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 Here is another set of model aviation-themed comics,
this time from the November 1953 issue of Air Trails magazine. Interestingly,
the middle comics mentions an "X-115" experimental airplane that claims to be able to
hit 850 miles per hour. It seems to be an obvious allusion to the North American
X-15
airplane, which on its first light on June 8, 1959 was flown by Scott Crossfield to a
speed 840 kilometer per hour. Mach 0.79 = 522 mi/hr, Mach 1 = 1,235 km/hr =
767 mi/hr. The two numbers are amazing close, although the units are different.
There is a list at the bottom of the page with links to all the model aviation-themed
comics I have scanned and posted so far. Enjoy!
 "Some 128 of the world's best
drone racing pilots from 34 separate countries are making the journey
to Shenzhen, 'the heart of the drone economy,' for the four-day competition that runs
from 1-4 November 2018. 'At the final count we have 34 national teams with a total of
128 competitors. That includes 43 juniors and 12 women,' said FAI Jury President Bruno
Delor. Travelling with them he said, 'will be a further 132 registered team managers,
helpers and official supporters.' If you're not on your way to Pomona, California, you're
about to miss out on something VERY cool! The 20th annual AMA Expo West will be at the
Fairplex Exposition Center in Pomona, California for the first time on November 2-4 with
a new ..."
 A website visitor from Sydney, Australia, wrote
to request that I scan and post the missing portion of this article (it was originally
missing a page). He has acquired a Deans 8-channel resonant reed bank (photo to the right)
and is looking for schematics for a
27 MHz,
8-channel radio control system - transmitter and receiver - that uses all vacuum
tubes (no transistors). The plans for this Citizen-Ship MST−8 transmitter uses
all tubes, but the MSR−8 receiver uses transistors. A matched Tx/Rx schematic set is
needed since interoperability was not a feature of vintage radio systems. A simple 4-wheeled
vehicle will be used as a demonstration platform for use with his local vintage wireless
club. Please send me an e-mail if you know of a source for schematics. When you see that
they were producing 8-channel units back in 1958, you might be amazed. However, in those
days each channel was a single direction of control. So, an 8 channels in 1958 was equivalent
to 4 channels today. As the schematics show, circuits ...
 Way back in 1975, my friend, Jerry Flynn, and
I assisted Dick Weber in his successful flight on June 14, 1975, that set a new FAI Closed
Course Record of 225 miles in 5 hours and 38 minutes. We were both flaggers to signal
when the Tortoise has passed the distance markers. See the article titled, "652 Miles
Per Gallon," in the November 1975 issue of Model Aviation magazine. We were
not at all involved in all the painstaking effort that Dick had put into preparing his
model for the record flight. This account of
William Bertrand's trials and tribulations in finally setting a new radio control
world endurance record is valuable insight into what it can take to achieve such a goal.
test after test on engines, fuel, airframe, radio system, fuel tanks ...
 Steve Swinamer, a dweller of the northern climes
of Canada, has a lot of days suited for building model airplanes. He uses the wintertime
indoors days to create magnificent reproductions of vintage .020- and .049-powered designs.
His latest creation is a ½A Ace Simple
Citabria, which compliments other planes in his squadron like the
Quarter Pint, the
Ace Whizard, and the
Ace Pacer. Thanks again to Steve for making his work available for inspection ...
 As was probably inevitable, Alain has built and
flown a giant version of his "Alain's Duck" canard.
He did provide the specifics on wingspan of powerplant, but did send this photo. It doesn't
stop there, though. An R/C turbine version is nearly ready for flight. A video will be
posted soon, hopefully ...
 "Although,
winglets have been around since the mid-1970s, there is still a wide
variety of shapes, sizes, and angles. If you've ever taken a photo out the window of
a commercial airplane, you most likely have a great shot of a winglet - that part of
the wing at the tip that angles upward. That little change in the wingtip's shape does
a lot. It reduces drag, which can translate to higher speed or to allow a pilot to throttle
back and save fuel. It also helps to reduce wingtip vortices that can be problematic
for airplanes flying in their wake. Although, winglets have been around since the mid-1970s,
there is still a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and angles. Analyzing winglets to find
the optimal characteristics ..."
 Bill Hutchinson drew many, many comics for model
aircraft magazines in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s (and maybe the 1940s, but I don't have
any that old). A lot of them have been - and are yet to be - posted here on the Airplanes
And Rockets website. "Competition
Daze" comics appeared in the November 1950 issue of Air Trails magazine,
and has a control line theme. Also being about competition, Mr. Hutchinson integrated
a few sports-related ideas into the situation. Control line stunt, speed, and combat
are amongst the subjects. I haven't figured out what the punch line is on comic #3. Anyone?
My favorite is #9 ...
 "It might not the most elegant-looking thing on
the road or in the sky, but an automobile-airplane hybrid that’s being called the world's
first practical flying car is almost ready to spread its wings. The two-passenger Transition
will go on sale in the U.S. next year at an estimated price of $400,000, according to
Terrafugia, the Woburn, Massachusetts-based firm that makes it. The
Transition has four wheels, folding wings and a rear-mounted pusher propeller. Powered
by a four-cylinder hybrid-electric engine, it can fly 100 miles an hour at altitudes
of up to 9,000 feet, with a flying range of 400 miles. There are controls for both flying
and driving: for the roads, conventional brake and accelerator pedals and a steering
wheel; for flying, the usual yoke and rudder pedals ..."
C-47 That Led Normandy Invasion Found &
Restored
 "The invasion of Normandy, also known as
D-day, was one of the most horrific days in history, but it was also
the beginning of the end of a horrific war - World War II. Most of the hundreds of thousands
of men, women and children who died on that day remain nameless in the history books.
The same is true for the airplanes that led the heroic efforts. The attacks came from
several fronts on that fateful day, with ships dropping troops on the beaches of Normandy
and airplanes deploying droves of people and ammunition from the skies. Once the war
was over, most of those aircraft were destroyed or recommissioned, and their historic
significance evaporated like the fuel that burned in their engines. Even some of the
most notable airplanes fell into the shadows of the past ..."
 A lot of model aircraft pilots are also full-scale
pilots, so some of the news items on Airplanes and Rockets are topics that are more directed
to them. This story about a software package called
CloudAhoy is an incredible combination of recorded real-time GPS
data and sophisticated post-processing and display that gives pilots a 3D visual representation
of their flight path superimposed of detailed terrain features. I have seen some post-processing
software for R/C airborne telemetry data, but nothing as detailed as this. Model aircraft
don't cover as much ground in a typical flight as a full-scale aircraft does, but having
a detailed 3D representation of the flight path would be a great training aid to aerobatic
pilots ...
 If you have been looking for an unusual project
that should build fairly quickly, cost very little, contain non-standard materials, and
qualify for a vintage design contest, then
Rathgeber's "Minimum" fits the bill. It is a 1/2A control line speed model with about
an 8" wingspan that appeared in a 1957 issue of American Modeler magazine. It
does not appear to have been intended for serious competition, but given the single-line
control and extremely high thrust-to-weight ration and minimal drag design, it might
have been a contender back in the day. Designer George Rathgeber does not give specifics
on timed flights. My guess is that it was a handful to fly due to lack of tail feathers ...
 "As drones become more commonplace, the need to
secure facilities from the high-definition cameras and potential dangerous payloads has
caused a rapid growth of
counter-drone technologies. DMT, LLC started making radar systems
in 2002, and rapidly grew to build and sell these systems across the globe. The commercial
radars produced by DMT employ pulsed-Doppler technology. Pulsed-Doppler radar is perhaps
the most versatile of radar technologies and is known for its ability to operate in a
wide array of environments and applications. DMT uses Doppler radar to track objects
on land, sea and in the air. In 2015 it began testing its pulsed-Doppler radars against
commonly available drones. Today it produces the longest-range, drone-detection radar
systems on the market ..."
 This
1969 Camaro SS
was my pride and joy as a teenager. It was purchased in 1975 for $3,500 from a fellow
named Mr. Cavey, in Bowie, Maryland (I lived in Mayo, MD). He had ordered it custom from
the Chevrolet factory with nearly every option available in 1969. This was not a Z10
model, but did have most of the options. The 1969 Indy 500 pace car was a Camaro SS
convertible with a 396 engine and a white and orange paint job. As you can see in the
top photo, my 1969 Camaro SS came with a white vinyl top, the ducted hood, rally
wheels, hounds tooth upholstery, foldaway headlamps, 3-speed automatic transmission,
350 cu.in. V8 engine, electric windows, air conditioning, folding rear seats, sport
side view mirrors, and full instrument cluster ...
 The Northrop Gamma was as close to a one-size-fits-all
aircraft as you would come by in the mid 1930's. It is pretty incredible to ponder the
rapid development in aircraft and engines in the short three decades since the Wright
brothers made their world's first powered flight in 1903. Airspeeds went from 30 miles
per hour to more than 200 miles per hour. Engines went from 12 horsepower to nearly 1,000
horsepower in that timespan. The
Northrop Gamma appeared in more than a dozen different versions including an air
racer, a military bomber, a trainer, a high altitude weather research platform, a military
attack airplane, and a seaplane. It was one of the first production designs to incorporate
a completely enclosed cockpit - a welcome feature to pilots in cold weather ...
 "The US Air Force's unmanned
X-37B space plane has passed its 400-day mark, inching its way toward
setting a new flight duration record for the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) mission. The
spacecraft, the fifth of its kind, was initially rocketed into orbit on September 7,
2017, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, according to Space.com. All previous OTV missions
established new flight records, with the fourth spacecraft spending 718 days in orbit.
Though details of the space plane are kept on a need-to-know basis by officials, it has
been reported that the craft is carrying in its payload an Advanced Structurally-Embedded
Thermal Spreader. In August, the space plane was spotted by Marco Langbroek ..."
"As drones become more commonplace, the need to
secure facilities from the high-definition cameras and potential dangerous payloads has
caused a rapid growth of
counter-drone technologies. DMT, LLC started making radar systems
in 2002, and rapidly grew to build and sell these systems across the globe. The commercial
radars produced by DMT employ pulsed-Doppler technology. Pulsed-Doppler radar is perhaps
the most versatile of radar technologies and is known for its ability to operate in a
wide array of environments and applications. DMT uses Doppler radar to track objects
on land, sea and in the air. In 2015 it began testing its pulsed-Doppler radars against
commonly available drones. Today it produces the longest-range, drone-detection radar
systems on the market ..."
 "A novel insect-inspired flying robot, developed
by TU Delft researchers from the Micro Air Vehicle Laboratory (MAVLab), has been presented
in Science. Experiments with this first autonomous, free-flying and agile
flapping-wing robot - carried out in collaboration with Wageningen
University & Research - improved our understanding of how fruit flies control aggressive
escape maneuvers. Apart from its further potential in insect flight research, the robot's
exceptional flight qualities open up new drone applications. Flying animals both power
and control flight by flapping their wings. This enables small natural flyers such as
insects to hover close to a flower, but also to rapidly escape danger ..."
 Very sad news arrived in my
e-mail today that told of the passing of former AMA president and executive director
Dave Mathewson. Dave's contribution to the Academy of Model Aeronautics
is immeasurable, in my opinion, having followed his service over a couple decades. He
was the District II VP when my family lived in Syracuse, NY, in the 1990's. Dave
was the major force behind the AMA modernizing to adapt to the reality of contemporary
modelers who opt for ready-to-fly models and electric power more so than traditional
build-it-yourself modelers using glow fuel power. Although I am a member of the later
category, the need to include and encourage the former category of hobbyists was obvious
for the sake of organized aeromodelling survival. Many thanks to Dave's family for allowing
him to pursue his passion for all our benefit. Dave Mathewson, 1/20/1952 - 10/21/2018.
RIP ...
 "The Boeing Co. on Thursday secured a hat-trick
of Pentagon contract wins after it was awarded a deal worth as much as $9.2 billion to
build new trainer jets for the U.S. Air Force. The Wall Street Journal reports. The contract
to build an initial 351
T-X jets and supply training services is one of the largest Defense
Department programs awarded in recent years, with the work helping sustain engineers
and production equipment while the Pentagon considers the next generation of combat aircraft
due to come into service in the 2030s. Analysts had favored Boeing in the long-running
contest, expecting the aerospace giant to bid aggressively to secure the future of its
main military jet ..."
 Flettner rotors were at one time believed to be
the next big thing in air-driven propulsion. They would replace cloth sails on boats
and fixed wings on aeroplanes. I remember seeing such fantastic contraptions in magazines
like Mechanix Illustrated and Popular Mechanics back in the 1960's
and 1970's. The nouveau sails and wings were actually built on experimental vehicles
which can be found in a Google search on Flettner rotor. They operate on the Magnus effect,
which is where a lifting force is generated by a spinning sphere or cylinder moving through
the air (or water, or any fluid), thereby causing an unequal pressure to build on opposite
sides. I had a Magnus rotor kite as a kid in the late 1960's that was made of thin, molded
plastic ...
 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 ...
 "When World War One broke out in 1914, the airplane
was barely eleven years old and was nothing more than a plodding, noisy kite barely more
dangerous than an observation balloon. As a weapon, it was difficult to take seriously.
Four short years later it had been transformed into a multi-dimensional weapon system
of awesome potential and the
Royal Airplane Factory’s SE-5a is a classic case in point. It showed
clearly that in time of war man quickly finds more efficient ways rain death on his enemy.
The Scout Experimental 5, (SE-5) was designed specifically to eliminate the awful short
comings aircraft such as the Sopwith Camel, while at the same time, giving it a combat
edge over Germany's lethal Fokkers ..."
 Air Trails magazine ran a regular feature
called "Airmen of Vision" that was a deign idea contest where readers submitted futuristic
designs for everything from small homebuilt aircraft to military jet fighters and large
commercial airliners. The 1950's was an era when young men were totally caught up in
the dawning age of jet propulsion, transistorized electronics, flying cars, interplanetary
flight and moon landings, wind-powered ocean liners, robotic home servants, and even
- get this - personal computers! If you search the Airplanes and Rockets website for
some of the other aircraft and automobile design contest entries, you will be amazed
at how close some of them come to ones that have been built over the years. Check out
this SpaceShipOne lookalike ...
 Although not involved with Scaled Composites these
days, remember that famed Burt Rutan, himself a model airplane enthusiast, was the founder.
"The
flying rocket launcher enters a crowded field, leading some to wonder
if it could end up flying classified missions. Seven years ago, Microsoft founder Paul
Allen started a company with a bold idea: build one of the biggest aircraft ever to fly,
and then use it to launch satellites into orbit. Now just months before the airplane
flies the first time, some are wondering where the customers are for such an aircraft.
Could the airplane end up flying secret missions for the military and intelligence community?
Built by aviation firm Scaled Composites, Stratolaunch is the largest aircraft in the
world ..."
 "Even as drone technology advances, power constraints
limit the amount of equipment unmanned systems can carry as well as the time they can
stay in the air. Some drone systems, like the
Persistent Aerial Reconnaissance and Communications drone from CyPhy
Works, deliver power through a tether to keep a small drone aloft for an entire week.
The Army, however, is developing a system to supply power through a laser, according
to reporting from the New Scientist. The drone would be outfitted with a photovoltaic
cell that could take the light beam from the laser and turn it into electricity. The
Army has still to determine how to get the benefits of photovoltaics without the extreme
heat damaging the drone, according to Futurism ..."
 "The US-1, from Impossible Aerospace, can fly for
2 hours. A new electric drone from Impossible Aerospace can fly more than four times
as long as other battery-powered drones, the company announced today, potentially bringing
the world closer to fully electric passenger aircraft. The new unmanned vehicle, dubbed
the US-1, is a quadcopter that is 'essentially just one big flying battery,' says Spencer
Gore, founder and CEO of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Impossible Aerospace. 'Most drones are
designed with the philosophy that once you are done figuring out the payload and propulsion,
you add the battery pack,' Gore says. 'Instead, from the very beginning, we designed
a battery pack that was meant to fly' ..."
 As a kid in the 1960's, following America's progress
in the Space Race was a big part of my life. I built and launched as many Estes rockets
as my meager newspaper route-funded budget allowed. When John Glenn made his historic
Earth-orbiting flight in the Mercury Freedom 7 space capsule on February 20, 1962,
I was a mere 3 years old, but my parent say I was an ardent aerospace fan beginning at
a very young age. Most American households probably had at least one
View-Master stereo
slide viewer, and ours was amongst them. I loved the 3D Peanuts slide sets, and especially
any with an airplane or space exploration theme. My originals are long gone, but fortunately
I was able to buy this near-perfect set titled, "America's Man in Space," on eBay ...
 "In the UK, the testing of a
flying taxi made the news this week. We can set sight on a new day
in vertical aerospace with the company of the same name. A full scale electric vertical
take off and landing aircraft has flown and takes it place as 'the UK's first full scale
fully electric vertical take off and landing aircraft.' This startup, Vertical Aerospace,
is building technology (1) to change how people fly, (2) to expand your notion of air
travel as now an 'intercity' option, and (3) to offer people carbon free journeys. The
Telegraph was already showing awareness of possible use cases with its headline "Bristol
start-up launches UK's first electric 'flying taxi ..."
  "Today, the Senate passed
the FAA Reauthorization
Act of 2018, and we expect President Trump to sign it into law soon. This bill includes
significant modifications to our hobby. While some of the changes are positive, and include
provisions that AMA has championed, overall the bill is problematic, such as a 400 AGL
altitude cap in Class G airspace. Please note: None of the provisions included in this
bill will go into effect immediately. The status quo remains - and you should continue
to fly in accordance with AMA's safety guidelines until the FAA creates new rules, which
could take some time. We will let you know as soon as we have more information on this
process and timeline. In the meantime, we are already working behind-the-scenes ..."
 To the left is Melanie with her gaf
View−Master "Tour Theatre" set that she had as a little girl. She took better care of
her stuff than I did, so a lot of her toys and dolls are still around decades later.
It came with a Standard 30−watt projector and a hand−held stereo viewer. Also included
was a nice case and a few reel sets with various places around the world*. Being a Peanuts
fan like me, she had a couple 3−reel sets: "Snoopy and the Red Baron," and Peanuts."
We have a "Little Drummer Boy" and "Dennis the Menace" set, too. The others are long
gone. I had just a hand−held viewer. The hand−held View−Master viewer that created a
3D scene by using a pair of stereoscopic images fed individually to each eye. One of
the Peanuts reels has a frame showing how those stereoscopic images were ...
 Here is another round of nifty model airplane building
ideas, aka "Sketchbook,"
submitted by readers of the Academy of Model Aviation's (AMA's) American Modeler
magazine. I'm not too keen on the "rubber mold" idea of using a thin layer of silicon
rubber, trimmed to the design outline with a razor knife - especially over an open wing
bay or between fuselage longerons. Controlling the depth of the cut is tricky, especially
in a layer of silicon that is not of uniform thickness. Mr. Itter must have a steady
hand. Using a length of brass tubing with the end filed or sanded to a sharp edge is
a handy trick for cutting holes I have used many times over the years - probably after
having first seen it in American Aircraft Modeler, R/C Modeler,
Flying Models, or Model Airplane News ...
 "The Academy of Model Aeronautics is rallying
its members to lobby congressional representatives to vote against the latest iteration
of FAA reauthorization, the
FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018. The bill includes modifications
to the Special Rule for Model Aircraft, also known as Section 336, modifications the
AMA claims will put burdensome restrictions on the use of model aircraft. The FAA Reauthorization
Act of 2018 restricts model aircraft operations to 400 feet AGL. This limit 'kills many
of our operations that have been safely conducted for decades,' said AMA's interim executive
director, Chad Budreau, in a video on the AMA website. AMA claims this limit will inhibit
AMA competitions ..."
 "Van's Aircraft is set to begin manufacturing
RV–12's in 2018 at its headquarters in Aurora, Oregon, the company
announced. The factory-built special light sport aircraft (SLSA) will use fuel-injected
Rotax 912 iS and iST engines instead of earlier carbureted models. Van's employees will
build the new airplanes - not Synergy Air of Eugene, Oregon, a separate company that
previously assembled SLSA RV - 12's from kits that Van's supplied. 'We've got a new,
dedicated work area at Aurora,' said Greg Hughes, a Van's spokesman. 'All the parts,
expertise, and components will be in the same area, and that's sure to enhance efficiency ..."
 If you are a current member of the Academy of
Model Aeronautics (AMA), online access is available to every issue of
Model Aviation
magazine back through the first issue in July 1975. March 1975 was the final edition
of the predecessor magazine titled
American Aircraft Modeler
(see full list). The AMA Plans Service can provide you with plans for nearly all of the
models in American Modeler and American Aircraft Modeler either at
the original size or scaled up or down. There is a new wave in scratch builders occurring
now, and this would be a great resource for those folks ...
 Cal Smith covers a huge amount of turf in this
article about the Academy of Model Aeronautics' (AMA's) control line
Navy Carrier
event equipment, airframes, engines, and flying techniques. Back in 1961, when this
article appeared in American Modeler magazine, the U.S. Navy was still sponsoring
the AMA National Competition as a means of encouraging young men to consider careers
in the Navy as pilots as well as all the other disciplines needed to keep the fleet afloat,
so to speak. I always wanted to try building and flying Carrier, but the opportunity
never presented itself. There have not been local clubs with a carrier deck, and I have
neither the land area nor the money to build my own. It sure seems like flying Carrier
shouldn't be as difficult as it really is, but I have watched competitions at Brodak
and snagging one of the arrestor lines ...
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Academy of Model Aeronautics
