According to the inflation calculator $3 in 1958 is about $32 today.

Never thought someone could make models so exciting and interesting. Thanks

I remember building Aurora's VTOL a long time ago with tube glue and spray cans. I think the kit was under $1. As a contrast I just picked up Tamiya's 1/32 F4U-1D Corsair for around $160, not including the 80 page manual on how to build the thing, special order from Europe. I think the lesson here is building the inexpensive Convair was just as much fun

I'd love to have seen Revell's Box art. I'm going to send that to Matt Teevan and see if he wants to do a fantasy box art of it.

👍Greetings Sir, the Aurora Ryan X13 Vertijet model number 376 is one of my favorite model subjects, as matter of fact i have a collection of this kit and now have 34 kits in my collection. I have been collecting this particular model kit sense i was a kid and all boxes have $1.98 printed on the side of box. It's amazing to me that you would post this about my favorite model, fun fact: i used to work for a man that built the throttle box for both X-13's when he was a young man when he worked for Ryan. Keep up the good work, cheers.

I remember watching X-13s pass by on trucks on US302 in Bartlett, NH. It must have been in the summer of 1957. They were en route to or from the Mt. Washington summit icing test facility. I hadn't built a model of it yet, but there was nothing else that looked like it. Thanks for the memory!

These early experimental jets are awesome. It must have been an exciting time to live through.

The Revell kit looks like it would have been wonderful but as you sagely pointed out, the target market back then had a keen eye for value and a less developed sense of 'excellence being worth saving up for' - I know because I was one of those targets!

Mike, I always enjoy your fantastic videos. I can remember building one of my first plastic airplane models in 1955, I had just turned 8. It was a Convair VTOL Pogo. I was amazed at how the contrarotating propellers worked with their little plastic gears. My Dad was soon transferred to RAF Wethersfield in England and there I built a little Airfix Bristol fighter and soon graduated to UK's FROG models of English fighter jets! Always great to view your videos and those of Max's Models. Jerry, Dickinson, TX

We have come so far in such a short time; SpaceX now lands it first stage boosters one right after the other while making it look so easy. The X-13 must have been quite a challenge to land without the help of computers. Thanks to Mike for his time, work and posting a video with model box art.... mike

I built that kit and had hours of fun with it in the late 50s. Kids then didn't mind the lack of movable contoll surfaces and such. I do remember being surprised to find two colors of plastic, yellow for the trailer and silver for the air craft.

I wish you and Capt. Max a very good time! 😎👍 Another excellent video on a forgotten facet of aviation history. 😊

Whoo hoo! A new vid..AND it's about models! Thanks Mike. Maybe Atlantis will find these molds and resurrect this great kit. What is it about silver aircraft and black and white pictures? Great memories. Big smiles

Very good story on the Ryan X-13. I didn't realize there were two built and both have been preserved. Regarding the old Aurora kit (which I had and sold some years ago) perhaps Atlantis Models has the mold for it for future reproduction. Anyway, thanks for sharing!

When I first got to Edwards in the late 80' and up until the mid 90' s at south base there was a defuser on the ramp. Meaning a steel grate that led to under surface tunnel that exited on both sides of the grate. I thought of the X-13 right away that they could run it on top of the grate, and the exhaust could exit out the side of the tunnel. This would allow the ground crew not to be effected. And not melt the tar,and pop the cemet ramp. It later was all torn out, filled in, and turned into more ramp space to park B-1's and B-2 ramp work. Not model related but I really love all the historic sites that existed on the base at Edwards AFB.

Mr Machat, For the x-13 did Ryan aircraft give the Revell the actual line drawing to develop the kit? How does that work for a model? Does the company “guess” from pictures? Or have companies been cooperative enough throughout the years so as to produce an accurate plastic model? What about axis power WWII kits or Soviet Cold War aircraft? How did those kits get developed when the details of those mysterious aircraft were being kept behind closed doors?

Mike, thanks for the history lesson on one of the more obscure model kits from the fabulous fifties. While not as intricate as the original Revell proposal, the Aurora kit has quite a bit of detail, especially the trailer assembly. Nice presentation as always.

Love the episode, one the first vintage kits I added to my collection was the Aurora X-13. Waaay back in the early day of collecting as a teenager,' I was able to attend one of the first get togethers at the 75 ipms convention in DC, where fellow kit collectors met up with John Burns, and other familiar names back then. I remember talking with Andy Yanchus about the Aurora VTOL kits, and recall he said the X-13 was the lowest production of big three 1/48th VTOL kits.

Another great video. And the models are very cool. Great work by your team.

What a great episode, Mr. Machat! I'm also really enjoying the VIP posts as well. Wish I could join you and Max, but I'm afraid I'm stuck in Texas. I'd fly in for dinner if I had the funds, though. You guys are worth it! As always, God you and yours. Take care always Sir!

Thanks, Mike!

If only . . . . Though the Aurora X-13 and the Revell F-102 are kits I've wanted for a very long time, the latter desire was satisfied by combining the Monogram 1/48 scale F-102 (Case X wing) with the Hasegawa 1/48 scale Ground Equipment set. But to the best of my knowledge, there are no kits of the X-13 currently available, much less for an affordable price. This leaves scratch building as the only current option. At 64, I joke that I'm too young to carve a solid from basswood or balsa, and too old to write code for one of those newfangled 3D Printers. I wonder if the tooling for the classic Aurora X-13 kit still exists, and if Atlantis has it? Or maybe Revell can pick up where they left off and complete their 1/32 scale version. Revell already did this with their 1/28 scale Fokker D.VII, and Lindberg did the same with their 1/48 scale Snark Missile, and AMT FINALLY came out with their 1/25 scale garbage truck, so why not? Thanks for doing all the research to make this video, and for posting it. 129th like.

Great video as always. Say hi to Max.

Thanks a lot for all the detailed info. Your videos, like your artwork, is a blast of top drawer stuff!

I remember seeing that highly advanced plane on TV as a kid. It was exciting stuff. Looking for it on the internet many decades later turned up nothing for so long that I started to wonder if I had imagined the darn thing!

One more of your excellent video to give us a head start for the work week! Really awkward airplanes! Greetings from Brazil!!

Very interesting video thank you Mike, the detail does look amazing. Take care

When I saw this plane on TV as a kid I thought it was the future. Is 'sorta' was.

Another great video presentation! Disappointing that such a fine achievement as Revell's large scale X-13 model was cancelled by a corporate master goon. Hopefully, Revell's great model kit of the Ryan X-13 will be re-released by some model company (Mobius, perhaps) as several other vintage model kits have been in recent years.

This is the best thing I ever saw.

Great presentation, I'm going to try and meet up, We are going some Grammy stuff, but this is much more important. Mike where is the X-13 at the San Diego Air and Space? I hosted a show there last year and don't remember seeing it.

amazing they built a successful VTOL in that day.

Looking forward to the Proud Bird soiree.

Revell simply wasn't thinking big enough. That kit could have stayed competetive way into the 1980s, easily earning its money. Revell's decision not to produce it wasn't free, it burned all the money invested in its developement so far.

Great video, Mike...👍

Walter Cronkite did a half hour episode of the "Airpower" TV show on the Virtijet. I saw one at San Diego and one at Dayton.

Great stuff, thanks! I wonder where is the Revell prototype and how much will it cost today??...

I blanched at the $2.98 price. My allowance at the time was 50¢ per week, and I bought a new model every 3 weeks or so. $2.98 was beyond my budget! I got a Lindberg TBM Avenger with cockpit movable controls as a gift, a very difficult build, and a complex kit. Probably cost $1.98 since Lindberg was lower quality than either Revell or Aurora.

I want to have the F-102A Delta Dagger interceptor jet model kit.

How did Ryan stay in business so long? They never had any really big contracts or non quirky airplanes? Did they just do a lot of subcontract work for their Crosstown rival?

The Ryan X-13 vertijet interesting plane. I want to have this model airplane.

Max from Jax is at LAX?

I wonder, what would it take to have the1/32 scale model of the X13 made today?

Such a shame I am not at the LA area at the time, I would love to have a word with you guys and maybe have your book signed, I dropped you a line over in your fb page last year since the past 3 years I have been going at least 3 times a year to southern california, anyways keep up the great job! Greetings from Guatemala

Aww - a Baby Plane!

Do the molds still exist?

Aurora built some awesome kits for the era, what happened to them. Anybody know?

One wonders what became of Revell's molds of the X-13.

Wow what a kit the Revell would have been. Thanks Mike.

Did the Aurora molds get destroyed in a fire from a train wreck? What a shame.

$20.98 in today's money

Sad to say, the model companies have followed many of the real airplane companies into oblivion. A commentary on modern America.😢