Even during the busiest times of my life I have endeavored to maintain some
form of model building activity. This site has been created to help me chronicle
my journey through a lifelong involvement in model aviation, which
all began in Mayo, MD
...
All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images
and text used on the Airplanes and Rockets website are hereby acknowledged.
Bonner Specialties Escapement w/Video July
1957 American Modeler
For as much as I desperately wanted a radio
control system when I was a kid, I never bought an R/C system until I was around
15 years old, when a used 3-channel OS digital proportional system became available from
a man that lived a couple blocks away. Even the "cheap" $100 rudder-only escapement
models were out of reach on my paltry income from a paper route. So, it wasn't until
a couple years ago, at age 50, that I finally purchased an escapement from someone
on eBay, just to see one up close. Some of the airplane kits I had, like the Carl
Goldberg 1/2A Skylane, showed an escapement installation on the plans, with the
rubber band engine and a rather large receiver constructed of discrete transistors
and large tuning coils.
While looking through the July 1957 issue
of American Modeler, I happened across an advertisement for the very escapement
that I now own. There are no markings on the device - not a manufacturer name or
model number. It turns out the escapement is "The Single," from Bonner Specialties.
It is a self-neutralizing 4-arm escapement which provides stronger action to operate
throttle, other auxiliary controls. Weight: 0.6 ounces. Price: $5.95.
I built a mock-up of an escapement installation for controlling the rudder in
a single-channel radio controlled airplane, and then made a video to show how it
works (see below photos).
You can use the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics'
inflation calculator to see
that $5.95 is $46.23 in year 2010 dollars.