In recent years the release of a blockbuster movie or the spending of an inordinate sum on an advertising campaign in the run up to the Festive period has seen a mass clamour by parents, guardians, relatives and friends to purchase the "must have" toy.
We have all experienced that feeling of desperation and failure in not being able to get the item for our dependants. This soon turns to anger and frustration at having to pay well over the retail price if, surprise, surprise, a stock of items suddenly appears on the well known internet selling sites.
In this inevitable illustration of the law of demand and supply we have seen the modern phenomena of (in no particular order), Sylvanian Families, Furby's, Tracy Island, a High School Musical Dance Mat, Star Wars Lightsaber and a Buzz Lightyear Action figure cleaning out our toy retailers and the bank accounts of the general public as consumers.
It appears that for Christmas 2017 the top spot is to be taken by Skylanders Imaginators.
As all of my children and over the age of 21 I have no idea whatsoever about what or who is a Skylander Imaginator.
There are, as they say, other toys available, in fact many thousands if not hundreds of thousands.
One specific toy which came to prominence in 2011 has a very interesting and dramatically tragic back-story.
It is a reproduction model of what was called the "Planophore" by a Frenchman, Alphonse Penaud.
Although a faithful scale replica of the original, the 21st Century version by Japanese makers Yoshida has made concessions to modern production methods and practices by using balsa wood and styrofoam.
What is amazing about the "Planophore" is that it was made as far back as 1871 by Penaud, at that time barely in his twenties.
At a time when aviation was nothing more than an aspiration based on a distant dream and that mankind had only made it off the ground by hot air balloon or by accident, Penaud established a reputation as one of the foremost pioneers in aviation design and engineering.
The "Planophore", was in essence a single propellor aircraft with the powertrain provided by a rubber band. In spite of its small model size it was in fact the first ever successful, automatically stable flying machine and became, upon subsequent study and further experimentation by later engineers, a major influence on aircraft design.
Within an overall size of 51 cm long and a wingspan of 46 cm it had slightly upward curved wings, a tail wing arranged at a smaller angle and with a propellor at the back to operate in a pushing action. The rubber band was tensioned by winding.
On its first flight in Paris in 1871 the "Planophore" covered a distance of 40 metres and spent 11 seconds airborne.
It was a revelation.
The aeronautical principles of Penaud were all his own work although unbeknown to either party the same had been understood by a North Yorkshire, England inventor, Sir George Cayley in a piloted glider. In their own ways they had come across the four aerodynamic forces of flight consisting of weight, lift , drag and thrust .
These became the basis for the design of the modern aeroplane.
Penaud did not rest on his success with model planes and went on to design a full sized aircraft which included the prospective Patenting in 1876 of electronic elevators, a pilot's cabin, retractable undercarriage, twin propellors and flight desk instrumentation.
Sadly, his genius was well ahead of its time.
He failed to secure financial backing for his inventions and was so disillusioned that at the young age of 30 he took his own life.
As a footnote, in 1878 the father of two boys who travelled often in his position as Bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, brought home a toy helicopter as a shared present for his sons.
The device was based on an invention of French aeronautical pioneer Alphonse Pénaud.
Made of paper, bamboo and cork with a rubber band to twirl its rotor, it was about a foot long.
The young boys played with it until it broke, and then made their own.
In later years, Orville and Wilbur Wright pointed to their experience with the Penauds toy as the spark of their interest in flying.
In 1904 they built and flew the world's first aeroplane.
The Yoshida model was difficult to find in the year of its release in 2011. After nearly 150 years the Planophore remains as one of the most sought after toys of the modern age.
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