|
 When building my Enterprise-E control stunt
airplane, I knew that the amount of control surface throw available for both flaps
and elevator was extreme, but I wanted to have the reserve capability in case it
was needed. It was definitely NOT needed! Fortunately, because of the way the top
fuselage hatch is designed for removal there is easy access to the flap control
horn, and thereby the ability to move pushrod clevises around to decrease throws.
Even with doing that, however, the model is still very sensitive to control line
handle movements. My only solution was to obtain a
control line handle with
line spacing less than the 4-1/4" on the stock Sullivan handle. That spacing has
been a little too much for other models as well, so an alternate handle would be
nice anyway...
 "Gotonomi,
a UAV satellite connectivity solutions provider, has announced the completion of
further successful flight trials and the opening of orders for production units
of all variants of its
UAV satcom terminals at Commercial UAV Expo 2024 in Las Vegas. The launch marks
a significant milestone, transitioning from pre-production flight development kits
to type-approved, commercial terminals, enabling scalable beyond visual line of
sight operations (BVLOS) for drone operators wishing to offer inspection, surveillance,
and delivery services. Following extensive verification testing, including flight
trials..."
 Another of Melanie's family's relics is
this pine clothes chest.
After more than 100 years of use and abuse, this chest was in dire need of restoration.
Construction is very low density pine, with dovetailed corners. Finish was a clear
varnish with no stain. The bottom, back, and inside had no finish at all. Restoration
consisted of knocking apart and re-gluing most joints, sanding, and filling in the
multiple dings and scratches where they were really deep. Minor imperfections were
kept for the sake of character. Minwax dark walnut stain was used inside and out,
and allowed to dry for a week. Then, two coats of Deft satin clear were brushed
on with 320 sanding and 0000 steel wool between coats...
 This report of the
1962 (16th) British
Nationals appeared in the 1963 Annular edition of American Modeler
modeler, which I believe was published in January of 1963. Just as back in the day,
the U.S. Nationals were held on a military installation (U.S. Navy sponsorship),
the British Nats were held at Barkston Heath R.A.F. station. Although technically
it was an international event, it appears that Brits and Yanks were the only competitors
- or at least the only ones mentioned. See anyone you know?
 SpaceX
and Blue Origin have been in the news for the last decade for their efforts (some
successful, some not) to
autonomously land a spacecraft vertically under its own power. Love it or hate
it, NASA has been doing that for nearly six decades. Granted, it was on celestial
bodies with lower gravitational acceleration than on Earth, but the earliest craft
(Surveyor 1, 1966) had relatively crude electronics aboard, including a Doppler
radar, flight computer, and video camera. The now legendary Apollo Guidance Computer
has been written about extensively, and is a testimony to the brilliance of the
scientists, engineers, managers, operators, and technicians who built and flew it.
Articles like this one in the May 1967 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine...
 According to Guiness World Records, the
current holder of the record for the
fastest model car is the "Radio Controlled Bullet," by Nic Case, having achieved
a speed of 202.02 mph (325.12 km/h), in 2014. In 2019, Estonian Ando Rohtmets set
the tethered model car speed record of 215.92 mph (347.49 kmph). All modern
speed records are set using electric motor power, unlike these models reported on
in a 1948 issue of Popular Science magazine which used liquid fuel and
internal combustion engines (ICE). However, not all of those ICE powerplants had
pistons. Mr. Frank Brennan showed up with a Dyna-Jet-powered model car, purportedly
fashioned after the Nazi V-1 "Buzz Bomb" (remember this was only a couple years
past...
 The Estes
Saturn 1B rocket is another model that I really wanted to have as a kid,
but just didn't have the money. In those days, I launched everything that I built,
so I could not see spending a huge amount of my paper route money only to take the
risk of destruction due to the parachutes not deploying properly or maybe an engine
malfunction. I had launched enough rockets to know that the probability of something
going wrong was directly proportional to the cost and time spent building. Instead,
I stuck mostly with models that cost no more than about $3 (in 1960s-1970s dollars).
This Saturn 1B model has long been in my rocket building queue, but decade
passed before I felt justified spending the money and time to buy and build one.
The Saturn 1B was one of the Saturn V's predecessors and was used as the
launch vehicle for the first few Apollo missions...
 Infographics are a big thing (literally)
in the business and science world, although they do seem to have passed their prime.
Well-done infographics typically have the form of a high aspect ratio drawing that
presents a detailed timeline or process flow of events or concepts. The progress
can run top to bottom or bottom to top, depending on the creator's intentions. This
particular infographic, produced by the BBC's "Great Turning
Points" series, outlines the major milestones in development of flying machines
beginning with the Wright Flyer in 1903 and progressing through both manned and
unmanned airplanes up through the U.S...
 "The FAA released a substantial update to
their
Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners that includes major improvements for the
agency's protocols for mental health, coronary heart disease, and some ophthalmologic
conditions. The "AME Guide" serves as the main public-facing document for medical
policy published by the FAA. In the following story, we will summarize the highlights
of these policy changes by diagnosis category. Mental Health Among the most anticipated
changes are those to mental health policy. For the first time, individuals with
a history of certain "uncomplicated" diagnoses that have been treated..."
 If only 15 pilots were to enter helicopters
in the 2024 Nats, everyone would wonder what in the world has gone drastically wrong.
Heck, in today's contest it probably isn't unusual for a single contestant to show
up with as many as 15 of his own helicopters - one for each type of event (aerobatics,
scale, etc.) and a couple back-ups for each. A mix of homemade, commercial kits,
and modified kits were displayed. Schluter was selling it Hueycobra, and DuBro had
its Whirlybird. Their prototype Hughes 300 showed up, too. In 1972 when this
issue of American Aircraft Modeler magazine was published, 15 pilots with
a total of 17 - including free flight types -
helicopters participating
in the Nats was heralded as ground-breaking. How times have changed...
 Website visitor Kenneth E. wrote to say
that he is working to build a complete collection of the Tenderfoot models that
were published in American Aircraft Modeler magazine. The Tenderfoot series
was an attempt to provide motivation to young newcomers to the hobby. They were
a mix of freeflight rubber, gliders, control line designs that built simply and
cheaply. Power could be muscle (hand launch), CO2, rubber band (wind-up or catapult
launch), and and internal combustion engine 1/4A (.010 and .020) & 1/2A (.049
and .051) using glow fuel or diesel fuel. Kenneth requested reprints of the following
three models: The Saucerer, a
unique control line model by Ray Malmström (January 1970), the Bonanza and Mustang,
free flight hand-launched glider by David Thornburg (January 1971), and the Clodhopper
free flight rubber powered model by Paul Denson (February 1973)...
 "Joe Barnard and Aryan Kapoor are two model
rocket enthusiasts who've spent years working to advance the hobby with innovative
ways to precisely
steer model rockets and land them vertically instead of just watching them parachute
back to Earth after a launch. Despite many failures and setbacks, they've each succeeded
in recreating SpaceX's Falcon 9 landing capabilities at a much, much smaller scale
and without billions of dollars of funding. Barnard, who studied music production
in college - not aerospace engineering - spent seven years designing, building,
and perfecting various custom components, including a custom thrust vectoring mechanism
for model rocket engines..."
 In the late 1970s, I was working on my private
pilot license and dreamed of building a homebuilt airplane. The Bowers Fly Baby
biplane was the first choice based on my nearly non-existent budget since it was
all-wood and used a 65 HP engine. What I really wanted was an
EAA Acro-Sport biplane.
I was a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) at the time and first
learned of it in their monthly magazine. This scale rendition appearing in the November
1974 issue of American Aircraft Modeler magazine really made me want to
build one. Unlike the Pitts Special or the Christian Eagle, the Acro-Sport can be
tackled by most people of average building skills, and cost a whole lot less for
materials and powerplant...
 This
looks like something from a 1970s issue of Popular Science magazine.
"Imagine it's 2050 and you're on a cross-country flight on a new type of airliner,
one with no fuel on board. The plane takes off, and you rise above the airport.
Instead of climbing to cruising altitude, though, your plane levels out and the
engines quiet to a low hum. Is this normal? No one seems to know. Anxious passengers
crane their necks to get a better view out their windows. They're all looking for
one thing. Then it appears: a
massive antenna array
on the horizon. It's sending out a powerful beam of electromagnetic radiation pointed
at the underside of the plane..."
 Maynard Hill is a name familiar to just
about anyone involved in building and flying model airplanes from the 1950s through
the 1980s. He set many world records, one being flying a radio controlled model
- the Skyrocket - to an altitude of 13,320 feet during a 37-minute flight on July
5, 1963 (extended to 26,990 feet in 1970). He also set speed, distance, and endurance
records. Mr. Hill, a metallurgist by profession, served as president of the
Academy of Model Aeronautics (1964) during the era this article appeared in a 1965
issue of Science and Mechanics magazine. As seen in the Model Airplane
News magazine article to the left, he used a powerful set of military binoculars
to watch the airplane during its flight. In 2003, Maynard Hill became the first
to fly a model airplane, "The Spirit of Butt's Farm," across the Atlantic Ocean...
 As published in the July/August 1963 issue
of American Modeler magazine, Carl Goldberg Models released a ½A-powered version
of their highly popular Falcon model airplane - the Junior Falcon (aka Jr. Falcon).
Having always been a fan of Goldberg models, I decided to build a Jr. Falcon
from plans. I was originally going to use a Cox .049 engine for power, but ultimately
decided to go with electric power since glow fuel has gotten very expensive. The
resultant 4-channel Jr. Falcon has a 480 brushless motor, ESC, and a 3-cell, 380 mAh
Li-Po battery pack. The photo to the left shows the Jr. Falcon at the end of
is maiden flight. I flew very well, but was also very fast due to the relatively
high wing loading. Its 37" wingspan and 6-3/4" chord for a 250 in2 wing area.
The specified flying weight with a single-channel escapement R/C system is 16 oz.,
which resulting in a wing loading of 9.2 oz./ft2, which is quite reasonable.
 "A
top-secret US submarine prototype weapon called 'Manta
Ray' has been spotted by eagle-eyed
Google Maps users and remains plainly visible to the internet public. Satellite
photos showing the Star Wars-looking vessel docked at Port Hueneme naval base in
California went viral Sunday, its unmistakable profile standing out in stark contrast
to its dockmates. The smooth-looking autonomous vessel was named after the sea creature
for its slick design and its ability to anchor itself deep underwater while operating
in low-power mode. Produced by Northrop Grumman as part of a US Navy project to
develop long-range underwater weapons, Manta Ray is a sophisticated underwater drone
capable of hibernating on the sea floor..."
 Klarich Custom Kits is (was) an utterly
amazing list of models available in the form of short kits. The prices were equally
amazingly reasonable, considering that most kits are made-to-order, and considering
how expensive balsa has gotten. This is a good example why I periodically review
as many website pages to make any necessary updates. This list was originally retrieved
on January 11, 2009. At the end of 2016, Klarich Custom Kits closed its doors, according
to captures by the Archive.org website. What a shame. I will leave the information
here for reference purposes...
 Raise your hand if you watched the original
1980 Nova "Cosmos: A Personal Journey" TV series, hosted by überastronomer Carl
Sagan. My hand is up. In fact, that might be what piqued my life-long interest in
astronomy. I was in the U.S. Air Force at the time, stationed at Robins AFB, Georgia,
as an Air Traffic Control Radar Repairman. The show motivated me to buy my first
"real" telescope, a Criterion RV-6 Dynascope, a Newtonian model on an equatorial
mount. I was surprised to run across this 1961 Popular Science magazine
article entitled, "How
to Colonize Venus." This might have been Sagan's initial foray into the public
domain. Hard as it is to believe, at the time astronomers did not know that Venus'
atmosphere, composed largely of carbon dioxide (CO2), supports clouds
of sulphuric acid (battery acid) raining down, and the planet's surface has a temperature
of more than 800° F and a pressure of more than 1300 psi. Sagan posited
that the plant's surface...
 Mr.
Bill Gaylord has been
gracious enough to allow me to post photos and information about his fine Guillow's
free-flight model airplanes that he converted to electric powered R/C. The level
of craftsmanship is incredible both in the frame-up and the covering and finish.
You can find lots of photos and details of the build on the RCGroups bulletin board.
I do not see whether he has ever flown any of these models. My guess is that with
the structural beefing up required to support the motor, battery, and R/C gear results
in a high wing loading. I personally would never dare risk these models by trying
to fly them! They would all spend their days as hanger queens - display only...
 Lucky thing for budding amateur rocketeer
Allen Wechter that some of the PETA (formed in 1980) crazies were not around in
1965 when this "World's
First Astrogator" article appeared in Science and Mechanics magazine. Otherwise,
he surely would have been targeted as an animal abuser when he claimed to be the
first person to launch an alligator into [sub]space. The beast was sent to an altitude
of 8,500 feet, whereupon it floated gently down via parachute. The story mentions
that it landed two miles downwind, which in Flushing, New York, even in 1965, would
have been a mighty densely built-up region of Long Island, near New York City. He's
lucky to have retrieved it! Master Wechter claims the 'gator was "unscratched and
in excellent physical condition," but I'm guessing he was emotionally scarred for
life ;-)
 Back when Melanie had more time (around
1984), she made a lot of counted cross stitch pictures. This one remains her most
ambitious project ever - a large nautical map of the ancient world, fashioned after
the works of famed cartographer Gerard Mercator and titled with "Orbis
Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio," which is, loosely translated, Latin for "A Comprehensive
Description of the World." Melanie's work was done on 22-count fabric, and measures
approximately 13" by 8" (not including white border). Such a fine effort needed
a special frame, so I set about making a custom 23" by 17" frame out of teak wood
bought at World of Hardwoods in Baltimore. The fancy fluting was done on my Craftsman
radial arm saw with the molding head. Teak, as you might know, is used extensively
on boats because it weathers well. It is an oily type wood that starts out life
with a shiny golden patina...
 When deciding which type of covering material
to apply to a model airplane structure, it would be helpful to have a table of
covering density for comparison.
Here is such a table which shows, for instance, that 21st Century Fabric is the
heaviest type of covering you can use. MicroLite covering is the lightest weight.
Not shown are most doped or painted coverings because finished weights are so dependent
on substrate type (silk, Silkspan, tissue, etc.), paint or dope type, and number/thickness
of coats. To calculate the covering weight, multiply the density by the total surface
area of your model. Unfortunately, most of these coverings are no longer manufactured,
but a lot of it can still be found on eBay...
 1954 was just a decade after World War II,
during which time the Army Signal Corps introduced a method of printing - or etching
- metallic circuit conductors on an insulator substrate, and thus was born the printed
circuit board (PCB). The first boards used a phenolic-paper laminate, which is the
shiny brown substrate material that is still found in some industrial applications
like motors and control panels. Ferric chloride was used to etch away the copper
foil not masked off with photoresist chemicals. I made many crude PCBs using a resist
ink pen to draw circuit traces and component mounting pads, then etched away the
exposed copper with ferric
chloride purchased at Radio Shack. This line from the article is reminiscent
of people who remarked similarly about the first televisions and computers: "One
of the first questions that arises is: 'What good is it and what do I gain by using
it?'" Printed inductors were already being used, as the photo shows...
 Dave Platt - aka "Mr. Scale" - is one
of the world's most accomplished scale model airplane builders and flyers. He
somehow manages to turn out magnificently detailed scale models year after year.
If you haven't seen his "Platt's Laws of Scale Modeling," derived from his decades
of experience, you'll want to do so. He has built and flown his scale models in
the realms of free flight, control line, and radio control, using internal combustion
engines with propellers, ducted fans, and turbine jets for propulsion. There might
be someone somewhere equally qualified to comment on scale airplane modeling, but
none more qualified. When this "Find the
Scale Wingspan & Area" article appeared in a 1969 issue of American
Aircraft Modeler magazine, slide rules were the de rigueur...
 When Air Trails magazine was running
these
airplane design contests in the 1940s and 1950s, the world was fascinated with
the concept of flight. Revolutionary airplanes like the Douglas DC−3, introduced
in the 1930s, opened up the skyways to middle class citizens, and a plethora of
surplus World War I biplanes made learning to fly affordable. Great advances
were made in aircraft design and manufacturing during World War II, and those
lessons were rapidly being applied to civilian aircraft to make flying accessible
to average people. Model aviation was also a huge interest to the young and old
alike. Static display models, simple free flight gliders and propeller driven models,
control line models with screaming internal combustion engines (ICE) were the passions
of hundreds of thousands - maybe millions. Most enthusiasts built models from kits
or plans, but others preferred to design and build their own models. They were the
visionaries...
 Is the
BOMARC an airplane
or a rocket? If it is an airplane, then it is the pilotless type (aka "drone").
If it is a rocket, then it is the ultimate in controlled trajectory hardware - at
least in its day. The DoD referred to it as a surface-to-air guided missile. The
name is a combination of "BOeing Airplane Company" and "Michigan
Aeronautical Research Center."
Clever, non? If memory serves me correctly (it's been 30+ years), the AN/TPX-42
IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) secondary radar system (built by Gilfillan) I
maintained as an air traffic control radar technician reserved a special "X" bit
in its data packet to designate the BOMARC - and maybe other guided missiles. That
might have been a military secret at the time, because the Air Force instructors
acted like they were divulging proprietary information when discussing why that
bit was present in an otherwise...
|
 Here are plans for the
Boeing B&W 1916
Biplane that I electronically scanned from my purchased copy of the March 1965
Model Airplane News magazine. When I have more time, I will dig the magazine
out of storage and scan/OCR the rest of the article. For now you can at least review
the plans. Click on the images for larger versions. I have even large files for
them at the original 200 dpi resolution. Designed and built by Mr. Francis Reynolds.
Plans for this fine model were drawn by Mr. Ray Vinup. All copyrights (if any) are
hereby acknowledged. "The Boeing Model 1, also known as the B & W Seaplane,
was a United States single-engine biplane seaplane aircraft. It was the first Boeing
product and carried the initials..."
 I received a lot of feedback after first
posting this piece on how to straighten cupped
and/or bowed laminated countertops. That was a couple years ago. Since I continue
to see severely deformed countertops in Lowes and Home Depot, it is worth brining
attention to it again. You might be able to get a really good deal on the otherwise
unsellable laminated countertops, then use my easy method for nearly perfectly flattening
them. Al that is required is sawing a cross-hatch pattern part-way through the bottom
surface, and then screwing, gluing, and clamping them whilst being held flat. The
wood around the outside edge serves as the space normally placed between the top
of the lower cabinet base and the countertop. Tyri. You'll like it!
 When I first saw this "U-Control
Model Plane" article in a 1952 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine,
I expected it to have been written by one of the Stanzel brothers. Long after their
entry into the model airplane manufacturing world, Joe and Victor created their
line of battery-powered, electric motor-driven control line models in 1958. It eventually
included a helicopter, a monoplane, and a flying saucer, amongst other craft. The
Stanzels, BTW, invented the Monoline control line system which was adopted by U-control
(aka control line) speed modelers because it created much less aerodynamic drag,
facilitating higher airspeeds. Maybe this article was a motivation for the Stanzels...
 "The SETI Institute, in collaboration with
the Berkeley SETI Research Center and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy
Research, has initiated a pioneering study using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA)
in Western Australia. Led by Dr. Chenoa Tremblay of the SETI Institute and Prof.
Steven Tingay of Curtin University, this research marks the first
search for alien technology in galaxies beyond our own, specifically targeting
low radio frequencies (100 MHz). The MWA's extensive field of view (FOV) allowed
the research team to examine approximately 2,800 galaxies in a single observation,
with known distances for 1,300 of these galaxies..."
 When
Dyna-Jet engine in new or like-new condition is listed for sale or auction on
eBay, it usually sells for north of $500. Sometimes buyers get lucky and win an
auction for less. This 1946 Popular Science magazine article entitled "Baby V-1
Flies for Fun" appeared just a year after Germany had surrendered unconditionally.
Only a year before that, Londoners ran for cover in underground shelters when V-1
"Buzz Bombs" were heard making their tell-tale 45 Hz "buzz" noise as they made
their way toward England. "V-1" was from the German Vergeltungswaffe 1 meaning
"Vengeance Weapon 1." The only reference to a "robomb" I see other than this
article is from a 1944 issue of Time magazines entitled, "Science: How the Robomb
Works." As Paul Harvey would famously say, "Now you know... the Rest of the story."
 I am not aware of the origin of this matrix,
but it is a very useful tool for determining whether certain
filler
materials and finish chemistries are compatible or, equally important, incompatible.
It was included in the July 2012 edition of the Bean Hill Flyers control-line club
newsletter. This might save somebody the grief and angst from applying a finish
over a base that will cause it to bubble, peel, blister, or not ever dry. One important
point this chart indicates is that you can apply butyrate dope over nitrate dope,
but you CANNOT apply nitrate dope over butyrate dope. There might be other instances
of one-way compatibilities, but if you are not sure, do a test first or avoid the
deadly combination altogether. You also need to verify compatibility of the various
rattle can...
 The
Eclipse is a gigantic radio-controlled
sailplane model with a 16-foot wingspan, geodesic ribs construction, and "V" tail
configuration. It is built up from balsa, plywood, spruce, and a fiberglass tail
boom. I remember first seeing the model on the cover of the October 1974 issue of
American Aircraft Modeler magazine, and really wanting to build one. Unfortunately,
I was only 16 years old at the time and was barely able to afford control line models,
let alone a huge RC sailplane. Of course with the cost of balsa today, it is no
more affordable now as then. It probably takes four rolls of Monokote to cover!
Here are plans for the Eclipse that I electronically scanned from my purchased copy
AAM. You might be able to scale up the image...
 Jetex "rocket" motors were quite popular
during the 1940s through the 1970s. Their debut in the modeling world was in 1948,
per the Jetex.org website. Unlike Estes rocket engines that used combustion to generate
a high velocity ejection stream, Jetex fuel pellets merely "burned" at a constant
rate while the exhaust was forced through a small orifice in the engine's metal
housing (casing). Also unlike Estes engines, the Jetex casing was reusable and re-fuelable.
Half a dozen or so sizes and thrust levels eventually were produced. I had a couple
of the Jetex 50 engines that got strapped to Guillows balsa gliders and, to
some degree, were made to fly in jet-like fashion...
 Notice
to TSgt. Ford's daughter: Please contact me again; the Academy of Model Aeronautics
(AMA) is interested in getting more information about your father.
In 1970, when this article was written about
USAF
TSgt. Gordon Ford's incredible collection of giant control line scale, multi-engined
flying models, the KC-135 Stratotanker was still a decade from being replaced
by the KC-10, the C-5A Galaxy was just coming online as the world's largest cargo
aircraft, and the C-133 Cargomaster was about to be mothballed. C-124 Globemasters
were on their last legs, the XB-70 Valkyrie was a bygone dream, and the Convair
T-29 (C-131) only had a few good years left in her. These are just a few of the
aircraft in SSgt. Ford's hangar. How he was able to transport...
 For some reason, in more than half a century
building and flying model airplanes, I have never owned or operated a
diesel engine. I have nothing against them, and in fact would like to procure
and run one, even if just on a test stand, before assuming dirt temperature. Diesels
have a couple advantages and disadvantages compared to glow fuel engines, according
to my recollection from reading about them over the years. Compared to glow fuel
engines, diesels produce less power for a given volume displacement. The absence
of a glow plug can make them more difficult to start, especially when hand-flipping
and/or in cold weather. To their credit, diesels are not quite as...
 Steve Wittman, aka "The Grand Old Man of
Air Racing," was a prolific airplane designer, builder, and pilot. His Wittman Tailwind
homebuilt airplane was very popular and proved to be fast and efficient for its
size and power. The "Formula Vee" racer, motivated by a highly modified Volkswagen
engine, easily broke the 170 mph speed benchmark. Making outside-of-the-box tradeoffs
like suffering the drag of wing bracing wires for a lighter and thinner airfoil
are what made Wittman a crafty - and winning - designer. A scale model of the
Wittman Vee might benefit from
a slightly thicker airfoil and larger tail surfaces unless you want to have to aggressively
fly the craft the entire time it is in the air. This article and 3-view of
Witt's Vee appeared in a 1974 issue of American Aircraft Modeler magazine...
 If you have a vintage Cox .010 Pee Wee engine
sitting on the display shelf and you've been itching to get it in the air again,
Ken Willard's Flying Bandanna (not Banana) could be just the thing to get you there.
This article appeared in a 1968 issue of American Aircraft Modeler magazine.
Ken claims it only takes about 10 minutes to assemble, and as he says of the bandanna
'parachute,' it is "...a built-in wiping rag for your hands after each flight!"
I remember as a kid when my .049-powered plastic Cox control line models had finally
be demolished beyond repair (no glue at the time would hold the styrene plastic
together for long), I would take what was left of the fuselage and launch it into
free flight with the engine screaming. Sad to say, but especially during the early...
 "The navigators who fly the regular routes
use everything they can. They use celestial navigation, but because there is 24-hour
daylight they can use only one star, the sun." That's a line from this "Kelly's
Awful Airline" article in a 1965 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine.
It describes one of the many challenges facing the crew of U.S. Navy Air Development
Squadron Six's Commander George R. Kelly as they perform many amazing feats of daring,
skill, and ingenuity. In such an unaccommodating environment as is the Antarctica,
bravery and determination are essential personal traits necessary for not just accomplishing
goals, but for basic survival. C-130s, C-47s, and what looks like a "Huey" (Bell
UH-1) flew day and night, in temperatures that can nearly...
 "Two insect-like
robots, a mini-bug and a water strider, developed at Washington State University,
are the smallest, lightest and fastest fully functional
micro-robots ever known to be created. Such miniature robots could
someday be used for work in areas such as artificial pollination, search and rescue,
environmental monitoring, micro-fabrication, or robotic-assisted surgery. Reporting
on their work in the proceedings of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society's International
Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, the mini-bug weighs in at eight milligrams
while the water strider weighs 55 milligrams..."
 Surveyor 1, the first in a series of
seven, launched from Cape Canaveral on May 30, 1966 and landed on the moon at Oceanus
Procellarum on June 2, 1966. As the name implies, its mission was to analyze and
map the lunar surface in preparation for manned landings there at the end of the
decade. As detailed in this 1965 Popular Mechanics magazine article, Surveyor 1
was equipped with many instruments and tools for photographing, measuring, and testing
the moon's features and composition. Prior to its visit, nobody was certain whether
the lunar surface was covered with a thick layer of dust that would envelope a craft
and render a manned visit impossible. Turns out, the dust layer was quite thin.
Even so, there was still some concern prior to Apollo 11's landing, because
conditions might vary...
 The AirplanesAndRockets.com website
exists entirely on the support of its visitors by way of a small percentage earned
with your
Amazon.com purchases, which typically works out
to less than $10 per month. That barley covers the domain registration and secure
server fees for AirplanesAndRockets.com. If you plan to buy items via
Amazon.com, please click on this link to begin
your shopping session from here so that I get credit for it. Doing so does not cost
you anything extra. Thank you for your support.
 This short article and 3-view drawing by
James Trigg appeared in the February 1962 edition of American Modeler magazine.
With a 36-foot wingspan and a mere 40 horsepower for an engine, the
Aeronca C-3
performed more like a powered glider than a typical power plane. Its wing loading
of 6.15 lb/sq.ft. yielded it a climb rate of 450 ft/min and a glide ratio
of 10:1. Only 400 were built before new FAA airworthiness standards caused production
to halt. One of the first built-up glow engine models I built as a kid back in Mayo,
Maryland, was a Sterling Aeronca C-3. It was powered by a Cox Pee Wee .020 engine.
I do not remember whether it ever actually flew under power or not...
 Specially crafted rockets soared high into
the skies April 22 at the 2011-2012
NASA Student Launch Projects challenge. More than 500 students, representing
53 middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities in 28 states, launched
rockets of their own design -- complete with working science payloads or engineering
payloads -- at Bragg Farms in Toney, Ala. Students watch a rocket launch during
the 2012 Student Launch Projects challenge. Meet the Teams The students vied to
see whose rocket could come closest to the 1-mile altitude goal and safely return
its onboard science payload to Earth. Fifty-one teams took part, though two faced
mechanical or technical issues and did not launch...
 When this American Hobby Specialties ad appeared
in a 1949 issue of Air Trails magazine,
Carl Goldberg was already a well-known and respected model airplane designer
and flier. He worked for Comet and Top Flite before founding Carl Goldberg Models
in 1955. I have a particular appreciation for Carl Goldberg's accomplishments because
his 1/2A Skylane model was my very first R/C airplane kit, bought sometime around
1970. I also built a few other of his designs, the most recent of which was a Jr. Falcon,
from plans. A 1/2A Skylane was used as the basis for a tethered R/C model.
In the past half century, I have built probably five versions of the 1/2A Skylane.
One finished like the original kit, including escapement R/C equipment and an Golden
Bee .049 engine hangs on the wall as a memento to days of yore. One of my favorite
parts of perusing through my hundreds of vintage magazines...
 The
Carousel is one
of those C/L model airplane designs that, after reading the description, you wonder
how it was able to flown to a first place finish at the Nats. It is full of oddball
gadgetry and implementation techniques, beginning with the twin boom configuration
and a long nose moment arm. The flaps are a 3-piece deal with the center section
coupled directly to the elevator bellcrank as is normal, but the outboard flap sections
were controlled independently by a weighted pendulum arrangement that was intended
to adjust automatically based on the direction the model is pointing. That, along
with the pair of 90° bends in the elevator pushrod that was prone to severe distortion
under load, had to have made control of the Carousel very difficult. The conclusion
as to how the ship was flown to first place has to be the superior piloting skill
of Jim Vornholt. Imagine how good he must have gotten once he could afford a better
airplane. There is no doubt the Carousel looks cool, but a modern day competitive
stunt ship it is not.
 The last time I appeared in Model Aviation
magazine was around 2000 when they published a few modeling themed crossword puzzles
I constructed. Now, in the March 2016 edition, appears not just one but three honorable
mentions. Thanks to the editors. The first is in the list of donors for the AMA
Museum. Melanie paid for one of the memorial "Walk of Fame" sidewalk bricks as a
Christmas present, so my name (Kirt Blattenberger) showed up in there. The second
is in the "Focal Point" feature where models built by AMA members are posted along
with a brief description. My "Enterprise-E"
electric-powered control line model is displayed. There is a web page dedicated
to the Enterprise-E construction and first flight here on the AirplanesAndRockets.com
website. Third, but by no means least, is an account in Dave Gee's "Safety Comes
First" column that relates a scary experience I had during one flight with the Enterprise-E...
 This is pretty cool. If I owned a good receiver,
I would definitely give it a try. In 1970 when this Popular Electronics
magazine article was written, a lot of Hams were still using
vacuum tube receivers so the recommendation to let the equipment warm up for
several hours prior to making the fine frequency adjustments was good advice. Nowadays
the warm-up time and stability of receivers should permit 30 minutes or so to suffice
(even ovenized frequency references need time to stabilize when first powered up).
Unless I missed it, the author does not explicitly state that the frequency change
measured over time is due to gravity acting on the mass of the crystal reference,
but I suspect that is his intention since part of the experiment involves disconnecting
the antenna and shielding the receiver from outside interferers. Over a lunar month
period (29.5 days) we experience...
 I remember as a kid in Mayo, Maryland, tying
a string to the nose of my
Sterling Aeronca C-3
model and towing it behind my Huffy bicycle - with a banana seat and a sissy bar
- up and down the street in front of my house. It would weave and dodge back in
forth in a sort of gyrating motion a few feet off the ground and then settle into
a fairly decent landing. Assuming the Aeronca C-3 met the same ultimate demise as
most of my models of the era, it probably succumbed to an airframe failure after
early success fed the human desire to go higher and faster than the last time. One
thing that stands out in my mind about the Aeronca was that it was one of the most
complex models I had attempted to date - especially with building the wing support
assembly on top and adding all the flying wires. The kit shown here was purchased
on eBay. It is yet another addition to my collection of model items I had as a kid.
None of my original equipment survived...
 The type of glass referred to in this 1953
Science and Mechanics magazine article is not the solid sheet type made
from sand (silicon), but fiberglass. It has
strands of glass mixed into the plastic weave, hence the name. It is the glass
component that causes itching as it pricks your skin. Breathing it into your lungs
is dangerous as the minute particles of glass can lodge in the tissue. Typical of
the era, the workers shown handling the fiberglass have no protection for eyes,
nose, mouth, or skin. Fiberglass ended up not being the material hoped for because
it ultimately could not stand up to the extreme structural and thermal loads typical
of high speed aircraft. It was also not tolerant of being exposed to intense sunlight
while sitting on a tarmac. The few commercial and homebuilt fiberglass airplanes
need to be painted white to reflect as much ultraviolet light as possible to prevent
delamination and deterioration of the components...
 Peck-Polymers has been around for as long
as I can remember, which was in the late 1960s to early 1970s, when I would have
bought my first aeromodeling magazine (we relied on magazines back then for information
since Al Gore had not yet invented the Internet). In fact, Peck-Polymers was founded
in 1971 by engineer and free-flighter Bob Peck. According to the "About" page on
their website, Bob designed many of the models in the original Peck product line.
He and his wife Sandy we soon kitting designs by Bill Hannan, Bill Warner, Dick
Baxter and many others. Peck-Polymers has also long been at the forefront of design
and engineering of the many small parts that are so critical to free flight rubber
airplanes, such as the bearings and prop shafts. Bob passed away in 1991, and his
wife Sandy kept the company going until late 2007 when she sold it to Tim Goldstein
of A2Z Corp. (now defunct) Tim created the laser-cut kits. In January of 2015, Chuck
Imbergamo of Wind-It-Up Enterprises took ownership of the company and thankfully
is committed to carrying on the tradition of producing Peck-Polymer kits and accessories...
 As a kid living in Holly Hill Harbor, Maryland,
I managed to find many uses for those
thin plastic bags that protected garments returned from the dry cleaner. The
two most often were for parachutes and for filling with hot air to use as a balloon.
I'd tape my mother's sewing thread to a cut-out circle for a parachute, then tie
a small rock to the ends of the "shroud lines." Then, I'd fold it and wrap the lines
around it like with my Estes rockets, and chuck it as high into the air as possible.
Only when my arm got sore did the repetitions stop. The hot air balloon exercises
were not very impressive. Forming a two-dimensional piece of plastic into a three-dimensional
sphere(oid) resulted in a less than optimal enclosure, with excess material that
only added weight without adding volume for hot air. A hair dryer borrowed - usually
without permission - provided the hot (more like warm) air for buoyancy. The thin
plastic easily wrinkled if the end of the hair dyer touched it...
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