VintageViews T
he subject of Walt and Bill Good came up when some of my club members were looking at the planes in my hangar and noticed
my Royal Rudderbug. My first R/C plane was a Berkeley Royal Rudderbug which I built in 1954 while still in high school. It was recommended by my local hobby shop in Al- lentown, PA and I bought the kit for $6.95. The plane now hanging in my hangar is a replica of that plane which I built from the Berkeley kit plans. I was able to locate a col- or slide that my dad had taken of my origi- nal Royal Rudderbug and so I painted my replica in the same orange and insignia col- or scheme. Of course the replica was covered with silk and dope as the original. My repli- ca flies with a Veco .19 with a throttle while the original was powered by a Webra diesel .15 with no throttle.
The year was 1937 and that year should be remembered by all R/C’ers as the year that Walt and Bill Good built a radio controlled aircraft and their own radio equipment. They named the plane Guff and that plane now hangs in the Smithsonian Air and Space Mu- seum in Washington, DC for all to see. A repli- ca of Guff can be seen at the AMA museum. The Guff had a 96-inch wing span and the next plane that Walt Good designed and built was named Rudderbug and was pub- lished in 1949. The Rudderbug had a 74- inch wingspan with a wing area of 850 square inches which gave the Rudderbug a wing loading of just 12.3 ounces per square foot. Walt used a Delong .30 for power with a 12–4 prop. The construction article in the May 1949 Model Airplane News starts out with the following paragraph. “The Rudder Bug exemplifies the new trend in radio control models—simplicity. It is a far cry from the pre-war “giant” RC models and a pleasant departure from then freeflight gas RC conversions. Here’s a mod- el designed especially for existing radio equipment; it embodies many design fea-
by bob noll You can reach Bob Nollvia e-mail at
bobrc@aol.com
PHOTOGRAPHY: BOB NOLL
Walt Good, pictured on the left, and his brother, Bill, were pioneers in radio control plane and radio design. Here they are with Guff, their first successful plane in 1939. The plane is now in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
tures which are unique for radio control models.” The Royal Rudder-Bug was published in 1954 by FLYINGMODELS in their February is- sue. Walt designed the Royal Rudder-Bug for the more popular .14 cubic inch and .19 cubic inch engines of the day. His article starts out by saying “The Royal Rudder-Bug fills the need for a good, reliable, medium size RC ship. It retains the good looks of its six-foot, six-year-old prototype—with many modern features crammed into its five-foot span.” With 18 ounces of radio gear and a
K&B .19, the original Royal weighed 4 pounds, 4 ounces, which is almost 16 ounces per square foot. This was considered an opti- mum loading at that time.
Berkeley Model Supplies of West Hemp- stead, NY kitted the Royal Rudder-Bug in 1954 and changed the spelling to Royal Rud- derbug. Their ad that appeared in the April 1974 FLYING MODELS said the following. “A proud addition to Berkeley’s Family of Fine Gas Models. The entire model building world knows and respects Dr. Walt Good, many time National RC Champion and
Here we see the Rudderbugradio with batteries (at left). The tube receiver with large relay is suspended by rubber bands in the large equipment compartment. The Royal Rudderbug (above) “in the bones” and ready for covering with silk and dope.
60 AUGUST 2013
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