Berkeley Model airplanes took flight in West Hempstead

Berkeley Models first started making model airplanes out of a garage in Brooklyn — but it wasn’t until it moved to West Hempstead that the company really “took off.”

Model airplanes were all the rage after World War II — and Berkeley Models, by far, led the industry. Founder Bill Effinger moved the company from his Brooklyn garage to a shop on Railroad Avenue in West Hempstead. The day-to-day operations were run by Effinger’s friend Jim Barry, affectionately nicknamed “Pop” by West Hempstead neighbors.

“From the ‘30s to the ‘60s, every kid wanted a Berkeley model,” said Brian Barry, 46, Jim’s grandson. 

“When you were a kid, the excitement of getting on an airplane with your family and actually flying in the sky,” Barry explained of the model airplane craze. “And then being able to have these gas powered airplanes that you could actually go into an open field — like back at West Hempstead High School, or Halls Pond — and actually fly them.”

Airplanes were a symbol of patriotism during the post-war economic boom that the U.S. enjoyed. Kids were able to marvel at the wonders of aviation in their own backyards — and also add a personal touch to their creations. Don Heck, who went on to become an artist for Marvel Comics and co-created iconic characters like Iron Man, Black Widow and Hawkeye, created art of the model airplanes for Berkeley Models, as well as stickers that children could use to personalize their creations.

“The ability to say ‘hey, I’m flying my own plane,’” Barry said. “The ability to build and create and use whatever stickers you felt connected you to that plane — whether it was a number seven, or yellow fire, or whatever stickers could create your own plane to your own personal liking.”

Children cherished these model airplanes all over the country — but the kids and adults alike in West Hempstead were able to enjoy them on a different level. That was largely thanks to “Pop” Barry.

After World War II, many soldiers — most of them young men between the ages of 17 and 25 — returned with physical or psychological wounds. Many of them were amputees. Pop would visit Agilities, a company next door to Berkeley Models, where these soldiers were outfitted for prosthetics. Together, he and the young veterans would build model airplanes together.

“He would go in and joke around with these soldiers,” Barry said. “And he’d cheer them up, and he would chew bubblegum, and they would build these kits.”

“He made them forget, even if it was just for an hour, that they lost lost a limb,” he added.

In honor of his grandparents, Brian Barry sponsors the James and Ethel Barry Memorial Town-Gown Scholarship. The scholarship, named after the impact of a tight-knit community on a child’s academic success, goes to a West Hempstead Secondary School senior with a history of community service. It’s a testament to Pop’s long standing work with veterans.

The story of Berkeley models, and Pop’s involvement in the company, is documented in “Downstate, Upstate Memories,” a book that Brian Barry and his father collaborated on. The book is available in West Hempstead Public Library.

“Berkeley Models, in my opinion I would say, helped put West Hempstead on the map,” Barry said.

“It’s good to have an opportunity to document history and important events, so that later on, future generations can look back and say ‘oh, this is a really cool feature, I didn’t know about this.’”

The history of aviation is tied to Long Island — and West Hempstead has a special place in that history.