Letters To The Editor
All letters will be carefully considered; those of general interest will be used. Send to Model Aviation, 1810 Samuel Morse Dr., Reston, VA 22090.
Desperado: Great!
Enclosed please find some pictures of a Bill Evans design, the Desperado. I think it would be great if you could print one, as I have never been published.
I scratch-built the Desperado using insulation blue foam that was cut out by Tom Hunt (you may remember his MA construction article, the Hi-Tech 2001). The wing is sheeted with 1/64" plywood. The engine is an Enya .45 Schnuerle with a 9x6 propeller. The floats are foam covered with balsa, and the mounting idea came from the engine pylons on jet airliners (such as the 707 and 747). The spinner looks recessed (that was a mistake, but I liked the result and left it alone). The body of water is Lake Ronkonkoma on Long Island. The day was dead calm with early morning fog, which I lost on the first flight. These wings are fantastic fliers, even on floats.
With "normal" planes, no one looks twice. With the Desperado I get rare comments (though some aren't so nice, such as, "Couldn't you afford the whole airplane?"). Most people are full of praise when they see it fly.
I am now scratch-building a Simitar 540 and will make a spare fuselage for it on the order of Evans' Tracer. I hope it flies as well as the Desperado.
John E. Mone Massapequa Pk., N.Y.
Model Aviation Explorer Post
Nearly 38 years ago a 14-year-old boy lay in bed most of his summer vacation recovering from a baseball injury. He read model magazines for recreation, built one hundred or more of those Guillow Comet models and tried to get them to fly later. Those darn things wouldn't fly far or high! He used to dream of having a model that really flew, but there wasn't anyone around who could show him about proper prop thrust, washout, and such.
About three years ago the St. Paul (Minnesota) Indianhead Scout Council contacted my company, 3M, and asked if it would sponsor a Model Aviation Explorer Post. Dave Babulski and I agreed to be advisors to Post 707, which now numbers over 25 young men. They come to meetings to find us guys pleased as can be to teach them all we know about Radio Control, Control Line, and rocketry. Lately all of us have been learning together about the wonderful sport of Indoor Free Flight.
Let me say this: let it be a Giant Scale RC or an Indoor Peanut Scale, there is nothing like the thrill of having one of your scouts get excited over something he has built that really flies.
It's easy to get an Explorer Post in model aviation going. Just contact your local Scout Council office. They do not require a lot of a club or business to sponsor a post — just a place to meet, a place to fly, and a couple of guys willing to share their knowledge with some eager learners. Believe me, it's very rewarding for all involved.
At present there are only two Model Explorer Posts in the U.S.: ours and one in Texas (Explorer Post 2118 in Center, TX, sponsored by Center Hobby).
V. M. Wald President, 3M RC Flyers St. Paul, MN
Another Wright Memorial
Everyone probably knows what the dune-top, government-erected (in 1932, I think) Wright Memorial on the Outer Banks of North Carolina looks like. But there is an earlier, humble monument, touchingly more personal, in Kitty Hawk, N.C., itself. Locally, it has been said that tourists head for the huge national monument at Kill Devil Hills, but that dogs head for the one in Kitty Hawk. It looks a little like a fireplug, they say. It stands about 8 ft. high on the first paved road off Kitty Hawk Rd., in the village.
In 1928, the citizens thought that by erecting a monument on the exact spot the Wright brothers chose to assemble their gliders — probably taken by wagon to the flying site some miles distant — they would create a national tourist attraction. Not having my camera, I borrowed a disk camera which, alas, did not bring out the chiseled inscription. The dogs? Three mangy beasts of assorted ancestries appeared from nowhere. One licked my face (appreciation, perhaps?). They showed due respect for the monument, however. This is the inscription:
AT THIS SPOT SEPT. 17, 1900 WILBUR WRIGHT BEGAN THE ASSEMBLY OF WRIGHT BROTHERS' FIRST EXPERIMENTAL GLIDER WHICH LED TO MAN'S CONQUEST OF THE AIR ERECTED BY CITIZENS OF KITTY HAWK, N.C. 1928
Bill Winter Fairfax, VA
San Diego Aero Space Museum
I was thrilled with the April issue, as over the Christmas/New Years holidays I visited southern California, and my son took me to the San Diego Aero Space Museum. Afterwards I had to tell all the people in our model club of the wonders.
I missed the tremendous model works that were there. One of the beautiful ones was a Ryan B-5 Brougham that was built at a cost of $45,000. The cost was high due to such factors as the tires being cast at General Dynamics, as they have to last at least 75 years without deteriorating. The absolute detail was fascinating. I had spent some 30 minutes examining the model when a fellow came up to me and started a conversation.
It turned out to be Ray Crowell, the full-time Master Modeler at the museum. He and two other modelers, Jim Jessup and Corwin Crowell, have built some two or three hundred models that are on display. Many are equipped with RC and engines, as Ray is an RC flier. He also told me a story of building an exact-scale Spirit of St. Louis for a fellow from Texas at a cost of $11,000. These three and others have built all the replica airplanes in the museum, and all were flown before being placed on display.
As for me, I'm an old Army Air Corps vet (B-17 bombardier in WWII), built models in the '30s, then returned to modeling in 1965. I flew free flight for years, now build scale models and fly RC. Yet one is never too old to learn, and there is a wealth of modeling know-how in the San Diego Aero Space Museum.
One of the most amazing models is an exact-scale Jenny (wingspan of 60 to 70 inches) uncovered and on display in a glass case. Some man in Illinois or Ohio spent many years building the Jenny, but it wasn't completed before his death. His son donated it to the museum, and it was completed there.
Gosh, if you ever do another article on the museum, make sure it covers the models and the modelers.
Harry A. Sutherland Grand Junction, CO
P.E. Norman
It is my sad duty to inform you of the passing of Mr. P.E. Norman, a modeler extraordinaire, who did so much in developing ducted-fan models and their technology.
It is a talent like Peter's that will go on living though he is gone, through his many accomplishments and devotion to helping his fellow modeler.
So long, Peter, in the aerodrome in the sky...
Ernest P. Melcher Redondo Beach, CA
A British modeler, P.E. Norman was widely published in his own country and in U.S. modeling magazines.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
