PILOT was founded in 1932 by Henning Cortsen. In the pre WWII years they mainly produced lead ship models, airplanes, trams, trains and figures. Due to shortage of lead in the war era (needed for the weapons industry) Pilot switched to using zinc. In the early 1950's PILOT started to make plastic models (using WIKING molds and adapting them) in 1/87. Henning Cortsen and WIKING-founder Friedrich Peltzer were close friends and both Companies interchanged molds regularly. In the early 1950's LEGO used to be the distributor for PILOT. The quality of the plastic used by PILOT was poor and often causes a distortion of the bodies. The early production cars had pot metal/ messing colored wheels; later, silver colored wheels were applied. In the early years they produced a Split Window Beetle, marked PILOT as well as an unmarked version. In the mid 1950's, the Oval Window Beetle was introduced.
The production of these 1/87 plastic models stopped in the early 1960s, around that time both WIKING and LEGO had surpassed PILOT in terms of quality, detail and actuality. In 1974 the Company had closed PILOT after the death of Henning Cortsen.
The VW Bus features a plastic body with solid windows and good details of front and rear hood and door seams with front bumper, pot metal wheels, no chassis, under the roof marked PILOT. This is a copy and modification of the WIKING VW Bus model 1953/1954.
