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 The venerable
Cessna 150 first came
on the scene in 1958. Per Wikipedia, "The Cessna 150 is a two-seat tricycle gear
general aviation airplane, that was designed for flight training, touring and personal
use. The Cessna 150 is the fourth most produced civilian plane ever, with 23,839
aircraft produced. The Cessna 150 was offered for sale in the 150 basic model, Commuter,
Commuter II, Patroller and the aerobatic Aerobat models." The design has changed
considerably since 1958, with two of the most notable changes being the vertical
fin and the rear fuselage behind the cockpit. Note that a photo of the 1958 Cessna
150 is on the cover of this edition.
 LaGuardia Airport was dedicated on October
15, 1939 as the New York Municipal Airport, and opened for business on December
2 of that year. It was built on the site of the old Gala Amusement Park at a cost
of $40 million. This aerial photograph shown here was taken within a couple months
of when LaGuardia first opened since this "Airports:
Biggest and Busiest" article appeared in the March 1940 issue of Boys' Life
magazine. The recent Google map satellite view is below the page scan, and I superimposed
the 1940 runways and taxiways on top of it for comparison. You can see where expansions
were built into the water to accommodate longer runways...
 Long before rechargeable nickel-cadmium
(NiCad) and nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) batteries were used for starting model airplane
engines, we used standard primary type (non-rechargeable) 1.5-volt dry cells. In
fact, the nominal 1.2-volt-per-cell potential of NiCad and NiMH batteries were barely
high enough to sufficiently light the ignition coils in the glow heads and/or glow
plugs, which were designed for 1.5 volts. Today's glow plugs work just fine on 1.2 V
or 1.5 V. I have written before about how as a kid on a very small modeling
budget, I would often spend a long time flipping the propeller of my
Cox .049 engines while using a single,
worn-out D-cell battery (usually "borrowed" from my father's only flashlight). One
Christmas my parents got me a field kit that included a can of 25% nitro Cox fuel,
a glow head clip...
 During World War I, the United States spent
$1,500,000,000 on military aviation, resulting in the development of various
advanced aircraft designs. This 1937 issue of Flying Aces magazine
mentions a few of them. This was 19 years after the armistice. Although these planes
did not see combat due to the war ending sooner than expected, they showcased American
ingenuity and engineering prowess. Notable examples include the L.W.F.G.2, which
had a top speed of 130 mph and carried seven guns; the Loening monoplane, which
was the fastest two-seater fighter at the time with a speed of 146 mph; and the
Curtiss single-seater fighter, capable of reaching 160 mph. These aircraft laid
the foundation for modern American military aviation...
 While looking through some old issues of
American Aircraft Modeler magazine, I was quite surprised to find that
none other than radio great
Paul Harvey is (or
was) a builder and flyer of radio controlled airplanes. There was a feature article
done by Paul Harvey in one of the issues in the 1974 timeframe. Mr. Harvey then
wrote a regular column titled "Paul Harvey Views." Understandably, the column only
ran for a few months - probably because of his extremely busy schedule. This one
is from the December 1974 edition...
 "In August last
year Nokia and Axiom Space announced they were working to equip the latter's next-generation
lunar
spacesuits with 4G/LTE connectivity for the for NASA's Artemis III mission to
the moon. The idea is that arming the new spacesuit, called Axiom Extravehicular
Mobility Unit (AxEMU), with high-speed cellular-network capabilities means it can
support HD video, telemetry data and voice transmission over multiple kilometers
on the moon. This means the Artemis III crewmembers will then be able to capture
real-time video and communications..."
 Previously I posted the first part of a
story about two 1980s-vintage bicycles I bought from a guy off craigslist. That
was the complete teardown and restoration of
Melanie's Columbia
Commuter III, 3-speed women's model. This page has photos from doing the
same thing to my
Huffy 3 Timberline, 3-speed men's bicycle. One important aspect worth repeating
is the use of Krud Kutter for removing all the oil and grease. The stuff is amazing.
I soaked all the parts overnight that would fit in a bucket filled with a gallon
of it. Upon removing even the grimiest and greasiest components like the gearbox,
bearings, and the chain, I discovered they were squeaky clean. A toothbrush removed...
 Being
a long-time fan of John T. Frye's "Carl & Jerry" technodrama™ series, I
have been intending to attempt a contemporary version which has a Ham radio theme.
Its purpose, as with "Carl & Jerry," is to encourage young people to adopt electronics
as a hobby and even as a career, while using Amateur Radio as an enticement. Ham
radio offers practical experience in electronic theory, fabrication, and operation
in an environment that encourages community service, mentorship, camaraderie, and
self discipline. In the U.S., there are approximately 760,000 licensed amateur radio
operators; worldwide, the estimated number is around 3,000,000. The American Radio
Relay League (ARRL) and the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) track these
statistics. This title of the series is, for now anyway, "Calvin &
Phineas Hamming It Up," and the first adventure is called, "The Phantom QRM."
Call signs are fictitious, chosen to hopefully not step on someone's real call sign.
The boys' names derive from my grandson's name...
 You might wonder why an article entitled
"Winning
the National Radio Control Meet" for model airplanes would appear in the ARRL's
QST magazine. The answer is that back in 1940 when it was published, a
Ham license was required to operate a radio control (R/C) transmitter. There were
no license-free bands for hobbyists as there are now. In fact, it wasn't until 1976
that the FCC suspended their requirement for registration as an operator, which
has returned in the form of an FAA "drone" (aka USAS) pilot directive. The author,
William (Bill) E. Good (W8IFD, W2CVI), was the twin brother of Walter (Walt) A.
Good (W3NPS), both of whom held doctoral degrees in and physics, and were referred
to as "the fathers of radio control." The photo of Bill shows his station...
 Often when I see photos of some of the
early
radio control gear for model airplanes, I have a simultaneous reaction of aghastness
and marvel at the crudity and ingenuousness, respectively, of the electromechanical
devices - the same kind of reaction I have to stories about early surgical procedures
and equipment. In 1940, when this article appeared in the ARRL's QST magazine, successful
takeoffs and landings were considered notable events not so much because of pilot
ability (or inability), but because of the low reliability of available electronic
and mechanical gear. Vacuum tubes with attendant heavy, high voltage power supplies,
and heavy metal gears and shafts required large airframes to support...
 American Modeler magazine published
stories on many forms of modeling including airplanes, cars, boats, and rockets.
A lot of attention was paid to teenagers in order to encourage a pursuit of careers
in engineering and science. In case you don't know, the U.S. Navy used to sponsor
the AMA Nationals specifically to attract young modelers into the service. This
1957 edition reports on the activities of James M. Blackmon, Jr., who was the nation's
youngest rocket builder to receive national recognition by the
American Rocket Society.
He built in his basement a 6' tall liquid-fueled rocket...
 This November 1961 installment of American
Modeler magazine's "Sketchbook
- Hints & Kinks" column has a very interesting alternative to the traditional
"stooge" that is used when a helper is not available to assist in launching a control
line airplane model. The drawing is a bit confusing, but what's going on is the
flyer starts and holds the model at a point just outside the dashed line circle,
and the pole is set midway of the diameter of the circle. That gives the airplane
half the circle to take off before it is free of the pole. Then, it is flown normally.
I can see where, as the inventor states, the process could be a spooky until the
flyer has gotten used to it...
 "Delta Air Lines and JetZero are partnering
to develop a
commercial blended-wing-body (BWB) aircraft that would be 50 percent more fuel
efficient than those in current operation, the carrier has announced. The development,
which builds upon a Department of Defense's Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) investment
in the BWB technology, comes as Delta continues to focus on its goal of net-zero
emissions by 2050. BWB aircraft received a boost in 2023 for its BWB aircraft when
the U.S. Air Force awarded it $235 million over four years for the development and
production of a full-scale demonstrator. The aircraft is to take its first flight
in 2027..."
 Website visitor Tom A. wrote to ask me to
post this "Baby Biplane" article
from the October 1971 edition of American Aircraft Modeler magazine. It
was one of the For the Tenderfoot models that the magazine published almost
monthly for many years. The Baby Biplane uses a very simple structure but as with
any biplane of any size, the extra work of building a second wing and adjusting
it to fly properly take a little more work. Using the modern trick of printing a
colored patter on the Jap tissue prior to attaching it would make Baby Biplane look
really spiffy...
 Estes does not sell the D-13 engine line
anymore, but it does sell a D-12. The D-13 produced 9 pounds of thrust according
to this article and the 1971 Estes catalog (p94), whereas according to the 2014
Estes catalog the D-12 produces only 7.4 pounds (p79). If you want similar performance
with readily available
rocket engines,
you will need to get them from a company like Aerotech, which makes an F30FJ-6 model
that produces 9 pounds of thrust. With that solution you're look at about $12 per
launch. I believe that with modern materials like graphite for spars and/or leading
edges, and the lightweight airborne systems, the flying weight could be significantly
reduced, and a much lower thrust (and cost) engine could be used...
 Here is a detailed account of
American model aviation magazines, presented in chronological order of their
founding, including publication date ranges, editors' names with their tenures where
available, and a description of each magazine's purpose and target audience. These
titles - spanning from the early 20th century to the present as of February 2025
- reflect the evolution of model aviation from rubber-powered gliders to modern
RC drones. The data is drawn from historical records, enthusiast archives, and trends
A conceptual timeline follows, imagining the overlapping publication spans, though
an image isn't generated here - envision a horizontal chart from 1915 to 2025 tracking
these magazines' lifespans...
 Low-wing airplanes had not quite caught
on with the flying public prior to World War II, so Aeronca had an uphill battle
in gaining acceptance of its "Model-L" series of
planes. It ended up being a complete success. The article has an interesting tale
of salvaging partially-complete airplanes during a flood in Cincinnati in 1937 using
techniques that would never be allowed in today's highly regulated and monitored
world. Interestingly website visitor Glen M. sent me a photo of an Aeronca
LC on floats - the "LCS" model the author of this American Aircraft Modeler
magazine article suggests might have never been built. To be fair...
 As of
February, 2025, when this is being written, several major
artificial intelligence engines are publicly accessible through free tiers,
temporary free access, or subscription-based models with broad availability. I have
been evaluating ChatGPT-4 (OpenAI) and very recently, Grok 3 (xAI). I requested
from both ChatGPT and Grok, tables of comparison and contrast between the two, based
on "Aspect" criteria I provided. Those results are presented below. They seem to
be mostly honest assessments. Perhaps not surprisingly, Grok 3 often invoked
the name of its founder (Mr. Musk) during my interactions with it on wireless
communications topics. I will reveal more on that later...
 "September 30 marked the end of the FAA's
fiscal year and with it, the annual conclusion of the annual 12-month tracking of
fatal accidents among experimental category aircraft. The preliminary numbers
from the agency received late last week appear to present an excellent snapshot
of safety over the past year. While the final totals are still being tabulated,
the initial total of 37 accidents is well below the FAA's not-to-exceed figure of
46 for the period. That includes 29 fatal accidents in homebuilt aircraft. More
details will be available in the coming weeks as the FAA's annual total of GA activity..."
 Hi Johnson was a well-known designer
and manufacturer of model airplane engines in the middle of the last century. His
series of throttled engines was widely used in the early years of radio control.
A lot of research went into producing the engines to produce long lifetime, easy
starting, and consistency of operation. The
Johnson
35 R/C, which is the subject of this 1962 American Modeler magazine
article, was one of the first to used dual ball bearings on the crankshaft, contributing
mightily to the accomplishment of the aforementioned goals. The state of the art
for all types of model flying had advanced to where pilots could expect...
 With all the news lately about AI (artificial
intelligence) and whether the good it can do offsets the bad, I decided to ask both
Grok 3 (X.ai) and ChatGPT (OpenAI) to compose short essays on a few model aviation
related topics. While that will not settle the aforementioned dilemma, it will provide
a peek into the "good" side of what AI can do. I have been using ChatGPT for a few
months, and just recently Grok 3. Here is a side-by-side, unedited comparison
of the results of submitting the exact same query to both AI beings. Note that the
content for both Grok 3 and ChatGPT is fairly brief, not long-winded treatises
that would fill a book. Having used both for a while, it seems when you hear about
students using AI...
 As with most things these days related to
model airplane components, extensive research into materials, structure, and functionality
have been thoroughly researched and engineered to the point where the modeler has
little more to do that install parts into his craft. Parameters have been thoroughly
analyzed using computers over a wide range of input stimuli to determine the optimal
configuration. The effort dedicated by author Wayne Schindler to design and conduct
an experiment to determine the optimal dimensions and shapes for a
ducted
fan propulsion system is nothing short of academic. His efforts produced a list
of design parameters to consider when building a ducted fan-powered model airplane.
The net result in Mr. Schindler's case was an amazing 325% thrust improvement...
 "A
study from Canada has found a 26% annual chance that space debris will re-enter
the atmosphere and
pass through a busy flight area. The chance of space debris hitting an aircraft
is very low, but the research from a team at the University of British Columbia
highlights that the potential for uncontrolled space debris to disrupt flights and
create additional costs for airlines and passengers is not. The research is published
in Scientific Reports. In 2022, a re-entering 20-tonne..."
 The
Gloster E.1/44, presented in this 1948 issue of Popular Science magazine,
was a British experimental jet fighter developed in the 1940s as a potential single-engine
counterpart to the twin-engine Gloster Meteor. Designed by the Gloster Aircraft
Company to meet Air Ministry Specification E.1/44, it was powered by a Rolls-Royce
Nene turbojet and featured a sleek, straight-wing design with a tricycle landing
gear. Initially conceived as a simpler and more economical jet fighter for the Royal
Air Force, the project faced numerous delays due to shifting priorities...
 During
World War II, Americans, Britains, Frenchmen, and other civilians were seriously
engaged in helping to defend their homeland. Those who were not in the military
gathered bottles, tin cans, tires, and clothing to use in the war effort. Others
volunteered at the Red Cross, veterans' hospitals, and USO offices. Some stood guard
at their nation's seashores and land borders, both as armed sentries and as troop
and aircraft spotters. As part of the civil defense effort, listening devices were
built to help detect the sound of approaching airplanes. In patriotic tradition,
magazines like Popular Science published many articles to assist the population
contribute. Here is a plan for a "Homemade
Plane Detector." It used a horn "antenna" that...
 As a member of the Academy of Model Aeronautics
(AMA) since around 1971 (AMA # 92498), I have witnessed a lot of change in the organization
as well as in the model industry. When I first joined as a teenager, AMA headquarters
consisted of rented office space in a Washington, D.C., building, Richard Nixon
was president, and the war in Viet Nam was on nightly news. AMA headquarters moved
into a brand new building, which included museum space, on purchased property in
Reston, Virginia, in 1983. A growing AMA membership and the desire to consolidate
national competitions to a central location resulted in
establishing residence in Muncie, Indiana, where the 25,000 square-foot Frank
V. Ehling Complex celebrated its grand opening in 1992. Since then, an additional
25,000 square feet of space...
 I did not bother to look up what the
world record endurance flight length is for an R/C glider as of this writing,
but in December 1956 when this article appeared in the first edition of American
Modeler magazine, a team of three modelers did 8 hours, 34 minutes and 21 seconds
at Torrey Pines, California. That would be an amazing accomplishment with today's
equipment, but these guys did it with a vacuum tube receiver and an escapement mechanism
driven by a twisted rubber band - rudder-only! No elevator control, no flaps or
speed brakes, no gyroscopic stabilization, no proportional rudder deflection. It
was left, center, or right...
 This is the earliest known photo of me with
a control line airplane - a Cox PT-19 Trainer.
I'm guessing it was summer of 1969, when I would have been 12 to 13 years old (my
birthday is August 18, so it could have been before or after). I remember that 1969
was the year because it was the year that Hurricane Camille tore up Biloxi, Mississippi
(where I would many years later be stationed for electronics training in the USAF)
and the rains even in Mayo, Maryland, where I lived, were torrential. It is the
airplane with which I first learned to fly control line. There was another Cox control
line plane that I had prior to the PT-19 Trainer, but I cannot recall...
|
 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...
 Crash Carringer was one of Arch Whitehouse's
later ace pilot characters. Officially an aircraft salesman for Hale Aircraft Corporation
on Long Island, New York. However, in his efforts to prove the superiority of his
prized Hellion monoplane fighter with a twin tail boom configuration, he often ended
up fighting and winning dogfights against evil worldwide crime organizations who
were often in league with governments of notorious for desiring to rule the Earth.
World War I had been over for nearly two decades and World War II was
newly on the table following Hitler's and Hirohito's invasions in Europe and Asia,
respectively. Accordingly, those two countries played prominently in the stories.
As with most of these sorts of stories in Flying Aces magazine, they were quite
long, filling eight to ten full pages...
 Some companies
have expressed an interest in being able to target Airplanes and Rockets via the
Google
AdSense program. Yes, it is possible to do that. As you might expect, finding
the exact information on the Google AdSense website is a bit difficult. This short
video does a good job summarizing exactly how to implement the "Ad Targeting" option,
then "Placements," and then add "Websites." Just enter airplanesandrockets.com
. There are other settings to optimize your advertising campaign with keywords (both
included and excluded), pricing, scheduling, statistical data collection and reporting,
etc. If you are currently using Google AdSense, then please consider this method,
and if you are not using AdSense, now would be a good time to look into it. I have
had reports from some companies that experience great results using AdSense (not
just on Airplanes and Rockets)...
 Here is a fairly unique free flight rubber
model named the "Scotch
Monoped" partly due to its having a single wheel and partly due to its designer
being of Scottish heritage. It is of simple stick and tissue construction, and full-sized
planes were published in the December 1939 issue of Flying Aces magazine. "Scotty"
Mayors says he made it inherently stable under all conditions by providing lots
of side area in the fuselage and dual vertical fins. The airfoil is a rather thick
flat-bottomed section. A look at the open framework reveals that minimum weight
was a goal, since even the wing ribs have lightening holes cut in them. I forgot
to scan the wing plan sheet...
 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...
 Fox model airplane engines had a reputation
for ruggedness and contest-winning performance, but were also notoriously difficult
to get started - at least without an electric starter. In 1961, when this full-page
advertisement appeared in American Modeler magazine, electric starters were not
in many modelers' field boxes, and particularly those owned by youngsters whose
modeling budget came from meager allowances and paper routes. Born in 1958, I was
15 or 16 years old before being able to afford the luxury, and I remember relentlessly
flipping the propellers on my Fox 15 and Fox 35 control line engines. Half the time
when they started, they were running backwards and had to be stopped with a rag
thrown into the prop, then the process started over again. Ugh. ...but I digress.
Fox prided itself on their use of Meehanite iron for the piston. Per Wikipedia:
"Meehanite is a trademark for an engineering process to make a range of cast irons
produced under specific and carefully controlled conditions to precise internationally
recognized specifications." I don't know what the difference is between the standard
Fox engines and the "X" series. My Fox 15 and Fox 35, which I still have, are the
standard non-X variety...
 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...
 The middle of the last century was a time
ripe with
opportunities
for people with a penchant for innovation, experimentation, designing, and building
high technology products. Aviation, aerospace, land and sea transportation, medicine,
manufacturing, chemistry, physics, astronomy, communications, electronics, mechanics,
nuclear technology, remote exploration of space and the sea, and many other realms
were pushing forward the frontiers of knowledge (or pushing back the frontiers of
ignorance, depending on your viewpoint) at an incredible rate. Both trade and hobby
magazines often featured articles encouraging participation as technicians and engineers
in a field related to hobby interests (Ham radio, model airplanes, boats, and cars,
etc.). Air Trails magazine ran many such pieces, including this 1954 example...
 Post World War II was a big time for
model building and operating. Veterans and their families helped relieve the stress
and anxieties of the era with both scale and original design
model boats, cars, trains,
submarines, motorcycles helicopters, airplanes, tanks, even oddities like bicycles,
farm equipment, carnival layouts, animals, and historic buildings (of which
many of those appeared in model train layouts). The level of artistry and craftsmanship
was impressive, particularly considering the sparsity of pre-made miniature accoutrements
like hardware fittings, mechanisms for operating control surfaces and mechanisms,
and even appropriate finishes. Radio control was in its infancy, being largely the
realm of modelers with knowledge...
 This "Sketchbook" was
scanned from the March 1961 American Modeler magazine, page 60. Most building
tips are timeless. Even in this era of ready-to-fly (RTF), almost-ready-to-fly (ARF),
bind-and-fly (BAF), etc., there are still many modelers who build their own aircraft.
Nearly all top tier competition fliers build their own models, as do aficionados
of vintage (aka old-timer) models. Some guys just would rather build than buy a
pre-build airplane, whether from a kit or from plans. There is an interesting suggestion
for making fine adjustments on free flight models for wash−in and wash−out while
at the flying field, which could be useful when trimming for a contest.
Some companies
have expressed an interest in being able to target Airplanes and Rockets via the
Google
AdSense program. Yes, it is possible to do that. As you might expect, finding
the exact information on the Google AdSense website is a bit difficult. This short
video does a good job summarizing exactly how to implement the "Ad Targeting" option,
then "Placements," and then add "Websites." Just enter airplanesandrockets.com
. There are other settings to optimize your advertising campaign with keywords (both
included and excluded), pricing, scheduling, statistical data collection and reporting,
etc. If you are currently using Google AdSense, then please consider this method,
and if you are not using AdSense, now would be a good time to look into it. I have
had reports from some companies that experience great results using AdSense (not
just on Airplanes and Rockets)...
 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 ...
 I purchased a couple batches of vintage
Popular Electronics magazines off of eBay for use on my engineering website,
RF Cafe; however, upon scanning through the pages I was pleasantly surprised to
find that many articles on
radio controlled
airplanes were included. The 1950s and 1960s were relatively early in the R/C
sport, and such things were still considered a novelty. Of course, today the toy
shelves of even Walmart are full of R/C products. Kids today take them for granted...
as I suppose my generation took for granted Erector Sets and Lincoln Logs. Anyway,
I have begun scanning and OCRing (Optical Character Recognition) some of the articles
and posting them here on AirplanesAndRockets.com. This first Popular Electronics,
from the December 1954 edition, was written by none other than Bill Winter...
Some companies
have expressed an interest in being able to target Airplanes and Rockets via the
Google
AdSense program. Yes, it is possible to do that. As you might expect, finding
the exact information on the Google AdSense website is a bit difficult. This short
video does a good job summarizing exactly how to implement the "Ad Targeting" option,
then "Placements," and then add "Websites." Just enter airplanesandrockets.com
. There are other settings to optimize your advertising campaign with keywords (both
included and excluded), pricing, scheduling, statistical data collection and reporting,
etc. If you are currently using Google AdSense, then please consider this method,
and if you are not using AdSense, now would be a good time to look into it. I have
had reports from some companies that experience great results using AdSense (not
just on Airplanes and Rockets)...
 Control line speed has been around for many
decades. As with all other areas of specialty, the state of the art has advanced
significantly since the time of Bill Wisniewski's reign as king of the C/L speed
domain with his venerable
Pink Ladies. Today's
C/L speed models have a single long inboard wing and often have computer-designed
airfoils and fuselage shapes. In the 1958 timeframe when this story appeared in
American Modeler magazine, the record speed was in the 160 mph range. The
video below shows a new F2A world speed record of 208 mph being set in October of
2009...
 Here is a short story about French flying
ace Pierre Clostermann who, after his country capitulated to the German Wehrmacht,
went to England to fly for the Royal Air Force (RAF). It appeared in the March 1962
issue of American Modeler magazine. His service for the French resistance
was spent downing German Focke-Wulfs, Junkers, and Messerschmitts - 23 confirmed
kills, 5 "probables," and 30 aircraft damaged. His fabled aircraft was a
Hawker
Tempest, sister craft to the beautiful Hawker Hurricane. This control line model
is designed for a .60 size engine. A separate full construction article for the
Hawker Tempest was also published in this issue....
 Competitive model boating was a popular sport
in the 1960's as radio control systems became more affordable and reliable. Of course
if you have a glitch in your radio with a boat, the consequences are usually much
less that with an airplane. This report in a 1962 edition of American Modeler
magazine tells of one California model boating club that lost its "field" (a park
lake) due to "excessive and unnecessary noise." Yep, it was happening way back then.
On the other hand, it also reports on a club in New Jersey where the parks department
constructed a pier for them to use. As usual, your fortunes depend on the preferences
and sentiments of government bureaucrats. Many people these days are using brushless
motor setups in their ...
 This
article by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame,
suggested the use of surplus German V−2 (Vergeltungswaffe 2; i.e., Retribution Weapon 2) rockets for launching
scientific payloads into space rather than for launching terrorizing attacks on
European cities. The October 1945 publishing date was after Germany had surrendered
in the spring of that year and Allied forces were rounding up war criminals and
confiscating documents and equipment. Clarke describes how an "artificial satellite"
could be caused to circle the earth "perpetually" and was published in the October
1945 edition of Wireless World magazine. The pilot-less V−2, along with
the V−1 "Buzz Bomb," were launched from within Germany and caused massive structural
damage and human death and suffering. For war progenitor and aggressor, Germany,
to call it a retribution weapon was a gross misnomer, especially considering it
was the second time (WWI and WWII) in three decades that the country had attempted
to bring Europe under its dominance with brutal assaults...
 Plans with minimum instructions for the
Miss Max
free flight model were published the July 1961 issue of American Modeler
magazine. Bryant A. Thompson (AMA 2697 - USAF Team Member), of Wichita Fall,
Texas, placed third in the Open Clipper event at the 1960 Dallas Nationals using
his Miss Max cargo design. It lifted 40−½ ounces. The "300" ½A Free Flight and Clipper
Cargo versions are both shown in the plans. Scaling factors for "300" (Class ½A),
"450" (Class A), and "900" (Class B) model sizes are provided. A Cox Pee Wee .020
is drawn on the plans for the Cargo Clipper version. In the top view, note that
the wing is shown "flattened" (without polyhedral). "Flat span" dimensions are what
appear in the table.
 These couple
model aviation-related comics appeared in the January 1961
American Modeler magazine. I'm not quite sure what message the first one is
attempting to convey, with the guy peering through a seafarer's spyglass to see
his model airplane at the end of the control lines. Maybe it is meant to imply the
lines being used are really long, or that his model it really tiny. Note the telescope
dome in the background. Enjoy!
 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... |
