CL a half-century ago
Larry Morgan
agsz@comcast.net
Larry Morgan originally emailed us in reference to a photo of a Control Line (CL) aircraft called Mars, which was highlighted in the August 2016 “Focal Point” section of Model Aviation. His father, Shelton, built and flew the Mars in the 1950s, but the conversation didn’t stop there. Larry sent us several photos from when he was young, including the three on this page.
“I remember that when I was just a youngster, my dad brought home a Testors Junior. We (he) built it on the dining room table. We took it to the ballpark and flew it. That lit a fire that has lasted through this day.”
Larry wrote that many airplanes followed the Junior, including the Testors Senior and his own first airplane, a Veco Warrior, which he is pictured with as a youth. “I flew the Warrior for several years and did exciting stunts, to me anyway—wingovers and loops.”
Another photo that Larry provided is from the flying field in the mid-1950s. “I still remember the first name of most of those guys,” he wrote. “Last on the right is my dad holding one of several Atwood Champion .60-powered Veco Chiefs he built and flew. The .60 was an ignition engine converted to glow power and was quite a powerful powerplant for us at that time. It took almost no takeoff roll to get it off the ground.”
Most of Larry’s airplanes were CL Stunt, but he did build a few semiscale aircraft. He also still has some of the airplanes he grew up with, including the Frisky Pete. The N-number—NC72053—stands for “New Construction July 20, 1953.” His brother has also kept many of the airplanes they flew as youth.
Larry and his brother eventually began flying RC. “We got started in Radio Control way back when receivers had tubes and heavy batteries,” he noted. Larry still flies RC today and, at the time of this writing, noted that the Weedhopper, a full-scale ultralight aircraft, was to be his next adventure in building and flying. “It is fun to actually go up in a plane you built yourself.”
Do you have a high-quality/high-resolution airplane, helicopter, or multirotor photo that you are proud of, or a model aviation-related photo with a great story behind it? Email your “Viewfinder” photo and a description about it to jennifer@modelaircraft.org, or submit it online at www.ModelAviation.com/viewfinder.
