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 This
Hiller
Helicopters XROE-1 "Rotor-cycle" looks a lot like the Bensen Gyrocopters that
seemed to be in every magazine in the 1960s and 1970s (including this May 1957 American
Modeler edition), either as a feature story or in the advertisements in the back.
A couple James Bond movies even featured them as high-tech, futuristic flying machines.
The U.S. military experimented for a while with the personal gyrocopter concept
for surveillance and search and rescue operations, but it never really went anywhere.
Remote-controlled drones do a lot of that work these days. Significant improvements
have been made in airworthiness over the years and now there are many personal gyrocopters
in use around the world - both homebuilt and commercially built...
 "Aerospace innovators from government, commercial,
and university arenas are developing technologies that would make supersonic flight
over land possible, dramatically reducing travel time anywhere in the world. With
these advances, engineers also are working to make aircraft more environmentally
friendly, eliminating toxic emissions and reducing the amount of energy required
for flight. NASA, for decades, has led the effort to study sonic booms - the loudness
of which is considered the key barrier to enabling a future for overland, commercial
supersonic aircraft. That future will be closer to reality when the agency's
X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) airplane takes to the skies in 2022,
taking the first steps to demonstrating the ability to fly..."
 This is the Sunday, January 16, 1944, "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...
 My
Blade 230 S V2
R/C Helicopter and Spektrum DX6 G3 R/C System are For Sale as a package
deal at a bargain price. The video shows the heli and radio in use just prior to
packing everything into the original boxes. I promise you it is in excellent condition
and ready to fly. The helicopter has never had a crack-up and has always been flown
with the training gear, so the even the rotor blades are excellent. I have put about
75−100 flights on it using the two 800 mAh LiPos. Here is more info and a flight
video...
 "The
gigantic Stratolaunch aircraft flew Thursday for its second time, taking to
the skies over the Southern California desert The six-engine jet with the world's
longest wingspan took off from Mojave Air and Space Port two years after its maiden
flight, following a change in ownership and purpose. 'We are airborne,' the Stratolaunch
company tweeted at about 7:30 a.m. The behemoth safely touched down on its 28 wheels
about three hours later and Stratolaunch called the flight test a success. Named
Roc, the twin-fuselage aircraft has a wingspan of 385 feet (117 meters). It was
developed by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, who died just months before it
flew for the first time in April 2019..."
 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 July/August 1966 edition of
American Modeler, 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 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...
 "After proving powered, controlled flight
is possible on the Red Planet, NASA's
Mars
Ingenuity helicopter has new orders: scout ahead of the Perseverance rover to
assist in its search for past signs of microbial life. The next phase extends the
rotorcraft's mission beyond the original month-long technology demonstration. Now,
the goal is to assess how well flyers can help future exploration of Mars and other
worlds. 'We're going to gather information on the operational support capability
of the helicopter while Perseverance focuses on its science mission,' Lori Glaze,
director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, told reporters Friday. "
 If you are looking for a simple stick and
tissue model airplane to build, the Flying Aces
Super R.O.G. fits the bill. The fuselage is a stick like the (former) dime store
Comet wind-up rubber band models, and the empennage components are built up from
1/16" square balsa. Interestingly, the wing ribs are made from thin bamboo strips
that are bent to an airfoil shape, which results in a high lift undercambered cross-section.
You can probably substitute medium to hard 1/16" square balsa if bamboo is not available.
If you want to stick with the original construction, bamboo shish kebab or chop
sticks are pretty cheap at Walmart. Covering is Jap tissue. The R.O.G.'s wingspan
is about 16".
 "DARPA's mission to develop
AI fighter jets has moved a step closer to take-off. The agency recently tested
algorithms in two-on-one aerial combat simulations. The military research agency's
algorithms took down an Air Force pilot in a virtual dogfight last year. In February,
the Pentagon's 'mad science' unit tested how they'd perform as a team. The battle
pitted two friendly F-16s against a single enemy aircraft. Each fighter jet was
equipped with a gun for short-range engagements and a missile for more distant targets.
Colonel Dan 'Animal' Javorsek, program manager in DARPA's Strategic Technology Office,
said testing multiple weapons and aircraft introduced new dynamics to the trials..."
 Website visitor Kurt S. let me know
about a PBS show entitled "The Great
Electric Airplane Race," which first aired on May 26th. It covers a wide range
of developments on electric aircraft - from early stages of development to models
in or near the commercial production stage. Ingenuity and commitment amongst participants
is amazing. The state of the art of electric motors and controllers has advanced
significantly in the last two decades to the point where is seems there is not room
for much more in that realm. Aircraft structures are necessarily incredibly lightweight
and strong. The Achilles Heel of the effort is battery weight, bulk, and safety.
Pointed out in the show is how a long distance airliner would require more than
100x the weight of jet fuel in equivalent batteries, and then they wouldn't fit.
We (they, actually) will eventually get there, but some radically new type of energy
storage will be needed.
 When deciding which type of covering to
apply to a model airplane structure, it would be helpful to have a table of
covering material density for comparison.
Here is such a table which shows, for instance, that 21st Century Fabric is the
heaviest type of covering you can use. MicroLite covering is the lightest weight.
Not shown are most doped or painted coverings because finished weights are so dependent
on substrate type (silk, Silkspan, tissue, etc.), paint or dope type, and number/thickness
of coats. To calculate the covering weight, multiply the density by the total surface
area of your model...
 Is this
cool or what? Of course I'll never be able to afford one (maybe an R/C model someday,
though). "Electric boats of all shapes and sizes are beginning to make a splash
in the maritime sector. It's estimated that maritime greenhouse gas emissions account
for around 2.5% of the global total, marginally ahead of the 2% that aviation contributes.
If shipping were a country, it would be the sixth largest emitter of CO2 after China,
the USA, India, Russia and Japan. International shipping - much like long-haul flight
- will not be electrified any time soon, as the energy density of batteries simply
cannot facilitate it. And for an industry that’s recently committed to halve its
emissions by 2050..."
 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...
 "NASA's
Ingenuity helicopter safely landed after wobbling, suffering power spikes, and
enduring velocity fluctuations on its sixth flight at Mars, officials said Wednesday.
The helicopter took off May 22 on its sixth automated flight and completed the first
leg of a planned 705-foot excursion without a hitch. But Ingenuity started tilting
back and forth in an oscillating pattern, encountering roll and pitch excursions
of more than 20 degrees, registering large control inputs, and suffered spikes in
power consumption, according to Havard Grip, the helicopter's chief pilot at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Ingenuity overcame the glitch, which engineers
traced..."
 This "Spirit of 76" glider from
Hobby Shack was another of the models I always planned to buy someday, but never
got around to it. Hobby Shack is long gone now, and finding one of these vintage
kits is nearly impossible. Now, as then, my funds limit what I can justify buying
(and a 920 sq.ft. house limits storage), so I didn't bid on this "Spirit of 76"
that showed up a few months ago. This model is particularly memorable since it is
named the same as the theme for my Southern Senior High School graduating class
yearbook for 1976. The photos presented here were downloaded from an eBay sale.
They typically sell in the $75 to $150 price range when in good condition and all
the parts are included...
 A
total lunar eclipse will happen on May 26th, but I won't be able to see it from
my [disad]vantage point in Erie, PA. It will coincide whit when the moon is near
its closest approach to Earth, so it will appear very large, aka a "supermoon."
While the supermoon is usually a good thing for those wishing to view the surface
features, it makes for a lousy eclipse because it is in the Earth's shadow (the
umbra) for a shorter period of time, making totality shorter - in this case a mere
15 minutes. Oh well, maybe you will get to see it. The longest
total lunar eclipse
of the 21st century has already occurred, on 7/27/2018 (1h42m57s), and the shortest
was 4/4/2015 (4m43s).
 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...
 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...
My
Blade 230 S V2
R/C Helicopter and Spektrum DX6 G3 R/C System are For Sale as a package
deal at a bargain price. The video shows the heli and radio in use just prior to
packing everything into the original boxes. I promise you it is in excellent condition
and ready to fly. The helicopter has never had a crack-up and has always been flown
with the training gear, so the even the rotor blades are excellent. I have put about
75−100 flights on it using the two 800 mAh LiPos. Here is more info and a flight
video...
 This information appeared in a 1970s era
Sig Manufacturing catalog that I had as a teenager. Sig also had an extensive article
on balsa tree foresting and harvesting. They are as useful today as it was many
moons ago. Also, Al and Rod Clark created a very nice set of graphs that plot
balsa density versus weight for wide variety
of balsa sheet thickness, width, and length combinations. There is also a brief
discussion on balsa grain (A, B, and C) and how it affects the wood's characteristics.
It is hosted on the AMA's website. Balsa is one of the lightest woods available,
and in many respects has the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any wood - even
oak. The chart at the right gives a comparison of a few familiar wood types...
 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 article suggests
might have never been built. To be fair, finding obscure information was a lot more
difficult in 1969, long before the Internet put petabytes of data at everyone's
fingertips...
 One nice thing about having a website like
Airplanes and Rockets is that every once in a while a famous person will contact
me with some great information. It happened again recently when David J. Holland
wrote about how he still has the original artwork of his "Flying Men"
models from the cover of the 1962 Annual Edition of American Modeler. He
sent a photo of the magazine cover next to the framed original, along with a photo
of his actual control line model. Says Dave, "The picture is of a magazine cover
and article about my funny face models in the '50s and early 1960s. The model pictured
is the third version as I wore out the first two. The story and cover were the result
of a demonstration flight I did during the Sunday air show at the 1961 Nationals
at the Willow Grove, PA, naval air station. I have the original art work of the
cover, four times the size of the magazine..."
 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 set), and in
a somewhat desperate attempt to fly an RC glider, actually managed to crammed 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 40 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"...
 Website visitor Danny B. wrote to ask
that I scan and post this article and plans for the "Just
Right" (aka J.R.) pee wee size free flight model. It appeared in the November
1958 issue of American Modeler magazine. J.R. is a simple built-up balsa
airplane with a 29" wingspan that uses a Cox Pee Wee .020 engine for power.
As with most other vintage models, the J.R. could fairly easily be converted to
electric power. I did not have the November 1958 issue, but fortunately there was
a batch of the entire year of 1958 on eBay, so I bought them. The Post Office gave
itself 10 days to deliver a 2-Day Priority Mail package from two states away, and
of course blamed it on the Wuhan Virus. When they finally arrived, I discovered
the seller had mistakenly sent 1957...
 An Airplanes and Rockets website visitor
asked me to make good on my offer to scan articles of interest to visitors - in
this case one from the 1973 edition of American Aircraft Modeler magazine.
Titled, "Uncle
Sam's Plastic Air Force," it details the ambitious project the military undertook
to provide visual aids to servicemen to help them identify enemy aircraft and, equally
as important, to identify friendly aircraft. This private collection of World War II
plastic identification airplane models is owned by the estate of a former Lt. Commander
in the U.S. Navy who was a Class of 1953 U.S. Naval Academy graduate...
 "The Pentagon
has announced that one of its offices has completed planned research and development
work on a number of
unmanned drone swarming technologies and has now turned them over to the U.S.
Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps to support various follow-on programs. The
systems in question are the Block 3 version of Raytheon's Coyote unmanned aircraft
and an associated launcher, a jam-resistant datalink, and a software package to
enable the aforementioned drones to operate as an autonomous swarm. These developments
give us a glimpse into what has been a fairly opaque, integrated development effort
to field lower-end swarming drones across the services that leverages common components.
All of these technologies were developed under the auspices of the LCCM effort,
led by the Pentagon's JCTD program office..."
 Cal Smith's semi-scale control-line model
of the Duo-Mono
bi/monoplane is certainly an unusual-looking airplane that might make a good
subject for an electric power conversion. It is based on one of Maurice Henri Delanne's
designs featuring a larger primary wing and an offset smaller secondary wing. The
model shown here has a 31" span for the main wing and about 22½" of span for the
secondary wing. The fuselage is around 25¾" from tip of the spinner to back of the
rudder. A .30-size engine is used, yielding 70 mph flights at full bore. Construction
is standard balsa and plywood, with fully sheeted wings. Burt Rutan, a couple decades
later, was famous for his canard and dual-wing (not biplanes) designs such as the
very unique and popular Quickie.
 "Last August, Microsoft released the latest
version of its
Flight
Simulator, extending the run of that franchise to 38 years and making it the
longest-running product line in Microsoft's history. Published by the technology
giant's Xbox Game Studios, the new Flight Simulator treats gamers to vastly greater
detail and texture in both environment and aircraft, far better lighting, and much
more realistic flight characteristics than in previous versions. The precise renderings
of all 20 airplanes (which include the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Cessna 172, and Beechcraft
B350) and the particulars of individual airports are stunning. Aircraft cockpits
are functional down to the position of almost every switch. Air traffic (both actual
and that of other users) is reproduced in real time, as is the weather..."
 "Future lunar landers might come equipped
with
3D printed rocket engine parts that help bring down overall manufacturing costs
and reduce production time. NASA is investing in advanced manufacturing - one of
five industries of the future - to make it possible. Through a series of hot-fire
tests in November, NASA demonstrated that two additively manufactured engine components
- a copper alloy combustion chamber and nozzle made of a high-strength hydrogen
resistant alloy - could withstand the same extreme combustion environments that
traditionally manufactured metal structures experience in flight..."
Suspected
Problem with Mylan Pharmaceuticals' Estradiol Dosage
 Website visitor Doug W. wrote to ask that
I scan and post this article on Dave Platt's familiar
Contender. It
mentions at the end of the article that Top Flite would soon be kitting the Contender,
which indeed it did. The man down the street from me when I was a kid flew radio
controlled models and he had a Contender (early 1970s). It was covered in yellow
and light blue MonoKote - kind of a strange color scheme. When he crashed it beyond
repair, he gave me the carcass. That was a treasure to me at about 13-14 years old.
It was the closest I had ever come to owning an R/C airplane. Occasionally, American
Aircraft Modeler magazine printed plans in blueprint format, which is very difficult
to use as a model building plan. They definitely do not convert well to graphical
format...
 "Researchers have published a study revealing
their successful approach to designing much
quieter
propellers. The team used machine learning to design their propellers, then
3D printed several of the most promising prototypes for experimental acoustic testing
at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's specialised
'echo-free' chamber. Results now published in Aerospace Research Central show the
prototypes produced around 15dB less noise than commercially available propellers,
validating the team's design methodology. RMIT University aerospace engineer and
lead researcher..."
 "NASA is set to start high-voltage functional
ground testing of the agency's first all-electric X-plane, the
X-57 Maxwell, which will perform flights to help develop certification standards
for emerging electric aircraft. NASA is also supporting these new electric aircraft
by developing quiet, efficient, reliable technology these vehicles will need in
routine use. Testing is expected to start with low power, checking the startup and
shutdown sequences and verifying that the new motor control software boots up and
controls the motors as expected. The first pair of electric cruise motors to fly
on the X-57 will be powered up and activated, allowing engineers to ensure that
the vehicle's propellers spin as designed..."
 "World War II is one of the most documented
conflicts in history. Millions of photographs and miles of motion-picture film stock
provide a rich visual record of its brutal violence and celebrate its martial purpose.
Color photography, though not new, had only just become widely available when
the war began in 1939. Color images of the war are not hard to come by, but they
are considerably rarer than black-and-white images. As the lived experience of World
War II fades - because of the passing of those who participated in it and
of those who observed it from the home front - the use of original color imagery
provides a sense of immediacy for younger generations, for whom the war is often
a vague and distant event from the last century. As part of the National Air and
Space Museum's ongoing renovation, which includes creating new exhibits in our flagship
location on the National Mall in Washington, D.C..."
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