A trend among aircraft model collectors is to build model airports. While airport models have been around, in a way, since air fields were open to the public, early model airports were basically restricted to public showcases about the airport and its surroundings to the public; these were usually located inside the airport themselves.
One of the first model airport toys available to the public was Fisher-Price's Little People's airport set, released in the 1970s.
However, since Herpa Wings's introduction of their airport set series to their line of airline related toys, there has been an increase of aircraft modelers who have made mock airports to showcase their private collection of model aircraft. Usually, the collector will model their airport after a real life airport. Many of these collectors have internet sites in which they show their airports to other collectors.
Most of the time, collectors who make model airports use die-cast airline models for their creation. Among the brands of die cast aircraft models most commonly used on these airports are Schabak, Herpa Wings, Dragon Wings, Gemini Jets and others.
Model airports could be made to look very realistic, with many real airport features such as terminals, control towers, cargo terminals, hangars, passenger bridges and more. Conversely, they could also be very simple, as some collectors just get a piece of paper, draw a runway on it, place it over a table, add their plane models and call it their model airport.
This is a new trend going on in the last years of model airports have website of their own, showing "fantasy flights" or some information about the imaginary airport, for example- London Bexley International. There are some forum communities such as DA.C forums, Wings900.com, and 400 Scale Hangar for developing the hobby of collecting models and creating model airports.
Some fictitious alliances were made to bond together some model airports of the world. Some of these include the Global Airports Alliance and Blue Sky Alliance.
In 2011, what may be the world's largest model airport opened for public view at Miniatur Wunderland, Hamburg, Germany. Knuffingen International Airport is based on Hamburg International Airport.
Famous quotes containing the words model and/or airport:
“If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It is for the artist to do something beyond this: in portrait painting to put on canvas something more than the face the model wears for that one day; to paint the man, in short, as well as his features.”
—James Mcneill Whistler (1834–1903)
“Airplanes are invariably scheduled to depart at such times as 7:54, 9:21 or 11:37. This extreme specificity has the effect on the novice of instilling in him the twin beliefs that he will be arriving at 10:08, 1:43 or 4:22, and that he should get to the airport on time. These beliefs are not only erroneous but actually unhealthy.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)