|
 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...
 "An aviation company pushing the boundaries
of
solar-powered flight has successfully finished the first in a series of tests
for its uncrewed airplane, taking off from Mississippi's Stennis International Airport
for six flights high over the Gulf of Mexico. The company, Skydweller Aero Inc.,
says its aircraft - essentially a giant drone with a wingspan greater than a 747
- had one flight lasting 22.5 hours and another lasting 16 hours during the initial
testing campaign. The company says it is developing technology to enable its airplanes
to eventually spend months cruising at 40,000 feet, guided by a team of techs on
the ground and using only the sun for fuel. The top of the plane is equipped with
17,000 solar cells..."
 A scheme I have considered for control line
models is one of the entries in the "Sketch Book" section of the February 1949 issue
of Air Trails magazine. Mr. Joseph Johnson shows how he used a moveable
rudder on his scale airplane to increase tension on the control lines when up elevator
is commanded. A similar system could be devised for stunt models which increases
right rudder (for CCW circles, left rudder for CW) as either up or down elevator
is fed in. Another option I have never tried is to have a
moveable
rudder controlled by a spring connected to a sliding bellcrank platform that
would increase outward rudder when line tension lessens, and decrease it when the
lines get tight. Such a system would be most useful for compensating for wind gusts
that slacken the control lines. Maybe some day I'll have the time to experiment
with that. A handful of other ideas are included...
 Website visitor Bob wrote to ask that I
scan and post the construction article and plans for the
F-84G Thunderjet control
line model. It appeared in the July 1970 issue of American Aircraft Modeler magazine.
The unique feature of this model is that the power is supplied by the pilot. A fishing
pole and line is used to drag the airplane around the flying circle and a separate,
standard two-line elevator control is used to maneuver the model. Construction is
sheet balsa. Author Joe Wagner (well-known in the modeling world) claims that with
a bit of practice just about any aerobatic maneuver can be accomplished except for
the overhead routines like the figure eight...
 "Drones
will be deployed for long distance inspection of infrastructure as well as site
security following new rule changes published by the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
The aviation regulator's new rules will enable drones to fly beyond the visual line
of sight (BVLOS) of remote pilots in so-called 'atypical' operations through its
new policy for atypical air environments (AAE). BVLOS flights have been taking place
in the UK for several years, but these flights have occurred primarily in trials
under strict restrictions..."
 The 1956 Air Trails magazine Annual
Edition reported on the World Championships in Germany for the International Wakefield
Cup, F.A.I Free Flight, and Nordic A/2 Glider events. The three '55 World Championships
were held in September at the U.S. Air Force's Finthen Airfield, near Wiesbaden,
Germany. Competition was fierce amongst European and American contenders. It is
worthwhile to remember that 1955 was a mere eleven years after the end of World
War II, and that former foes were gathered together for a sporting contest.
There could easily have been men there who, without knowing it, were competing against
military adversaries they met on the battlefield or in occupied towns a decade earlier...
 This
rocket
boost glider called the Dyna-Soar was powered by American Telasco's version
of the Jetex 50 engine. Jetex rocket engines were quite popular with model airplane,
boat, and car builders through the early 1970s, at which point the fuel supplies
began to disappear. Most Internet sources posit that Imperial Chemicals Industries
(ICI) ceased making the fuel pellets due to a combination of liability and regulation
issues. ICI, based in Scotland, manufactured the Jetex fuel pellets* from a measured
blend of guanidine nitrate, 2,4-dinitroresorcinol, potassium nitrate...
 Leonardo da Vinci is usually credited with
producing the first illustration of a helicopter concept. It employed a rotating
helical corkscrew device at the top in order to enable the craft and occupant to
"screw his way aloft, in much the same manner as Archimedes designed his eponymous
helical screw device to lift water from a lower level to a higher level. Water,
being dense and cohesive with itself, was easily elevated, whilst air, not being
dense or cohesive, did not yield to the same technique. In fact, if the "aerial
screw" were able to spin rapidly enough and was of an efficient aerodynamic design,
it would work. Here is a 4-screw drone to prove it. These "Windmill
Planes" presented in the February 1939 issue of Popular Science magazine represent
the state of the art at the time. Surprisingly omitted is an example of Igor Sikorsky's
helicopter design, which he first flew successfully in September...
 "On the occasion of the 50th anniversary
of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which began its operations
on October 1, 1958, we offer this list of the
50 most memorable images from NASA's history. We recognize that any such ranking
is inherently subjective. The rationale for why any one image ranked two slots higher
than any other combines several factors, including our attempt to balance the list
between human spaceflight, satellite imaging, and planetary exploration. Many wonderful
images did not make the final cut - we couldn't convince the editors to give us
20 pages instead of 10. The list omits significant events from space history that
were not NASA achievements..."
 This sort of cutting edge technology used
to be the domain of military operations, but nowadays it can be found in amusement
parks and even at backyard parties. The parachute training facility which appeared
in a 1937 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine was real whiz-bang stuff
at the time. Although Russia's system is featured here, I have to believe other
countries were doing the same sort of thing. Using a
high power fan to boost the paratrooper trainee in a simulated parachute descent
was an excellent method of introducing men to the sensations and reactions to control
inputs via shroud lines. The story noes not mention whether the fan was forceful
enough to simulate a free-fall experience. Just today a saw a news item showing
such recreational free-fall machine companies called Urban Air and iFall...
 Since first starting with control line model
sin the late 1960s, I always intended to build a multi-engine model of some sort,
but didn't get around to it until around 2016 when I began construction on a Douglas
DC-3 (maiden flight occurred in 2023). With the plethora of ready-to-fly (RTF) and
almost RTF (ARF) models on the market today at very reasonable prices, there is
no real good excuse for not doing it; so I'll have to stick with my bad excuses.
But I digress. This simple twin
"Wee-38" Lightning which
appeared in the December 1959 issue of American Modeler magazine, uses
a pair of Cox .020 or .049 engines and solid balsa components. You could electrify
the model with equivalent brushless motors, ESCs, and a LiPo battery pack. It would
be nice if a series of ESCs would be marketed for twin motors, since unlike with
brushed...
 The
Space Race was one of the most significant geopolitical and scientific competitions
of the 20th century, driven by the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet
Union during the Cold War. It spanned from the late 1940s through the 1970s, with
a focus on achieving superiority in space exploration, a domain viewed as critical
not only for scientific advancement but also for military and strategic dominance.
Rooted in rocket technology developed during World War II, the Space Race transformed
the world's understanding of science and technology, culminating in the most dramatic
achievement: the landing of humans on the Moon in 1969. This treatise explores the
key milestones, the countries and key players involved, technological developments,
the interplay between military...
 This article appeared in the November 2024
issue of Astronomy magazine - not sure why. "Brothers is a place that has
somehow slipped outside the passage of time. Located in a sea of sagebrush in central
Oregon, this former stagecoach stopover once serviced horse-drawn migrants bound
for the Willamette Valley. Thanks to the nonprofit organization
OregonRocketry, Brothers has outlasted the surrounding ghost towns to find new
purpose as one of the preeminent high-power rocket launch sites in America. The
group has purchased land and established a site out here in coyote country for the
advancement of amateur rocketry and education of future aerospace engineers. They
have a waiver from the FAA that currently allows them to blast the things nearly
four miles into the air..."
 "Japanese
operator SoftBank announced that the Sunglaider, its large-scale solar-powered uncrewed
aircraft system (UAS) designed for
High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) stratospheric telecommunications, was
utilized in a field trial conducted by AeroVironment and the U.S. DoD in New Mexico,
the U.S. During the trial, carried out in early August, Sunglider succeeded in achieving
stratospheric flight, the Japanese operator said. With a wingspan of 78 meters and
the capability to carry payloads weighing up to 75kg, the Sunglider is larger than
other publicly announced HAPS UAS..."
 The
Cessna
Skymaster (336/337) has always been my favorite twin-engined civilian lightplane.
A military version of it is designated as the O-2 Skymaster. For as long as I can
remember, I have threatened to build a control-line model of one. Well, that time
has finally arrived, and I began by ordering these plans from the AMA Plans Service.
It will be powered by a pair of 480-sized brushless motors, and throttle will be
controlled by a hand-held car/boat format transmitter, the one I use on my control-line
Douglas DC-3. I am modifying the fuselage construction to accommodate the motors,
and am adding formers to simplify the building process. Mr. Welch's original omitted
formers in the cabin area...
 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...
 If you have ever wanted to try your hand
(thumbs, to be more specific) at a floatplane, then this
1/2A size Aeronca
Champion which appeared in the March 1957 issue of Model Airplane News magazine,
is just the ticket. Although designed by Walt Mooney as a free flight ROW (rise-off-water)
model that easily converts between wheels and floats, modifications to 3 or 4 channel
radio control would be a snap, especially since the plans show separate construction
for the control surfaces along the hinge line. With about a 46" wingspan and lightweight
but strong construction, this model could easily have been designed with modern
electric power...
 I did a quick Web search on how to
repair damaged book bindings, and as is typical, most of what is out there is
a rewritten regurgitation of other pages. Tape and glue are the order of the day
per those instructions, but that is really insufficient to effect a good repair
on books - particularly older volumes - which use string and fabric along the spine
to form a very rugged and durable binding for standing up to repeated use. When
you desire to restore a book to as close to its original condition as possible,
the more extensive method described in this 1965 Popular Mechanics magazine article
is needed. All the tools and materials required are described, as is instructions
for assembling a book...
 "Rohde &
Schwarz has been at the forefront of addressing the evolving threats posed by advanced
drone technology to security, public safety, and critical infrastructure. As drones
become more sophisticated and complex, malicious drones equipped with advanced capabilities
present significant challenges. To counter these threats, Rohde & Schwarz has
developed cutting-edge
Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (CUAS) designed to detect, neutralize, and mitigate
emerging drone risks effectively. In a recent interview, Martin Woywod, Product
Manager for Counter-UAS Systems at Rohde & Schwarz, explained the urgency of
counter-drone technology in today's world..."
 Airplanes and Rockets website visitor Lars
B. wrote from Sweden requesting that I scan this "Wind Flying" article
from the September 1972 edition of American Aircraft Modeler magazine.
It describes a method for replacing engines and motors with human power for preforming
some pretty impressive C/L aerobatics on windy days. Basically, you drag the model
airplane around on its control lines, which often required not just turning in a
circle while standing in one place, but walking around a small circle in order to
get more speed. If there is any wind, you need to put extra effort into the pulling
when moving into the wind. I can remember doing this as a teenager, only I did it
with the engine in place but not...
• FCC Rules for
5 GHz Band Drone Operations
•
EAA Weighs in on MOSAIC
• Smithsonian
Opens Hangar Doors to Pilots
• EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2024 July 22-28
• The Smallest
Air Force One
 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...
 Website visitor Steve R. wrote requesting
that I scan and post this "Square Hare" article from the September 1962 issue of
American Modeler magazine. Says, Steve, "I built one of these back then
on Galloping ghost and it went great till servo failed (modified mighty Midget motor).
Later I built another for Class one Aerobatics fitted with OS 40 and Kraft Propo,
this was very successful. Nostalgia strikes and I'd like to build another as a sport
model." Square Hare from Delaware is a bit unique in that its wing has no spar and
is constructed from diagonally arranged ribs sandwiched between 3/32" balsa sheeting.
Looking at all the hardware required just for the elevator control really makes
you appreciate modern radio gear with servos. Hopefully, Steve will grace us with
a photo of his completed Square Hare.
|
 I have been using a 4½" bench vise for decades,
and have always wanted to get a larger one. It was OK for most jobs, but there have
been times when I thought for sure I'd break it when hammering or bending metal
parts in it. This
Craftsman 5½" Bench Vise (Model No. 113.228162) appeared on eBay and looked
to be in pretty good condition. I figured a bit of polishing and painting would
restore it to nearly good-as-new. The vise was taken completely apart and all the
paint was removed using a high speed grinder with an abrasive pad. It left the metal
unscathed. Areas that could not be reached with the grinder were wire brushed. Unpainted
metal parts were polished with a fine grit pad. A thin coat of RustOleum primer
was applied, then three coats of gloss red over that. The vise was set in the sun
all day to cure. A thin layer of grease was put on the swivel base mating surfaces,
jaw screw, and where the handle meets the vise jaw...
 This
Ray-Jets
advertisement appeared in the November 1946 issue of Air Trails magazine.
The name is unfamiliar to me. The company claims to have the first jet-propelled
models, which use their brand of "Rocket Units" that use "no fire," "no chemicals,"
and are "absolutely harmless." It was obviously not some form of the Jetex rocket
engine since they did not enter the marketplace until 1958. According to the Model-Plans.co.uk.com
website, which has good info on the Ray Models kits, the "Rocket Unit" was a CO2
cartridge that get punctured at launch. The Jetex.org website has a mention of the
Ray Jet−Racer, describing the launch method, and another page on CO2-powered
jet models. On rare occasion one of the Ray Models kits will appear on eBay...
 In 1960 when this article appeared in
American Modeler magazine, radio control (R/C) was still in its infancy and
was a rich man's sport (mostly). R/C also required an amateur radio operator's license
in order to use the transmitters. Control line and free flight constituted the purview
of the vast majority of aeromodelers.
Towline gliders were
very popular in areas where enough open area was available - and back then there
was a whole lot more open area than there is today. Take a look at the backgrounds
of photos and movies in the 60's and before and notice how relatively undeveloped
the land was, even around larger metro regions. Anyway, this article offers sage
advice to modelers considering getting into towline gliders. Many kits were available
in the day...
 Finding poetry, short stories, and even
songs
in magazines was common up until sometime in the 1970s. I'm not sure why it stopped
(or nearly so), but as a reader of many vintage magazine types - airplanes, woodworking,
mechanics, electronics, and others - I can attest to it. Both here on Airplanes
and Rockets and on my RF Cafe engineering website, I have posted quite a few examples.
Here is yet another from the July/August 1963 edition of American Modeler
magazine. As time goes by, I wonder how many of today's readers are even familiar
with some of the tunes the songs are meant to follow...
 I took the occasion of having to cover the
wingtips of my AAR-X1 electric control line model to make a short video of how I
cover a compound
surface (one that curves in two or three dimensions) with MonoKote. The only
"trick" involved is being daring enough to apply the amount of heat needed to exploit
MonoKote's extreme ability to shrink, while pulling on it to stretch it. By daring
I mean that it can take quite a bit of heat, even to the point of being dangerously
close to the melting point. It can also put the phalanges is peril while attempting
to stretch the MonoKote while heating it. In the case of these wingtips, there is
an open framework, but the method works equally well on solid compound surface.
I have smoothly covered carved sailplane nose blocks and curved wingtips using this
method...
 The July 2013 edition of IEEE's Spectrum
magazine had a really good article on a high tech study that is being done on the
manner in which an albatross
manages to fly great distances and for long periods of time while rarely needing
to flap its wings. As shown in the thumbnail (and in the article), an albatross
performs a series of rapid climbs into very strong wind, turns, and dives leeward
nearly to the water's surface, then repeats the process over and over as it makes
its way to its destination. The process is called dynamic soaring. R/C soaring pilots
have been doing the same sort of thing for a few years now. Obviously the albatross
figured out how to fly like that long before mankind was able to mimic it, but the
researchers in the article seem to not have knowledge of the R/C soaring technique.
They are capturing albatrosses in their nests and attaching GPS-based sensors with
data recorders to the birds' back feathers and retrieving the units when the birds
return to their nests...
 Can you imagine what a sweet sound it must
be with four Cox .049 engines running at the same time on the same airplane? Keith
Laumer and John Simmance didn't have to wonder once they teamed up to design, build,
and fly this 45" wingspan, control line
B-17
Flying Fortress. As if that wasn't enough, they added a custom electrical retractable
landing gear (including the tail wheel), navigation lights, throttles on all four
engines, and flaps! An 800:1 reduction gear box was coupled with a 3 volt motor
to drive the retract mechanism, flaps, throttles, and light switches. A third control
line and a Roberts 3-line bellcrank controlled everything. Operation of the retracts
is a bit dicey since they are triggered to go up at full throttle, then go back
down at low throttle. That means the pilot has to be careful not to command full
throttle while the model is on the ground or the landing gear will fold up on him.
I would not have wanted the task of trying to get all four Babe Bee .049 engines
running at the same time. Today we have commercially available electric starters
for the small engines, but in 1963 when this article appeared in American Modeler
magazine, it was either use the spring starter on the engine or flip it by hand...
 Here are a few more photos from the
1959 AMA Nationals,
in continuation of coverage in the July and August issues of Model Aviation
magazine. Some are behind-the-scenes shots rather than just flight line action.
Vintage unbuilt kits of a lot of the airplanes you see in these pictures are selling
for a small fortune today on eBay. BTW, this series of Model Aviation is completely
different than and precedes the current incarnation of Model Aviation that
followed the American Aircraft Modeler and American Modeler titles.
Its size is just 8½" high by 5½" wide, and were typically only about 20 pages. The
February 1959 issue has about twice as many pages because it also contains the 1950-1960
"Official Model Aircraft Regulations Governing Sporting Model Aviation in America."
I have all 12 issue from 1959, and don't know if others are available...
 Here is a report on the
1959 Nats,
aka the 28th National Model Airplane Championships, held at Los Alamitos Naval Air
Station, California. For those not familiar with the early Nats, the U.S. Navy used
to sponsor and host the entire show primarily because it was considered a good recruitment
tool for young men of a necessarily competitive nature. Their hopes were that those
guys would see really cool stuff at the base and anxiously anticipate the day when
they could join. Some time in the late 1960s, the attendance by youngsters was so
low that the Navy decided to pull its support. Bill Winter managed to talk them
into staying for a few more years after promising to work to bring youth participation
back up, but, alas, it did not last...
 Here is a list of
model airplane, helicopter, rocket, and boat videos
put together around 2008. As you might expect, by now many of the websites and/or
the original content are gone. Where possible, I located missing material on the
Archive.org website (the Wayback Machine). Links I couldn't find anywhere have been
deleted. Many of the videos are ones I created for the Airplanes and Rockets website...
 "Aquitivity
Roundup" was a monthly column in American Modeler magazine (the precursor to
American Aircraft Modeler, precursor to the current Model Aviation). American Modeler
covered many aspects of modeling other than airplanes including rockets, boats,
cars, and to a lesser extent, trains and helicopters (helis were for experimenters
at the time). Radio control for models boats was in full swing by 1962, both for
engine and wind power. Just as with model airplanes, model boats were run as free
float (a la free flight - get it?), on a tether (a la control line) and
by remote control (could be via sound, light, or radio signals)...
 This article for the rubber-powered free
flight Penni Helicopter,
by John Burkam and Gene Rock, was scanned from my purchased copy of the January
1970 American Aircraft Modeler magazine. The Penni Helicopter is fairly unique in
that it has a functional tail rotor to counter the main rotor torque rather than
just a big flat vertical surface. It also features a flybar on the rotor head to
help stabilize flight. Main rotor span is 16 inches. Because the plans spanned two
pages, I had to adjust the size and alignment a bit to get halves to line up properly.
The AMA Plans Service does not carry the Penni Helicopter, so if you need a larger
version, e-mail me and I will send you a 4.5 x 3.0 kpixel version. You should be
able to scale up the image below, though...
 I was surprised to find in this 1934 issue
of Flying Aces magazine that the European countries of Finland and Latvia
used Swastika insignia. The Germans were not the only country that used a Swastika
for military markings. According to Wikipedia, many Asian nations and religions
used the swastika (pointing clockwise) or the sauwastika (pointing left) long before
the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party) decided to adopt it as
their organizational symbol. It would have been nice if Flying Aces had
supplied the chart of
early 20th Century aircraft country insignia in color, but back in the day color
on anything other than the cover was very rare. Fortunately, they labeled many areas
with what their color should be. I was going to colorize the symbols, but without
knowing the true shades, doing so might do more harm than good if someone were to
search for a color scheme...
 Back in the early to mid 1970s, I built a
Sterling Cirrus sailplane kit. Shortly thereafter
I bought my first radio control system (a used
3-channel OS Digitron),
and in a somewhat desperate attempt to fly an RC glider, actually managed to cram
two of its huge servos, a huge metal-cased receiver, and a NiCad airborne battery
pack (the only part that has not gotten smaller in the intervening 50 years) into
the cockpit area. Although the cockpit was very spacious, the balsa frame construction
was way too weak to support a radio system, but that didn't stop me... well, not
right away anyway. The ready-to-fly weight was probably three times the recommended
12 ounce nominal. Although the Cirrus has a generous 87-5/16" wingspan, with it
25:1 aspect ratio, the root chord is only a little over 4" and the wingtip chord
is around 1". Even with vertical sheer webbing between the upper and lower main
spars, the wing was far too weak for so much weight. After much work covering the
undercambered airfoil and compound curves around the fuselage with Japanese tissue
and brushing on a few coats of clear dope, it was finally ready to fly...
 When this detailed construction of the
Messerschmitt "Jaguar" bomber appeared in the October 1941 issue of Flying Aces
magazine, not many Americans suspected that within weeks the Japanese would bomb
Pearl Harbor and draw the country formally into World War II. That included
the other primary "Axis" power, Germany. Jaguars had been routinely dropping bombs
all over Europe for years. News of the increasing aggressiveness of Hitler's hoards
fill newspaper front pages and nightly news on radio (not many televisions at the
time), but that was "over there," not on our shores. Out of sight, out of mind,
as the saying goes. As with so many other areas of technology, the Germans were
very good aircraft designers and builders. The Jaguar was considered a medium range
bomber. It had a wingspan of 55 feet, similar to the De Havilland Mosquito
bomber with a 54 foot wingspan. By comparison, the Mitchell B−25 had a 67 foot wingspan...
 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...
 1954 was just a decade after World War II,
during which time the Army Signal Corps introduced a method of printing - or etching
- metallic circuit conductors on an insulator substrate, and thus was born the printed
circuit board (PCB). The first boards used a phenolic-paper laminate, which is the
shiny brown substrate material that is still found in some industrial applications
like motors and control panels. Ferric chloride was used to etch away the copper
foil not masked off with photoresist chemicals. I made many crude PCBs using a resist
ink pen to draw circuit traces and component mounting pads, then etched away the
exposed copper with ferric chloride
purchased at Radio Shack. This line from the article is reminiscent of people
who remarked similarly about the first televisions and computers: "One of the first
questions that arises is: 'What good is it and what do I gain by using it?'" Printed
inductors were already being used, as the photo shows...
 The
Prop-Rod car
was one of the earliest models produced by L.M. Cox Manufacturing. For many years
the models went by the trade name of Thimble Drome, but later were know simply as
Cox Models. It was featured in magazine advertisements as early as 1961 when it
appeared in American Modeler. The Prop-Rod came with a Babe Bee .049 engine mounted
with its cylinder inverted, which could make starting it difficult since fuel could
pool in the glow head. As with airplanes having inverted cylinders, starting it
was often done by holding the model upside down. It was designed to run either on
a tether stretched along a sidewalk, on a tether mounted in the center of a circle...
 If you ever had any doubt whether Bill Winter
was one of the model airplane hobby's earliest and most prolific contributors, check
out this article that appeared in the January 1955 edition of Popular Electronics
magazine (only the third issue since its inception). Radio control systems were
just beginning to be commercialized and priced at a point where a lot of the public
could afford it. Quirks and high unreliability that plagued early systems had become
less of an issue so that airplane and power plant design efforts could take priority
with aeromodelers. In this article, Bill addresses setting proper
wing incidence and engine
thrust angles for good, repeatable, stable flight...
 During this time of year 44 solar orbits
ago (yikes!), I was "enjoying" my fifth week of
USAF Basic
Training. It marked the transition from a trade in residential and commercial
electrical wiring to a career in electronics. November 9, 1978 was a date which
will live in infamy - for me, anyway. That was the day I left my comfortable, oblivious
20-year-old existence as an electrician in Mayo, MD, and boarded a Delta Airlines
flight to San Antonio, Texas. About six months earlier I had signed up under the
Delayed Enlistment program. I was on my way to becoming a fully trained and qualified
Weather Equipment Specialist, a career field chosen based on my keen interest in
weather phenomena, aviation, and aerospace. The plan was to survive six weeks of
Basic Training (BT) at Lackland Air Force Base, TX, and then go on to technical
school at Chanute AFB, IL. My first official act was to carry along with me a sealed
envelope containing the data of all enlistees boarding the flight from BWI airport,
to be surrendered to the sergeant who would ask for it upon arrival in San Antonio.
I was psyched. Following deboarding at SAT, a uniformed person directed our troupe
to a staging area while awaiting a bus for the ride to Lackland AFB. We were to
stand quietly, looking forward. It was a small sampling of what was to come. After
what seemed like a long bus ride, we drove past the guard house at the gate, rode
to some building and were led into a dining hall for grub... |
