1954 Lever Brothers : Jet & Rocket Plane Trading Cards

Jet & Rocket Plane Trading Cards were released in 1954 by the Lever Brothers Company of New York. The 30-card series features colorful illustrations of military aircraft and weapons printed on shiny aluminum foil. The American Card Catalog reference is F332-2. The cards were distributed with various brands of soap bars produced by Lever Brothers. Each foil card measures approximately 2.25 x 3.25 inches.

The back of each card promotes Uncle Johnny Coons' Show. The black-and-white children's program aired each Saturday on CBS from September 4, 1954, to December 5, 1955. The show was originally sponsored by Lever Brothers and McCann Erickson. "Uncle" Johnny Coons previously hosted Noontime Comics weekdays on WNBQ in Chicago, as well as a radio program on WMAQ. Uncle Johnny Coons Show later aired each Saturday on NBC from March 3 to November 24, 1956.



The Aerojet RTV-A-1A Aerobee sounding rocket is featured on card #15. The two-stage RTV-A-1A was first launched from Holloman Airforce Base on October 17, 1951, reaching an apogee of 71 miles (114.3 km) . The U.S. Navy designation is RTV-N-10a.

The card text references the U.S. Air Force Aeromed 3 biological mission. An Aerobee RTV-A-1 rocket carried two Capuchin monkeys named Patricia and Mike, and two white mice named Mildred and Albert. Aeromed 3 was fired to a height of 38.6 miles (62.1 km) . Patricia and Mike were the first primates to safely land from such a high altitude. The Aeromed 3 mission is documented in the 1953 U.S. Air Force film Animals in Rocket Flight .