Lil' Rebel Article & Plans  At the request of website visitor Tony L., these plans and article for the Lil' Rebel control line racer, by Bill Cohen, were scanned from my purchased copy of the May 1972 American Aircraft Modeler magazine (page 36). A lot of experience went into the details of this design. Plans for this fine model were drawn by John Penhallow...
Whiplash Article & Plans  Mr. Jon Lowe, the son of well-known columnist Don Lowe, wrote to request that I post this article on the Whiplash, which was originally published in the November 1974 edition of American Aircraft Modeler. His father wrote a monthly column for AAM at the time, including in that very edition. The Whiplash is a 20-size aerobatic plane designed for fast building and for pattern practice when you don't want to drag out your full-size ship...
Owl Racer w/3-View  Author Don Berliner claims that, "[The Owl Racer] is the easiest racer to model for RC pylon." Curiously, given that claim, no plans were published for it, but there are 3-views. Designer George Owl (I kid you not) applied knowledge gained from the School of Hard Knocks in the field of airplane racing on top of his ample experience with "brains-and-slide-rule" design to create this winning craft. Did you catch that? "Brains-and-slide-rule..."
The P-38 - Best of the Twins  A lot has been written about Lockheed's venerable P-38 Lightning. It was one of the most frightening sights and sounds in the skies of Europe and the south Pacific during World War II. Frightening for Axis power fighters, that was. For the Allies, it was one of the most comforting. Like most military aircraft built in the era, their airframes and engines were not designed to last for more than a few years. So surviving examples of these airplanes are both rare and expensive to procure and to own. For the vast majority of people - myself included - the closest we can ever hope to get is a flying scale model... (4-view added)
The Nationals Reborn  How can the Nationals be "reborn" in 1946? It seems like it would have just recently been born in the first place in 1946. Here is a passage from the AMA's history page: "The Junior NAA, although sponsoring the first “National Aeromodeling Championships” (Nats) in 1923, struggled to be a true aeromodeling organization." Prior to the 1946 Nats reported on in this issue of Air Trails, the last Nats was held in 1941 - 5 years hence, evidently interrupted by WWII...
So You Want to Start an Air Freight Line  I love photos of the venerable old DC-3s in action, whether they be performing the role of a passenger airliner, a cargo hauler, or military utility vehicle in the designation of C-47. My only exposure to a real one was after paying $2 at an airshow to walk around inside one. Some day, before the last DC-3 is retired or converted to (ugh) turbine power, I hope to purchase a ride on one. Back in the 1940s, when this story was written for Air Trails, DC-3s were revolutionizing the air industry on all fronts mentioned. If you were a regularly flying...
Turbine-Powered, Fire-Breathing R/C Dragon  More good-old-fashioned American ingenuity was on display at this year's Toledo Weak Signals show with Rick Hamel’s fire-breathing, turbine powered dragon. Some stats: Over 62 individually molded parts, "scale" paint job, wing span of 9 feet, 7 feet long, deeply cambered Eppler 385 airfoil, 30 pound weight, stall speed 25mph, JetCat P80 turbine producing 22 pounds of thrust. It won Best in Show - no surprise...
Bill Mohrbacher's EDF-Powered Windfree   Website visitor Bill Mohrbacher, of the Beaver Country MAC, sent this photo of his electric ducted fan powered Windfree sailplane. I've never seen an EDF unit on a glider; now I'm thinking about doing one myself! The Windfree was Mark Smith's winning design from the 1970s. To the right is a pic of Bill's 1/2A Skylane from many moons ago. See his 12' Astro-Jeff, too.
Contender Article & Plans  Website visitor Doug W. wrote to ask that I scan and post this article on Dave Platt's familiar Contender. It mentions at the end of the article that Top Flite would soon be kitting the Contender, which indeed it did. The man down the street from me when I was a kid flew radio controlled models and he had a Contender (early 1970s). It was covered in yellow and light blue MonoKote - kind of a strange color scheme. When he crashed it beyond repair, he gave me the carcass...
The Bone Yard Project  If you have access to Smithsonian's Air & Space magazine, you really should read through an issue. I sacrifice sleep to read many articles in each edition, it is that good. "The Bone Yard Project," featured in the April 2012 edition, reports on a collection of retired WWII aircraft at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. The unique aspect oft this exhibit is that many of the airframes have been elaborately painted by "street artists." I suppose they took time off from painting railroad train cars and your uncle's back fence to embellish the planes. At least they don't worry about getting arrested for this artwork. The exhibit opened in January and runs through May 31...
Sailplane Aero-Tow  Airplanes & Rockets website visitor David T. wrote asking about locating an article where the author reports on having initially tried aero-towing by a powered airplane with the tow line connected to the tail of the tow plane. Disaster evidently resulted, so the author ended up connecting the tow line to the wing hold-down bolts and success ensued. This is the only aero-tow article I could find in the 1975 year range that David referenced, but it is not what he was looking for. If you know of an article that contains the experience he requested, please send me an e-mail and I will pass it along to David.
How to Fold a Bandsaw Blade into 3 Rings  Every time I change or replace the blade on my bandsaw, I have to re-learn how to fold the blade into that nifty 3-ring configuration. This time, I decided to make a video of the process. It can be confounding and seem downright impossible until you finally figure out how to fold it...
Maybe We Need "Do-it-Yourself" Model Contests!  It's the age-old problem of 20% of the people doing 80% of the work, or maybe it's 10% of the people doing 90% of work. In 1957, clubs were suffering under the same lack of willingness on the part of its members to do little (or no) more than pay annual dues and let someone else run the club business, contests, and promotions. The author here makes a few suggestions for how to get more people to participate in activities. A real sign of the times is how one idea was to segment aeromodeling clubs into groups focusing...
Electric R/C B-17 Video  While flying my Taylorcraft at the Fairview Business Park in Fairview, Pennsylvania, a group of guys drove up a few hundred feet away and unloaded an electric B-17 R/C model. It turned out to be some members of the Thermal G R/C Club that meets here in Erie, PA. The club president, Cliff Bendig, walked over and introduced himself, and said that club treasurer Gary Niemi was the owner and pilot of the B-17. I drove over to where they were just in time to get this video of the landing...
Candid Camera at the '59 NATS  Here are a few more photos from the 1959 AMA Nationals, in continuation of coverage in the July and August issues of Model Aviation. Some are behind-the-scenes shots rather than just flight line action. A lot of the airplanes you see in these pictures are selling for a mint today on eBay...
More '59 NATS Photos  Here are more photos from the 1959 Nats report that was published last month (August 1959). A couple of famous names appear: John Tatone, Walt Good, Russ Nichols. If you seen yourself or someone you know in any of the pictures here on AirplanesAndRockets.com, please send me a note and I'll add you to the caption...
The "Builder of Model" Regulation Here is a tack from 1959 that you won't see these days on why the "Builder of Model" rule must be obeyed: "Honor" and a "basic American sense of fair play." Those days are gone forever, most likely. In today's rude, crude society, you would more likely be admonished against making others feel bad for excelling above them or for believing that being an American is anything special... '59 Nats Hailed Great Success  Here is a report on the 1959 Nats, aka the 28th National Model Airplane Championships, held at Los Alamitos Naval Air Station, California. For those not familiar with the early Nats, the U.S. Navy used to sponsor and host the entire show primarily because it was considered a good recruitment tool for young men of a necessarily competitive nature. Their hopes were that those guys would see really cool stuff at the base and anxiously anticipate the day when they could join. Some time in the late 1960s, the attendance...
1958 Cessna 150 3-View  The venerable Cessna 150 first came on the scene in 1958. Per Wikipedia, "The Cessna 150 is a two-seat tricycle gear general aviation airplane, that was designed for flight training, touring and personal use. The Cessna 150 is the fourth most produced civilian plane ever, with 23,839 aircraft produced. The Cessna 150 was offered for sale in the 150 basic model, Commuter, Commuter II, Patroller and the aerobatic Aerobat models." The design has changed considerably since 1958...
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