I received a
lot of feedback after first posting this piece on how to straighten
cupped and/or bowed laminated countertops. That was a couple years ago.
Since I continue to see severely deformed countertops in Lowes and Home Depot,
it is worth brining attention to it again. You might be able to get a really
good deal on the otherwise unsellable laminated countertops, then use my easy
method for nearly perfectly flattening them. Al that is required is sawing a
cross-hatch pattern part-way through the bottom surface, and then screwing,
gluing, and clamping them whilst being held flat. The wood around the outside
edge serves as the space normally placed between the top of the lower cabinet
base and the countertop. Tyri. You'll like it!
"Gotonomi,
a UAV satellite connectivity solutions provider, has announced the completion of
further successful flight trials and the opening of orders for production units
of all variants of its
UAV satcom terminals at Commercial UAV Expo 2024 in Las Vegas. The launch
marks a significant milestone, transitioning from pre-production flight
development kits to type-approved, commercial terminals, enabling scalable
beyond visual line of sight operations (BVLOS) for drone operators wishing to
offer inspection, surveillance, and delivery services. Following extensive
verification testing, including flight trials..."
When I first saw this "U-Control
Model Plane" article in a 1952 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine,
I expected it to have been written by one of the Stanzel brothers. Long after
their entry into the model airplane manufacturing world, Joe and Victor created
their line of battery-powered, electric motor-driven control line models in
1958. It eventually included a helicopter, a monoplane, and a flying saucer,
amongst other craft. The Stanzels, BTW, invented the Monoline control line
system which was adopted by U-control (aka control line) speed modelers because
it created much less aerodynamic drag, facilitating higher airspeeds. Maybe this
article was a motivation for the Stanzels...
Another of
Melanie's family's relics is this
pine clothes
chest. After more than 100 years of use and abuse, this chest was in dire
need of restoration. Construction is very low density pine, with dovetailed
corners. Finish was a clear varnish with no stain. The bottom, back, and inside
had no finish at all. Restoration consisted of knocking apart and re-gluing most
joints, sanding, and filling in the multiple dings and scratches where they were
really deep. Minor imperfections were kept for the sake of character. Minwax
dark walnut stain was used inside and out, and allowed to dry for a week. Then,
two coats of Deft satin clear were brushed on with 320 sanding and 0000 steel
wool between coats...
"The SETI Institute, in collaboration with
the Berkeley SETI Research Center and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy
Research, has initiated a pioneering study using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA)
in Western Australia. Led by Dr. Chenoa Tremblay of the SETI Institute and Prof.
Steven Tingay of Curtin University, this research marks the first
search for alien technology in galaxies beyond our own, specifically targeting
low radio frequencies (100 MHz). The MWA's extensive field of view (FOV) allowed
the research team to examine approximately 2,800 galaxies in a single observation,
with known distances for 1,300 of these galaxies..."
This report of the
1962 (16th) British Nationals
appeared in the 1963 Annular edition of American Modeler modeler, which
I believe was published in January of 1963. Just as back in the day, the U.S. Nationals
were held on a military installation (U.S. Navy sponsorship), the British Nats were
held at Barkston Heath R.A.F. station. Although technically it was an international
event, it appears that Brits and Yanks were the only competitors - or at least the
only ones mentioned. See anyone you know?
When
Dyna-Jet engine in new or like-new condition is listed for sale or auction on
eBay, it usually sells for north of $500. Sometimes buyers get lucky and win an
auction for less. This 1946 Popular Science magazine article entitled "Baby V-1
Flies for Fun" appeared just a year after Germany had surrendered unconditionally.
Only a year before that, Londoners ran for cover in underground shelters when V-1
"Buzz Bombs" were heard making their tell-tale 45 Hz "buzz" noise as they made
their way toward England. "V-1" was from the German Vergeltungswaffe 1 meaning
"Vengeance Weapon 1." The only reference to a "robomb" I see other than this
article is from a 1944 issue of Time magazines entitled, "Science: How the Robomb
Works." As Paul Harvey would famously say, "Now you know... the Rest of the story."
SpaceX
and Blue Origin have been in the news for the last decade for their efforts (some
successful, some not) to
autonomously land a spacecraft vertically under its own power. Love it or hate
it, NASA has been doing that for nearly six decades. Granted, it was on celestial
bodies with lower gravitational acceleration than on Earth, but the earliest craft
(Surveyor 1, 1966) had relatively crude electronics aboard, including a Doppler
radar, flight computer, and video camera. The now legendary Apollo Guidance Computer
has been written about extensively, and is a testimony to the brilliance of the
scientists, engineers, managers, operators, and technicians who built and flew it.
Articles like this one in the May 1967 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine...
I am not aware of the origin of this matrix,
but it is a very useful tool for determining whether certain
filler materials
and finish chemistries are compatible or, equally important, incompatible. It
was included in the July 2012 edition of the Bean Hill Flyers control-line club
newsletter. This might save somebody the grief and angst from applying a finish
over a base that will cause it to bubble, peel, blister, or not ever dry. One important
point this chart indicates is that you can apply butyrate dope over nitrate dope,
but you CANNOT apply nitrate dope over butyrate dope. There might be other instances
of one-way compatibilities, but if you are not sure, do a test first or avoid the
deadly combination altogether. You also need to verify compatibility of the various
rattle can...
According to Guiness World Records, the
current holder of the record for the
fastest model car is the "Radio Controlled Bullet," by Nic Case, having achieved
a speed of 202.02 mph (325.12 km/h), in 2014. In 2019, Estonian Ando Rohtmets set
the tethered model car speed record of 215.92 mph (347.490 kmph). All
modern speed records are set using electric motor power, unlike these models reported
on in a 1948 issue of Popular Science magazine which used liquid fuel and
internal combustion engines (ICE). However, not all of those ICE powerplants had
pistons. Mr. Frank Brennan showed up with a DynaJet-powered model car, purportedly
fashioned after the Nazi V-1 "Buzz Bomb" (remember this was only a couple years
past...
The
Eclipse is a gigantic
radio-controlled sailplane model with a 16-foot wingspan, geodesic ribs construction,
and "V" tail configuration. It is built up from balsa, plywood, spruce, and a fiberglass
tail boom. I remember first seeing the model on the cover of the October 1974 issue
of American Aircraft Modeler magazine, and really wanting to build one.
Unfortunately, I was only 16 years old at the time and was barely able to afford
control line models, let alone a huge RC sailplane. Of course with the cost of balsa
today, it is no more affordable now as then. It probably takes four rolls of Monokote
to cover! Here are plans for the Eclipse that I electronically scanned from my purchased
copy AAM. You might be able to scale up the image...
The Estes
Saturn 1B rocket is another model that
I really wanted to have as a kid, but just didn't have the money. In those days,
I launched everything that I built, so I could not see spending a huge amount of
my paper route money only to take the risk of destruction due to the parachutes
not deploying properly or maybe an engine malfunction. I had launched enough rockets
to know that the probability of something going wrong was directly proportional
to the cost and time spent building. Instead, I stuck mostly with models that cost
no more than about $3 (in 1960s-1970s dollars). This Saturn 1B model has long
been in my rocket building queue, but decade passed before I felt justified spending
the money and time to buy and build one. The Saturn 1B was one of the Saturn V's
predecessors and was used as the launch vehicle for the first few Apollo missions...
Jetex "rocket" motors were quite popular
during the 1940s through the 1970s. Their debut in the modeling world was in 1948,
per the Jetex.org website. Unlike Estes rocket engines that used combustion to generate
a high velocity ejection stream, Jetex fuel pellets merely "burned" at a constant
rate while the exhaust was forced through a small orifice in the engine's metal
housing (casing). Also unlike Estes engines, the Jetex casing was reusable and re-fuelable.
Half a dozen or so sizes and thrust levels eventually were produced. I had a couple
of the Jetex 50 engines that got strapped to Guillows balsa gliders and, to
some degree, were made to fly in jet-like fashion...
Infographics are a big thing (literally)
in the business and science world, although they do seem to have passed their prime.
Well-done infographics typically have the form of a high aspect ratio drawing that
presents a detailed timeline or process flow of events or concepts. The progress
can run top to bottom or bottom to top, depending on the creator's intentions. This
particular infographic, produced by the BBC's "Great Turning Points"
series, outlines the major milestones in development of flying machines beginning
with the Wright Flyer in 1903 and progressing through both manned and unmanned airplanes
up through the U.S...
Notice
to TSgt. Ford's daughter: Please contact me again; the Academy of Model Aeronautics
(AMA) is interested in getting more information about your father.
In 1970, when this article was written about
USAF TSgt. Gordon Ford's incredible collection of giant control line scale, multi-engined
flying models, the KC-135 Stratotanker was still a decade from being replaced
by the KC-10, the C-5A Galaxy was just coming online as the world's largest cargo
aircraft, and the C-133 Cargomaster was about to be mothballed. C-124 Globemasters
were on their last legs, the XB-70 Valkyrie was a bygone dream, and the Convair
T-29 (C-131) only had a few good years left in her. These are just a few of the
aircraft in SSgt. Ford's hangar. How he was able to transport...
"The FAA released a substantial update to
their
Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners that includes major improvements for the
agency's protocols for mental health, coronary heart disease, and some ophthalmologic
conditions. The "AME Guide" serves as the main public-facing document for medical
policy published by the FAA. In the following story, we will summarize the highlights
of these policy changes by diagnosis category. Mental Health Among the most anticipated
changes are those to mental health policy. For the first time, individuals with
a history of certain "uncomplicated" diagnoses that have been treated..."
For some reason, in more than half a century
building and flying model airplanes, I have never owned or operated a
diesel engine. I have nothing against them, and in fact would like to procure
and run one, even if just on a test stand, before assuming dirt temperature. Diesels
have a couple advantages and disadvantages compared to glow fuel engines, according
to my recollection from reading about them over the years. Compared to glow fuel
engines, diesels produce less power for a given volume displacement. The absence
of a glow plug can make them more difficult to start, especially when hand-flipping
and/or in cold weather. To their credit, diesels are not quite as...
If only 15 pilots were to enter helicopters
in the 2024 Nats, everyone would wonder what in the world has gone drastically wrong.
Heck, in today's contest it probably isn't unusual for a single contestant to show
up with as many as 15 of his own helicopters - one for each type of event (aerobatics,
scale, etc.) and a couple back-ups for each. A mix of homemade, commercial kits,
and modified kits were displayed. Schluter was selling it Hueycobra, and DuBro had
its Whirlybird. Their prototype Hughes 300 showed up, too. In 1972 when this
issue of American Aircraft Modeler magazine was published, 15 pilots with
a total of 17 - including free flight types -
helicopters
participating in the Nats was heralded as ground-breaking. How times have changed...
Steve Wittman, aka "The Grand Old Man of
Air Racing," was a prolific airplane designer, builder, and pilot. His Wittman Tailwind
homebuilt airplane was very popular and proved to be fast and efficient for its
size and power. The "Formula Vee" racer, motivated by a highly modified Volkswagen
engine, easily broke the 170 mph speed benchmark. Making outside-of-the-box tradeoffs
like suffering the drag of wing bracing wires for a lighter and thinner airfoil
are what made Wittman a crafty - and winning - designer. A scale model of the
Wittman Vee might benefit
from a slightly thicker airfoil and larger tail surfaces unless you want to have
to aggressively fly the craft the entire time it is in the air. This article
and 3-view of Witt's Vee appeared in a 1974 issue of American Aircraft Modeler
magazine...
Website visitor Kenneth E. wrote to say
that he is working to build a complete collection of the Tenderfoot models that
were published in American Aircraft Modeler magazine. The Tenderfoot series
was an attempt to provide motivation to young newcomers to the hobby. They were
a mix of freeflight rubber, gliders, control line designs that built simply and
cheaply. Power could be muscle (hand launch), CO2, rubber band (wind-up or catapult
launch), and and internal combustion engine 1/4A (.010 and .020) & 1/2A (.049
and .051) using glow fuel or diesel fuel. Kenneth requested reprints of the following
three models: The Saucerer,
a unique control line model by Ray Malmström (January 1970), the Bonanza and Mustang,
free flight hand-launched glider by David Thornburg (January 1971), and the Clodhopper
free flight rubber powered model by Paul Denson (February 1973)...
If you have a vintage Cox .010 Pee Wee engine
sitting on the display shelf and you've been itching to get it in the air again,
Ken Willard's Flying Bandanna (not Banana) could be just the thing to get you there.
This article appeared in a 1968 issue of American Aircraft Modeler magazine.
Ken claims it only takes about 10 minutes to assemble, and as he says of the bandanna
'parachute,' it is "...a built-in wiping rag for your hands after each flight!"
I remember as a kid when my .049-powered plastic Cox control line models had finally
be demolished beyond repair (no glue at the time would hold the styrene plastic
together for long), I would take what was left of the fuselage and launch it into
free flight with the engine screaming. Sad to say, but especially during the early...
"Joe Barnard and Aryan Kapoor are two model
rocket enthusiasts who've spent years working to advance the hobby with innovative
ways to precisely
steer model rockets and land them vertically instead of just watching them parachute
back to Earth after a launch. Despite many failures and setbacks, they've each succeeded
in recreating SpaceX's Falcon 9 landing capabilities at a much, much smaller scale
and without billions of dollars of funding. Barnard, who studied music production
in college - not aerospace engineering - spent seven years designing, building,
and perfecting various custom components, including a custom thrust vectoring mechanism
for model rocket engines..."
"The navigators who fly the regular routes
use everything they can. They use celestial navigation, but because there is-hour
daylight they can use only one star, the sun." That's a line from this "Kelly's
Awful Airline" article in a 1965 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine.
It describes one of the many challenges facing the crew of U.S. Navy Air Development
Squadron Six's Commander George R. Kelly as they perform many amazing feats of daring,
skill, and ingenuity. In such an unaccommodating environment as is the Antarctica,
bravery and determination are essential personal traits necessary for not just accomplishing
goals, but for basic survival. C-130s, C-47s, and what looks like a "Huey" (Bell
UH-1) flew day and night, in temperatures that can nearly...
"Two
insect-like robots, a mini-bug and a water strider, developed at Washington State
University, are the smallest, lightest and fastest fully functional
micro-robots ever known to be created. Such miniature robots could
someday be used for work in areas such as artificial pollination, search and rescue,
environmental monitoring, micro-fabrication, or robotic-assisted surgery. Reporting
on their work in the proceedings of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society's International
Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, the mini-bug weighs in at eight milligrams
while the water strider weighs 55 milligrams..."
In the late 1970s, I was working on my private
pilot license and dreamed of building a homebuilt airplane. The Bowers Fly Baby
biplane was the first choice based on my nearly non-existent budget since it was
all-wood and used a 65 HP engine. What I really wanted was an
EAA Acro-Sport biplane.
I was a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) at the time and first
learned of it in their monthly magazine. This scale rendition appearing in the November
1974 issue of American Aircraft Modeler magazine really made me want to
build one. Unlike the Pitts Special or the Christian Eagle, the Acro-Sport can be
tackled by most people of average building skills, and cost a whole lot less for
materials and powerplant...
Surveyor 1, the first in a series of
seven, launched from Cape Canaveral on May 30, 1966 and landed on the moon at Oceanus
Procellarum on June 2, 1966. As the name implies, its mission was to analyze and
map the lunar surface in preparation for manned landings there at the end of the
decade. As detailed in this 1965 Popular Mechanics magazine article, Surveyor 1
was equipped with many instruments and tools for photographing, measuring, and testing
the moon's features and composition. Prior to its visit, nobody was certain whether
the lunar surface was covered with a thick layer of dust that would envelope a craft
and render a manned visit impossible. Turns out, the dust layer was quite thin.
Even so, there was still some concern prior to Apollo 11's landing, because
conditions might vary...
