From left to right: The 1941 Willys-Overland MA, Bantam BRC, and Ford GP. These are the follow-up models that came after each company's pilot models. All are extremely rare and valuable today.

On this day in aviation history, December 15, 1948, the small, white, tailless airplane rose from the Rogers Dry Lakebed into the desert skies of California. It was the Northrop X-4 Bantam, the ...