Remembering Swee’ Pee
John Hudspeth’s (Amarillo, Texas; email: jehdspth@suddenlink.net) father, Floyd, took this photo of John in September 1951 at a Control Line (CL) Scale contest in Cheyenne, Wyoming, when John was 5 years old. Floyd built and piloted the CL Scale aircraft, modeled after Art Chester’s full-scale Goodyear racer called Swee’ Pee.
John reminisced that the engine on the model airplane was a Super Cyclone .60 glow. Swee’ Pee was covered in silkspan and dope, and all of the numbers were painted, with no decals or precut letters.
“As a teenager, I got to fly it and it flew great, but it was like taking the family car out alone for the first time. Years later, I was disappointed to learn that Dad had sold it in a garage sale. Somebody got a bargain.”
John noted that the camera that was used was a Kodak Pony 828 using Kodachrome film. The Pony 828 was introduced in 1949 as the first in a series of six Pony cameras that were produced until 1959.
Do you have an airplane, helicopter, or multirotor photo that you are proud of, or a model aviation-related photo with a great story behind it? Email your high-resolution “Viewfinder” photo and a short note about it to jennifer@modelaircraft.org, or submit it online at www.ModelAviation.com/viewfinder.
