Face it. You would love to have a model of your airplane painted in its same colors and N number, but you don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars. Thanks to fellow pilot, Keith Oberg of Bloomington, Minn., the perfect model may be closer than you think.
Oberg started his aviation career with the airlines in 1963, as a reservation clerk in Chicago. He moved through the ranks at the airline ticket counter, airport operations and finally became a flight dispatcher apprentice in Minneapolis in 1969, while studying for his FAA certificate. After the airline’s strike and layoff in 1971, he became an aircraft router, then dispatcher in 1977 with another carrier. That’s where he stayed until he retired in 2004.
“I had the idea of offering my fellow airline employees and the public nostalgic gifts in 1992, as the old name airlines disappeared due to de-regulation,” said Oberg.
Airways Gifts started as a small mail order/retail store business selling small items – tee-shirts, coffee mugs, collector pins, logo watches, kit models, display models and other small toys. As time went on the shopping mall where the company was located closed and Oberg had to move everything to his basement. That meant dropping all of the wholesale items he had been buying and concentrated on, and limiting his inventory to items he could make, himself. That’s when Oberg started producing military models for individuals and several museum gift shops, and custom models.
After retirement, Airways Gifts outgrew Oberg’s basement. He now rents what used to be a store in the old shopping mall.
Today, the aviation gifts are on Oberg’s website www.airwaysgifts.com, and he still mails out a catalog once a year.
Airways Gifts models are a little different from almost all the other models made in the Philippines. The models are entirely handmade… no decals, only hand painting. The company uses only kiln dried hardwood, and their clear coat is a sealant, so Oberg guarantees that his models will not crack.
Airways Gifts custom models are very affordable starting at $165.00 for models with a 12 to 14-inch wingspan. Airways Gifts make almost anything in any size model a customer would want – military, general aviation, corporate aircraft, airliners, helicopters and even blimps. The company has made models from a 6-inch wingspan to a 6-foot wingspan.
For additional information, contact Keith Oberg at airwaysgifts@juno.com or call 651-423-5111.
