|
 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 ...
 "When World War One broke out in 1914, the airplane
was barely eleven years old and was nothing more than a plodding, noisy kite barely more
dangerous than an observation balloon. As a weapon, it was difficult to take seriously.
Four short years later it had been transformed into a multi-dimensional weapon system
of awesome potential and the
Royal Airplane Factory’s SE-5a is a classic case in point. It showed
clearly that in time of war man quickly finds more efficient ways rain death on his enemy.
The Scout Experimental 5, (SE-5) was designed specifically to eliminate the awful short
comings aircraft such as the Sopwith Camel, while at the same time, giving it a combat
edge over Germany's lethal Fokkers ..."
 Air Trails magazine ran a regular feature
called "Airmen of Vision" that was a deign idea contest where readers submitted futuristic
designs for everything from small homebuilt aircraft to military jet fighters and large
commercial airliners. The 1950's was an era when young men were totally caught up in
the dawning age of jet propulsion, transistorized electronics, flying cars, interplanetary
flight and moon landings, wind-powered ocean liners, robotic home servants, and even
- get this - personal computers! If you search the Airplanes and Rockets website for
some of the other aircraft and automobile design contest entries, you will be amazed
at how close some of them come to ones that have been built over the years. Check out
this SpaceShipOne lookalike ...
 Although not involved with Scaled Composites these
days, remember that famed Burt Rutan, himself a model airplane enthusiast, was the founder.
"The
flying rocket launcher enters a crowded field, leading some to wonder
if it could end up flying classified missions. Seven years ago, Microsoft founder Paul
Allen started a company with a bold idea: build one of the biggest aircraft ever to fly,
and then use it to launch satellites into orbit. Now just months before the airplane
flies the first time, some are wondering where the customers are for such an aircraft.
Could the airplane end up flying secret missions for the military and intelligence community?
Built by aviation firm Scaled Composites, Stratolaunch is the largest aircraft in the
world ..."
 "Even as drone technology advances, power constraints
limit the amount of equipment unmanned systems can carry as well as the time they can
stay in the air. Some drone systems, like the
Persistent Aerial Reconnaissance and Communications drone from CyPhy
Works, deliver power through a tether to keep a small drone aloft for an entire week.
The Army, however, is developing a system to supply power through a laser, according
to reporting from the New Scientist. The drone would be outfitted with a photovoltaic
cell that could take the light beam from the laser and turn it into electricity. The
Army has still to determine how to get the benefits of photovoltaics without the extreme
heat damaging the drone, according to Futurism ..."
 "The US-1, from Impossible Aerospace, can fly for
2 hours. A new electric drone from Impossible Aerospace can fly more than four times
as long as other battery-powered drones, the company announced today, potentially bringing
the world closer to fully electric passenger aircraft. The new unmanned vehicle, dubbed
the US-1, is a quadcopter that is 'essentially just one big flying battery,' says Spencer
Gore, founder and CEO of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Impossible Aerospace. 'Most drones are
designed with the philosophy that once you are done figuring out the payload and propulsion,
you add the battery pack,' Gore says. 'Instead, from the very beginning, we designed
a battery pack that was meant to fly' ..."
 As a kid in the 1960's, following America's progress
in the Space Race was a big part of my life. I built and launched as many Estes rockets
as my meager newspaper route-funded budget allowed. When John Glenn made his historic
Earth-orbiting flight in the Mercury Freedom 7 space capsule on February 20, 1962,
I was a mere 3 years old, but my parent say I was an ardent aerospace fan beginning at
a very young age. Most American households probably had at least one
View-Master
stereo slide viewer, and ours was amongst them. I loved the 3D Peanuts slide sets, and
especially any with an airplane or space exploration theme. My originals are long gone,
but fortunately I was able to buy this near-perfect set titled, "America's Man in Space,"
on eBay ...
 "In the UK, the testing of a
flying taxi made the news this week. We can set sight on a new day
in vertical aerospace with the company of the same name. A full scale electric vertical
take off and landing aircraft has flown and takes it place as 'the UK's first full scale
fully electric vertical take off and landing aircraft.' This startup, Vertical Aerospace,
is building technology (1) to change how people fly, (2) to expand your notion of air
travel as now an 'intercity' option, and (3) to offer people carbon free journeys. The
Telegraph was already showing awareness of possible use cases with its headline "Bristol
start-up launches UK's first electric 'flying taxi ..."
 "Today, the Senate passed the
FAA Reauthorization
Act of 2018, and we expect President Trump to sign it into law soon. This bill includes
significant modifications to our hobby. While some of the changes are positive, and include
provisions that AMA has championed, overall the bill is problematic, such as a 400 AGL
altitude cap in Class G airspace. Please note: None of the provisions included in this
bill will go into effect immediately. The status quo remains - and you should continue
to fly in accordance with AMA's safety guidelines until the FAA creates new rules, which
could take some time. We will let you know as soon as we have more information on this
process and timeline. In the meantime, we are already working behind-the-scenes ..."
 To the left is Melanie with her gaf
View−Master "Tour Theatre" set that she had as a little girl. She took better care of
her stuff than I did, so a lot of her toys and dolls are still around decades later.
It came with a Standard 30−watt projector and a hand−held stereo viewer. Also included
was a nice case and a few reel sets with various places around the world*. Being a Peanuts
fan like me, she had a couple 3−reel sets: "Snoopy and the Red Baron," and Peanuts."
We have a "Little Drummer Boy" and "Dennis the Menace" set, too. The others are long
gone. I had just a hand−held viewer. The hand−held View−Master viewer that created a
3D scene by using a pair of stereoscopic images fed individually to each eye. One of
the Peanuts reels has a frame showing how those stereoscopic images were ...
 Here is another round of nifty model airplane building
ideas, aka "Sketchbook,"
submitted by readers of the Academy of Model Aviation's (AMA's) American Modeler
magazine. I'm not too keen on the "rubber mold" idea of using a thin layer of silicon
rubber, trimmed to the design outline with a razor knife - especially over an open wing
bay or between fuselage longerons. Controlling the depth of the cut is tricky, especially
in a layer of silicon that is not of uniform thickness. Mr. Itter must have a steady
hand. Using a length of brass tubing with the end filed or sanded to a sharp edge is
a handy trick for cutting holes I have used many times over the years - probably after
having first seen it in American Aircraft Modeler, R/C Modeler,
Flying Models, or Model ...
 "The Academy of Model Aeronautics is rallying
its members to lobby congressional representatives to vote against the latest iteration
of FAA reauthorization, the
FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018. The bill includes modifications
to the Special Rule for Model Aircraft, also known as Section 336, modifications the
AMA claims will put burdensome restrictions on the use of model aircraft. The FAA Reauthorization
Act of 2018 restricts model aircraft operations to 400 feet AGL. This limit 'kills many
of our operations that have been safely conducted for decades,' said AMA's interim executive
director, Chad Budreau, in a video on the AMA website. AMA claims this limit will inhibit
AMA competitions ..."
 "Van's Aircraft is set to begin manufacturing
RV–12's in 2018 at its headquarters in Aurora, Oregon, the company
announced. The factory-built special light sport aircraft (SLSA) will use fuel-injected
Rotax 912 iS and iST engines instead of earlier carbureted models. Van's employees will
build the new airplanes - not Synergy Air of Eugene, Oregon, a separate company that
previously assembled SLSA RV - 12's from kits that Van's supplied. 'We've got a new,
dedicated work area at Aurora,' said Greg Hughes, a Van's spokesman. 'All the parts,
expertise, and components will be in the same area, and that's sure to enhance efficiency ..."
 If you are a current member of the Academy of
Model Aeronautics (AMA), online access is available to every issue of
Model Aviation
magazine back through the first issue in July 1975. March 1975 was the final edition
of the predecessor magazine titled
American Aircraft Modeler
(see full list). The AMA Plans Service can provide you with plans for nearly all of the
models in American Modeler and American Aircraft Modeler either at
the original size or scaled up or down. There is a new wave in scratch builders occurring
now, and this would be a great resource for those folks ...
 Cal Smith covers a huge amount of turf in this
article about the Academy of Model Aeronautics' (AMA's) control line
Navy Carrier event
equipment, airframes, engines, and flying techniques. Back in 1961, when this article
appeared in American Modeler magazine, the U.S. Navy was still sponsoring the
AMA National Competition as a means of encouraging young men to consider careers in the
Navy as pilots as well as all the other disciplines needed to keep the fleet afloat,
so to speak. I always wanted to try building and flying Carrier, but the opportunity
never presented itself. There have not been local clubs with a carrier deck, and I have
neither the land area nor the money to build my own. It sure seems like flying Carrier
shouldn't be as difficult as it really is, but I have watched competitions at Brodak
and snagging ...
 "The Perlan 2 high altitude glider has achieved
another altitude record over the high peaks in the southern part of the Patagonia mountain
range. After being pulled to an altitude of 42,000 feet, the Perlan 2 continued to climb
past 62,000 feet. This altitude is beyond the Armstrong Line, which defines
the point beyond which the blood in a human body would boil unless protected by some
form of pressurization. Perlan Mission II's chief pilot Jim Payne, and pilot and project
manager Morgan Sandercock shattered the previous record, set by the same pilots about
one year ago in the same region of Argentina. At that time, Payne and Sandercock flew
to 52,221 feet. The team recently started using a tow plane ..."
 This particular page is from page 47 of the July
1957 issue of American Modeler magazine. If you can find one of these older
model Thimble-Drome (Cox)
PeeWee .020's on eBay in the original packaging, it will typically end up selling
for $75 or more. Thimble Drome is no longer in operation. Use the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics' inflation calculator to see what items cost in today's dollars. For instance,
that $3.95 PeeWee .020 would be $35.19 in 2018 money - a factor of nearly 10x ...
Author:
Kirt Blattenberger
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- 
Senate Passed
the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018
