Vintage Model Helicopters from the March 1969 edition of American Aircraft Modeler These pages were scanned from the March 1969 edition of American Aircraft Modeler. It is hard to imagine a time when we did not have all the ready-to-fly, high performance radio controlled helicopters like we have today. Teams of design engineers now create the 3D-out-of-the-box machines and sell them with a radio system installed for less than just the price of a 4-channel proportional R/C system of the 1960s/1970s. The ingenuity of the pioneers is apparent in these photos (click for larger versions).