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 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...
 Peter Bowers first became know to me because
of his Fly Baby homebuilt airplane. It won the
Experimental
Aircraft Association (EAA) design contest in 1962. Back in the middle and late
1970s, I was taking flying lessons and dreaming big about building my own aerobatic
biplane. Being an avid woodworker, the Fly Baby appealed to me because it was constructed
entirely of wood, except for a few critical metal fittings. My plan was to build
the biplane version of the Fly Baby. Like so many other things, the aeroplane never
got built. Peter Bowers was not only an aeronautical engineer and airplane designer
but also an aviation historian and model airplane enthusiast...
 "FlightGear" is an Open Source (aka
Free) flight simulator program which I first wrote about in 2012. It has come a
long way - and was pretty dran good, aven back then - and is now a viable competitor
for Microsoft's Flight Simulator (MSFS). The leatest release as of this writing
is 2024.1.1. The graphics are superb and easily on par with MSFS. FlightGear has
a joystick interface, but I don't own a joystick, so my experience with it using
keyboard inputs. VR headsets are also supported now. The basic download comes with
a couple dozen aircraft, and there are many additional models available as separate
downloads. FlightGear runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. Thanks to all the folks
who have spent their valuable time developing FlightGear! FlightGear website: "FlightGear
is an open-source flight simulator. It supports a variety of popular platforms (Windows,
Mac, Linux, etc.) and is developed by skilled volunteers from around the world...
 The October 1950 Air Trails magazine
showcases
modelers' innovations, including H.G. Oliver's Plexiglas skids for speed models
and Don Nelson's booster battery setup. Ray Biernacki suggests keeping brushes soft
with thinner fumes, while Richard Larson offers a footswitch for bench testing.
Ted Jones improves dethermalizer safety, and Charles Francis simplifies its design.
Willard Hafler's flying wing excels in speed and sport flying, and Leon Shulman
repurposes a crankcase recess as a fuel tank. The magazine encourages readers to
submit their own ideas, paying $2 per accepted sketch. These practical, cost-saving
solutions highlight the creativity of mid-century model aviation enthusiasts, blending
engineering ingenuity with accessible materials - a snapshot of hobbyist innovation
in postwar America...
 "IEEE Spectrum interviewed Bertrand Piccard
at a pivotal moment in the hydrogen-powered aircraft project, with the plane, called
Climate Impulse,
about 40 percent built. Piccard spoke about the contributions of his corporate sponsors,
including Airbus, to the Climate Impulse project and about why he's confident that
hydrogen will eventually succeed as an aviation fuel. He'll fly around the world
in a hydrogen fuel-cell aircraft. Few explorers have reached the heights, literally
and figuratively, that Bertrand Piccard has. He is the quintessential modern explorer,
for whom every big mission has a purpose, which generally boils down to environmental
and climate-change awareness. In 1999, he was the first person to circumnavigate..."
 Amazingly, even during the Cold War years
it was not uncommon to see aircraft modelers from the "Iron Curtain"
countries participating in international contests. Even Commies like flying model
airplanes. Because their societies and politics were so closed and guarded, getting
information about their modeling supplies was darn near impossible except during
events where inspection could be made. Being a generally friendly bunch of guys,
the modelers would share their designs with the Free World, and vice versa. Then,
in subsequent years the Commies would show up with equipment that was exact replicas
of ours - copyrights and trademarks held no legal weight behind the Iron Curtain.
Truth be know, most or all of the participants were probably KGB agents (or other
Commie country equivalents) engaging...
 While talking to a lady working one of the
tables at the 2016 Brodak Fly-In (July 14, 2016), she happened to mention that the
Brodak Manufacturing &
Distribution operations plant is located about a mile away, right behind Brodak's
Hobby Shop in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania. I made sure to stop by after first visiting
the hobby shop. Brodak, unarguably the largest seller of control line models and
flying supplies, has the advantage of being its own manufacturer for most of its
products. Because of that, they are able to sell at the lowest prices possible for
a proprietary line of goods. Control line model airplane kits, nuts and bolts and
washers and other assembly hardware, flying lines and handles, landing gear, nitro
fuel, dope, thinner, adjustable line leadouts, balsa, plywood...
 The
1961 AMA Nationals (NATS) showcased American excellence in model aviation as
Joe Bilgri, William Bigge, and Carl Redlin dominated the World Indoor Championships
in England, with Bilgri's record 37-minute flight securing individual honors. The
event featured engineering marvels like Ken Spitulski's scratch-built radio-controlled
freighter and Paul Williams' Twin Ringmaster, a dual-engine stunt plane. Pan-American
Airways concluded its 14-year sponsorship of payload competitions, marking the end
of an era. Veteran modelers like Carl Goldberg rubbed shoulders with rising talents,
while unique designs such as Doug Joyce's canard-style "Lightning" demonstrated
the hobby's creative spirit. The competition also included lighter moments like
the Miss Model Aviation pageant and Testor's best-finish award...
 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.
 Not being able to hold off any longer, I
finally began working on a scratch-built version of the
Airtronics Aquila. I had the good
folks at Staples enlarge the plans to 105% to push the wingspan just over 100" (~104")
so it will be my biggest sailplane ever - yeah, I know, lame. By scaling up so slightly
most of the structural components like the spars, balsa and plywood, etc., will
be able to stay per the original without risking overstressing. However, since this
Aquila will sport a brushless motor in the nose (sacrilegious?), I am beefing up
some of the areas and using harder balsa in places I might not have otherwise. Since
I do not have easy (pronounced "affordable") access to the large pieces of 1/8"
LitePly...
 "Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union (USSR),
the spacecraft known as
Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions bound for Venus. But this one never
made it out of orbit around Earth, stranded there by a rocket malfunction. Much
of the spacecraft came tumbling back to Earth within a decade of the failed launch.
The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking confirmed its uncontrolled reentry,
based on analysis and no-shows of the spacecraft on subsequent orbits. The ESA's
space debris office also indicated that the spacecraft had reentered after it failed
to appear over a German radar station. It was not immediately known..."
 Carl
Kohler strikes again with this 1959 Popular Electronics magazine techno-story
entitled, "My Guided Missile." His alter ego, self-proclaimed "genius-type engineer"
protoself faces off against an exasperated wife over his latest ambitious creation
- the
Kohler Komet homemade guided missile. Undeterred by his wife's concerns about
past radio-control mishaps, he takes the rocket to Bonneville Flats for testing,
assuring her of its safety features, including a parachute recovery system. However,
disaster strikes when the launch startles him, causing him to crush the transmitter.
The missile spirals out of control, narrowly missing the group before obliterating
a police car in a spectacular crash...
 This
1942 Life magazine article profiles a
B-17E Flying Fortress bomber and its nine-man crew, detailing their roles in
America's early WWII air campaign against Japan. The bomber, part of the 342nd Bombardment
Squadron, operates as a self-contained "task force," capable of delivering devastating
strikes like Colin Kelly’s sinking of the battleship Haruna. The crew - four officers
(pilot, copilot, navigator, bombardier) and five enlisted gunners - undergo six
weeks of operational training at MacDill Field to forge teamwork essential for survival.
The B-17E's firepower includes eight .50-caliber machine guns manned by the enlisted
crew...
|
 On a whole, free flight fliers seem to have
always been way ahead of the aerodynamic knowledge curve than control line fliers
and radio control fliers - especially when it comes to competition. All modelers
are concerned with the basics of stable flight by building straight airframes with
the proper center of gravity, but when you have some real-time force being applied
to correct for imperfect trim, twisted wings, wind gusts, it is usually possible
to obtain acceptable flights. The centrifugal force of a control line plane flying
in circles, constrained by the counter poise (centripetal force) of the control
lines, and the movable elevators allows the pilot to keep the model on course. Radio
control with at least elevator and rudder and/or aileron can, with the input of
a skilled pilot, compensate for a host of aerodynamic perturbations that would otherwise
upset the flight path. Author Donald Foote in this "A Mechanical
Brain for Catching Thermals" article from the 1956 Annual edition of Air
Trails magazine does a great job of imparting knowledge on how to configure
a free flight model to seek out and exploit thermals. He explains the physics behind
a swept wing's ability to automatically turn toward rising air...
 Website visitor Wells S. just wrote asking
for another article to be posted - this time it is a very nice scale radio controlled
Spitfire IX. It appeared in
the February 1962 issue of American Modeler magazine published by the Academy
of Model Aeronautics (AMA). As was common in the era (1962), construction is very
robust and therefore heavy (10 pounds with a 64" wingspan). A Super Tigre .56 powered
the model in the article, and an Orbit radio with Bonner servos were used. My favorite
line in the article is, "In flight the Spitfire is very stable but snaps through
maneuvers and will tie knots in itself if you can operate transmitter switches fast
enough." We've come a long way, baby...
 Wives poking fun at their hobby-obsessed
husbands is not a new thing. Good-natured articles contributed by wives have appeared
in all kinds of specialty magazines for decades. This one entitled "Why
Not Authentic, Prefabricated Husbands?" was written by the wife of a model airplane,
rocket, and boat builder. Her name is Laurie Cunningham, which makes me wonder if
she is the better half of Chuck Cunningham, who wrote the "Cunningham on R/C" column
for R/C Modeler magazine for many years. Mrs. Cunningham's experience is not
unlike my own wife's (Melanie) dilemma living with me going on four decades. Throughout
our house on display are Estes rocket models, plastic and balsa model airplanes
and boats, and even a helicopter or two. Most of them are ones I've never flown
or floated for fear of messing up the carefully applied finish. Fortunately, the
in-service models are now all electric so there is not a mess of glow fuel dripping
onto the floor - just an occasional tire mark on the wall. In exchange for her tolerance...
 If you have only ever known a time in the
R/C era when 2.4 GHz, spread spectrum radios were in use and not only were
there no interference issues, but there were no licenses required, either, for legal
operation, then it might be hard to imagine when this was not so. Most people in
the R/C realm at least remember the 72 MHz frequency band where each system
operated on a specific center frequency, where no two systems could be operated
in the same vicinity. Before that there was the 27 MHz band, which is where
I began, more specifically on 27.195 MHz. Only five frequencies were reserved
by the FCC exclusively for radio control use. That meant never more than five planes
in the air, or even being worked on with the radio on, at a time. The band was part
of the original Citizens Band (CB) radio allocation. Commercial CB radios were notoriously
lousy at controlling bandwidth and often overlapped the R/C bands with enough power
to cause deadly (to a model) interference. My FCC operator's permits (Class
C and Class D), obtained sometime around 1972, is long gone...
 This full-page advertisement for
Comet's
Sabre 44 control line "gas" model appeared in the January 1955 issue of Model
Airplane News. Ready-to-fly "gas" models were just entering the market at the time.
The "All Plastic" model preceded Cox's popular line of ready-to-fly plastic control
line models. Whereas the Cox models used their own line of .049 and .020 glow fuel
engines, Comet used the 1/2A-Herkimer 049B engine. The $9.95 price tag in 1995 is
the equivalent of $101.25 today, which is really about what such a model with engine
would cost now if anyone made such a product (which they don't)...
 Flying Aces magazine featured a monthly
"Aviation
News" column that covered both model and full-size aviation happenings across
the country and on foreign soil. This 1934 issue reported on the land-based "lighthouses"
which were established throughout the land in order to guide airplanes from airport
to airport. Not much in the way of radio direction finding was available at the
time, and this method was more consistent and reliable than having farmers build
bonfires in their fields for pilots to look for. "Dead reckoning" was still the
order of the day back then. Compared to today where only in the most remote areas
are lacking any manmade visual object to positive identification while navigating,
real "seat of the pants" skill was required to fly cross-country routes without
getting lost. Nowadays, GPS-linked and/or inertial navigation systems can flying
an airplane from point A to point B without any assistance from a human. Also
told...
 Don Berliner, who published many articles
and even books on scale model and full-sized aircraft, provided this article on
the
SAAB J 21 fighter in a 1971 issue of American Aircraft Modeler
magazine. Most people nowadays associate the company name SAAB with high quality
automobiles, although Saab the car company went defunct in 2012. From the World
War II era through to today, they produce(d) aircraft. Here is an excerpt from
their current "About Us" webpage; "When Saab was founded in 1937, our primary aim
was to provide military aircraft for Sweden. Today, we serve the global market with
world-leading products, services and solutions from military defence to civil security.
With operations on every continent, Saab continuously develops, adapts and improves
new technology to meet customers' changing needs." The SAAB J 21 went through
multiple design iterations as both a pusher-prop and a jet fighter aircraft...
 Flying in a contest with 35 mile per hour
winds is hard to imagine, but that was the case at the 1954 Nats FAI Free Flight
semi-finals. Fortunately, on the day of the actual event the winds had calmed down.
I would never consider flying even an radio-controlled model airplane in 35 mph
winds, much less a free flight. Howard Timlin was the designer, builder, and flyer
of this beautiful "Saturn,"
which appeared in the November 1954 issue of Air Trails magazine. It sports a wingspan
of about 60 inches with a Goldberg G-10 undercambered airfoil (same as the Carl
Goldberg Viking free flight model). Although not specified, I assume this is a Class
A model since the F1C class allows up to 0.15 cubic inches (2.5 cc). Howard
had another successful contest design - the 50" wingspan ½A "Solar"...
 This is the Tuesday, October 10, 1939, "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 ...
 The original speakers on my Reader's Digest
800-XR stereo system sounded OK, but they sounded crackly at some frequencies even
at normal volume level, so I decided to
replace the speakers with something more modern. Not wanting to
spend a lot of money on speakers and a crossover network, I opted for a set of car
speakers with built-in crossovers. Since car speakers have a 4 Ω impedance
and the stereo wants 8 Ω, I wired the two new speakers in series. Over time,
the right channel on the Speaker A output became scratchy and sometimes would drop
out completely. There was also an issue with
distortion on all outputs when the volumes was turned ...
 This triad of
model airplane-themed
comics appeared in the February 1941 issue of Flying Aces magazine. They are
a bit on the goofy side, but keep in mind what a novelty airplanes and parachutes
and such were even in the 1930s and early 1940s. Humor style was markedly different
in the day overall as well, so what passed as clever then might not be considered
equally clever today. That being said, don't pass up these comics - they might be
just the does of lightheartedness you need at the moment...
 The
Peanuts© comic strip,
drawn by Charles Schulz, has been my lifetime favorite. That it is also the world's
favorite strip is no wonder. Now that I have crossed the half-century threshold,
I tend to look back at the innocence and complexity of the themes with a perspective
other than simply entertainment - although I still thoroughly enjoy reading them
just to get a few good laughs. Since Charles Schulz's death in 2000, books have
been published documenting his life and how his experiences influenced Peanuts characters'
appearances and behaviors. It is apparent from the content that Mr. Schulz hearkened
from an era much different from today. It is hard to imagine a start-up comic akin
to Peanuts being accepted in the much cruder, meaner, and less polite world of 2009.
One interesting tidbit that I found in Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz, is
a list of the edition of The Saturday Evening Post where Schulz's first for-pay
comics appeared...
 My original
Top Flite Monokote
Sealing Iron, purchased in the mid-1970s, lasted until the late 1990s, when
the heating element burned out. A quarter century of use was not too bad. To replace
it, I bought a Tower Hobbies iron, and the first time I used it the handle started
to bend where it transitions from a hollow round shape to a flat shape. The metal
was noticeably softer than the Top Flite handle, which never even hinted at bending.
For two decades I have had to be very careful not to press too hard on the iron
lest it bend. After many times of bending and straightening the handle, a major
stress crack had formed, and it was pretty evident that the handle would not last
much longer. I would either need to buy a new Monokote sealing iron, which in all
likelihood would be equally cheaply built since Top Flite does not make them anymore,
or come up with some kind or repair for this one...
 (add other photos) A nice vintage
Sunbeam Model FP−11A electric frypan, like one we had decades ago, showed up
at an estate sale. I plugged it in and it heated up quickly, so I paid the man $5
and brought it home. The magazine advertisement shown on the left is from 1956,
so it's more than sixty years old! Melanie and I have been on a mission for many
years to find Made in the USA products for use rather than support Red China. That
goes for appliances, tools, electronics, clothing, household goods, and whatever
else can be found. Before investing time into cleaning it up, I wanted to give it
a good going over. A quick check with the thermocouple showed that the temperature
was out of alignment with the dial. I removed the protective cover and found the
adjustment screw provided for setting the temperature. After a few iterations of
adjusting and measuring, I arrived at a place where the frypan would heat up to
about 20° degrees above the set point, turn off, then turn back on about 20° degrees
below...
 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. It was a scary operation with the sharp teeth
flying while feeding that teak through it. 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, but turns to the familiar gray if left unprotected in
the sun...
 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
...
 The
Wee Bee
was at one time considered the world's smallest man-carrying aircraft. It had an
18-foot wingspan and weighted 215 pounds without pilot. Lloyd Hunt's model of the
Wee Bee is designed for either free flight or control line. For C/L it is powered
by an .049 engine, and for F/F it uses an .020 engine. Its 22" wingspan makes it
about 1/10th scale. Construction is built-up fuselage, wing, and tail surfaces with
balsa sheeting over all. If you are looking for an unusual scale model that will
not require a lot of detail to make it look authentic, the Wee Bee would make a
good subject ... |
