Aviator (Ace of Spades) change?

[cere23]

Was wondering if anyone knew  when Aviators change the ace of spades from generic to the modern ones?

thanks!
 AC

[Don Boyer]

Was wondering if anyone knew  when Aviators change the ace of spades from generic to the modern ones?

thanks!
 AC

You'd have to be a little more specific...there's been more than two Aces of Spades, from what I know of it.

When the deck first came out, it was to commemorate Lindbergh's crossing of the Atlantic - the deck's entire packaging and unique features were themed to this, complete with an image of the Spirit of St. Louis on the tuck box.  I'm pretty sure that the AoS and jokers followed this theme, perhaps even the card backs.

At some point later, the deck was re-themed to the modern "jet" age, with a jet aircraft on the tuck and similarly themed AoS and jokers.  I'm guessing that change took place around the 1960s or so, as the new design elements do look typical of that era.  The backs are about as exciting to look at as dirty dishwater, however, having nothing whatsoever to do with the theme - it's just a bunch of small, simple geometric shapes in an orderly if rather boring pattern.  That's what the deck still looks like to this day.

But wait!  There's more!  Aviators were also sold in a bridge-sized deck, now discontinued.  The bridge deck used to use a generic-looking AoS and generic jokers - there was nothing on the cards themselves to indicate specifically that they were Aviators, and the back design, while similar to what was in use for modern Aviators at the time, isn't quite the same.

Do bear in mind that my knowledge of old Aviators, pre Jet-Age update, is scanty at best, though I do know the deck was a Lindbergh commemorative and I'm pretty sure had a prop-plane rather than a jet plane.  There's an homage deck to the original that Dan and Dave Buck released maybe two or three years ago - not an exact copy by any stretch of the imagination, but probably similar in some ways, certainly in that it was made a Lindbergh commemorative deck again.  I own this D&D deck, the modern standard and the bridge deck.  My bridge deck was I think from either the 1970s or the 1980s - I'm not sure how long it's been out of print, but it's been a good while.  Today, USPC makes it only in standard (poker) sizes, with standard indices, jumbo indices and as a pinochle deck, all of which are still for sale on their own website.

[cere23]

Was wondering if anyone knew  when Aviators change the ace of spades from generic to the modern ones?

thanks!
 AC

You'd have to be a little more specific...there's been more than two Aces of Spades, from what I know of it.

When the deck first came out, it was to commemorate Lindbergh's crossing of the Atlantic - the deck's entire packaging and unique features were themed to this, complete with an image of the Spirit of St. Louis on the tuck box.  I'm pretty sure that the AoS and jokers followed this theme, perhaps even the card backs.

At some point later, the deck was re-themed to the modern "jet" age, with a jet aircraft on the tuck and similarly themed AoS and jokers.  I'm guessing that change took place around the 1960s or so, as the new design elements do look typical of that era.  The backs are about as exciting to look at as dirty dishwater, however, having nothing whatsoever to do with the theme - it's just a bunch of small, simple geometric shapes in an orderly if rather boring pattern.  That's what the deck still looks like to this day.

But wait!  There's more!  Aviators were also sold in a bridge-sized deck, now discontinued.  The bridge deck used to use a generic-looking AoS and generic jokers - there was nothing on the cards themselves to indicate specifically that they were Aviators, and the back design, while similar to what was in use for modern Aviators at the time, isn't quite the same.

Do bear in mind that my knowledge of old Aviators, pre Jet-Age update, is scanty at best, though I do know the deck was a Lindbergh commemorative and I'm pretty sure had a prop-plane rather than a jet plane.  There's an homage deck to the original that Dan and Dave Buck released maybe two or three years ago - not an exact copy by any stretch of the imagination, but probably similar in some ways, certainly in that it was made a Lindbergh commemorative deck again.  I own this D&D deck, the modern standard and the bridge deck.  My bridge deck was I think from either the 1970s or the 1980s - I'm not sure how long it's been out of print, but it's been a good while.  Today, USPC makes it only in standard (poker) sizes, with standard indices, jumbo indices and as a pinochle deck, all of which are still for sale on their own website.

Thanks for the great info,  I attached a pic, I notice many aviators has this generic ace of spades. wondering when they made the permanent switch.  I also have a old bridge deck before the jetplane tuck with the same ace of spades.

[Don Boyer]

Was wondering if anyone knew  when Aviators change the ace of spades from generic to the modern ones?

thanks!
 AC

You'd have to be a little more specific...there's been more than two Aces of Spades, from what I know of it.

When the deck first came out, it was to commemorate Lindbergh's crossing of the Atlantic - the deck's entire packaging and unique features were themed to this, complete with an image of the Spirit of St. Louis on the tuck box.  I'm pretty sure that the AoS and jokers followed this theme, perhaps even the card backs.

At some point later, the deck was re-themed to the modern "jet" age, with a jet aircraft on the tuck and similarly themed AoS and jokers.  I'm guessing that change took place around the 1960s or so, as the new design elements do look typical of that era.  The backs are about as exciting to look at as dirty dishwater, however, having nothing whatsoever to do with the theme - it's just a bunch of small, simple geometric shapes in an orderly if rather boring pattern.  That's what the deck still looks like to this day.

But wait!  There's more!  Aviators were also sold in a bridge-sized deck, now discontinued.  The bridge deck used to use a generic-looking AoS and generic jokers - there was nothing on the cards themselves to indicate specifically that they were Aviators, and the back design, while similar to what was in use for modern Aviators at the time, isn't quite the same.

Do bear in mind that my knowledge of old Aviators, pre Jet-Age update, is scanty at best, though I do know the deck was a Lindbergh commemorative and I'm pretty sure had a prop-plane rather than a jet plane.  There's an homage deck to the original that Dan and Dave Buck released maybe two or three years ago - not an exact copy by any stretch of the imagination, but probably similar in some ways, certainly in that it was made a Lindbergh commemorative deck again.  I own this D&D deck, the modern standard and the bridge deck.  My bridge deck was I think from either the 1970s or the 1980s - I'm not sure how long it's been out of print, but it's been a good while.  Today, USPC makes it only in standard (poker) sizes, with standard indices, jumbo indices and as a pinochle deck, all of which are still for sale on their own website.

Thanks for the great info,  I attached a pic, I notice many aviators has this generic ace of spades. wondering when they made the permanent switch.  I also have a old bridge deck before the jetplane tuck with the same ace of spades.

That's the same AoS that appears on the bridge deck that I have.  It's a common generic AoS for USPC decks that use them.  I'd guess that it predates the fancier "jet-age" AoS, but that's really just a guess.  I'm guessing that there may have been a fancier AoS when the deck was first created, then they went a little more generic-looking - I recall at one point that Aviators were being stuffed into a lot of different brand boxes, like Caravan, Mohawk, Torpedo, etc.  So it's possible that at one point it was simply a catch-all, generic deck for USPC - until they acquired Arrco, Aviators were their most basic and inexpensive deck.  These days, that title would belong to Mavericks, which they don't even manufacture (they farm it out to a Chinese company).  The cheapest in-house deck would likely be Streamlines, which I've seen selling for as little as a buck a pack at Walmart.  Both are former Arrco decks and still have Arrco faces.