PHOTO: KEITH MILLER
Fernando Ramos is another good builder. Here he is (at left) with his Super Rocketeerpowered by a Merlin .24. He’s not going to blow the doors off anybody with that Merlin .24, but it should be a good flying model. The Southwest Regionals at Eloy 2012—SAM worthy gentlemen Jim O’Reilly and Grant Carson (above center) hold their rubber models for display. Visiting fireman Dave Harding (above right) takes a photo on the infield lawn at Epsom Downs in England as Rex Oldridge launches his Ted Evans Victrace Wakefield model. Dave had visited the “Bangers ’n Mash” crowd at their monthly meeting/contest.
And finally, when your fuselage side is all
framed up, you lift the completed fuselage side out. If you leave the clips pinned in place you’ve now got a jig to build an identi- cal fuselage side! Bob makes these devices in different sizes. They’re $10 plus shipping for a set of 50. You’ll have to specify the size sticks you want to use—his range is from 1⁄16 to 1⁄4 inch. Steve Moskal took the photo of his Flitfire
posed in front of a Silver Plate B-29 at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. There’s a story in the photo. In ear- ly 1941 Piper built a series of 49 Flitfires (one for each of the then 48 states and one for the District of Columbia). They were done in silver rather than in Cub Yellow. The 49 Flitfires were raffled off with the proceeds going to the RAF Benevolent Fund.
Steve has modeled the prototype, NC
1776, which was won by a fellow in New York on April 29, 1941. The plane changed hands several times and is now in the North Carolina Aviation Museum. One of the most interesting things about NC 1776 is that Orville Wright flew NC 1776 in 1943!
The Silver Plate B-29s were a series of 65 “special” B-29s built to carry the atomic bomb. “Stock” B-29s had two separate 12- foot long bomb bays. In early 1944 the de- signers for the Manhattan Project thought that their first atomic bomb might be much more than 12 feet long. The RAF Lancaster bomber had a bomb bay that could handle the 25-foot long “Grand Slam” bomb. Un- derstandably the Army Air Corps was apoplectic about using an English bomber to carry an American bomb! So, 65 Silver Plate B-29s were manufac-
tured with modifications to the bomb bay to accommodate the proposed bomb(s). There were also modifications to the crew area to allow for technicians and such. Colonel Paul Tibbets’s aircrews wore out about half of the Silver Plate airframes in training in Utah. The latter part of the Silver Plate produc- tion run went to the 509th Composite Group and then on to Tinian and Japan. The Silver Plate B-29 in Steve’s picture is one of the very few still in existence. Aside from building tasty looking brush-
less outrunner powered Flitfires, Steve Moskal, along with his friends in Albu-
querque have been promoting an Electric R/C Replica 36-inch wingspan class. Tom- my Gray, in Louisiana, has been pushing a Small SAM R/C Old Timer class with a 24-inch wingspan limit. Small electric R/C old timers like that have their own pecu- liar requirements in batteries and R/C equipment. Bob Aberle has created a CD, The World
of Indoor/Micro Radio Controlled Aircraft, discussing those requirements and identify- ing what’s available to use, and what “works”. That’s an invaluable guide for those of us delving into the world of small electric R/C old timers. You can get the CD from Roland Friestad at RC MicroWorld. I’ve also seen it as available at BP Hobbies and at Bob Selman’s website. If you’re building the very small ones,
you’re probably going to use equipment bor- rowed from the little foam indoor ARFs. When you “mix and match” this repurposed equipment, you’re going to need some un- usual little connectors. There’s a fellow named Glen Goode out in Colorado who runs
www.rc-connectors.com who can fix you up with what you need.
PHOTO: STEVE MOSKAL
Joe Jones of the SCAMPS holds his Perris Specialmodel (above left) on the field at Perris, California. Sal Taibi designed the Perris Special. Your columnist thinks that the Special is a sort of squared off Brooklyn Dodger in its design
FLYING MODELS
moments. Planes from the beginning and the end of WWII (above right). Steve Moskal’s Flitfiremodified from a Pat Tritle kit sits in front of a “Silver Plate” model B-29. Read more in the column text.
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