Category:Revolistic

The Revolistic trademark was used by A.J. Holladay within the Skybirds range. The name and logo first appeared in the Skybirds Meccano Magazine advertising in the summer of 1934.

"Revolistic" was a clever idea for simulating the look of spinning propellers on an aircraft on flight. Previously, the main options for doing this were either to cut off the propellor blades altogether, or to replace them with a thin clear plastic disc ... which always seemed to look like the plane had been fitted with plastic discs rather than propellers.

The Revolistic system involved producing a specially-wound flat spiral of wire whose centre attached to the propeller hub, the result being a set of near-circular streaks suspended in space that looked very like the effect of motion streaks on a blurred propeller. The shiny wire spiral also had a way of catching the light at different angles like a real propellor blade, and if the model plane was prone to slight movements due to vibration or wind, the springs would vibrate and shift, giving the subtle impression of propeller nutation.