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Founded by Nicholas Kove, a Hungarian refugee in 1939 the original Airfix products were rubber inflatable toys which involved fixing air inside the product hence the name Airfix.

After WW2 the company bought an injection moulding machine and began making plastic combs but in the late 1940's tractor manufacturer Harry Ferguson asked if they could make a low cost plastic model of the Ferguson tractor which his sales reps could use to promote Ferguson products. It was simpler to make the model in several pieces and have them assembled on a production line and the model was so successful that Ferguson allowed Airfix to sell them to toy shops. The next step was to sell the model as a kit of parts with a set of instructions allowing the price to be reduced which increased sales even further. Woolworths suggested that the kits could be sold in a plastic bag with the instructions folded and stapled to the top of the bag as a header and the cost reduction allowed Woolworths to lower the retail price to 2 shillings (10 pence).

The public wanted more kits of different subjects so a small scale Golden Hind was released in 1952 followed by the first Spitfire kit in 1953. The company went from strength to strength in the boom years of the 60's and 70's but the 80's and 90's saw several changes of ownership including a period when the company was owned by Borden Group who also owned Humbrol and eventually the Airfix brand name became part of Humbrol Ltd which was owned by an Irish group. Humbrol Ltd went into administration and it looked like the Airfix name would disappear forever but Hornby Hobbies stepped in and bought both Humbrol and Airfix and, after investing huge amounts of money and effort into the relaunch, the oldest plastic kit company in the UK looks set for a great future.