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 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 ...
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.
This is the January 4, 1942, Flyin' Jenny comic strip. I expect that soon there
will be World War II themes ...
 "Engineers at the University of Maryland,
College Park (UMD) have found a way to make wood more than 10 times times stronger
and tougher than before, creating a natural substance that is stronger than many
titanium alloys. 'This new way to treat wood makes it 12 times stronger than natural
wood and 10 times tougher,' said Liangbing Hu of UMD's A. James Clark School of
Engineering and the leader of the team that did the research. 'This could be a competitor
to steel or even titanium alloys, it is so ..."
 One of the first woodworking projects I remember
doing after Melanie and I were married and in our own house was making a
paper towel
holder out of some scrap pieces of oak flooring. The wood was in the basement
of the house, probably from when it was originally installed sometime in the 1950s.
A few pieces were glued together along their tongue and groove edges, and then scraped
and sanded to a smooth, flat surface. The bottom curved relief shape was retained
for character. At some point during our many household moves, the paper towel holder
disappeared - we probably donated it as with ...
 Like many little girls who were born in the
1960s, Melanie had a small collection of
Suzy Homemaker toy appliances. Old photographs from birthdays
and Christmases past document the times they were received. Melanie had the Suzy
Homemaker Oven / Stove and the Suzy Homemaker Clothes Iron. Since hers was long
gone my the time we got married in 1983, we decided to look for them on eBay. As
with just about everything ever made, we easily found them in nice condition. Neither
the oven nor the iron came with their original boxes because those are very expensive.
This page of Suzy Homemaker products appeared ...
 "With photographers poised to capture the
moment and spectators watching in person and from all over the world online, the
C–47 "That's All, Brother" took off from Wittman Regional Airport on a clear, blustery
afternoon, circling the airport and concluding the brief flight with an overhead
pass, accompanied by a Beechcraft Bonanza chase plane. The flight crew included
pilot-in-command Doug Rozendaal, second-in-command Tom Travis, and engineer Ray
Claussen. According to the Commemorative Air Force, which acquired and restored
the airplane. The Oshkosh flight, the first ..."
This particular
Hobby People advertisement is from page 53 of the March 1970 issue
of American Aircraft Modeler magazine. Hobby People was probably the first
company that I ever did mail order from to get airplane supplies. Hobby People is
no longer in operation. All copyrights (if any) are hereby acknowledged. Use the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator to see what items cost in
today's dollars. For instance, that $3.99 "Cox .049 Babe Bee" engine would be $26.16
in 2018 money. The "regular" price of $6.00 would be $39.34 in 2018. Cox International
...
 After just 33 years, this crewel picture that
Melanie stitched is complete and has a
custom frame.
If memory serves correctly, we bought the crewel kit at a Ben Franklin store in
Severna Park, Maryland, in 1985 while living in Arnold, Maryland. She started it
shortly after getting it, and then it was put away until last year, 2017, when she
decided to complete the project. Most, if not all, of the needlework pictures Melanie
has done over the years have been placed in custom frames made by me. I've used
pine, oak, teak, hickory, mahogany, and now maple for this frame. The maple wood
...
 "RocketLab has successfully launched their
Electron Rocket. It took three small satellites into orbit. The company is preparing
for a possible Moon mission later this year. U.S.-based spaceflight startup company,
Rocket Lab completed their second successful test flight this weekend reaching orbit
for the first time. The company's Electron rocket launched from New Zealand at 2:43
PM local time on Sunday, and successfully deployed three commercial satellites about
eight and a half minutes later. This was Electron's first full ..."
 "NASA has successfully used a heat-activated
shape memory alloy to morph an aircraft's wings in flight tests, an advance with
potential benefits for subsonic and future supersonic aircraft. The flights which
took place at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, was part of
the SAW (Spanwise Adaptive Wing) project that aims to validate the use of a lightweight
material to fold the outer portions of aircraft wings and their control surfaces
to optimal angles in flight. SAW ..."
 Prior to the widespread use of mufflers on
radio controlled model aircraft engines,
exhaust dampers were installed that worked in unison with the
throttle. They were oblong or butterfly-shaped flat pieces of metal that pivoted
in the center and were connected via a short pushrod to the carburetor's throttle
arm. At full throttle, the damper was straight up and down to block the exhaust
port as little as possible. At idle, the damper usually totally blocked off the
exhaust port; of course some exhaust was still able to exit or the engine would
choke out and stop running. The first R/C engines I used in the 1970's came with
exhaust dampers ...
 Our one-car garage does not have a lot of
extra space in it, especially considering it also holds a riding lawn mower, a snow
blower, a backup power generator, and various and sundry yard and car tools. That
doesn't leave much room for the assortment of shoes and boots needed by Melanie
and me. We had been using a stack of cinder blocks to stuff shoes in, but they looked
rather crude and the holes were not really big enough to allow the shoes to be fully
enclosed. After completing building a set of stairs into the basement, there were
end pieces of the stair treads left over that were just the right width to fit into
the space where the cinder blocks used to be stacked. 2x3 framing lumber ...
 Another important
discovery by an amateur scientist has occurred. Mr. Víctor Buso was testing a new
CCD camera on a 16" personal telescope from his home in
 Argentina
when he noticed a star suddenly appeared in an exposure. It then grew in brightness
over successive exposures. He had captured the very first sighting of a supernova
in its initial stage of exploding. Realizing the gravity of his discovery, he alerted
the astronomy community. Astronomical research institutions worldwide immediately
trained their telescopes on the event to make detailed scientific measurements.
Interestingly, this all occurred in September of 2016, but is just now making headlines
everywhere ...
 While perusing the local Goodwill store, Melanie
and I happened upon this old
gooseneck
lamp. Unlike most of the newer models found in places like Walmart, this one
is made of heavy stamped steel, and the gooseneck part is very sturdy with no plastic.
When you bend this lamp into position, it stays exactly where you put it without
reflexing back a little. It was just what Melanie needed for use on her sewing table,
so we bought it as a fixer-upper. As can be seen in the photos, the original condition
was useable, but not ...
 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
...
 Ronald Valentine engines is one of the very
few manufacturers remaining of miniature model aircraft engines - both glow fuel
and diesel, single- and multi-cylinder. Prices are amazingly reasonable, too. "We
are the manufacturers of the world's smallest model engines. We have been manufacturing
miniature model engines for over 30 years. We specialized in 2-stroke diesel engines
for model airplanes, boat and cars. Next to this we manufacture multi-cylinder
engines 2-stroke and 4-stroke as glow or diesel engines. Our challenge is to develop
and present the world's finest ..."
 "For years, Lockheed Martin Corp. has been
developing a successor to one of the fastest aircraft the world has seen, the SR-71
Blackbird, the Cold War reconnaissance craft that the U.S. Air Force retired almost
three decades ago. Lockheed officials have said the hypersonic SR-72 - dubbed the
'Son of Blackbird' by one trade journal - could fly by 2030. But a rather curious
talk last week at an aerospace conference by a Lockheed Skunk Works executive implied
that the SR-72 might already exist ..."
 Aircraft historians might find the information
from this 1942 edition of Flying Aces magazine useful. As has long been
the case on many Russian airplanes and helicopters, the basic outlines - and often
even the details - are recognizable from the original versions designed by the United
States, England, and Germany. The Russkies have been short on design and test capabilities
and long on materials, manpower, and espionage agents. It wouldn't be so bad if
the copying was not so obvious. Even their attempt at a space shuttle was a carbon
copy of ours. If not for their leaders' commitment to Communism and Socialism, Russia
could be ...
 "Cornell University engineers have been experimenting
with a new type of programming that mimics the mind of an insect. The developed
sensors and algorithms may soon support autonomous, small-scale robots like Harvard
University's RoboBee, an 80-milligram flier that could perform a variety of roles
in agriculture and disaster relief. Even the most lifelike bug-bot could be thrown
off by a gust of wind or a mid-air obstacle. Cornell's sensing system aims to steer
a RoboBee around trouble, adjusting its flight to avoid ..."
 "NASA's $8.8B James Webb Space Telescope
has completed critical end-to-end testing in a giant vacuum chamber at the Johnson
Space Center, proving the telescope will work properly in the deep cold of space,
bring starlight to a sharp focus and precisely track its astronomical targets when
launched in 2019, engineers said Wednesday. 'The successful completion of this test
represents a very significant milestone for JWST,' said Bill Ochs, the telescope's
project manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. 'It verified
the alignment of the telescope ..."
 I am in the process of building a control
line C-47 Skytrain model using plans drawn by Walter Musciano. I knew making the
scale landing
gear was going to be a challenge because it requires bending two pieces of 1/8"
music wire with six 90° bends apiece. It seems easy enough in theory, but in practice
getting the opposing axel end to line up in opposition is not trivial. Making the
first one took two tries, as did the second one. the problem was that the two did
not match each other very well. I tried fudging it by bending some weird angles
to get the spacing right, but the lengths of the legs were different enough ...
 December 1967 was the last edition of the
Academy of Model Aeronautics' American Modeler magazine, and this January
1968 edition of
American Aircraft Modeler was the first with the new name.
Interestingly, editor Bill Winter does not mention the name change in his monthly
"Straight and Level" column. For that matter, I checked up through the May issue
and still no mention. Printing and distribution lagged publication for many months
back in the day, but usually comments of previous editions began appearing within
three or four months. Nothing. Anyway, here are some ...
 William Shatner (aka "Captain Kirk" of the
original "Star Trek" television series) hosted this 1977 video produced by Estes
Industries. Titled, Model Rocketry - "The Last Frontier", it shows not only snapshots
of various Estes model rockets, but also video of actual launches from cameras mounted
on the rockets and cameras mounted at the base of the launch pad - pretty cool for
the day! ...
 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
...
 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 ...
 Your knowledge of model aircraft kits, engines,
and equipment will need to stretch back a couple decades to score 10 out of 10 on
this model
aircraft themed quiz. Winners get a free 1-year subscription to the Airplanes
and Rockets website. Good luck ...
 "Autonomy options for the Marine Corps have
taken a major step forward, as the Office of Naval Research completed a helicopter
flight demonstration with autonomous capability that will enable the Marine Corps
to rapidly resupply forces on the front lines. The system consists of a sensor and
software package that can be integrated into any manned or unmanned rotary-wing
aircraft to detect and avoid obstacles in unfavorable weather conditions ..."
 Mr. Jose Lozano wrote recently to let
me know about his RC drone resources website called RC Hobbies on Air. As with many
people these days, Jose appears to have really become a drone (multirotor) enthusiast
- enough so to create an entire website dedicated to helping others decide what
is the best way to get started with RC drones. He gives a rundown on features and
characteristics of various modern drone models. If you have been considering getting
into RC drones, then you might want to give his site a looking over ...
 Radio-controlled battleship combat is a major
sport these days with serious "players" investing thousands of dollars into their
craft. The all-electric model boats are scale replicas of actual battleships and
sport multiple screws (propellers), bilge pumps, gyro stabilizers, fully motorized
and steerable gun turrets complete with CO2-powered BB-shooting guns. The models
take hundreds of hours to build, rig, and test. The objective is, after all, to
literally sink your opponent's ship! The California model in this American Modeler
magazine article actually carried "twelve 38-cals and ten 22s" - something you won't
find today ...
 "If you were there in person, you already
know: AirVenture 2017 was a big success. If you missed this year's excitement in
Oshkosh, let the numbers tell you everything you need to know. More than half a
million people attended, making this the biggest AirVenture ever, and those guests
were treated to more than 10,000 aircraft and so many thrilling air shows. We'd
say EAA has its work cut out to make the 2018 show better than this one, but we
won't be shocked when it happens. So much happened at this year's AirVenture that
it was almost impossible to cover it all, but here's a look back at some of our
favorite ..."
 "Today it's impossible to think of the golden
age of air racing without an R-1 or R-2 Gee Bee roaring across the mind's eye. To
the aviation public, the Gee Bees air racing - and vice versa. And that's only right.
When Granville engineer, Pete Miller, drafted the first lines for the 'R' series
of Super Sportsters, there was no way he could have known that he was designing
a legend. And an airplane that would have people shaking their heads for the next
70 years. In fact, since the last Gee Bee roared around a pylon in 1933/34 there
have been no ..."
 Kansas City Radio Control Association (KCRC)
has been around for many decades. Its AMA club number of #390 was assigned in 1954. That
was 66 years ago as of this writing, but it was only 8 years old when this feature
article appeared in American Modeler magazine. Since at least 1962, the KCRC flying
field (now named "Charles W. Reed III Flying Field") has been located
just west of Lake Jocomo, in Kanas City. This article discusses not just the KCRC
flying site, but many of the others in the surrounding area. I count 11 on the included
map, including parks, schools, and parking lots. It is interesting to compare the
maps ...
 "On 13 November 1907, French engineer and
bicycle maker Paul Cornu made history by becoming the first man to fly in a rotary
wing aircraft. The primitive helicopter - a twin-rotor craft powered by a 24-horsepower
engine - only lifted Cornu about 1.5m off the ground, holding him there for 20 seconds
at Coquainvilliers, near Lisieux in France. But that was enough for Cornu to take
his place in the history books as the first man to successfully fly a rotary wing
aircraft. Paul Cornu was born in 1881 in the French town of Lisieux, where the local
high school is named after him to this day. Once he reached working age, he joined
his father ..."
 "The only aircraft engine to be designated
an historic landmark. Advances in propulsion are what drive aviation development.
Innovative airplanes almost always start with innovative engines, and the airframes
follow. In 2016, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers celebrated just such
an engine. The society designated the Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp a technology
landmark, the organization’s highest award, because the Wasp singlehandedly brought
about a leap forward in aircraft performance and economics. The tale of its development
is still ...
  Another great American company is circling the
drain! I've been a contented Tower Hobbies customer since the 1970s. "Hobbico filed
for bankruptcy protection Wednesday, which could result in 332 layoffs at its Champaign
facility. In a statement, Hobbico said that it plans to sell the company and will
continue operating throughout the bankruptcy process. Hobbico also said that as
it has grown, it has added too much debt and hasn’t been able to successfully restructure,
especially facing 'an increasingly competitive industry, market headwinds and a
series of one-off events with key suppliers." Hobbico was formed in 1986 when Clint
Atkins combined two companies he bought: Don Anderson's Great Planes Model Distributors
and Bruce Holecek's Tower Hobbies, which was founded in 1971 ...
 If you are looking for a little bit different
type of control line model, then
Short Snorter might fit the bill. It was designed by George Hinz
and appeared in the October 1958 issue of American Modeler magazine. Short
Snorter is .20 to .35-size stunt or combat model that is essentially a flying wing,
and features a built-up fuselage and wing. The wingspan is around 40", but of course
since you will be printing the plans, you can make the model larger or smaller.
standard construction materials and methods are used throughout. Mr. Hinz cautions
about making certain that the center of gravity is properly located since a tail
...
 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
...
 On December 12, 2017, President Trump signed
legislation that has the effect of reversing the earlier court ruling in the John
Taylor case and restore the FAA's sUAS registration requirement, including for AMA
members. "AMA believes that registration makes sense at some level, but has pushed
for a more reasonable threshold. While we address these issues, members will be
legally required to comply with the FAA registration requirement." It does not
make sense to me because as usual, law-abiding people suffer the inconvenience and
cost of legislation, while the majority do as they please. Fortunately, I kept my
registration card from January of 2016 when this outrageous scheme began ...
 Here is a list of many
classic modeling magazines
that are now or have been in print within the last decade or so. Unfortunately,
most of these magazines are now out of print. Some have disappeared altogether while
others have online-only editions. Fortunately, though, a few benevolent souls have
taken it upon themselves to scan hundreds of past issues and made them available
in PDF format at no charge to everyone. The Archive.org website's Wayback Machine™
has captured many years worth of the magazines' webpages, so all ...
 Mr. John Hawthorne contacted me recently
about an article he published on the IQS Directory website titled "Are Flying Cars
Coming to the Skies?" It reviews two most notable examples of research and development
by companies - AeroMobil, Terrafugia (Latin for "escape the earth") - and mentions
Uber's ambition of providing rooftop taxi service in high traffic urban areas. We
are still a long way off from the goal of flying cars being a common sight, or ever
a rare one for most of us. There are still many technical, safety, and regulatory
obstacles to overcome before you or I will be transitioning our person ride from
an automobile to an airplane or helicopter anytime soon.
 The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) just
announced in the January 2018 issue of Model Aviation that they are now
offering commercial drone insurance. Liability insurance with protection of $½ million,
$1 million, $2 million or more is available, plus you can also get hull
insurance on the drone platform itself. AMA Membership is required for purchase,
but you do not need to be a member to get a quote using the online form. ...
 "BAE Systems has unveiled a new aircraft
design that could be a major advance in stealth technology. The new MAGMA drone
does away with aircraft control surfaces, resulting in an aircraft whose shape remains
constant throughout its entire flight. The small demonstration aircraft, which has
completed a successful first flight, uses blown air to change direction instead
of complex mechanical controls. Most airplanes look unmoving in flight, like a wing
hanging off a giant tube plowing through the sky. Look more closely however and
you'll see smaller ..."
 Radio controlled aircraft were really still
in their infancy in 1953. Many R/C transmitters, receivers - all vacuum tube circuits
- were beginning to appear in hobby magazines, but other than operating in FCC-designated
frequency bands, there was not much in the way of standardization
in modulation schemes. Therefore, intercompatibility between brands - or even between
model types within a brand - was not guaranteed. The names you see mentioned here
- Hal deBolt, Walt Good, Howard McEntee, Claude McCullough - were for a long time
the most prominent figures ...
 "You've heard, 'One small step for man. One
giant leap for mankind,' but how about a lesser-known quotation from the Apollo
lunar mission like: 'Ok, we still got radar landing guidance.' The University of
Texas at Dallas launched a project to make all of the moon-mission audio accessible,
from the memorable to the mundane. Dr. John H.L. Hansen, Chengzhu Yu, Dr. Abhijeet
Sangwan, and Lakshmish Kaushik pose with a model of an astronaut at the NASA Johnson
Space Center in Houston. The four oversaw the project to ..."
 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
...
 John Collins is the undisputed Paper Airplane
Guy. He set a new world record flight distance of 26 feet, 10 inches, in 2012. He
wrote a book titled, The World Record Paper Airplane and International Award Winning
Designs. This article is from an appearance on the Conan O'Brien show, and includes
a video of Mr. Collins demonstrating how to fold and launch paper airplanes ...
 "The San Diego Air & Space Museum's Library &
Archives recently launched a new online exhibit commemorating the 100th Anniversary
of U.S. Airmail. On a fog-shrouded May 15th, in 1918, the first airplane to provide
regularly scheduled airmail service in the United States took off from the Potomac
Park polo grounds in Washington, D.C., headed to New York City, a 218-mile route.
Sponsored by the U.S. Post Office, and personally sent off by President Woodrow
Wilson, this has proven to be a most important day in our nation's history ..."
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