|
 When Melanie and I got married in 1983, part of
her dowry included some of the toys she had as a little girl. A
Hasbro Lite-Brite was
one of them. Our kids played with it when they were young, but somewhere along the line
during our many household moves, it disappeared. We probably donated it to the Salvation
Army at some point - a lot of our stuff has ended up there. About a month ago we started
watching for a good one on eBay that didn't cost too much ...
The Baltimore Sun newspaper, published not far from where I grew up near Annapolis,
Maryland, carried
Flyin' Jenny from the late 1930s until the strip ended in the mid 1940s, so I saved
a couple dozen from there. The first one I downloaded has a publication date of December
7, 1941 - that date "which will live in infamy," per President Roosevelt. Many Americans
were receiving word over the radio of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while reading
this comic at the breakfast table. This is the January 4, 1942, Flyin' Jenny comic strip.
I expect that soon there will be World War II themes ...
 "Engineers
at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) have found a way to make wood more
than 10 times times stronger and tougher than before, creating a natural substance that
is stronger than many titanium alloys. 'This new way to treat wood makes it 12 times
stronger than natural wood and 10 times tougher,' said Liangbing Hu of UMD's A. James
Clark School of Engineering and the leader of the team that did the research. 'This could
be a competitor to steel or even titanium alloys, it is so ..."
 One of the first woodworking projects I remember
doing after Melanie and I were married and in our own house was making a
paper towel holder out of
some scrap pieces of oak flooring. The wood was in the basement of the house, probably
from when it was originally installed sometime in the 1950s. A few pieces were glued
together along their tongue and groove edges, and then scraped and sanded to a smooth,
flat surface. The bottom curved relief shape was retained for character. At some point
during our many household moves, the paper towel holder disappeared - we probably donated
it as with ...
 Like many little girls who were born in the 1960s,
Melanie had a small collection of
Suzy Homemaker
toy appliances. Old photographs from birthdays and Christmases past document the times
they were received. Melanie had the Suzy Homemaker Oven / Stove and the Suzy Homemaker
Clothes Iron. Since hers was long gone my the time we got married in 1983, we decided
to look for them on eBay. As with just about everything ever made, we easily found them
in nice condition. Neither the oven nor the iron came with their original boxes because
those are very expensive. This page of Suzy Homemaker products appeared ...
 "With photographers poised to capture the moment
and spectators watching in person and from all over the world online, the C–47 "That's
All, Brother" took off from Wittman Regional Airport on a clear, blustery afternoon,
circling the airport and concluding the brief flight with an overhead pass, accompanied
by a Beechcraft Bonanza chase plane. The flight crew included pilot-in-command Doug Rozendaal,
second-in-command Tom Travis, and engineer Ray Claussen. According to the Commemorative
Air Force, which acquired and restored the airplane. The Oshkosh flight, the first ..."
This particular
Hobby
People advertisement is from page 53 of the March 1970 issue of American Aircraft
Modeler magazine. Hobby People was probably the first company that I ever did mail
order from to get airplane supplies. Hobby People is no longer in operation. All copyrights
(if any) are hereby acknowledged. Use the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation
calculator to see what items cost in today's dollars. For instance, that $3.99 "Cox .049
Babe Bee" engine would be $26.16 in 2018 money. The "regular" price of $6.00 would be
$39.34 in 2018. Cox International ...
 After just 33 years, this crewel picture that Melanie
stitched is complete and has a custom
frame. If memory serves correctly, we bought the crewel kit at a Ben Franklin store
in Severna Park, Maryland, in 1985 while living in Arnold, Maryland. She started it shortly
after getting it, and then it was put away until last year, 2017, when she decided to
complete the project. Most, if not all, of the needlework pictures Melanie has done over
the years have been placed in custom frames made by me. I've used pine, oak, teak, hickory,
mahogany, and now maple for this frame. The maple wood ...
 "RocketLab has successfully launched their Electron
Rocket. It took three small satellites into orbit. The company is preparing for a possible
Moon mission later this year. U.S.-based spaceflight startup company, Rocket Lab completed
their second successful test flight this weekend reaching orbit for the first time. The
company's Electron rocket launched from New Zealand at 2:43 PM local time on Sunday,
and successfully deployed three commercial satellites about eight and a half minutes
later. This was Electron's first full ..."
 "NASA has successfully used a heat-activated shape
memory alloy to morph an aircraft's wings in flight tests, an advance with potential
benefits for subsonic and future supersonic aircraft. The flights which took place at
NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, was part of the SAW (Spanwise
Adaptive Wing) project that aims to validate the use of a lightweight material to fold
the outer portions of aircraft wings and their control surfaces to optimal angles in
flight. SAW ..."
 Prior to the widespread use of mufflers on radio
controlled model aircraft engines,
exhaust
dampers were installed that worked in unison with the throttle. They were oblong
or butterfly-shaped flat pieces of metal that pivoted in the center and were connected
via a short pushrod to the carburetor's throttle arm. At full throttle, the damper was
straight up and down to block the exhaust port as little as possible. At idle, the damper
usually totally blocked off the exhaust port; of course some exhaust was still able to
exit or the engine would choke out and stop running. The first R/C engines I used in
the 1970's came with exhaust dampers ...
 Our one-car garage does not have a lot of extra
space in it, especially considering it also holds a riding lawn mower, a snow blower,
a backup power generator, and various and sundry yard and car tools. That doesn't leave
much room for the assortment of shoes and boots needed by Melanie and me. We had been
using a stack of cinder blocks to stuff shoes in, but they looked rather crude and the
holes were not really big enough to allow the shoes to be fully enclosed. After completing
building a set of stairs into the basement, there were end pieces of the stair treads
left over that were just the right width to fit into the space where the cinder blocks
used to be stacked. 2x3 framing lumber ...
 Another important
discovery by an amateur scientist has occurred. Mr. Víctor Buso was testing a new CCD
camera on a 16" personal telescope from his home in
 Argentina when he noticed a
star suddenly appeared in an exposure. It then grew in brightness over successive exposures.
He had captured the very first sighting of a supernova in its initial stage of exploding.
Realizing the gravity of his discovery, he alerted the astronomy community. Astronomical
research institutions worldwide immediately trained their telescopes on the event to
make detailed scientific measurements. Interestingly, this all occurred in September
of 2016, but is just now making headlines everywhere ...
 While perusing the local Goodwill store, Melanie
and I happened upon this old
gooseneck lamp. Unlike most of the newer models found in places like Walmart, this
one is made of heavy stamped steel, and the gooseneck part is very sturdy with no plastic.
When you bend this lamp into position, it stays exactly where you put it without reflexing
back a little. It was just what Melanie needed for use on her sewing table, so we bought
it as a fixer-upper. As can be seen in the photos, the original condition was useable,
but not ...
 A couple years ago I posted an article about the
Victor Stanzel ElectroMic "Copter" Tethered Helicopter that I had bought on eBay. It
was just like the one I had as a pre-teen in the 1960's. If memory serves me correctly,
I also had one of the ElectroMic Flash Tethered Airplanes as well. Someday I'll probably
buy one of those on eBay. The webpage hyperlinked above has a video embedded that tells
the story of the
Stanzel Brothers' Model Airplane Museum. You will be amazed at all the types of models
they produced - powered airplanes, gliders, helicopters, flying saucers. They were a
couple of the earliest pioneers in manufacturing ready ...
 Ronald Valentine engines is one of the very few
manufacturers remaining of miniature model aircraft engines - both glow fuel and diesel,
single- and multi-cylinder. Prices are amazingly reasonable, too. "We are the manufacturers
of the world's smallest model engines. We have been manufacturing miniature model engines
for over 30 years. We specialized in 2-stroke diesel engines for model airplanes, boat and
cars. Next to this we manufacture multi-cylinder engines 2-stroke and 4-stroke as
glow or diesel engines. Our challenge is to develop and present the world's
finest ..."
 "For
years, Lockheed Martin Corp. has been developing a successor to one of the fastest aircraft
the world has seen, the SR-71 Blackbird, the Cold War reconnaissance craft that the U.S.
Air Force retired almost three decades ago. Lockheed officials have said the hypersonic
SR-72 - dubbed the 'Son of Blackbird' by one trade journal - could fly by 2030. But a
rather curious talk last week at an aerospace conference by a Lockheed Skunk Works executive
implied that the SR-72 might already exist ..."
 Aircraft historians might find the information
from this 1942 edition of Flying Aces magazine useful. As has long been the
case on many Russian airplanes and helicopters, the basic outlines - and often even the
details - are recognizable from the original versions designed by the United States,
England, and Germany. The Russkies have been short on design and test capabilities and
long on materials, manpower, and espionage agents. It wouldn't be so bad if the copying
was not so obvious. Even their attempt at a space shuttle was a carbon copy of ours.
If not for their leaders' commitment to Communism and Socialism, Russia could be ...
 "Cornell University engineers have been experimenting
with a new type of programming that mimics the mind of an insect. The developed sensors
and algorithms may soon support autonomous, small-scale robots like Harvard University's
RoboBee, an 80-milligram flier that could perform a variety of roles in agriculture
and disaster relief. Even the most lifelike bug-bot could be thrown off by a gust of
wind or a mid-air obstacle. Cornell's sensing system aims to steer a RoboBee around trouble,
adjusting its flight to avoid ..."
 "NASA's $8.8B
James Webb Space Telescope has completed critical end-to-end testing in a giant vacuum
chamber at the Johnson Space Center, proving the telescope will work properly in the
deep cold of space, bring starlight to a sharp focus and precisely track its astronomical
targets when launched in 2019, engineers said Wednesday. 'The successful completion of
this test represents a very significant milestone for JWST,' said Bill Ochs, the telescope's
project manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. 'It verified the
alignment of the telescope ..."
 I am in the process of building a control line
C-47 Skytrain model using plans drawn by Walter Musciano. I knew making the
scale landing gear was
going to be a challenge because it requires bending two pieces of 1/8" music wire with
six 90° bends apiece. It seems easy enough in theory, but in practice getting the opposing
axel end to line up in opposition is not trivial. Making the first one took two tries,
as did the second one. the problem was that the two did not match each other very well.
I tried fudging it by bending some weird angles to get the spacing right, but the lengths
of the legs were different enough ...
 December 1967 was the last edition of the Academy
of Model Aeronautics' American Modeler magazine, and this January 1968 edition
of
American Aircraft Modeler was the first with the new name. Interestingly, editor
Bill Winter does not mention the name change in his monthly "Straight and Level" column.
For that matter, I checked up through the May issue and still no mention. Printing and
distribution lagged publication for many months back in the day, but usually comments
of previous editions began appearing within three or four months. Nothing. Anyway, here
are some ...
 William Shatner (aka "Captain Kirk" of the original
"Star Trek" television series) hosted this 1977 video produced by Estes Industries. Titled,
Model Rocketry - "The Last Frontier", it shows not only snapshots of various Estes
model rockets, but also video of actual launches from cameras mounted on the rockets
and cameras mounted at the base of the launch pad - pretty cool for the day! ...
 The Baltimore Sun newspaper, published not far
from where I grew up near Annapolis, Maryland, carried
Flyin' Jenny from the late 1930s until the strip ended in the mid 1940s, so I saved
a couple dozen from there. The first one I downloaded has a publication date of December
7, 1941 - that date "which will live in infamy," per President Roosevelt. Many Americans
were receiving word over the radio of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while reading
this comic at the breakfast table ...
 There is an old adage about aircraft that says
with enough power just about anything can be made to fly. The F-4 Phantom and F-104 Starfighter
jets are prime examples. In 1957, kids and adults were still obsessed with flying machines
and created all sorts of crazy craft. Flying dog houses, witches on brooms, flying doors,
flying lawnmowers, and flying outhouses were popular novelty projects. Ken Willard even
created a Flying Bandana. This
Cox .049-powered box
kite doesn't fall into the same category as an F-4 Phantom, but it does apply as
far as making anything fly if you hang an engine on it. Although author McLarty claims
you can adapt a toy store box kite ...
 Your knowledge of model aircraft kits, engines,
and equipment will need to stretch back a couple decades to score 10 out of 10 on this
model aircraft themed
quiz. Winners get a free 1-year subscription to the Airplanes and Rockets website.
Good luck ...
 "Autonomy options for the Marine Corps have taken
a major step forward, as the Office of Naval Research completed a helicopter flight demonstration
with autonomous capability that will enable the Marine Corps to rapidly resupply forces
on the front lines. The system consists of a sensor and software package that can be
integrated into any manned or
unmanned rotary-wing aircraft to detect and avoid obstacles in unfavorable weather
conditions ..."
 Mr. Jose Lozano wrote recently to let me know
about his RC drone resources website called RC Hobbies on Air. As with many people these days, Jose appears to have really become
a drone (multirotor) enthusiast - enough so to create an entire website dedicated to
helping others decide what is the best way to get started with RC drones. He gives a
rundown on features and characteristics of various modern drone models. If you have been
considering
getting into RC drones, then you might want to give his site a looking over ...
 Radio-controlled battleship combat is a major
sport these days with serious "players" investing thousands of dollars into their craft.
The all-electric model boats are scale replicas of actual battleships and sport multiple
screws (propellers), bilge pumps, gyro stabilizers, fully motorized and steerable gun
turrets complete with CO2-powered BB-shooting guns. The models take hundreds of hours
to build, rig, and test. The objective is, after all, to literally sink your opponent's
ship! The California model in this American Modeler magazine article actually
carried "twelve 38-cals and ten 22s" - something you won't find today ...
 "If you were there in person, you already know:
AirVenture 2017
was a big success. If you missed this year's excitement in Oshkosh, let the numbers tell
you everything you need to know. More than half a million people attended, making this
the biggest AirVenture ever, and those guests were treated to more than 10,000 aircraft
and so many thrilling air shows. We'd say EAA has its work cut out to make the 2018 show
better than this one, but we won't be shocked when it happens. So much happened at this
year's AirVenture that it was almost impossible to cover it all, but here's a look back
at some of our favorite ..."
 "Today it's impossible to think of the golden
age of air racing without an R-1 or R-2 Gee Bee roaring across the mind's eye. To the
aviation public, the
Gee Bees air racing - and vice versa. And that's only right. When Granville engineer,
Pete Miller, drafted the first lines for the 'R' series of Super Sportsters, there was
no way he could have known that he was designing a legend. And an airplane that would
have people shaking their heads for the next 70 years. In fact, since the last Gee Bee
roared around a pylon in 1933/34 there have been no ..."
 Kansas City Radio Control Association (KCRC) has
been around for many decades. Its AMA club number of #390 was assigned in 1954. That
was 66 years ago as of this writing, but it was only 8 years old when this feature article
appeared in American Modeler magazine. Since at least 1962, the KCRC flying field (now
named "Charles W. Reed III Flying Field") has been located just west of Lake
Jocomo, in Kanas City. This article discusses not just the KCRC flying site, but many
of the others in the surrounding area. I count 11 on the included map, including parks,
schools, and parking lots. It is interesting to compare the maps ...
 "On 13 November 1907, French engineer and bicycle
maker Paul Cornu made history by becoming the first man to fly in a
rotary wing
aircraft. The primitive helicopter - a twin-rotor craft powered by a 24-horsepower
engine - only lifted Cornu about 1.5m off the ground, holding him there for 20 seconds
at Coquainvilliers, near Lisieux in France. But that was enough for Cornu to take his
place in the history books as the first man to successfully fly a rotary wing aircraft.
Paul Cornu was born in 1881 in the French town of Lisieux, where the local high school
is named after him to this day. Once he reached working age, he joined his father ..."
 "The only aircraft engine to be designated an historic
landmark. Advances in propulsion are what drive aviation development. Innovative airplanes
almost always start with innovative engines, and the airframes follow. In 2016, the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers celebrated just such an engine. The society designated
the
Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp a technology landmark, the organization’s highest
award, because the Wasp singlehandedly brought about a leap forward in aircraft performance
and economics. The tale of its development is still ...
  Another
great American company is circling the drain! I've been a contented Tower Hobbies customer
since the 1970s. "Hobbico
filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday, which could result in 332 layoffs at its
Champaign facility. In a statement, Hobbico said that it plans to sell the company and
will continue operating throughout the bankruptcy process. Hobbico also said that as
it has grown, it has added too much debt and hasn’t been able to successfully restructure,
especially facing 'an increasingly competitive industry, market headwinds and a series
of one-off events with key suppliers." Hobbico was formed in 1986 when Clint Atkins combined
two companies he bought: Don Anderson's Great Planes Model Distributors and Bruce Holecek's
Tower Hobbies, which was founded in 1971 ...
 If you are looking for a little bit different
type of control line model, then
Short Snorter
might fit the bill. It was designed by George Hinz and appeared in the October 1958 issue
of American Modeler magazine. Short Snorter is .20 to .35-size stunt or combat
model that is essentially a flying wing, and features a built-up fuselage and wing. The
wingspan is around 40", but of course since you will be printing the plans, you can make
the model larger or smaller. standard construction materials and methods are used throughout.
Mr. Hinz cautions about making certain that the center of gravity is properly located
since a tail ...
 The Baltimore Sun newspaper, published not far
from where I grew up near Annapolis, Maryland, carried
Flyin' Jenny from the late 1930s until the strip ended in the mid 1940s, so I saved
a couple dozen from there. The first one I downloaded has a publication date of December
7, 1941 - that date "which will live in infamy," per President Roosevelt. Many Americans
were receiving word over the radio of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while reading
this comic at the breakfast table ...
 On December 12, 2017, President Trump signed legislation
that has the effect of reversing the earlier court ruling in the John Taylor case and
restore the FAA's sUAS
registration requirement, including for AMA members. "AMA believes that registration
makes sense at some level, but has pushed for a more reasonable threshold. While we address
these issues, members will be legally required to comply with the FAA registration requirement."
It does not make sense to me because as usual, law-abiding people suffer the
inconvenience and cost of legislation, while the majority do as they please. Fortunately,
I kept my registration card from January of 2016 when this outrageous scheme began ...
 Here is a list of many
classic modeling magazines that are now
or have been in print within the last decade or so. Unfortunately, most of these magazines
are now out of print. Some have disappeared altogether while others have online-only
editions. Fortunately, though, a few benevolent souls have taken it upon themselves to
scan hundreds of past issues and made them available in PDF format at no charge to everyone.
The Archive.org website's Wayback Machine™ has captured many years worth of the magazines'
webpages, so all ...
 Mr. John Hawthorne contacted me recently about
an article he published on the IQS Directory website titled "Are Flying Cars Coming
to the Skies?" It reviews two most notable examples of research and development by
companies - AeroMobil, Terrafugia (Latin for "escape the earth") - and mentions Uber's
ambition of providing rooftop taxi service in high traffic urban areas. We are still
a long way off from the goal of flying cars being a common sight, or ever a rare one
for most of us. There are still many technical, safety, and regulatory obstacles to overcome
before you or I will be transitioning our person ride from an automobile to an airplane
or helicopter anytime soon.
 The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) just announced
in the January 2018 issue of
Model Aviation that
they are now offering
commercial drone insurance. Liability insurance with protection of $½ million,
$1 million, $2 million or more is available, plus you can also get hull insurance
on the drone platform itself. AMA Membership is required for purchase, but you do
not need to be a member to get a quote using the online form. ...
 "BAE Systems has unveiled a new aircraft design
that could be a major advance in stealth technology. The new
MAGMA drone does away with aircraft control surfaces, resulting in an aircraft whose
shape remains constant throughout its entire flight. The small demonstration aircraft,
which has completed a successful first flight, uses blown air to change direction instead
of complex mechanical controls. Most airplanes look unmoving in flight, like a wing hanging
off a giant tube plowing through the sky. Look more closely however and you'll see smaller ..."
 Radio controlled aircraft were really still in
their infancy in 1953. Many R/C transmitters, receivers - all vacuum tube circuits -
were beginning to appear in hobby magazines, but other than operating in FCC-designated
frequency
bands, there was not much in the way of standardization in modulation schemes. Therefore,
intercompatibility between brands - or even between model types within a brand - was
not guaranteed. The names you see mentioned here - Hal deBolt, Walt Good, Howard McEntee,
Claude McCullough - were for a long time the most prominent figures ...
 "You've heard, 'One small step for man. One giant
leap for mankind,' but how about a lesser-known quotation from the Apollo lunar mission
like: 'Ok, we still got radar landing guidance.' The University of Texas at Dallas launched
a project to make all of the moon-mission audio accessible, from the memorable to the
mundane. Dr. John H.L. Hansen, Chengzhu Yu, Dr. Abhijeet Sangwan, and Lakshmish Kaushik
pose with a model of an astronaut at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. The four
oversaw the project to ..."
 The Baltimore Sun newspaper, published not far
from where I grew up near Annapolis, Maryland, carried
Flyin' Jenny from the late 1930s until the strip ended in the mid 1940s, so I saved
a couple dozen from there. The first one I downloaded has a publication date of December
7, 1941 - that date "which will live in infamy," per President Roosevelt. Many Americans
were receiving word over the radio of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while reading
this comic at the breakfast table ...
|
 John Collins is the undisputed
Paper
Airplane Guy. He set a new world record flight distance of 26 feet, 10 inches, in
2012. He wrote a book titled,
The World Record Paper Airplane and International Award Winning Designs. This article
is from an appearance on the Conan O'Brien show, and includes a video of Mr. Collins
demonstrating how to fold and launch paper airplanes ...
 "The San Diego Air & Space Museum's Library &
Archives recently launched a new online exhibit commemorating the
100th Anniversary of U.S. Airmail. On a fog-shrouded May 15th, in 1918, the first
airplane to provide regularly scheduled airmail service in the United States took off
from the Potomac Park polo grounds in Washington, D.C., headed to New York City, a 218-mile
route. Sponsored by the U.S. Post Office, and personally sent off by President Woodrow
Wilson, this has proven to be a most important day in our nation's history ..."
 Flying model helicopters of any sort were fairly
rare in 1952, when this edition of Air Trails magazine hit the news stands.
The sophisticated, miniaturized, smart stabilization systems of today's models were not
available at any price, and radio control was the realm of military research vehicles.
Methods for driving the rotors included glow and gas engines, rubber bands, and even
Jetex engines. Many free flight helicopters sported the
JETicopter's arrangement
of a pair of engines at the end of a moment arm which caused rotation. Cox .010 and .020
engines were a popular choice, as were the Jetex engines. I always wondered what happened
when ...
 Every couple years a Crosley 03CB console radio
shows up on eBay. I keep a Saved
Search to get an e-mail when one becomes available, mainly to get an idea of how many
are still around. My research based on Newspaper.com issues of old newspaper advertisements
indicates the Crosley 03CB models were primarily sold in the PA, NJ, NY, DE, CT, OH,
and MD areas. Per the eBay listing: "Working condition, lights up and plays some stations.
Need some refinishing on the cabinet." If you are looking for a restoration project,
this would be a good subject for only $50. As can be seen from
my restored Crosley 03CB radio, the cabinet and electronics are very robust and attractive.
It's worth a look ...
 "It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and nobody
was flying. My open-cockpit biplane, a
Great Lakes 2T-1A-1, was just the answer for a relaxing start to the day. It's a
great airplane for sightseeing. It flies low and slow, and turns on a dime. I departed
Montgomery Airport (KMYF) in San Diego and put down at nearby Gillespie Field (KSEE)
for a delicious cheese omelet. When I departed, it was still a ghost town; the Gillespie
controller even offered an intersection departure on the perpendicular runway, just for
fun. I departed into the clear, gorgeous empty sky. What could possibly go wrong? I let
my instincts ..."
 The
1962 AMA Nationals competition was considered the first major contest for scale radio
controlled airplanes. To wit, this article from the 1963 Annual edition of American
Modeler, says R/C scale "finally 'came of age.'" Proportional radio sets were becoming
common and the reliability of the airborne electronics and batteries was going up while
weight and size was coming down. Modelers were much more willing to trust the radios
to safely control models that often took many hundreds of hours to build. Sharing frequencies
at or near to the 27 MHz band allocated by the FCC to R/C was still a huge risk,
but the venues of major contests provided protected areas that were far enough from most
interference ...
 "Drones are not, as is often assumed, a 21st-century
develop-ment. Far from it. Their history goes back more than 100 years, but the rate
at which they are changing our everyday life continues to accelerate. So we thought it
is worth looking back and seeing where the concept came from, how it developed, and where
it stands today. Given the current rate of change, it's obvious we're only seeing the
tip of what is going to turn out to be a very big technological and cultural iceberg.
Drones
constitute a fundamental transformation in both military and civilian realms. In an unmanned
air system (UAS), the miniaturization in technologies ..."
 1938 was still two decades away from when America
would launch its first Earth-orbiting satellite and three decades from when man would
first walk on the moon, yet work was well underway by enthusiastic aerospace engineers,
scientists, astronomers, project managers, and others to accomplish those goals. While
this
Boys'
Life article boasts of rockets attaining speeds of 800 miles per hour, leaving
Earth's gravitational pull for a trip to the moon would require a escape velocity of
25,000 miles per hour. Telescopes powerful enough to survey the moon's surface for determining
a safe location for landing were being readied with telescopes like constructed 200-inch
Hale reflector ...
 "MIT engineers have designed a
robotic glider
that can skim along the water’s surface, riding the wind like an albatross while also
surfing the waves like a sailboat. In regions of high wind, the robot is designed to
stay aloft, much like its avian counterpart. Where there are calmer winds, the robot
can dip a keel into the water to ride like a highly efficient sailboat instead. The robotic
system, which borrows from both nautical and biological designs, can cover a given distance
using one-third as much wind as an albatross and traveling 10 times faster than a typical
sailboat. The glider is also relatively lightweight, weighing about 6 pounds. The researchers
hope ..."
 Less than a year before the U.S. was officially
drawn into World War II with surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, American fighter pilot
Lieutenant Thomas McBride provided this first-hand report on what he perceived to be
the current status of the
German air force (Luftwaffe). While in France he noted bizarre behavior of young
German pilots, often with no more than a few hours of flight instruction, making deadly
rookie flying mistakes and strafing ambulances and farm animals for sport and blood lust.
Older pilots with slower reflexes were put in higher performance aircraft and could not
compete with younger British pilots, while plebes in the same airplanes could not, due
to insufficient training, handle the power and maneuverability. Blacking out under high
G forces and not allowing sufficient altitude for vertical bombing runs spelled the end
to many Luftwaffe airmen ...
 Having been a typical kid in the 1960s and 70s,
I had an Erector
Set. It was Set 3 per my memory, based on remembering the box lid picture. You might
recall a set or two of your own. Alfred Carlton Gilbert founded the A.C. Gilbert company
in 1909 in Westville, Connecticut, and produced many varieties of Erector Sets, as well
as other educational hobby items like chemistry sets (I had one of those, too). The
A.C. Gilbert Engineering Society website has a really
nice history on the company and lots of photos - including likely one of the Erector
Set your parents gave you ...
 "For robots of all sizes, power is a fundamental
problem. Any robot that moves is constrained in one way or another by power supply, whether
it's relying on carrying around heavy batteries, combustion engines, fuel cells, or anything
else. It's particularly tricky to manage power as your robot gets smaller, since it's
much more straightforward to scale these things up rather than down - and for really
tiny robots (with masses in the hundreds of milligrams range), especially those that
demand a lot of power, there really isn't a good solution. In practice, this means that
on the scale of small insects ..."
 SIG Manufacturing, forever located in Montezuma,
Iowa, is among the ranks of a dwindling number of America's original model airplane kit
and accessories makers and distributors. Sig's catalog from the early 1970s was the first
hobby catalog I ever owned. You can bet I read it cover-to-cover many times, wishing
to own everything on its pages. In case you don't know, the name SIG is a shortened version
of Sigafoose, which is the last name of the company founders, Glen and Hazel Sigafoose.
According to a press release, "In February 2011 SIG Manufacturing Co., Inc. was purchased
by Herb Rizzo (President), David Martin (VP and General Manager), and Ron Petterec (VP) ...
 This is the January 25, 1942, "Flyin'
Jenny" comic strip. The Baltimore Sun newspaper, published not far from
where I grew up near Annapolis, Maryland, carried "Flyin' Jenny" from the late 1930s
until the strip ended in the mid 1940s, so I saved a couple dozen from there. The first
one I downloaded has a publication date of December 7, 1941 - that date "which will live
in infamy," per President Roosevelt. Many Americans were receiving word over the radio
of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while reading this comic at the breakfast table.
I expect that soon there will be World War II themes. "Flyin' Jenny," whose real
name was Virginia Dare (what's in a name?), was a test pilot for Starcraft Aviation Factory
who divided her time between wringing out new airplane designs and chasing ...
 "Promising results from recent ground testing
and a funding boost provided by a new NASA budget passed by Congress earlier this year
helped NASA leadership decide that the 4-pound Mars Helicopter could be ready in time
for launch with the space agency's next rover mission in July 2020. 'You should see the
big smile on my face right now,' said Mimi Aung, project manager for the Mars Helicopter
mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. 'It's phenomenal
because this has never been done before.' In an interview with Spaceflight Now on Friday,
Aung said nearly 5 years ..."
 Website visitor Dan T. (see his photos from
a decades-ago use of this method) wrote to ask that I scan and post this article, which
appeared in the 1962 Annual edition of American Modeler magazine, on
making fiberglass cowls. It is a variation on vacuum bagging that exploits the even
tension applied by the elasticity of a rubber balloon. Although limited to relatively
small forms, it has the advantage of low cost and complexity, and it eliminates the potential
nuisance of the mold release agent not being fully coated and causing separation issues.
This method will probably not work too well with shapes that need localized indented
areas more than 1/32" to maybe 1/16" deep (like cooling fins). The article did not originally
make ...
 "Recent research demonstrated that, although most
wing shapes used today create turbulent wake vortices, wing geometrics can be designed
to reduce or eliminate wingtip vortices almost entirely. In the study, the vortex and
wake characteristics were computed for three classic wing designs: the elliptic wing,
and wing designs developed in classic studies by the researchers. It's common to see
line-shaped clouds in the sky, known as contrails, trailing behind the engines of a jet
airplane. What's not always visible is a vortex coming off of the tip of each wing -
like two tiny horizontal tornadoes - leaving behind a turbulent wake ..."
 "By today's
standards, warbirds are clunky,
noisy, dirty, inefficient and expensive to operate, not to mention almost completely
impractical. Despite those drawbacks, owning and operating a warbird can be thrilling.
Flying an ex-military airplane demands pilots update their flying experience to ready
themselves for the challenges of handling an airplane that’s often configured with conventional
landing gear and connected to power plants that create sizable amounts of torque. Most
warbird pilots told us they began their warbird experience by logging time in either
a T-6 or Stearman ..."
 Rosie the Riveter is perhaps most recognized symbol
of wartime aircraft production, having come about in World War II (although women
also built trucks, tanks, guns, sewed uniforms, made boots,...). She is also symbolic
of women entering
the workforce en masse. After WWII, many women went back to being housewives and
raising families with war-weary servicemen looking to resume peaceful lives. The respite
didn't last long, as the Korean conflict began within a week of the time the first atom
bomb was dropped on Japan in August of 1945. The U.S. entered the fray in fall of 1950
when North Korea invaded South Korea. Once again, America's women answered ...
 "The startup is building short-haul aircraft for
Boeing and JetBlue that combine gas turbines and batteries . In the century that's elapsed
since the dawn of commercial aviation, air transportation has become pretty well refined.
Yet paradoxically, it's easier to fly halfway around the world than to travel to a nearby
city. As a result, many people shun air travel when taking short trips. ..."
 "Virgin Galactic successfully launched and landed
its Unity spacecraft by rocket power, completing its first powered flight in almost four
years. Richard Branson's space company shared a photo of the SpaceShipTwo model spacecraft
as it blasted into the air above the Mojave Air and Space Port before going supersonic
and landing safely. "VSS
Unity completed her first supersonic, rocket-powered flight this morning in Mojave,
California. Another great test flight, another ..."
 After seeing an article titled, "High School Aviation:
California Style," from the June 1968 issue of American Aircraft Modeler magazine,
website visitor Janice H. sent me a copy of this 1972 document titled, "A
Status Report of Aviation and Aerospace Education in California," by Earl W.
Sams, California State Department of Education, Sacramento. Janice is working to get
the Anderson Valley High School in Boonville, California, to create a memorial to the
program and its administrators and students ...
 "NASA has given Lockheed Martin a $247.5M contract
to build a
supersonic airplane that might help speed up air travel. The Concorde was fast. Indeed,
it was capable of speeds up to just over twice the speed of sound (Mach 2.04 or 1,354
mph) and flying from New York to Paris took just over 3.5 hours. But that speed came
with issues, the biggest of which were the loud sonic booms created by the Concorde when
flying faster than the speed of sound. The FAA banned overland supersonic commercial
flights in 1973 because of the noise and complaints created by sonic booms. This meant
supersonic flight was only allowed over oceans ..."
 Competitive model boating was a popular sport
in the 1960's as radio control systems became more affordable and reliable. Of course
if you have a glitch in your radio with a boat, the consequences are usually much less
that with an airplane. This report in a 1962 edition of American Modeler magazine
tells of one California model boating club that lost its "field" (a park lake) due to
"excessive and unnecessary noise." Yep, it was happening way back then. On the other
hand, it also reports on a club in New Jersey where the parks department constructed
a pier for them to use. As usual, your fortunes depend on the preferences and sentiments
of government bureaucrats. Many people these days are using brushless motor setups in
their ...
 Today, the House
of Representatives passed the
FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 (H.R.4), a long-term reauthorization of the FAA.
We are happy to share that Section 336, also known as the Special Rule for Model Aircraft,
is included in this bill with meaningful refinements that we supported to help make it
stronger. We especially want to thank the thousands of members who participated in our
Call to Action in the last few weeks to let Congress know the importance of protecting
our hobby. Your efforts during this critical time have made a significant impact. While
much of what we fought for was included in this bill ...
 Stepan Dokoupil and Patrik Svida founded
3DLabPrint in 2015 in Brno, Czech Republic. Since
that time, they have literally revolutionized flyable model airplanes. The 3D-printed
models like this Spitfire are utterly amazing. There are currently 14 scale designs including
a P-38, P-51D, F4U, P-47, BF-109, MIG-15, and PT-17, plus a trainer. The guys at FliteTest
put together this video and one for the
P-38 Lightning. You'll find
many other on YouTube.
 "Engineers at German automation giant Festo have
unveiled a flying semi-autonomous robot based on one of nature's most unusual mammals:
the flying fox.
The robot was developed by the group's Bionic Learning Network, a cross-disciplinary
group of scientists and engineers tasked with developing a handful of concepts each year,
in order to explore concepts that may help shape manufacturing in the future. The firm
typically unveils the fruits of these labours ahead of each year's Hannover Messe. Previous
creations have included robot ants, penguins, kangaroos, seagulls ..."
 Typical of the era, this
Art Chester
Racer control line model is very curvaceous and ruggedly constructed. Modelers of
the day enjoyed crafting models of full-size airplanes, often requiring months of building
an finishing. For many, it was their only means of participating in the exciting realm
of aerospace - at least until old enough to earn the money required to engage in full-scale
aviation. Hobbyists lived the lives of their pilot heroes vicariously through models.
In the time between then (1950's) and now, private aviation has gone through a cycle
of being relatively expensive to own and/or fly airplanes, to a time ...
 This is the complete set of
Peanuts Skediddlers, sold by Mattel. Linus is extremely
difficult to find, and when you do, he typically sells for $200 or more. If you find
a Linus Skediddler with the original box, expect to pay $400. Over time, our (Melanie
and me) Peanuts collection of memorabilia has grow from the few items she had left over
from her girlhood to complete sets. Everything was gotten via eBay auctions. It took
a lot of patience to be able to get good quality items at an affordable price
...
 "British businesses will soon be able to compete
in the commercial space race using UK spaceports following the passing of the
Space Industry Bill.
Receiving Royal Assent on 15 March 2018, the bill is hoped to build on Britain’s existing
expertise in the space sector by unlocking a new era of space innovation, exploration
and investment. It is envisaged that British businesses and institutions will be able
to launch small satellites and scientific experiments from UK spaceports, which are also
expected to facilitate future developments ..."
 "Pilot
Frances 'Fran' Bera, who accumulated more than 25,000 flight hours, ferried surplus
military aircraft after World War II, set a world altitude record, and taught and examined
pilots for more than seven decades, died February 10 in San Diego, California, at age
94. According to recognition posted on the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s
Wall of Honor, Bera's aviation feats included a tryout for the astronaut program, flying
as a chief pilot for aircraft manufacturers Beechcraft and Piper, numerous air races,
and more than 3,000 check rides as an FAA ..."
 Air Trails - Hobbies for Young Men magazine
covered a wide variety of subjects of both model and full-scale.
All things fast and/or exotic were of great interest to America's youth in the day,
and everything was fair game for modeling. Lockheed's now long-famous C-130 Hercules
was just making its maiden flight as a prototype YC-130 in 1954 when this edition was
published. Grumman's F9F-9 Tiger jet fighter became the F11F Tiger while the F9F designation
became the significantly different-looking F9F Cougar - no confusion there. The Cessna 620,
a 4-engine version of their successful 310 (get it? - 2 x 310 = 620), never made it past
the prototype phase ...
 This is the January 18, 1942, "Flyin' Jenny" comic
strip. The Baltimore Sun newspaper, published not far from where I grew up near
Annapolis, Maryland, carried "Flyin' Jenny" from the late 1930s until the strip ended
in the mid 1940s, so I saved a couple dozen from there. The first one I downloaded has
a publication date of December 7, 1941 - that date "which will live in infamy," per President
Roosevelt. Many Americans were receiving word over the radio of the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor while reading this comic at the breakfast table. I expect that soon there
will be World War II ...
 This thankful commemoration
of the 20th anniversary of
U.S. Air Mail service from Burgess Battery Company, which appeared in a 1941 issue
of QST magazine, encompasses most of my major lifetime interests. First and foremost,
from my earliest memories, is a love of airplanes (and all things that fly for that matter).
A DC−3 (my favorite multi-engine propeller plane) is shown in one of the photos as is
a Ford Trimotor, which Melanie and I have flown on. Next comes the electrical, electronics,
and radio communications aspects, which encompasses the aircraft wiring ...
 Over time, our (Melanie and me) Peanuts collection
of memorabilia has grow from the few items she had left over from her girlhood to complete
sets. It took a lot of patience to be able to get good quality items at an affordable
price. The "Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz" book was very helpful in identifying
which Peanuts memorabilia items were made. The author mentioned that the rarest
Hungerford doll piece was the piano that came
with Schroeder, so a saved search was placed on eBay and after about a year ...
 Ah, the simpler times when enjoyment, competition,
and industry could be found on a
slot
car race track in a musty basement. Pre-fab models were rare in the day, and those
that could be bought couldn't hold a candle to those hand crafted by young men like the
ones in these photos. It was not a pastime only for the younger set, though. Older guys
with metal lathes and fine crafting tools created museum quality masterpieces ...
 "The death of pilot Harry Brooks 90 years ago
ended dreams of an 'air
Flivver.' Long before Elon Musk, there was Henry Ford. Never satisfied to revolutionize
just one industry, he typically worked on several at once. Over the course of his career,
beside mass-producing Model Ts, Ford dabbled in shipbuilding, home construction, rubber
planting in Brazil, radio broadcasting, soybean farming, and, for a brief period in the
1920s and early 1930s, aviation. In 1925, Ford introduced the all-metal Tri-Motor ..."
 This is a complete set of the
Peanuts Bobblehead (Nodder) figures. They're not
perfect, but in pretty good condition. Over time, our Peanuts collection of memorabilia
has grown from the few items she had left over from her girlhood to complete sets. Everything
was gotten via eBay auctions. It took a lot of patience to be able to get good quality
items at an affordable price. The "Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz" book was very
helpful in identifying which Peanuts memorabilia items
...
 "Dutch company PAL-V prepares to bring the world's
first
flying car to the market next year. The production version of the flying car PAL-V
Liberty has made its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland. The Dutch company
said that it is working on the final certification process to make the car legal. PAL-V
also said that the certification process would begin after the Geneva Motor Show. The
PAL-V Liberty looks more like a race car than an aircraft, according to automotive experts.
The car has a narrow body and has two side-by-side seats on the front. The car ..."
"A bankruptcy court judge approved Horizon Hobby's $18.8M purchase of Hobbico's remote-control
business Monday, which means
 Hobbico
employees must reapply for their jobs at Horizon before the purchase is completed Friday.
Hobbico's more than 300 employees were made aware of this possibility last week, after
Horizon was the lone bidder in a bankruptcy auction for Hobbico, which filed for Chapter
11 protection in January with the goal of finding a new buyer. 'As mentioned in yesterday's
Town Hall Meetings, Hobbico employees who are interested in being considered to work
at Horizon Hobby are ..."
 These
model aviation themed
comics appeared in the September and December 1962 issues of American Modeler
magazine. I am scanning new model aviation comics as they become available - and as time
permits. If you have editions of any of these old magazines and would either scan the
comics and e-mails them to me, or perhaps send me the magazine (I'll pay shipping), I'll
be glad to post them ...
 "A Chinese research team has developed an
ultrafast plane which can also carry dozens of people and tonnes of cargo. The team
says the plane can travel at hypersonic speed and can fly between New York and Beijing
in two hours, which usually takes 14 hours on a passenger jet. The two cities are approximately
11,000km apart. This means the plane will travel at more than 6,000km/h (3,700mph), 5x
faster than the speed of sound. The team is also involved in China's top-secret hypersonic
weapons ..."
 Every week
Model Airplane News sends out an e-mail that includes a link to a page of
tips and tricks for building models. There are usually about 10. This week's has a great
tip about using your X-acto knife handle to get a fixed-depth cut - pretty clever! There
are also a trick for stopping your propeller from slipping while tightening, a West Virginia
airplane trailer, and ballast ...
 "A shark skin-inspired design can dramatically
improve the lift of an aerofoil, according to researchers in the US. The tiny tooth-like
scales on a shark's skin called denticles have previously been shown to reduce drag,
this latest research shows that they also boost the lift-to-drag ratio of an aerofoil.
As well as offering paths to improved aerodynamic design, the researchers say that their
work provides important insight into the role of shark morphology on swimming efficiency.
Like most fish, shark's ..."
 Model rocketry was a big deal in the 1960's as
America and Russia pursued the great Space Race. The U.S.S.R. had effectively trumped
us by launching the Sputnik a year before we put the Explorer 1 into orbit. Yuri
Gagarin made it into space before Alan Shepherd blasted of atop the Mercury Redstone
rocket in his Freedom 7 capsule for a couple orbits around the earth. Boys (and
a few girls) around the world proudly referred to themselves as "rocketeers." Since the
Academy of Model Aviation (AMA) usually allocated space (no pun intended) for model rocket-relate
news and evens, it is no surprise that the sport was included in the "Model
World on the International Scene" features. Single-channel radio control ...
 "This donut-shaped drone, not technically known
as a dronut, offers a tasty combination of safety and ease of use. At last year’s CES,
Cleo Robotics was showing prototypes of a palm-sized drone with a design unlike anything
we’d ever seen. Shaped like a donut, the Cleo drone is essentially a ducted fan, with
a pair of completely enclosed propellers (one on top of the other) and then a camera,
battery, and electronics housed inside the shell. Its compact ..."
 "This video is
part of a series of video clips make while on my way to watch
Mad Mike Hughes launch his
steam-powered Flat Earth rocket on March 24th, 2018. I first met 'Mad Mike' and his friend
'Pioneer Pat' back in 2017 during one of Mike's first launch attempts. I decided to ride
my motorcycle out to the desert to root him on for today's planned launch. Go Mike!!!
The launch was a perfect success!! 1872 feet! Mike's hurt, but he will be alright. This
was one of the most interesting and moving <video>"
 The first
model airplane comic on this
page appeared in the January / February 1963 combined issue of American Modeler.
The bottom on is from the June 1960 issue of the British model aviation magazine
Aero Modeller. I am scanning new model aviation comics as they become available
- and as time permits. If you have editions of any of these old magazines and would either
scan the comics and e-mails them to me, or perhaps send me the magazine (I'll pay shipping),
I'll be glad to post them ...
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