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 This
Dremel Model
381 Moto-Tool Kit is the next generation after my Dremel Model 371 Moto-Tool
kit that my Dremel Model 370 Moto-Tool was part of. Somewhere along the line I disposed
of the plastic box that held the Moto-Tool and accessories, so I looked on eBay
for a replacement. After many years of waiting, the closest I came was this Dremel
318 Moto-Tool Kit. It appears to be identical to the Model 371, only it came with
the Dremel Moto-Tool Model 380. The Model 380 has ball bearings whereas the Model
370 uses brass bushings. This Dremel Model 381 Moto-Tool Kit appears to be in like-new
condition and looks like it has never been used. Scans of all the manual pages are
posted below in case you have been looking for them.
 Arch Whitehouse's air adventure stories
with wily ballistics expert and ace pilot Kerry Keen (alter ego,
The Griffon) are one of my favorite reads in the vintage Flying Aces
magazines. While testing their amphibious Black Bullet over Long Island, aviator
Kerry Keen (the Griffon) and mechanic Barney O'Dare spot a stolen experimental aircraft
- a winged fortress capable of carrying tanks. When Barney vanishes mysteriously,
Keen discovers his partner has been entangled in a plot to steal "Avalin," a revolutionary
armor formula. The trail leads to kidnapped movie star Doreen Yardley, who unknowingly
received the formula- all while protecting Keen's masked identity...
 This article entitled "The Boom in
R/C Boats" appeared in the June 1955 edition of Popular Electronics
magazine which, during the early years of its existence devoted quite a bit of print
space to radio control airplanes, boats and cars. As with all things electronics,
a huge surge in consumer interest was occurring with over-the-air communications.
Bill (William) Winter served as the editor of the Academy of Model Aeronautics'
(AMA's) American Modeler and American Aircraft Modeler magazines
from 1966 through 1974, but his efforts to promote all form of modeling - airplanes,
helicopters, cars, boats, trains, and rockets - covered many decades. His first
recorded article, "Building the Famous Udet Flamingo," (co-authored by Walter McBride),
was published in the March 1935 issue of Universal Model Airplane News
magazine...
 It would be interesting to do a side-by-side
comparison on what was considered engineered
control line
stunt model airplane design in 1957, when this article was written, to what
is today considered to be optimal design criteria. I am trying to get back into
control line stunt flying and have one model built currently, the Enterprise-E.
It has been flown a few times and is (was) extremely sensitive on the controls when
set up per the plans. A little bit of control handle movements resulted in a huge
amount of both elevator and flap deflection. Fortunately, access to the flap control
horn is available through the removable top fuselage hatch, so I was able to relocate
the pushrod from the bellcrank to the flap horn, and then from the flap horn...
 When Melanie and I got married in 1983,
part of her dowry included some of the toys she had as a little girl. A
Hasbro Lite-Brite
was one of them. Our kids played with it when they were young, but somewhere along
the line during our many household moves, it disappeared. We probably donated it
to the Salvation Army at some point - a lot of our stuff has ended up there. About
a month ago we started watching for a good one on eBay that didn't cost too much.
Finally, there was a 1967-vintage Lite-Brite in like-new condition up for auction
that we got for around $45. It has a nice box...
 Per "Wild Bill" Netzenband's report in this
1961 issue of American Modeler magazine covered the Vancouver Bi-Liners,
MAC highlights, Alan Nichols' success in Thompson Trophy Racer events, encouraging
clubs to adopt the affordable, and slow-flying contests. He addresses backlogged
club crest submissions, noting the impracticality of featuring all due to volume.
Alan Nichols debunks the myth that models wear out quickly, citing his year-old
Nobler and a five-year-old Fierce Arrow with original engine. Memories resurface
of McDonnell Aircraft's picnic air shows, where Phil Hamm's reliable metal jet stood
out. Southern California's new Control-Line Association, led by John Gudvangan and
others, seeks enthusiasts. Detroit's Metropolitan Speed Association unveils an $8,000
Rouge Park speed circle, aiming for a competitive...
 This article entitled "Why Pilots Will Matter
in the Age of
Autonomous Planes" appeared in the June 2025 issue of IEEE's Spectrum
magazine. "Long after planes start flying themselves, humans will still be in the
loop. In August 2001, an anonymous guest posted on the forum at Airliners.net, a
popular aviation website. 'How Long Will Pilots Be Needed?' they wondered, observing
that '20 years or so down the road' technology could be so advanced that planes
would fly themselves. 'So would it really be useful for a person to go to college
now and be an airline pilot if a few years down the road they will be phased out
by technology?' Twenty-four years later, the basic technology required to make aircraft
fly themselves exists, as evidenced by the fact that most commercial flights are
flown largely on autopilot..."
 This is the February 8, 1942, "Flyin' Jenny" comic strip. The Baltimore Sun newspaper, published
not far from where I grew up near Annapolis, Maryland, carried "Flyin' Jenny" from
the late 1930s until the strip ended in the mid 1940s, so I saved a couple dozen
from there. The first one I downloaded has a publication date of December 7, 1941
- that date "which will live in infamy," per President Roosevelt. Many Americans
were receiving word over the radio of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while
reading this comic at the breakfast table. I expect that soon there will be World
War II themes. "Flyin' Jenny," whose real name was Virginia Dare (what's in
a name?), was a test pilot for Starcraft Aviation Factory who divided her time between
wringing out new airplane designs and chasing bad guys. She was the creation of
artist and storyteller Russell Keaton...
 This is the complete set of
Peanuts Skediddlers,
sold by Mattel. Linus is extremely difficult to find, and when you do, he typically
sells for $200 or more. If you find a Linus Skediddler with the original box, expect
to pay $400. Over time, our (Melanie and me) Peanuts collection of memorabilia has
grow from the few items she had left over from her girlhood to complete sets. Everything
was gotten via eBay auctions. It took a lot of patience to be able to get good quality
items at an affordable price. Here is a bit of history I gathered on the Skediddlers.
Phenomenon: In the mid-to-late 1960s, Mattel capitalized on the explosive popularity
of Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts comic strip by releasing the Skediddler - a line
of friction-powered toys. Unlike wind-up mechanisms, these toys relied on a simple
push-and-go design: sliding them across a surface activated internal gears, causing
the characters' limbs and heads to jerk in a whimsical "skedaddling"...
 This 1949 Air Trails magazine article
warns that the
Soviet
Union has surpassed the U.S. in military aircraft production by a 15-to-1 margin,
with advanced jet fighters, bombers, and long-range piston-engine planes already
operational. Soviet scientists have also conducted atomic tests and are close to
producing compact A-bombs. Intelligence reveals a Red Air Force of 15,000 first-line
aircraft, including 2,400 jets, some surpassing American designs. The Soviets broke
the sound barrier before the U.S. and have developed powerful turbojet engines,
some with innovative features like variable-pitch stators. German scientists and
captured technology accelerated Soviet progress, particularly in rocketry and jet
propulsion. Their aircraft feature advanced construction techniques, such as metal-plywood
sandwich wings, and superior armament...
 A long time ago (circa
1977) I bought a used glider winch at an auction held by the Prince Georges Radio
Club, in Maryland. It cost me somewhere around $25, which was a lot for me in the
mid 1970s. The motor and control circuitry was contained in a plywood box, with
a jack for the foot switch and terminals to clamp jumper cable to from a car. In
looking at these plans for the
AAM Glider Winch shown
here from the April 1973 American Aircraft Modeler, it looks a lot like mine, only
mine was in a wooden box. It worked extremely well for my 99"
Windfree and 99"
Aquila sailplanes. Unfortunately,
I sold it shortly after getting married in 1983 (couldn't eat the winch). I would
love to have it back. Actually, what I would rather have at this point is a winch
that is powered by a cordless drill that would be lighter...
 We take for granted most of the technology
that surrounds us. Unless you were alive 60 years ago at the dawn of microelectronics
and space flight, it would be difficult to imagine a world without cellphones, desktop
computers, color TVs, the Internet, and even
satellite-base weather forecasting. Everyone likes to make jokes about weathermen
being no better at predicting the weather than your grandmother's roomatiz[sic],
but the fact is that, especially for short-term (2-3 days) predictions, we get pretty
good information. As a model airplane flyer, I check the wind level forecast nearly
every day to see whether my model plane can handle it. AccuWeather's free hourly
forecast is usually pretty darn accurate for today's and tomorrow's wind...
 In this 1937 "Smoke Scream" in a 1937 issue
of Flying Aces magazine, by Joe Archibald,
Lt. Phineas
Pinkham, the 9th Pursuit Squadron's resident troublemaker, stumbles into chaos
when he encounters an elephant named Hungha Tin and its Hindu mahout. After the
elephant drinks a bottle of arnica meant for a local's backache, it goes berserk,
wreaking havoc across the Allied camp. Meanwhile, Brigadier Scruggs confesses to
Pinkham that he sleepwalked and handed top-secret battle plans to an unknown spy.
Pinkham, framed by the mahout - who's actually a German agent - unknowingly smokes
a drugged cigarette and nearly flies a stolen Spad to the enemy. The vengeful elephant
interrupts his forced defection, allowing Pinkham to escape with Hauptmann von Spieler
as his prisoner. Back at base, Pinkham...
 The Academy of Model Aeronautics is granted
tax-exempt status because part of its charter is for activity as an educational
organization. I think as time goes on, it gets harder for the AMA for fulfill that
part of its mission because presenting anything even vaguely resembling mathematics
or science to kids (or to most adults for that matter), is the kiss of death for
gaining or retaining interest. This article, "Control-Line
Aerodynamics Made Painless," was printed in the December 1967 edition of
American Modeler magazine, when graphs, charts, and equations were not eschewed
by modelers. It is awesome. On rare occasions a similar type article will appear
nowadays in Model Aviation magazine for topics like basic aerodynamics and battery
/ motor parameters. Nowadays, it seems, the most rigorous classroom material that
the AMA can manage to slip into schools is a box of gliders and a PowerPoint presentation...
 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...
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 John Burkam was one of the few true pioneers
in free flight and particularly
radio controlled model helicopters. His experiments date back into the 1940s.
His rubber-powered Penni Helicopter appeared in the January 1970 issue of American
Aircraft Modeler. Also, he covered the 1972 and 1974 helicopter Nationals competitions
in American Aircraft Modeler. John was an engineer with the Boeing Company. His
attention to detail and lack of fear in tackling design issue with numbers, graphs,
and formulas is apparent in his work, although any type of design in previously
unexplored or little explored areas of technology requires some degree of seat-of-the-pants
guestimates. Both philosophies are present in this article. The "Super Susie" is
powered by a Cox .049 Tee Dee engine, has four channels, and weighs in at around
2 pounds. That is pretty remarkable for early 1970s equipment. It's too bad someone
doesn't produce an .049-powered R/C copter today...
 There is an old adage about aircraft that
says with enough power just about anything can be made to fly. The F-4 Phantom and
F-104 Starfighter jets are prime examples. In 1957, kids and adults were still obsessed
with flying machines and created all sorts of crazy craft. Flying dog houses, witches
on brooms, flying doors, flying lawnmowers, and flying outhouses were popular novelty
projects. Ken Willard even created a Flying Bandana. This
Cox .049-powered box kite doesn't fall into the same category as an F-4 Phantom,
but it does apply as far as making anything fly if you hang an engine on it. Although
author McLarty claims you can adapt a toy store box kite ...
 Whenever I look at articles like this one
in American Aircraft Modeler magazine of the
1967 model rocketry nationals
(NARAM-9) showing people from 40+ years ago, I always wonder what they are doing
today. Kids that were 16 in 1967 are 60 today! Many of the adults, if they are still
living, are in their 80s. Are they still flying model rockets? Are they in good
health? Has life been good to them? Time can be a cruel master, or it can also be
a benevolent guardian. But, at the time nobody was thinking about where they would
be or what they would be doing in the year 2011; their only concern was the competition
at hand and having a good time. Note the number of Ph.Ds in the crowd! Back in the
day, model rocketry was a big part of preparing young men (and a few young women)
for a career in astronautics...
 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 ...
 There is no doubt that Du−Bro set the stage
for commercially produced radio controlled (R/C) helicopters with the
Whirlybird 500.
Its use of a top-mounted engine that relied on counter-torque to set the main rotor
blades spinning was unique. There were a few published articles on homebrew free-flight
helicopters that used the arrangement, and Cox even marketed a ready-to-fly model
that had a Cox .020 engine mounted on top called the Sky Copter (I owned one as
a kid in the late 1960s). To my knowledge all other R/C helicopter models used a
gear or belt drive from the engine to the main rotor shaft. It is amazing that this
quite top-heavy configuration flew at all. Du−Bro engineers deserve a lot of credit.
Note extensive use of common Du−Bro products like wheel collars, pushrods and clevises,
strip aileron hookups, brass tubing, and nuts, bolts and screws. A lot of assembly
work was involved, including a good bit of soldering...
 This is a very interesting article about
the
FCC's "Secrecy of Communications" rules. Manmade radio interference (QRM in
Ham lingo), has been a problem since the early days of wireless communications.
You might convincingly argue that it was worse at a time when many transmitters
were of the arc type that basically spewed out a mess of RF energy within a specified
bandwidth (very wide compared to today) to signal the presence of a "dit" (a digital
"1"), with the absence of a signal being a "dah" (digital "0"). Filter technology
for both the transmit and receive sides was also poor, allowing unintentional RF
noise to be sent over the air and to find its way into the detector circuits. The
Federal Communications Commission (FCC), first formed in 1934, nearly four decades
after Guglielmo Marconi first demonstrated his wireless set in 1896. Sometime around
1952, the FCC allocated a half dozen frequencies in the 27 MHz for radio control
(R/C) model use, mixed within the existing citizens band (CB) radio channels. As
you might imagine, interference problems were rampant, especially near metro areas
and highways with heavy truck traffic. This editorial in a 1969 issue of American
Aircraft Modeler magazine reports on just how bad things had gotten, especially
that caused by operators using faulty and/or illegally modified transmitters, and
even by malicious intentional attempts to "shoot down" model airplanes by keying
transmitters in the vicinity of flight activity. In 1965, the FCC allocated...
 This is a complete set of the
Peanuts Bobblehead (Nodder)
figures. They're not perfect, but in pretty good condition. Over time, our Peanuts
collection of memorabilia has grown 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. The "Peanuts:
The Art of Charles M. Schulz" book was very helpful in identifying which Peanuts
memorabilia items ...
 Nowadays know as Spartan College of Aeronautics
and Technology, the
Spartan School of Aeronautics was founded in 1928 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by oil
magnate William G. Skelly. Skelly believed air transportation was the way of
the future and to be successful would require skilled aircraft technicians and pilots.
Spartan claims to have trained more than 100,000 technicians and pilots for careers
in the aeronautics industry. They now have branches in Denver, Colorado, and Los
Angeles and Inland Empire, California. The Spartan Black Cat logo, which includes
the number 13, and the slogan "Knowledge and Skill Overcome Superstition and Luck,"
was the original insignia of the Spartan College Dawn Patrol. The fact that Spartan
School of Aeronautics began only a year before of the stock market crash of 1929
and survived the ensuing decade-long Great Depression and Dust Bowl years is a testament
to its tenacity. This advertisement appeared in a 1954 issue of Air Trails -
Hobbies for Young Men magazine...
 This
Sketchbook was
scanned from the March 1957 issue of American Modeler magazine, published
by the Academy of Model Aeronautics. 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. I like the idea of using a sharpened bullet cartridge
for boring lightening holes in ribs, tail surfaces, etc., rather than using a drill
bit. The tip about using a slot in the bellcrank for the flaps of a control line
stunt models seems a bit iffy, since it can permit oscillations (fluttering) during
normal flight...
 This thankful commemoration
of the 20th anniversary of
U.S. Air Mail service from Burgess Battery Company, which appeared
in a 1941 issue of QST magazine, encompasses most of my major lifetime interests.
First and foremost, from my earliest memories, is a love of airplanes (and all things
that fly for that matter). A DC−3 (my favorite multi-engine propeller plane) is
shown in one of the photos as is a Ford Trimotor, which Melanie and I have flown
on. Next comes the electrical, electronics, and radio communications aspects, which
encompasses the aircraft wiring ...
 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)...
 Website visitor Robert C. wrote to
request that I post the article and plans for the
British
Bristol "170" Freighter that appeared in the 1961 Annual edition of American
Modeler magazine. This control line version has a 40" wingspan and is powered
by a pair of .049s for scale-like flight characteristics or a pair .09s if you want
aerobatics. Diesels are shown installed in the original. The fuselage, wing, and
tails surfaces are all built-up and sheeted with balsa, so she is a sturdy bird.
As with most of these vintage models that used glow engines, conversion to electric
can be easily made, and lightening of the structure can be safely done since motors
do not create the extreme vibration loads of internal combustion engines. For instance,
the balsa sheeting of the entire wing could be reduced to only the root area at
the fuselage, and then maybe add a stringer or two along the leading edge top area...
 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...
 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
...
 At QuinStar, we're about more than millimeter-wave
technology. The people comprising QuinStar Technology pursue diverse and exciting
outside interests. Our Chief Engineer, Jim Schellenberg, is a highly skilled amateur
astronomical photographer. He captured this beautiful image of the
Orion nebula using a specially modified Canon 6D. The camera responds
to the H-alpha spectral line at 656 nm (from hydrogen gas), which is seen as red
in the photo. The camera is mounted on an 11-inch telescope that tracks the object
as the earth rotates. This image consists of nine one-minute exposures that are
"stacked" to form the image you see. This is an excellent time of the year to view
the Orion nebula. It can be seen with the naked eye ... |
