|
 As reported in this 1950 issue of Air
Trails magazine, the
19th
annual National Championship Model Airplane Contest, held at Hensley Field Air
Station in Dallas, Texas, in 1950, unfolded against a backdrop of military readiness
as Marine and Navy air units prepared for the Korean War. Despite the gravity of
the situation, more than 500 ardent contestants from the United States, Canada,
and Mexico eagerly arrived at Hensley Field, ready to participate in the first-ever
National model meet in the Southwest. For many senior flyers, aged between 18 and
21, the competition held special significance, as they were either expecting draft
notices or had already decided to enlist...
 The first thing I learned (or re-learned)
in reading this article is that in 1967, "Hertz" had only recently been assigned
as the official unit of frequency. According to Wikipedia, International Electrotechnical
Commission (IEC) adopted it in in 1930, but it wasn't until 1960 that it was adopted
by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) (Conférence Générale des
Poids et Mesures). Hertz replace cycles per second (cps). The next thing that happened
was that I was reminded of how images such as the op-art tracing of
antenna oscillation that are routinely generated today by sophisticated
software, required huge amounts of setup time and trials to yield just a single
useful and meaningful image using actual hardware...
 This
Dremel Model
381 Moto-Tool Kit is the next generation after my Dremel Model 371 Moto-Tool
kit that my Dremel Model 370 Moto-Tool was part of. Somewhere along the line I disposed
of the plastic box that held the Moto-Tool and accessories, so I looked on eBay
for a replacement. After many years of waiting, the closest I came was this Dremel
318 Moto-Tool Kit. It appears to be identical to the Model 371, only it came with
the Dremel Moto-Tool Model 380. The Model 380 has ball bearings whereas the Model
370 uses brass bushings. This Dremel Model 381 Moto-Tool Kit appears to be in like-new
condition and looks like it has never been used. Scans of all the manual pages are
posted below in case you have been looking for them.
 Arch Whitehouse's air adventure stories
with wily ballistics expert and ace pilot Kerry Keen (alter ego,
The Griffon) are one of my favorite reads in the vintage Flying Aces
magazines. While testing their amphibious Black Bullet over Long Island, aviator
Kerry Keen (the Griffon) and mechanic Barney O'Dare spot a stolen experimental aircraft
- a winged fortress capable of carrying tanks. When Barney vanishes mysteriously,
Keen discovers his partner has been entangled in a plot to steal "Avalin," a revolutionary
armor formula. The trail leads to kidnapped movie star Doreen Yardley, who unknowingly
received the formula- all while protecting Keen's masked identity...
 This article entitled "The Boom in
R/C Boats" appeared in the June 1955 edition of Popular Electronics
magazine which, during the early years of its existence devoted quite a bit of print
space to radio control airplanes, boats and cars. As with all things electronics,
a huge surge in consumer interest was occurring with over-the-air communications.
Bill (William) Winter served as the editor of the Academy of Model Aeronautics'
(AMA's) American Modeler and American Aircraft Modeler magazines
from 1966 through 1974, but his efforts to promote all form of modeling - airplanes,
helicopters, cars, boats, trains, and rockets - covered many decades. His first
recorded article, "Building the Famous Udet Flamingo," (co-authored by Walter McBride),
was published in the March 1935 issue of Universal Model Airplane News
magazine...
 It would be interesting to do a side-by-side
comparison on what was considered engineered
control line
stunt model airplane design in 1957, when this article was written, to what
is today considered to be optimal design criteria. I am trying to get back into
control line stunt flying and have one model built currently, the Enterprise-E.
It has been flown a few times and is (was) extremely sensitive on the controls when
set up per the plans. A little bit of control handle movements resulted in a huge
amount of both elevator and flap deflection. Fortunately, access to the flap control
horn is available through the removable top fuselage hatch, so I was able to relocate
the pushrod from the bellcrank to the flap horn, and then from the flap horn...
 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.
Finally, there was a 1967-vintage Lite-Brite in like-new condition up for auction
that we got for around $45. It has a nice box...
 Per "Wild Bill" Netzenband's report in this
1961 issue of American Modeler magazine covered the Vancouver Bi-Liners,
MAC highlights, Alan Nichols' success in Thompson Trophy Racer events, encouraging
clubs to adopt the affordable, and slow-flying contests. He addresses backlogged
club crest submissions, noting the impracticality of featuring all due to volume.
Alan Nichols debunks the myth that models wear out quickly, citing his year-old
Nobler and a five-year-old Fierce Arrow with original engine. Memories resurface
of McDonnell Aircraft's picnic air shows, where Phil Hamm's reliable metal jet stood
out. Southern California's new Control-Line Association, led by John Gudvangan and
others, seeks enthusiasts. Detroit's Metropolitan Speed Association unveils an $8,000
Rouge Park speed circle, aiming for a competitive...
 This article entitled "Why Pilots Will Matter
in the Age of
Autonomous Planes" appeared in the June 2025 issue of IEEE's Spectrum
magazine. "Long after planes start flying themselves, humans will still be in the
loop. In August 2001, an anonymous guest posted on the forum at Airliners.net, a
popular aviation website. 'How Long Will Pilots Be Needed?' they wondered, observing
that '20 years or so down the road' technology could be so advanced that planes
would fly themselves. 'So would it really be useful for a person to go to college
now and be an airline pilot if a few years down the road they will be phased out
by technology?' Twenty-four years later, the basic technology required to make aircraft
fly themselves exists, as evidenced by the fact that most commercial flights are
flown largely on autopilot..."
 This is the February 8, 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 bad guys. She was the creation of
artist and storyteller Russell Keaton...
 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. Here is a bit of history I gathered on the Skediddlers.
Phenomenon: In the mid-to-late 1960s, Mattel capitalized on the explosive popularity
of Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts comic strip by releasing the Skediddler - a line
of friction-powered toys. Unlike wind-up mechanisms, these toys relied on a simple
push-and-go design: sliding them across a surface activated internal gears, causing
the characters' limbs and heads to jerk in a whimsical "skedaddling"...
 This 1949 Air Trails magazine article
warns that the
Soviet
Union has surpassed the U.S. in military aircraft production by a 15-to-1 margin,
with advanced jet fighters, bombers, and long-range piston-engine planes already
operational. Soviet scientists have also conducted atomic tests and are close to
producing compact A-bombs. Intelligence reveals a Red Air Force of 15,000 first-line
aircraft, including 2,400 jets, some surpassing American designs. The Soviets broke
the sound barrier before the U.S. and have developed powerful turbojet engines,
some with innovative features like variable-pitch stators. German scientists and
captured technology accelerated Soviet progress, particularly in rocketry and jet
propulsion. Their aircraft feature advanced construction techniques, such as metal-plywood
sandwich wings, and superior armament...
 A long time ago (circa
1977) I bought a used glider winch at an auction held by the Prince Georges Radio
Club, in Maryland. It cost me somewhere around $25, which was a lot for me in the
mid 1970s. The motor and control circuitry was contained in a plywood box, with
a jack for the foot switch and terminals to clamp jumper cable to from a car. In
looking at these plans for the
AAM Glider Winch shown
here from the April 1973 American Aircraft Modeler, it looks a lot like mine, only
mine was in a wooden box. It worked extremely well for my 99"
Windfree and 99"
Aquila sailplanes. Unfortunately,
I sold it shortly after getting married in 1983 (couldn't eat the winch). I would
love to have it back. Actually, what I would rather have at this point is a winch
that is powered by a cordless drill that would be lighter...
 We take for granted most of the technology
that surrounds us. Unless you were alive 60 years ago at the dawn of microelectronics
and space flight, it would be difficult to imagine a world without cellphones, desktop
computers, color TVs, the Internet, and even
satellite-base weather forecasting. Everyone likes to make jokes about weathermen
being no better at predicting the weather than your grandmother's roomatiz[sic],
but the fact is that, especially for short-term (2-3 days) predictions, we get pretty
good information. As a model airplane flyer, I check the wind level forecast nearly
every day to see whether my model plane can handle it. AccuWeather's free hourly
forecast is usually pretty darn accurate for today's and tomorrow's wind...
 In this 1937 "Smoke Scream" in a 1937 issue
of Flying Aces magazine, by Joe Archibald,
Lt. Phineas
Pinkham, the 9th Pursuit Squadron's resident troublemaker, stumbles into chaos
when he encounters an elephant named Hungha Tin and its Hindu mahout. After the
elephant drinks a bottle of arnica meant for a local's backache, it goes berserk,
wreaking havoc across the Allied camp. Meanwhile, Brigadier Scruggs confesses to
Pinkham that he sleepwalked and handed top-secret battle plans to an unknown spy.
Pinkham, framed by the mahout - who's actually a German agent - unknowingly smokes
a drugged cigarette and nearly flies a stolen Spad to the enemy. The vengeful elephant
interrupts his forced defection, allowing Pinkham to escape with Hauptmann von Spieler
as his prisoner. Back at base, Pinkham...
 The Academy of Model Aeronautics is granted
tax-exempt status because part of its charter is for activity as an educational
organization. I think as time goes on, it gets harder for the AMA for fulfill that
part of its mission because presenting anything even vaguely resembling mathematics
or science to kids (or to most adults for that matter), is the kiss of death for
gaining or retaining interest. This article, "Control-Line
Aerodynamics Made Painless," was printed in the December 1967 edition of
American Modeler magazine, when graphs, charts, and equations were not eschewed
by modelers. It is awesome. On rare occasions a similar type article will appear
nowadays in Model Aviation magazine for topics like basic aerodynamics and battery
/ motor parameters. Nowadays, it seems, the most rigorous classroom material that
the AMA can manage to slip into schools is a box of gliders and a PowerPoint presentation...
|
 Ace R/C was in its heyday in the 1970s. It
was manufacturing one of the nicest single channel proportional radio control systems
available and had a small line of models to go along with it. The models - Ace All
Star Biplane,
Ace High Glider, Ace Pacer, and the Ace Simple Series - all used
the very popular Ace foam wing set, which had both straight and tapered chords.
This Ace High glider is one of the first I remember seeing and wanting in American
Aircraft Modeler magazine in 1971 when I about 13 years old and penniless.
Grass mowing jobs could pay for the glider kit, but the R/C system was way out of
reach. Ace High glider kits still show up on eBay occasionally for less the $100,
which is a pretty good price these days for a vintage kit ...
 There is no doubt that Du−Bro set the stage
for commercially produced radio controlled (R/C) helicopters with the
Whirlybird 500.
Its use of a top-mounted engine that relied on counter-torque to set the main rotor
blades spinning was unique. There were a few published articles on homebrew free-flight
helicopters that used the arrangement, and Cox even marketed a ready-to-fly model
that had a Cox .020 engine mounted on top called the Sky Copter (I owned one as
a kid in the late 1960s). To my knowledge all other R/C helicopter models used a
gear or belt drive from the engine to the main rotor shaft. It is amazing that this
quite top-heavy configuration flew at all. Du−Bro engineers deserve a lot of credit.
Note extensive use of common Du−Bro products like wheel collars, pushrods...
 I have been wanting to build another Jetco
Shark 15 control line model airplane for a long time and finally decided to
take the dive into the project. Having sold all of my glow fuel engine support equipment
(power panel, fuel pump, electric starter, etc.) in exchange for electric power
equipment, it would be necessary to modify the airframe to accommodate a brushless
outrunner motor, an electronic speed controller (ESC), a motor timer, and a LiPo
battery. I dubbed it the "E-Shark 15." Without a whole lot of engineering calculations,
I settled on one of the two ElectriFly Rimfire .10 motors I purchased to power
my Douglas DC−3 / C−47 twin engine control line models. A 30 A
ESC with a 3-cell (3S), 1300 mAH LiPo completed the package ...
 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. She had the Hungerford Linus and Sally, so we still needed to find
Schroeder, Lucy, Charlie Brown, Pigpen, and Snoopy. Everything was procured 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 were made. The author mentioned that
the rarest Hungerford piece was the piano that came with Schroeder, so a saved search
was placed on eBay and after about a year, one came up for auction. We paid less
than $100 for it back around 2010. We're still in need of Lucy, Charlie Brown, Pigpen,
and Snoopy. Please let me know if you have these that you are will to sell at a
reasonable price...
 As you can tell from all the vintage modeling
and electronics magazine I own and use to post various article, I am prone to waxing
nostalgic about the days of yore. Being born in 1958, I am part of the last generation
of people brought up at a time when patriotism, courtesy, manners, and civility
was taught in school and in the public square by fellow citizens and even politicians.
However, there are limits to my desire to enjoy the environment of the good 'ole
days, and one of them is the need to build (often), tune, and repair nearly all
the electronic equipment used in model aviation and model boating activities. This
"Radio
Controlled Model Sailboat" article from a 1948 issue of Radio News
magazine is a prime example of what I mean. While knowing how to do all the work
involved in the system created by these two Raytheon engineers is a great achievement,
the work involved is extremely time consuming and takes away significantly from
the time actually spent enjoying sailing the boat. Modern compact, powerful, reliable,
relatively inexpensive, fully proportional, feature-packed radio systems are much
preferred over the former. Here is a short tale of my own venture into R/C sailboating
with a Thunder Tiger Victoria sloop, circa 2000...
 Only
three and a half decades had passed since the Wright Brothers made the first flight
of an aeroplane taking off under its own power when this "Landing
Blind" article appeared in a 1938 issue of Radio News magazine. By
then, an entire World War had been fought with air power having been determined
to be a primary strategic force, and a commercial airline industry was thriving
as travelers everywhere entrusted pilots and air traffic controllers with their
very lives. The main impediment to further progress from an navigational and scheduling
perspective was inclement weather. Pilots had long ago learned to fly by instruments,
and taking off into nearly zero visibility was not a problem, but landing confidently
and safely under the same conditions was still impossible. Aviation researchers
were hard at work...
 This
Dremel Model 381 Moto−Tool
Kit is the next generation after my Dremel Model 371 Moto−Tool kit that my Dremel
Model 370 Moto−Tool was part of. Somewhere along the line I disposed of the plastic
box that held the Moto−Tool and accessories, so I looked on eBay for a replacement.
After many years of waiting, the closest I came was this Dremel 318 Moto−Tool Kit.
It appears to be identical to the Model 371, only it came with the Dremel Moto−Tool
Model 380. The Model 380 has ball bearings whereas the Model 370 uses brass bushings.
This Dremel Model 381 Moto−Tool Kit appears to be in like-new condition and looks
like it has never been used. Scans of all the manual pages are posted below in case
you have been looking for them.
 For a long time I have been kicking around
the concept of tethered
R/C, where the airplane would be completely under remote control, with its inboard
wing being attached to a tether that is in turn anchored to a pivot point in the
center of the circle. My first effort was to convert an electric-powered control
line stunt model to have R/C control of the elevator and motor speed. After doing
the conversion, I decided that it would be safer to start out with a slow-flying,
inherently stable model, so since I was in the process of building an electric-powered,
three channel Carl Goldberg ½A Skylane, it was used as the Guiney pig. The steerable
nose gear was pegged in the center, and the rudder pushrod was secured with a screw
in the servo mount so that it has permanent right rudder. A tether attachment point
was epoxied into the left wingtip. It weights 25.3 ounces ready to fly. The
wing chord was increased by about 0.5" over the plans outline in order to get a
little more area and decrease the wing loading a tab bit...
 Founded in 1943, in the midst of World War II,
Revell's staff of talented artists, sculptors, machinists, chemists, engineers,
researchers, instruction writers, and assembly line workers have tuned out multiple
millions of highly detailed scale plastic models of every mode of transportation
ever devised, from every country that devised said modes of transportation.
Revell also made scale scenery and people to compliment the models.
They even made model of things that never really existed, like star ships and submarines
that could explore 20,000 leagues under the sea. I use images from the box tops
of many Revell kits for the Airplanes and Rockets website daily logos. Monogram
(founded in 1945) and Revell merged in 1986...
 This
Midwest Products Sharpie Schooner is
one of two static display models that I built for my dearest, Melanie (the other
being a Midwest Products Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack). She actually bought them
to build herself, but decided to let me build them instead. I used my woodworking,
metalworking, and painting skills for the structure and accessories, and she used
her sewing skills to make the sails. Applying all those tuft strings on the sails
was quite time-consuming. Deft Gloss clear was sprayed on the entire structure and
sanded between coats for a smooth surface. Then, Testors enamel paint was applied
on the bottom of the hull. The effort paid off with a 1st Place ribbon at the 2004
Dixie Classic Fair, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina...
 This short tongue-in-cheek article about
the use of salt mines in Communist countries like Romania for indoor free flight
contests was appeared in a 1963 issue of American Modeler magazine, at a time when
the Cold War was in full swing, your neighbor might have built a nuclear shelter
in his back yard, and kids practiced getting under their desks in the event of a
wave of incoming ICMBs tipped with MIRVs. In fact, the FAI world championships have
been held in Romanian salt mines a few times, and they will return there in 2014.
BTW, for those too young to remember, it used to be a common joke to talk about
sending someone to the Siberian salt mines as a form of punishment...
 Each
autumn I used to anxiously await the appearance of the newest edition of
The Old Farmer's Almanac on the store shelf, and such was the case with this
1981 issue. It is not that I was/am an avid farmer, just that I enjoy reading the
anecdotes, tales, and interesting historical tidbits included amongst the pages
along with tables of high and low tides, moon and sun rising and setting times,
astronomical events, and weather patterns expected for the year that lay ahead.
Most of all, I liked working the puzzles and riddles. Over the years the difficulty
levels gradually got lower and lower (aka dumbed down), to the point where for the
last decade or so I have not even bothered buying the OFA. Now it is full of numbnut
stuff...
 With as expensive as carpet is these days
(even cheap carpet is expensive), protecting it from the ravages of a computer chair
is essential for preservation. Casters wreak havoc with carpet, and even if you
replace the castors with fixed feet (w/ or w/o Teflon bottoms), deep depressions
are formed. One solution is too buy one of the plastic carpet protectors, but they're
big and ugly. Nice ones are available, but they're usually very expensive. I have
seen picture of very nice rectangular wooden surfaces people have built to allow
the chair to roll, but my space is cramped. All I need is a compact surface to contain
the chair feet without requiring the chair to roll. Since the seat swivels, getting
in and out of it is simple enough. My solution is shown in the photos. It did not
take long to construct, and is as diminutive as possible, being just large enough
to cover the foot span. The base of the
computer chair carpet
protector is cut from 1/2" furniture grade plywood...
 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...
 While looking for the edition of TV Guide
that published the first airing of "A Charlie Brown Christmas," I noticed that the
time period coincided with the launching of the
Gemini VII spacecraft.
In a stroke of good fortune, it indeed included an announcement that regularly scheduled
programming would be preempted as necessary to provide live coverage of the launch,
to give timely updates, and to coverage the splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. 2:30
Gemini Space Flight The 14-day Gemini VII space flight is scheduled for launching
from Cape Kennedy's Pad 19 at 2:30 P.M. Astronauts Frank Borman and James A. Lovell
will be making man's longest journey... |
