I Enjoyed this video a lot, people pushing the boundaries! Seems the technology has just gotten to a point that a jump in capabilities has made the hobbie a serious consideration to aviation airspace. Fixed wing, multi rotor or heli, the hobbie is in a new era of capabilities and accessibility. For the old school stuff what has changed?
It wasn't drones, it was the nanny state that caused this. Nonstop use of "Drones" in nonstop wars, followed by tv and media demonization made non hobby people fear what they know nothing about. Then they cried to the government and said "Aren't you going to do something?" At least you don't get grouped in with Dji Mavic and Phantom flyers. I can't even fly my normal quads at any flying fields, because "Drones" are banned everywhere. I can show up and fly all the fpv and LOS wings I want, but ohhhh no.. Pull out the quad and now I am for sure going to go spy on your back yard. The word "Drone" being the same word that bombs humans from the air turned it into a slippery slope. Easy to point the finger at someone else though..
2:47 *“One is even radio controlled!”* I love the fact that the concept of a Rc plane in this era seemed so alien & unlike their chaotic free flyer and string controlled cousins. Thanks for showing us a piece of Model Aircraft history :)
When I was about 10 years old, my dad got me a Cox Stuka dive bomber, and a little later a Cox Curtis P40 Warhawk. I spent countless hours at local parks, flying those planes until I made myself dizzy. Just last week, I ordered a vintage Cox P40 Warhwak. I can hardly stand the wait for it to get home so I can do it all over again...
I still have 4 of those Cox planes from my childhood. 2 x Warhawks, a Stuka and a PT-19 Trainer. All just static display models now. No way could I fly them again. I'm too old (:
as a kid i saved school lunch money many times lol until i reached the $30 something dollars that it cost back then to buy one of those from the Toys R Us store but they didn't have the P40 available at that store so i bought the Cessna 150 yellow one and later i bought the PT-19 blue and yellow wings one, this was back between 1993 and 1995 by that time Toys R Us was also selling two types of RC planes made out off styrofoam, a single engine one for $99.99 and a twin engine one for $199.99 for Christmas i asked my Mom and dad for a Sega Genesis with games instead.
I remember my oldest brother, now 68, used to make and fly the gas powered free flight planes. He used to tell my father that one day there would be "Electric motor model planes" and my father would laugh and it's impossible cause of weight.
This video captures the spirit of what it took back then to fly. There was no open box,chatge battery,fly plane back then. You actually had to BUILD the plane,those remotes didnt come cheap eather I remember the constant problems with interference too. Any one too close with a radio turned to the right frequency could mess you up. A police radio, an airplane ,anything could cause issues really. My brother spent his entire winter building his planes,only to watch them crack up sometime during the season. Back then,you learned the hard way unless you were a member of a flying club. we lived by the high school and my dad woulnt take us to an AMA field. I flew the cheap cox planes,as did most of us. I traded something for mine,an old bike or something. I got my first balsa from an old guy down the road. I had fun with that too. I had built several balsa with tissue covered planes. you had to coat them with airplane dope to stretch the tissue,it hardened like a shell,then you could paint them. they were rubber band powered but fun too!
Just a small point, but the doping process was to shrink the tissue - not cause it to stretch. Scott is right about the cost. My first Orbit proportional cost over $500 - and that was through 'Exportations'- Cliff Rausin- in the USA and hand delivered to Australia by a friend!
I use to build guillows kits with my grandfather. Started with the darts.. found they flew so much better if you did not dope all of it.. I only did the bottom of fuselage and wings and tail. And top of wing tips. And never paint them.
Great video, notice the large crowds watching these guy's fly, model airplanes were as high tech as cell phones are to us today, my first model airplane I ever saw was a man test gliding a free flight plane at the school a block from my house, I was probably 5 or 6 years old, after watching him for about 5 minutes before he left, that was it, I was gonna fly model airplanes. I flew control line Cox and Wen Mac models starting when I was about 9 years old in 1963, I built my first free flight model when I was 11. I joined the USAF in 1972, still flying control line .35 and .40 size models, started flying R/C with a falcon 56 in 1973 using a Heathkit radio that I built myself(what a job, linear output servo's), well, I flew R/C until 2005, my job got too busy to go fly. About a month ago, I dragged all my old control line models out of the attic and started rebuilding them, I have so far made about 10 flights, I only planted one Twister so far. I have no problem flying R/C, did some of the 3-D flying, inverted is no problem, coming or going, but grab onto your roots of model airplanes, man, I picked up those control lines and it was like an old friend on the other end of those 60 Ft. lines. I thought it would be easy to fly control line again, 60 miles per hour doesn't sound fast but it's like trying to fly R/C the first time with no one to help, the plane is way ahead of you plus you're sometimes 4 ft. off the ground, you think you're good at R/C, come out and fly Control line, then you will see just how good you are. I have absolute respect for all versions of this hobby, what ever version you do, have fun doing it.
Back around 1962 we took a non model-flyer to a rally, just to help fill the minibus: as we walked towards the control-line Combat circles a model came off its lines, climbed briefly then came down towards us. All the model flyers dived for the deck, leaving our "guest" looking around, wondering where everyone had gone. The poor chap collected a running Oliver Tiger and its model flying at about 70 m.p.h. squarely in the right ear and went down, poleaxed. The St. John's Ambulancemen took him off to the local A & E from where we collected him on the way home. Some day out for him! As a Postscript, about 20 years later I had to attend a meeting with some company big-wigs one of whom looked vaguely familiar; eventually he turned side-on and as soon as I saw his ear, criss-crossed with white scars I knew he was our ^guest" but decided not to go over and say hello!
I had the chance to sit down and talk with a few of the old guys that are still making these "free flight" models. So interesting and so cool to see how far me have come.
Great piece of history. And listen to the comment at around 3:00 minute mark: "These young experts are making sure that the future of America is safe, in the air" Now people from behind a government agency desk issue fines to similar "young experts" for flying radio controlled aircraft and drones in an open field, or their own backyard, because it's supposedly unsafe. In New Zealand the CAA is investigating an older fellow because someone complained about a video where he flies a 20g micro drone in his backyard. And they also are investigating two teens who flew their self-built RC plane on a spot where RC flying is permitted if there is surveillance of someone with RC wings, which there clearly was. And taking weeks or more to 'investigate', leaving these people enjoying a harmless hobby in tension about the outcome. Can't we get back to thinking like back in the days of this video?
None of these ran on petrol. We mixed 4 parts, either 3 parts paraffin, 3 parts castor oil for our diesel engines, and bought glow fuel ready mixed from the model shop. Back then, only one chemist had a problem selling a young boy a litre of either. Happy days.
The control line and the 0.49 engine sound brings me back to my youth I can even smell the gasoline in the air. It was nice going outside to breathe some pure air.
wow, this hobby is older than I thought, they even had radios though probably analogue, everything running fuel as well.. nice one! thanks for uploading, this has been a major eye-opener ..
+Cary Davis most likely they are newbees that fly "drones" & wont register and will be out of the hobby the next time they hit the curbing in the road!!
+Cary Davis They are probably not stupid. They may have RC models, but clearly, they are merely wannabee RC modellers. Owning an rc model does not make one an RC modeller. They are entitled to their opinions, but their opinions are worthless.
Many are RC pilots but not modellers, and many of those pilots, not all, just don`t appreciate the history or the efforts you had to put in to get airborne back in the day. I`ve talked to people about RC and have had them all like: "oh you BUILT that thing? Why don`t you just get an RTF, much easier.." Then I have to tell them all about the joy of building and how much more satisfying it is to see something you built entirely on your own take flight, fly well, and land well. Then crash it, fix it, and fly it again! :D
I heard RU-vid algorithm puts a negative for x number of positives positives regardless, and some people hit down accidentally when closing. Still there are always plenty of halfwits.
This was my father's time. He taught me to fly at the age of 8 years old on the bluffs of Costa Mesa and NewPort beach. By age 12 I was the bluff master screaming my red and white Hobbie Hawk! 👍 I am now 54 years old and haven't missed a day flying. R.I.P. to my father, I miss my flying partner....
Very cool to see early footage like this. Its amazing to see the old models and to think of the effort they had to put into building in those days. Today we are lucky, with RTF and ARF planes you can unbox and assemble them and be flying within a couple hours or less!
Awesome to see the 'Control Line' guys getting a look in for a change! Lol. :) Even in 2023, they still exist, I'm looking at a Nobler hanging on my wall right now... Lol. :)
I didn't fly, but used to go watch back in the day. I remember guys in the mid 1960s who could put their aircraft into a spin almost into the ground and pull out with those primitive sets. And they were expensive. . .much more than today for systems that would do much less.
I know your post is a year old, but when I started flying R/C in 1973, a Kraft proportional radio cost 6 or 7 hundred dollars. I bought an Orbit 6 ch. single stick radio because it was only $450.00. For years they were really expensive, then came Japanese radio's called Futaba, you could buy one for a hundred bucks and it was reliable, that was when R/C really took off.
@@robertsalser848 Futaba my favourite radio. I started flying in May 1986 and my first transmitter was a Futaba Challenger. Since then that's all I ever used. I love Futaba because it is so reliable and has never let me down.
thanks for the video, i enjoyed we have come a long way. it must of been hard on the emotions with the first planes knowing you are gonna crash every time you fly.. but then if you did not know of any other way i guess it would not matter. part of the fun is building after all.. rock on from AZ>
When I first heard about RC I bought the first radio I ever owned longer than one year. It was an Orbit 4 channel that I built myself. Later a Heathkit and a Kraft component radios both 4 channel. I built all of my airplanes and was one of the first to use that newfangled covering Monocote. I can cover airplanes with tissue, silk and dope, iron on fabrics and have used every type and brand of plastic coverings there are. Nowadays it feels like a wasted skill set although I think I'll get back to it when I can get housing, I'm currently homeless and that's no place to waste time on. I'm sad.
my first rc plane was on age 8 when my grandma gave me little rc plane then me and my father try to fly it but we didnt succeed to fly it then 2 years latery i my father bought me rc car wltoys a959 then i was having quadcopter and i realise that i love this hobby so much now im 15 and i fly rc planes and quads and i think i will do it all my life
I remember seeing planes with vacuum tubes. As a kid, I had Cox control line planes. I also had an electric Mattel SuperStar that was free flight with replaceable cams to drive the control surfaces to fly circles or figure-8’s etc. My first RC plane was a balsa frame sailplane with an analog AM TX/RX. I crashed it while I maidened it. I then graduated to foamies with ferrite brushed motors, NiCad/NiMH batteries and analog FM radios. Then brushless motors LIPO batteries and digital radio arrived.
Neat to see aerobatics with a reed transmitter (1962?) Then you hear the "goldmember" era music and the floatplane pilot has an early proportional radio. How cool. I spotted a Berkeley Privateer. Thanks for posting.
Awsome.....Makes me appreciate As3x and Safe alot more lol. As3x just makes the models fly more scale and gives the Piolt more confidence to fly in windy conditions. The new Technology helps get more Piolts into this great and wonderful hobby without throwing money away and losing interest. It makes its more affordable as well. Happy Flyin Piolts from the Blue Skies of Western Pa......
People went to their jobs in factories dressed like that also, I have seen video's of auto workers dressed in suit's building cars, welding or working in the fields.
People properly dressed back in the day. Today we have losers wearing their pajamas to Walmart to buy more junk food. America got fat and lazy and your comment long with this video prove it.
For the avoidance of confusion none of the aircraft shown are radio-controlled until about 7:40. Until then all are either free-flight or control-line, both of which disciplines are still part of the sport today.
A lot of communities are building too close to model airplane fields and are complaining about the noise, electric is here to stay, I am back to flying control line, electric is even taking hold of control line models, they are great, you turn it on, walk to the handle, and a few seconds later the motor starts and off you go, you can set the time of flight, you can set the motor to pick up rpm in a climb and slow back down in level flight, and there is no clean up when you're done. Myself, I like to smell the fuel while I'm flying, I like the noise, I like the whole experience, just have fun with it, don't be too serious, you're gonna loose one every now and then.
0:35 i saw one of those at my field! it was radio control. the engine stalled twelve seconds after takeoff. they managed to keep it in the air for five whole minutes.
Most of these are free flight, not radio controlled. When I started flying models in the late 1950's most were free flight as we couldn't afford radio control. In those days the radio transmitter had valves and sat on the ground with a single control switch on a wire. These were called single channel, and you could turn right or left according to how you pushed either one or two presses. Proportional control, with joysticks, didn't come in until the 1960's.
I'd say the real breakthrough was when radio control equipment began to be based on integrated circuits, i.e. mid-1970s. Before that it was expensive, complicated and unreliable.
Is this before proportional control? I got into the repair of R/C radios when proportional control was well established. Folks used to talk of the old, bang bang system!
+Olav Bergman In the 60s I flew single channel planes, instead of a servo there was a rubber powered actuator. One press for right and two quick ones for left, though I used to trim for a gentle left turn and control just with right. Or it might have been the other way round.
+grahvis I still have a kit for an escapement for rudder. Was told the single-channel receiver I was going to use wouldn't work because of cb radio interference.
hi Appollo. As an 85yr old, I reckon I can offer some of those words. Mainly, they would be about how the challenge had changed. It is no longer an achievement to have a 'working' radio, or a properly controlled model. But it is now possible to cover a much wider field of model types,build them cheaply and fly them. Also the 'wonder' has gone. How many 'old timers' can remember that first successful model, and the wonder of remotely causing a change of flight path? I am just happy to have been down that track, and treasure both the old and new aspects, and still build and fly.
Further to the above, I recall a Melbourne Newspaper phoning me to do a story on 'this marvellous' model. Having been notified because I had just been 'licensed' to operate a radio transmitter to control a model. That's right, we needed a licence to operate a transmitter. PS I have written this without having been able to download the video because of an 'error'. Sorry if I have covered material in the video.
