINAL SCANS | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| 1
1b |
2
2b |
3
3b |
4
4b |
5
5b |
6
6b |
7
7b |
8
8b |
9
9b |
10
10b |
11
11b |
12
12b |
13
13b |
14
14b |
15
15b |
16
16b |
17
17b |
18
18b |
19
19b |
20
20b |
21
21b |
| 22
22b |
23
23b |
24
24b |
25
25b |
26
26b |
27
27b |
28
28b |
29
29b |
30
30b |
31
31b |
32
32b |
33
33b |
34
34b |
35
35b |
36
36b |
37
37b |
38
38b |
39
39b |
40
40b |
41
41b |
42
42b |
Krug Baking Company's (D3) “Airplane Cards” Album
The next step in collecting the Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America” (D3) airplane card set is to obtain the album, and mount the 42 “Airplane Cards” in the album. Below. We have provided two versions of the “Airplanes of America ” 28-page album. The first set of thumbnail images shows an “Airplanes of America” unused album without any mounted airplane cards. The second set of thumbnail images shows an “Airplanes of America” 28-page album with all of the 42 cards mounted in the album. As with the airplane cards above, behind each of the thumbnail images is a 600-dpi computer enhanced 600-dpi image.
Krug Baking Company's (D3) Advertisements
Currently we know of at least three supplementary Krug Baking Company advertisements in addition to the “Airplanes of America — Weekly Bulletins” and the “Airplanes of America Album”. There most likely may be more advertisements out there, but as of 27 January 2017, we only know of the following three: (1) The Krug Baking Company's “ Airplanes of America — Final Album Offer”) noting 42-airplane cards in the set; (2) The “Airplanes of America — Poster ” showing all 42 cards in the set; and (3) The Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America — 8-card Flier”. Most collectors are aware of the Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America — 8-card Flier”, but do not realize that the “Flier” is in reality a misleading advertisement with a glaring error. It clearly states that the Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America” (D3) set contains “FORTY (40)” airplane cards, when in reality the set actually contains 42 airplane cards. It should be noted that during this particular era, this type of error was not an uncommon event. Many of the card manufacturers tended to overstate the total number of cards in their sets. However, understating the numbered cards is a bit unusual. These types of errors usually indicate that manufacturer of the set was on a limited “shoestring” budget and had limited manpower resources, especially in the area of proofreading. Again, the actual purpose of the 8-card “Flier” is speculative. The Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America” 8-card “Flier” could have been used as: (a) an initial “kick-off” advertisement for their “Airplanes of America” (D3) airplane card advertising campaign, or (b) it could have also been introduced after the eighth “Weekly Bulletin” was issued, and used as a “Catch-up” advertisement for late starters of the D3 “Airplanes of America” Airplane card series. Perhaps the true function of this “Flier” is lost to history. Low quality images of each of these three Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America” advertisements are shown below. If you should by chance have any additional advertisements, we would appreciate your help in adding them to this collection.
Contemporary “Airplanes of America” (D2) Airplane Card Sets
Jefferson R. Burdick (1900–1963) was a trading and baseball card collector and cataloguer. He cataloged trading and baseball cards in his The American Card Catalog, otherwise known as the “ACC”, which is still used today by collectors and dealers. To this day, most American and Canadian trading cards are known by their ACC designation in combination with their sets title. Burdick's collection is currently housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A small part of his collection is on display at the Museum on the first floor of the American Wing. Now that we've given a brief introduction about the ACC, the 1960 updated version of the American Card Catalog 5 notes in section 16 Bakery Cards that there are two ACC designations for the “Airplanes of America” airplane card set … D3 and D2. The D3 “Airplanes of America” set was of course issued by the Krug Baking Company and was comprised of 42 (3¼×4 inch) airplane cards with an album containing 42 mounting frames. However, according to Burdick the D2 “Airplanes of America” sets were issued by multiple bakeries which will be discussed later. Burdick also noted, that the “Airplanes of America” (D2) were comprised of only 40 (4×4 inch) airplane cards plus the album. A Colonial Baking Company “Airplanes of America — Album” courtesy of Ken Bush ??? is shown below.
HELP!
As you have probably already noticed, we have several “gaps” in the above Krug Baking Company's “ Airplanes of America ” (D3) images. If you are a collector of this D3 set, we could certainly use your help with high-quality scans. Currently this is what we need to complete this page:
- Front and back 300-dpi (or better) scans of the Krug Baking Company's (D3) “Airplanes of America” 8-airplane card “Flier”
- Front and back 300-dpi scans of any one of the Krug Baking Company's “Weekly Bulletins” (The initial “Weekly Bulletin” with Card № 1 — Curtis (sic) Y.P.-37) would be perfect!
- Front and back 600-dpi scans of the Krug Baking Company's “Airplanes of America ” (D3) “Album Final Offer” advertisement.
- Front 200-dpi (or better if possible) scan of the Krug Baking Company's “ Airplanes of America Poster”
- Front 600-dpi scan of Card № 9 &mdask; Beechcraft F-17-D. (The following comments also apply to the next two cards.) Whether or not the scan is from an album or a loose card does not matter. Please do not attempt to crop the image and leave enough space around the image so we can do the post-scan processing. If by chance the scan is from a “loose” card, a scan of the backside would be greatly appreciated.
- Front 600-dpi scan of Card № 12 &mdask; Boeing B-17.
- Front 600-dpi scan of Card № 22 &mdask; Consolidated 29.
1941 “Airplanes of America” (D3) Checklist
We have provided two versions of the 1941 “Airplanes of America” (D3) 42-card set issued by Krug Baking Company, U.S.A.. An 8½ × 11 inch PDF version, and the web version shown below. Click on the PDF graphic below to access the PDF version.
| 1941 “Airplanes of America” (D3) “Krug Baking Company, 42-Cards, U.S.A.” CHECKLIST | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| № | Weekly Bulletin | Trimmed Card | Associated Card Title | |
| 1 | Curtis (sic) Y.P.-37 | |||
| 2 | Piper Cub | |||
| 3 | Douglas T.B.D.-1 | |||
| 4 | Douglas D.C.-3 | |||
| 5 | Spirit of St. Louis | |||
| 6 | Lockheed Transport 14 | |||
| 7 | Boeing Stratoliner | |||
| 8 | Winnie Mae | |||
| 9 | Beechcraft F-17-D (need 600-dpi scan of card front) | |||
| 10 | Bell U. S. Army Aircobra sic P-39 | |||
| 11 | Aeronca Model LA | |||
| 12 | Boeing B-17 (need 600-dpi scan of card front) | |||
| 13 | Vultee V-12-A Attack Bomber | |||
| 14 | Cessna C-145 | |||
| 15 | Waco N. | |||
| 16 | Curtiss Hawk 75 | |||
| 17 | Twin Engined Air Masters | |||
| 18 | Pan American Clipper | |||
| 19 | Grumman F-4-F-3 | |||
| 20 | Kellett K D 1 B Autogiro | |||
| 21 | Lockheed B-14 Bomber | |||
| 22 | Consolidated 29 (need 600-dpi scan of card front) | |||
| 23 | North American 40 A Bomber | |||
| 24 | Martin P. B. M.-1 Air Destroyer | |||
| 25 | Bellanca Aircruiser | |||
| 26 | Brewster F 2 A-1 | |||
| 27 | Rearwin Cloudster | |||
| 28 | Fairchild M-62 Trainer | |||
| 29 | Fleetwing F-S Seabird | |||
| 30 | U. S. Coast Guard Patrol | |||
| 31 | Stearman X-100 Attack Bomber | |||
| 32 | Stinson Reliant—S. R.-10 | |||
| 33 | Vought-Sikorsky S. B. 2U-1 | |||
| 34 | Ryan S. T. | |||
| 35 | Braniff Airways Super B Liner | |||
| 36 | Curtiss Scout Bomber U. S. Navy S B C 4 | |||
| 37 | Republic E-P 1 | |||
| 38 | Spartan Executive | |||
| 39 | Boeing | |||
| 40 | United Air Lines | |||
| 41 | U. S. Navy Blimp L-2 | |||
| 42 | Airplane Carrier | |||
| n/a | Album (unused) | |||
| n/a | Album (used) | |||
| n/a | 8-Card Flier | |||
| n/a | Large Display Poster | |||
| n/a | Final Album Offer Advertisement | |||
Contributors
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“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 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 is eligible for consideration on the Skytamer.com website. John always welcomes 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. |
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.
References
- Shupek, John A. “Airplanes of America (D3) Krug Baking Company.” The Skytamer Archive (600-dpi Image Scans). Skytamer Images, Whittier, CA, 2017. Digital Image Database.
- Watson, James C., M.D. “Airplanes of America.” Non-Sports Bible (NSB). Vol. I. Chelsea, MI: Sheridan, 2007. pp 44-45. Print.
- Shupek, John A. “Airplanes of America (D3) Multiple Bakeries.” The Skytamer Archive (600-dpi Image Scans). Skytamer Images, Whittier, CA, 2017. Digital Image Database.
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