For Openers
Aerodynamics is a science. Since the days of the visionaries and the dreamers, going back to before the Wrights were born, countless minds have struggled with its fundamentals, studied it in wind tunnels and laboratories, evolved theories into laws. In wartime its refinement took quantum jumps. In our lifetime we have seen aviation advance-in step with many related sciences: metallurgy and electronics, to name just two-from a point where a new plane was not proved airworthy until a daring test pilot tried it out, frequently losing his life, to today's ability to project a multi-million jumbo jet or a supersonic fighter which are sold by the many hundreds before the prototype even takes shape in the factory.
For Openers
An editor should not take sides in discussions between readers and columnists, but as a bystander since the first AMA rules were written in the long ago-we have come to appreciate the conflicting philosophies in the evolution of endless "beginner" events into competitive nightmares. Few of the hundreds of at-first-enthusiastic modelers turn out to have the skills and the fat wallets required to seriously fly that event when time and "progress" get done with it. Although the writer is not interested in CL racing events-beyond spectator fascination and curiosity about designs-he is caught up in Bill Lee's column on Racing. Bill's observations, as well as those of dissident readers, apply to practically everything-Manhattan and Pennyplane in Indoor, FF Power and Glider, Pylon, and so on.
For Openers
THE ARTIcle beginning on page 56, Adventures in Modeling, begins a unique series. It was supposed to be a product review thing. All magazines belong to a plug-the-product cult, and we sort of felt we were running around naked by not going with the mob. So eight months ago we began to talk to Bob Harrah about how to deal with products in a way that made reader enjoyment paramount and commercialism secondary. Since Bob lives in San Diego and F.O. on the East Coast, the discussions dragged on like the preliminaries of SALT II. We decided to take a "We Fly" approach after the manner of flying magazines which report on various aircraft. While, like us, Bob detests unvarnished plugs, he holds the profound view that an energetic industry that gives us so many wondrous things to play with, is what really makes our modeling world go round.
For Openers
The Piper Cub. What accounts for its everlasting appeal as a modeling subject? It flies well? Many planes fly well. It is simple? Hundreds of airplanes are simple. It is famous? So are many others. But why is it famous? After the Wright Flyer, the Cub could be history's most celebrated flying machine. Like Smokey the Bear, it has a lasting image. The "Cub." "Cub Yellow." Millions of people know what it is. For 40-odd years, it has been darn near part of our language. This little two-seater, a simple frame of barebones steel tubing, is some kind of magic. It upstaged its automotive counterpart, Henry Ford's always-black "tin lizzie." It lives on, and on. It is one of a unique handful of machines which, filling a niche perfectly, earned singular prestige, as did the DC-3 among transport aircraft. The Cub springs quickly to mind whenever one tries to list the workaday super stars of 75 years of flying history. No humbler design ever acquired such a mystique.
For Openers
If this is a mad, mad world, we hope it never stops. We don't want to get off. In last month's thrilling episode we were prattling about putting sailplane-type spoilers on a 19-powered, six-foot low winger that thinks it is an Aquila and of putting flaps on that scale-down of an RC oldtimer we had cooked up with Walt Schroder in 1947-48. That was last month. So what have we done? Designed a quarter-scale General Aristocrat, that's what. When last heard from, F.O. was pining for Spring. Make that Spring 1980! Oh, we do have three crates ready for 1979, including a new 6-foot Sniffer, but now it is Spring 1980 or bust! It's a whole new ball game.
