Flying for Fun D.B. Mathews | [email protected]
More desirable aircraft prototypes for modeling
THIS MONTH, as in the June and July columns, I will show you fullscale
aircraft that deserve to be made available to modelers as kits or
ARFs. Previous subjects have been single-place aircraft; this month I’ll
take a look at two- and four-place prototypes that would make superb
subjects for models but are rarely chosen.
Much like some of the airplanes I included in the previous columns,
the following are aerodynamically simple in design and look well
suited to fly Scale in almost any form. Perhaps the photos and
comments will encourage some commercial entities to make models of
these aircraft available, or at least have someone prepare construction
drawings.
I copied the Berkeley Navion ad from the
September 1955 Air Trails. I hadn’t paid
much attention to it until I was visiting with
George Sauer after he scanned to disc the
photos I used this month. Then the
significance of it struck!
I’ve occasionally mentioned what a
challenge the old single-channel escapement
radios were to most of us. I mentioned how
we spent hours fiddling with the things to get
an occasional flight and how frustrating they
could be when compared to contemporary RC
equipment.
The late, great Chet Lanzo once said,
“Back then a successful RC flight was one in
which the model crashed somewhere it
wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been radio
controlled.” Those of us who were trying to
fly those primitive radio systems concur.
My comments throughout the years have
elicited letters from readers relating that they
had no such problems, and they challenged
my memories. They claimed to have had
nearly perfect performance from those old
dry-cell-driven rubber-powered escapements
and Aero-Trol and other transmitters and
receivers. Study Harold Stevenson’s artwork
and draw your own conclusions about my
memory.
Jack Chastain flies a Rawdon T-1 for the camera. See text for a
story about this man and airplane. Schmidt photo.
This September 1955 Air Trails cover by Harold Stevenson
beautifully illustrates the frustrations of early RC flying.
Bill Schmidt’s rubber-powered T-1 shows the appeal of scale models, regardless of size.
September 2006 107
09sig4.QXD 7/25/06 2:13 PM Page 107108 MODEL AVIATION
The Chastain family of Saint Louis, Missouri, restored this T-1. It is painted exactly like
the one the author saw fly in 1950. McCullough photo.
Berkeley Models’ Navion kit ad in the September 1955 Air Trails.
Notice the multitasking assigned to the design.
Another of Bill Schmidt’s wonderful rubber-powered scale models.
The Globe Swift would make a wonderful RC Scale subject.
Similar to Joe Neito, whose art I featured
with a Model Airplane News (MAN) cover in
my June 2006 column, Stevenson illustrated
covers for Air Trails and Flying Models
magazines in the 1950s. However, his
wonderful art centered on model airplanes
rather than the full-scale subjects Neito used.
Harold Stevenson was Duane Stevenson’s
uncle. I’ve featured versions of Duane’s Old
Reliable several times. Harold’s love of the
hobby obviously transferred to his nephew.
Navion: I chose an ancient Berkeley Models
ad to show the only civilian-market aircraft
North American Aviation ever attempted.
Why? Because my limited research reveals
that this was the only Navion RC kit ever
produced. How strange.
However, several rubber-powered model
designs were kitted and/or published.
Drawings for some of them are available
through the AMA Plans Service.
On the Internet I located an eBay listing
by someone who was selling what he/she
described as “much improved and
modernized” drawings for the old Berkeley
kit. I recall that the kit certainly could have
used improvement; it was primitive and weak
in critical spots. After all, it was designed and
marketed for CL, FF, and RC––a nearly
impossible combination.
As it became more apparent that the Allies
were going to win World War II and
production of B-25s, AT-6s, and P-51s was
going to end, North American assigned the
design of a four-place civil aircraft to a team.
By 1945 North American had settled on
beginning production in 1946 of what would
become the Navion.
The design was influenced by lessons
learned from the successful P-51 Mustang.
Examination of the Navion reveals its
parentage.
North American built 1,100 Navions and
an L-17 military observation aircraft, and then
the company sold the rights to Ryan Aviation
in 1947. Ryan built an additional 1,000
Navions in several versions, each powered
with successively more powerful Continental
and Lycoming engines.
When the market for civil aircraft dried up
in the early 1950s, Ryan sold the production
rights to Rangemaster Aircraft.
Rangemaster manufactured a few Navions
sporadically through 1976.
Performance was a hallmark of the
Navion series, culminating in the Super
260 which could cruise at 150 knots with a
range of 1,397 nautical miles. But the
Navion couldn’t compete with the likes of
Beechcraft’s Bonanza and Cessna’s 195;
both were considerably faster.
An additional feature further reduced
the Navion’s appeal to many pilots. Rather
than doors, the design used a sliding
canopy with a high transom that had to be
stepped up and over to gain access. This
feature—in an era when ladies wore
skirts—made for rather awkward entrance
and egress for women. Rangemaster later
redesigned the Navion with a fixed canopy
and a door.
I have a memory of the Navion. The
local mortician (whose daughter started
school with me in first grade and graduated
high school with me) spent two years on a
waiting list for a Johnson Rocket aircraft
(which never reached production). He
finally gave up and bought a Navion. (The
Johnson Rocket and the Globe Swift were
designed by Rufus “Pop” Johnson.)
The mortician picked up the airplane at the
factory in California and flew it back to
Kansas. As he landed at La Crosse, he
discovered that he had lost all hydraulic fluid
in flight, had no brakes, and could not feather
the propeller. He ran the new Navion off the
runway and into a ditch at the end, tearing it
up so badly that it had to be disassembled and
trucked back to the factory.
The entry and exit awkwardness was so
inconvenient for the mortician’s wife and
daughter that he eventually traded his Navion
for a Cessna 195.
The Navion would lend itself very well to
Scale modeling. I find it strange that kit
makers and ARF manufacturers have used all
types of Piper and Beech low-wing designs as
subjects but haven’t noticed the Navion. An
RC model of it would certainly stand out as
being different and could be attractive to
potential buyers.
Swift: This aircraft has been the subject of
erroneous information many times in print
and in legend. I’ve also repeated bad trivia on
09sig4.QXD 7/25/06 2:14 PM Page 108it. Contrary to the often reported legend, the
Swift and the Navion have absolutely no
connection, in concept or in manufacturer.
The basic design for the Swift was created in
1940 by R.S. “Pop” Johnson, who also
designed the previously mentioned Johnson
Rocket.
The wartime emergency delayed
production until 1946, when the Swift was
finally certificated in Dallas, Texas. By then
the rights had been sold to John Kennedy’s
Globe Medical Company. (I’ll bet you didn’t
think of that as a source for the Globe name
on the Swift.)
Initial production was of an 85-horsepower
version, which was soon replaced with a 125-
horsepower iteration. Globe produced 266
Swifts before the small-airplane market
crashed, leaving the company with a large
number of unsold completed aircraft. In 1947
TEMCO bought the rights and eventually
manufactured 833 Swifts, terminating
production in 1951.
The Swift was a rapid airplane with the
85-horsepower engine, cruising at a
remarkable 155 mph. I was unable to find
figures for the 125-horsepower units, but you
can speculate that they were outstanding for
the era even though the aircraft spanned only
29 feet.
The Swift had a reputation as being great
for former military fighter pilots but a
challenge for relatively low-time private
pilots. Not that it was vicious or a handful, but
it did require some attention—particularly in
the landing pattern.
An Internet search lists a 36-inchwingspan
park flyer model with fiberglass
fuselage and retracts available through JMD
Models. However, the Web site is currently
unavailable and I presume that the kit is
unavailable too. That’s a shame.
A larger-scale RC model of the Swift
would be a novel sight on any flying field. It is
a pretty airplane. The Swift also makes a neatlooking
rubber-power FF model, particularly
with its scale wing dihedral.
Rawdon T-1: In 1940 the Rawdon brothers
(designer Herb, pilot Dutch, and business
manager Gene) incorporated to operate a
flight-training school and commercial airport
and provide related flying services. Their
grass-strip runway was located in east Wichita
across Central Avenue from Beech Aircraft’s
runway. The Rawdon facility was slightly east
of Beech’s north/south runway but it was
amazingly close.
After the brothers passed away, Beech
acquired the property and Central Avenue was
run under the new extended runway. For
many years the airspaces for the two facilities
were uncontrolled, which required alert
piloting.
The Rawdons trained a large number of
student pilots from 1940 to 1942 as part of a
federal-government program to teach civilian
pilots in preparation for World War II. Many
of those students went on to become the early
nucleus of a rapidly expanding military flying
service.
The Rawdons established a manufacturing
facility in 1947 to make parts and submarine
assemblies for local major manufacturers.
They also designed and produced a prototype
airplane for the training market.
The aircraft received CAA (Civil
Aeronautics Administration, which later
became the Federal Aviation Administration)
approval in September 1947, but it was not
immediately placed into production because
the GI flight-training program for which the
airplane had been designed had been
canceled.
In 1948 most manufacturers’ production of
two-place trainer aircraft was terminated, and
a large inventory of unsold airplanes weighed
heavily on the market. In addition, the market
was flooded with a large number of unneeded
trainer-type airplanes that flight schools had
used for the GI program. These events were
responsible for several manufacturers closing
their doors or selling to the competition.
Through the years Rawdon accumulated
valuable experience in production techniques.
The design for the company airplane was
continually revised, waiting for the time when
market conditions were more favorable to
attempt mass marketing.
During this time Rawdon sold a few
airplanes to friends of the company. Spray
equipment was added to the airplane, as was
an all-metal wing to replace the fabric-covered
wing. Engines of 135, 150, and 180
horsepower were also certified.
At best it can be determined that less than
100 T-1s were produced, but no accurate
records seem to exist. There are 15 registered
in the US, and how many of those are still
flyable is unknown.
I know of two T-1s: N41672 and N44505.
The N41672 model was recently added to the
Kansas Aviation Museum (www.kansas
aviationmuseum.org) and is in a hangar offsite
because the museum has no indoor
storage space left.
The aircraft in the photo—N44505—holds
a spot in my memory. It was restored from
two “basket cases” purchased from a defunct
spray operation in Wyoming. I walked around
a corner at AirVenture Oshkosh in Wisconsin
in the 1970s and spotted it. A young man was
polishing it down when I walked up.
“This is a Rawdon T-1,” I said
immediately.
The young man was pleased that someone
knew the aircraft, but my next utterance really
delighted him.
“When the city of Great Bend, Kansas,
took the keys to the old B-29 facility in 1951,
they held an air show, and I saw a man do the
most perfect eight-point roll I’ve ever seen in
one of these,” I said.
“That was my dad,” the young man
responded with considerable delight.
I had encountered Terry Chastain, whose
father Jack had been the demonstration pilot
for the Rawdons then. Jack had exhibited his
flying skills and the T-1’s aerobatic abilities at
many air shows, including the Miami Air
Races.
I recall Jack’s exhibition at Great Bend as
a thing of beauty, with much slower and more
precise maneuvers than the wildly
overpowered contemporary aerobatic aircraft
perform today. “Poetry in motion” describes
his flying.
Terry and his brother Phil had taken a year
off from their jobs to help their terminally ill
dad build an airplane from assembled parts.
They took Jack and their mother May Belle to
Oshkosh that year, even though the restoration
was incomplete. The T-1 was awarded many
honors at Oshkosh in the following years, but
all were after Jack’s death.
You can read more about this family; the
Creve Coeur, Missouri, airport; and the
activities surrounding the T-1 and other
restored vintage and classic aircraft hangared
there by using an Internet search engine such
as Google and typing in “Rawdon T-1.” Most
of the material I’ve presented this month is
from Internet searches of the aircraft’s name.
I was not the only one to recognize the T-1
and be struck by its superb lines. Claude
McCullough obtained photos and three-views
of the aircraft from the Chastains and
developed a 1/4-scale RC version, which he
campaigned on the national level for a year or
two.
Before everyone jumps on this, Claude
advises that he has a bundle of photos and an
excellent three-view but does not have
working drawings for the model. His address
is 102 Constance St., Montezuma IA 50171.
According to Claude, a T-1 RC model
available is by Charles Baker, but it is a bit
smaller. Ron Anderson of Classic Aviation
Models ([email protected]) was
considering a kit of the old Monogram
Speedee-Bilt models and could also have
some useful information about the Rawdon.
Wouldn’t a model of the T-1––or the other
two airplanes I presented this month––be a joy
to build and fly, whether in RC, CL, or FF?
They would certainly stand out and almost
assuredly would fly well too.
The rubber-powered FF models in this
month’s photos are by Bill Schmidt. He has
construction drawings for these aircraft for
sale, as well as many other unusual subjects in
24- to 30-inch sizes. His address is 4647
Krueger, Wichita KS 67220; Tel.: (316) 744-
0378.
Anyone who enjoys model airplanes will
be drawn to the simple beauty of Bill’s
models. Size doesn’t matter because the
craftsmanship is so excellent; after all, the
master painters’ classic appeal had nothing to
do with the size of their canvases.
Consider building a model in any size or
type from the prototypes I’ve shown lately—
and fly them for fun! MA
110 MODEL AVIATION
Visit www.modelaircraft.org
09sig4.QXD 7/26/06 9:17 AM Page 110
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/09
Page Numbers: 107,108,110
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/09
Page Numbers: 107,108,110
Flying for Fun D.B. Mathews | [email protected]
More desirable aircraft prototypes for modeling
THIS MONTH, as in the June and July columns, I will show you fullscale
aircraft that deserve to be made available to modelers as kits or
ARFs. Previous subjects have been single-place aircraft; this month I’ll
take a look at two- and four-place prototypes that would make superb
subjects for models but are rarely chosen.
Much like some of the airplanes I included in the previous columns,
the following are aerodynamically simple in design and look well
suited to fly Scale in almost any form. Perhaps the photos and
comments will encourage some commercial entities to make models of
these aircraft available, or at least have someone prepare construction
drawings.
I copied the Berkeley Navion ad from the
September 1955 Air Trails. I hadn’t paid
much attention to it until I was visiting with
George Sauer after he scanned to disc the
photos I used this month. Then the
significance of it struck!
I’ve occasionally mentioned what a
challenge the old single-channel escapement
radios were to most of us. I mentioned how
we spent hours fiddling with the things to get
an occasional flight and how frustrating they
could be when compared to contemporary RC
equipment.
The late, great Chet Lanzo once said,
“Back then a successful RC flight was one in
which the model crashed somewhere it
wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been radio
controlled.” Those of us who were trying to
fly those primitive radio systems concur.
My comments throughout the years have
elicited letters from readers relating that they
had no such problems, and they challenged
my memories. They claimed to have had
nearly perfect performance from those old
dry-cell-driven rubber-powered escapements
and Aero-Trol and other transmitters and
receivers. Study Harold Stevenson’s artwork
and draw your own conclusions about my
memory.
Jack Chastain flies a Rawdon T-1 for the camera. See text for a
story about this man and airplane. Schmidt photo.
This September 1955 Air Trails cover by Harold Stevenson
beautifully illustrates the frustrations of early RC flying.
Bill Schmidt’s rubber-powered T-1 shows the appeal of scale models, regardless of size.
September 2006 107
09sig4.QXD 7/25/06 2:13 PM Page 107108 MODEL AVIATION
The Chastain family of Saint Louis, Missouri, restored this T-1. It is painted exactly like
the one the author saw fly in 1950. McCullough photo.
Berkeley Models’ Navion kit ad in the September 1955 Air Trails.
Notice the multitasking assigned to the design.
Another of Bill Schmidt’s wonderful rubber-powered scale models.
The Globe Swift would make a wonderful RC Scale subject.
Similar to Joe Neito, whose art I featured
with a Model Airplane News (MAN) cover in
my June 2006 column, Stevenson illustrated
covers for Air Trails and Flying Models
magazines in the 1950s. However, his
wonderful art centered on model airplanes
rather than the full-scale subjects Neito used.
Harold Stevenson was Duane Stevenson’s
uncle. I’ve featured versions of Duane’s Old
Reliable several times. Harold’s love of the
hobby obviously transferred to his nephew.
Navion: I chose an ancient Berkeley Models
ad to show the only civilian-market aircraft
North American Aviation ever attempted.
Why? Because my limited research reveals
that this was the only Navion RC kit ever
produced. How strange.
However, several rubber-powered model
designs were kitted and/or published.
Drawings for some of them are available
through the AMA Plans Service.
On the Internet I located an eBay listing
by someone who was selling what he/she
described as “much improved and
modernized” drawings for the old Berkeley
kit. I recall that the kit certainly could have
used improvement; it was primitive and weak
in critical spots. After all, it was designed and
marketed for CL, FF, and RC––a nearly
impossible combination.
As it became more apparent that the Allies
were going to win World War II and
production of B-25s, AT-6s, and P-51s was
going to end, North American assigned the
design of a four-place civil aircraft to a team.
By 1945 North American had settled on
beginning production in 1946 of what would
become the Navion.
The design was influenced by lessons
learned from the successful P-51 Mustang.
Examination of the Navion reveals its
parentage.
North American built 1,100 Navions and
an L-17 military observation aircraft, and then
the company sold the rights to Ryan Aviation
in 1947. Ryan built an additional 1,000
Navions in several versions, each powered
with successively more powerful Continental
and Lycoming engines.
When the market for civil aircraft dried up
in the early 1950s, Ryan sold the production
rights to Rangemaster Aircraft.
Rangemaster manufactured a few Navions
sporadically through 1976.
Performance was a hallmark of the
Navion series, culminating in the Super
260 which could cruise at 150 knots with a
range of 1,397 nautical miles. But the
Navion couldn’t compete with the likes of
Beechcraft’s Bonanza and Cessna’s 195;
both were considerably faster.
An additional feature further reduced
the Navion’s appeal to many pilots. Rather
than doors, the design used a sliding
canopy with a high transom that had to be
stepped up and over to gain access. This
feature—in an era when ladies wore
skirts—made for rather awkward entrance
and egress for women. Rangemaster later
redesigned the Navion with a fixed canopy
and a door.
I have a memory of the Navion. The
local mortician (whose daughter started
school with me in first grade and graduated
high school with me) spent two years on a
waiting list for a Johnson Rocket aircraft
(which never reached production). He
finally gave up and bought a Navion. (The
Johnson Rocket and the Globe Swift were
designed by Rufus “Pop” Johnson.)
The mortician picked up the airplane at the
factory in California and flew it back to
Kansas. As he landed at La Crosse, he
discovered that he had lost all hydraulic fluid
in flight, had no brakes, and could not feather
the propeller. He ran the new Navion off the
runway and into a ditch at the end, tearing it
up so badly that it had to be disassembled and
trucked back to the factory.
The entry and exit awkwardness was so
inconvenient for the mortician’s wife and
daughter that he eventually traded his Navion
for a Cessna 195.
The Navion would lend itself very well to
Scale modeling. I find it strange that kit
makers and ARF manufacturers have used all
types of Piper and Beech low-wing designs as
subjects but haven’t noticed the Navion. An
RC model of it would certainly stand out as
being different and could be attractive to
potential buyers.
Swift: This aircraft has been the subject of
erroneous information many times in print
and in legend. I’ve also repeated bad trivia on
09sig4.QXD 7/25/06 2:14 PM Page 108it. Contrary to the often reported legend, the
Swift and the Navion have absolutely no
connection, in concept or in manufacturer.
The basic design for the Swift was created in
1940 by R.S. “Pop” Johnson, who also
designed the previously mentioned Johnson
Rocket.
The wartime emergency delayed
production until 1946, when the Swift was
finally certificated in Dallas, Texas. By then
the rights had been sold to John Kennedy’s
Globe Medical Company. (I’ll bet you didn’t
think of that as a source for the Globe name
on the Swift.)
Initial production was of an 85-horsepower
version, which was soon replaced with a 125-
horsepower iteration. Globe produced 266
Swifts before the small-airplane market
crashed, leaving the company with a large
number of unsold completed aircraft. In 1947
TEMCO bought the rights and eventually
manufactured 833 Swifts, terminating
production in 1951.
The Swift was a rapid airplane with the
85-horsepower engine, cruising at a
remarkable 155 mph. I was unable to find
figures for the 125-horsepower units, but you
can speculate that they were outstanding for
the era even though the aircraft spanned only
29 feet.
The Swift had a reputation as being great
for former military fighter pilots but a
challenge for relatively low-time private
pilots. Not that it was vicious or a handful, but
it did require some attention—particularly in
the landing pattern.
An Internet search lists a 36-inchwingspan
park flyer model with fiberglass
fuselage and retracts available through JMD
Models. However, the Web site is currently
unavailable and I presume that the kit is
unavailable too. That’s a shame.
A larger-scale RC model of the Swift
would be a novel sight on any flying field. It is
a pretty airplane. The Swift also makes a neatlooking
rubber-power FF model, particularly
with its scale wing dihedral.
Rawdon T-1: In 1940 the Rawdon brothers
(designer Herb, pilot Dutch, and business
manager Gene) incorporated to operate a
flight-training school and commercial airport
and provide related flying services. Their
grass-strip runway was located in east Wichita
across Central Avenue from Beech Aircraft’s
runway. The Rawdon facility was slightly east
of Beech’s north/south runway but it was
amazingly close.
After the brothers passed away, Beech
acquired the property and Central Avenue was
run under the new extended runway. For
many years the airspaces for the two facilities
were uncontrolled, which required alert
piloting.
The Rawdons trained a large number of
student pilots from 1940 to 1942 as part of a
federal-government program to teach civilian
pilots in preparation for World War II. Many
of those students went on to become the early
nucleus of a rapidly expanding military flying
service.
The Rawdons established a manufacturing
facility in 1947 to make parts and submarine
assemblies for local major manufacturers.
They also designed and produced a prototype
airplane for the training market.
The aircraft received CAA (Civil
Aeronautics Administration, which later
became the Federal Aviation Administration)
approval in September 1947, but it was not
immediately placed into production because
the GI flight-training program for which the
airplane had been designed had been
canceled.
In 1948 most manufacturers’ production of
two-place trainer aircraft was terminated, and
a large inventory of unsold airplanes weighed
heavily on the market. In addition, the market
was flooded with a large number of unneeded
trainer-type airplanes that flight schools had
used for the GI program. These events were
responsible for several manufacturers closing
their doors or selling to the competition.
Through the years Rawdon accumulated
valuable experience in production techniques.
The design for the company airplane was
continually revised, waiting for the time when
market conditions were more favorable to
attempt mass marketing.
During this time Rawdon sold a few
airplanes to friends of the company. Spray
equipment was added to the airplane, as was
an all-metal wing to replace the fabric-covered
wing. Engines of 135, 150, and 180
horsepower were also certified.
At best it can be determined that less than
100 T-1s were produced, but no accurate
records seem to exist. There are 15 registered
in the US, and how many of those are still
flyable is unknown.
I know of two T-1s: N41672 and N44505.
The N41672 model was recently added to the
Kansas Aviation Museum (www.kansas
aviationmuseum.org) and is in a hangar offsite
because the museum has no indoor
storage space left.
The aircraft in the photo—N44505—holds
a spot in my memory. It was restored from
two “basket cases” purchased from a defunct
spray operation in Wyoming. I walked around
a corner at AirVenture Oshkosh in Wisconsin
in the 1970s and spotted it. A young man was
polishing it down when I walked up.
“This is a Rawdon T-1,” I said
immediately.
The young man was pleased that someone
knew the aircraft, but my next utterance really
delighted him.
“When the city of Great Bend, Kansas,
took the keys to the old B-29 facility in 1951,
they held an air show, and I saw a man do the
most perfect eight-point roll I’ve ever seen in
one of these,” I said.
“That was my dad,” the young man
responded with considerable delight.
I had encountered Terry Chastain, whose
father Jack had been the demonstration pilot
for the Rawdons then. Jack had exhibited his
flying skills and the T-1’s aerobatic abilities at
many air shows, including the Miami Air
Races.
I recall Jack’s exhibition at Great Bend as
a thing of beauty, with much slower and more
precise maneuvers than the wildly
overpowered contemporary aerobatic aircraft
perform today. “Poetry in motion” describes
his flying.
Terry and his brother Phil had taken a year
off from their jobs to help their terminally ill
dad build an airplane from assembled parts.
They took Jack and their mother May Belle to
Oshkosh that year, even though the restoration
was incomplete. The T-1 was awarded many
honors at Oshkosh in the following years, but
all were after Jack’s death.
You can read more about this family; the
Creve Coeur, Missouri, airport; and the
activities surrounding the T-1 and other
restored vintage and classic aircraft hangared
there by using an Internet search engine such
as Google and typing in “Rawdon T-1.” Most
of the material I’ve presented this month is
from Internet searches of the aircraft’s name.
I was not the only one to recognize the T-1
and be struck by its superb lines. Claude
McCullough obtained photos and three-views
of the aircraft from the Chastains and
developed a 1/4-scale RC version, which he
campaigned on the national level for a year or
two.
Before everyone jumps on this, Claude
advises that he has a bundle of photos and an
excellent three-view but does not have
working drawings for the model. His address
is 102 Constance St., Montezuma IA 50171.
According to Claude, a T-1 RC model
available is by Charles Baker, but it is a bit
smaller. Ron Anderson of Classic Aviation
Models ([email protected]) was
considering a kit of the old Monogram
Speedee-Bilt models and could also have
some useful information about the Rawdon.
Wouldn’t a model of the T-1––or the other
two airplanes I presented this month––be a joy
to build and fly, whether in RC, CL, or FF?
They would certainly stand out and almost
assuredly would fly well too.
The rubber-powered FF models in this
month’s photos are by Bill Schmidt. He has
construction drawings for these aircraft for
sale, as well as many other unusual subjects in
24- to 30-inch sizes. His address is 4647
Krueger, Wichita KS 67220; Tel.: (316) 744-
0378.
Anyone who enjoys model airplanes will
be drawn to the simple beauty of Bill’s
models. Size doesn’t matter because the
craftsmanship is so excellent; after all, the
master painters’ classic appeal had nothing to
do with the size of their canvases.
Consider building a model in any size or
type from the prototypes I’ve shown lately—
and fly them for fun! MA
110 MODEL AVIATION
Visit www.modelaircraft.org
09sig4.QXD 7/26/06 9:17 AM Page 110
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/09
Page Numbers: 107,108,110
Flying for Fun D.B. Mathews | [email protected]
More desirable aircraft prototypes for modeling
THIS MONTH, as in the June and July columns, I will show you fullscale
aircraft that deserve to be made available to modelers as kits or
ARFs. Previous subjects have been single-place aircraft; this month I’ll
take a look at two- and four-place prototypes that would make superb
subjects for models but are rarely chosen.
Much like some of the airplanes I included in the previous columns,
the following are aerodynamically simple in design and look well
suited to fly Scale in almost any form. Perhaps the photos and
comments will encourage some commercial entities to make models of
these aircraft available, or at least have someone prepare construction
drawings.
I copied the Berkeley Navion ad from the
September 1955 Air Trails. I hadn’t paid
much attention to it until I was visiting with
George Sauer after he scanned to disc the
photos I used this month. Then the
significance of it struck!
I’ve occasionally mentioned what a
challenge the old single-channel escapement
radios were to most of us. I mentioned how
we spent hours fiddling with the things to get
an occasional flight and how frustrating they
could be when compared to contemporary RC
equipment.
The late, great Chet Lanzo once said,
“Back then a successful RC flight was one in
which the model crashed somewhere it
wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been radio
controlled.” Those of us who were trying to
fly those primitive radio systems concur.
My comments throughout the years have
elicited letters from readers relating that they
had no such problems, and they challenged
my memories. They claimed to have had
nearly perfect performance from those old
dry-cell-driven rubber-powered escapements
and Aero-Trol and other transmitters and
receivers. Study Harold Stevenson’s artwork
and draw your own conclusions about my
memory.
Jack Chastain flies a Rawdon T-1 for the camera. See text for a
story about this man and airplane. Schmidt photo.
This September 1955 Air Trails cover by Harold Stevenson
beautifully illustrates the frustrations of early RC flying.
Bill Schmidt’s rubber-powered T-1 shows the appeal of scale models, regardless of size.
September 2006 107
09sig4.QXD 7/25/06 2:13 PM Page 107108 MODEL AVIATION
The Chastain family of Saint Louis, Missouri, restored this T-1. It is painted exactly like
the one the author saw fly in 1950. McCullough photo.
Berkeley Models’ Navion kit ad in the September 1955 Air Trails.
Notice the multitasking assigned to the design.
Another of Bill Schmidt’s wonderful rubber-powered scale models.
The Globe Swift would make a wonderful RC Scale subject.
Similar to Joe Neito, whose art I featured
with a Model Airplane News (MAN) cover in
my June 2006 column, Stevenson illustrated
covers for Air Trails and Flying Models
magazines in the 1950s. However, his
wonderful art centered on model airplanes
rather than the full-scale subjects Neito used.
Harold Stevenson was Duane Stevenson’s
uncle. I’ve featured versions of Duane’s Old
Reliable several times. Harold’s love of the
hobby obviously transferred to his nephew.
Navion: I chose an ancient Berkeley Models
ad to show the only civilian-market aircraft
North American Aviation ever attempted.
Why? Because my limited research reveals
that this was the only Navion RC kit ever
produced. How strange.
However, several rubber-powered model
designs were kitted and/or published.
Drawings for some of them are available
through the AMA Plans Service.
On the Internet I located an eBay listing
by someone who was selling what he/she
described as “much improved and
modernized” drawings for the old Berkeley
kit. I recall that the kit certainly could have
used improvement; it was primitive and weak
in critical spots. After all, it was designed and
marketed for CL, FF, and RC––a nearly
impossible combination.
As it became more apparent that the Allies
were going to win World War II and
production of B-25s, AT-6s, and P-51s was
going to end, North American assigned the
design of a four-place civil aircraft to a team.
By 1945 North American had settled on
beginning production in 1946 of what would
become the Navion.
The design was influenced by lessons
learned from the successful P-51 Mustang.
Examination of the Navion reveals its
parentage.
North American built 1,100 Navions and
an L-17 military observation aircraft, and then
the company sold the rights to Ryan Aviation
in 1947. Ryan built an additional 1,000
Navions in several versions, each powered
with successively more powerful Continental
and Lycoming engines.
When the market for civil aircraft dried up
in the early 1950s, Ryan sold the production
rights to Rangemaster Aircraft.
Rangemaster manufactured a few Navions
sporadically through 1976.
Performance was a hallmark of the
Navion series, culminating in the Super
260 which could cruise at 150 knots with a
range of 1,397 nautical miles. But the
Navion couldn’t compete with the likes of
Beechcraft’s Bonanza and Cessna’s 195;
both were considerably faster.
An additional feature further reduced
the Navion’s appeal to many pilots. Rather
than doors, the design used a sliding
canopy with a high transom that had to be
stepped up and over to gain access. This
feature—in an era when ladies wore
skirts—made for rather awkward entrance
and egress for women. Rangemaster later
redesigned the Navion with a fixed canopy
and a door.
I have a memory of the Navion. The
local mortician (whose daughter started
school with me in first grade and graduated
high school with me) spent two years on a
waiting list for a Johnson Rocket aircraft
(which never reached production). He
finally gave up and bought a Navion. (The
Johnson Rocket and the Globe Swift were
designed by Rufus “Pop” Johnson.)
The mortician picked up the airplane at the
factory in California and flew it back to
Kansas. As he landed at La Crosse, he
discovered that he had lost all hydraulic fluid
in flight, had no brakes, and could not feather
the propeller. He ran the new Navion off the
runway and into a ditch at the end, tearing it
up so badly that it had to be disassembled and
trucked back to the factory.
The entry and exit awkwardness was so
inconvenient for the mortician’s wife and
daughter that he eventually traded his Navion
for a Cessna 195.
The Navion would lend itself very well to
Scale modeling. I find it strange that kit
makers and ARF manufacturers have used all
types of Piper and Beech low-wing designs as
subjects but haven’t noticed the Navion. An
RC model of it would certainly stand out as
being different and could be attractive to
potential buyers.
Swift: This aircraft has been the subject of
erroneous information many times in print
and in legend. I’ve also repeated bad trivia on
09sig4.QXD 7/25/06 2:14 PM Page 108it. Contrary to the often reported legend, the
Swift and the Navion have absolutely no
connection, in concept or in manufacturer.
The basic design for the Swift was created in
1940 by R.S. “Pop” Johnson, who also
designed the previously mentioned Johnson
Rocket.
The wartime emergency delayed
production until 1946, when the Swift was
finally certificated in Dallas, Texas. By then
the rights had been sold to John Kennedy’s
Globe Medical Company. (I’ll bet you didn’t
think of that as a source for the Globe name
on the Swift.)
Initial production was of an 85-horsepower
version, which was soon replaced with a 125-
horsepower iteration. Globe produced 266
Swifts before the small-airplane market
crashed, leaving the company with a large
number of unsold completed aircraft. In 1947
TEMCO bought the rights and eventually
manufactured 833 Swifts, terminating
production in 1951.
The Swift was a rapid airplane with the
85-horsepower engine, cruising at a
remarkable 155 mph. I was unable to find
figures for the 125-horsepower units, but you
can speculate that they were outstanding for
the era even though the aircraft spanned only
29 feet.
The Swift had a reputation as being great
for former military fighter pilots but a
challenge for relatively low-time private
pilots. Not that it was vicious or a handful, but
it did require some attention—particularly in
the landing pattern.
An Internet search lists a 36-inchwingspan
park flyer model with fiberglass
fuselage and retracts available through JMD
Models. However, the Web site is currently
unavailable and I presume that the kit is
unavailable too. That’s a shame.
A larger-scale RC model of the Swift
would be a novel sight on any flying field. It is
a pretty airplane. The Swift also makes a neatlooking
rubber-power FF model, particularly
with its scale wing dihedral.
Rawdon T-1: In 1940 the Rawdon brothers
(designer Herb, pilot Dutch, and business
manager Gene) incorporated to operate a
flight-training school and commercial airport
and provide related flying services. Their
grass-strip runway was located in east Wichita
across Central Avenue from Beech Aircraft’s
runway. The Rawdon facility was slightly east
of Beech’s north/south runway but it was
amazingly close.
After the brothers passed away, Beech
acquired the property and Central Avenue was
run under the new extended runway. For
many years the airspaces for the two facilities
were uncontrolled, which required alert
piloting.
The Rawdons trained a large number of
student pilots from 1940 to 1942 as part of a
federal-government program to teach civilian
pilots in preparation for World War II. Many
of those students went on to become the early
nucleus of a rapidly expanding military flying
service.
The Rawdons established a manufacturing
facility in 1947 to make parts and submarine
assemblies for local major manufacturers.
They also designed and produced a prototype
airplane for the training market.
The aircraft received CAA (Civil
Aeronautics Administration, which later
became the Federal Aviation Administration)
approval in September 1947, but it was not
immediately placed into production because
the GI flight-training program for which the
airplane had been designed had been
canceled.
In 1948 most manufacturers’ production of
two-place trainer aircraft was terminated, and
a large inventory of unsold airplanes weighed
heavily on the market. In addition, the market
was flooded with a large number of unneeded
trainer-type airplanes that flight schools had
used for the GI program. These events were
responsible for several manufacturers closing
their doors or selling to the competition.
Through the years Rawdon accumulated
valuable experience in production techniques.
The design for the company airplane was
continually revised, waiting for the time when
market conditions were more favorable to
attempt mass marketing.
During this time Rawdon sold a few
airplanes to friends of the company. Spray
equipment was added to the airplane, as was
an all-metal wing to replace the fabric-covered
wing. Engines of 135, 150, and 180
horsepower were also certified.
At best it can be determined that less than
100 T-1s were produced, but no accurate
records seem to exist. There are 15 registered
in the US, and how many of those are still
flyable is unknown.
I know of two T-1s: N41672 and N44505.
The N41672 model was recently added to the
Kansas Aviation Museum (www.kansas
aviationmuseum.org) and is in a hangar offsite
because the museum has no indoor
storage space left.
The aircraft in the photo—N44505—holds
a spot in my memory. It was restored from
two “basket cases” purchased from a defunct
spray operation in Wyoming. I walked around
a corner at AirVenture Oshkosh in Wisconsin
in the 1970s and spotted it. A young man was
polishing it down when I walked up.
“This is a Rawdon T-1,” I said
immediately.
The young man was pleased that someone
knew the aircraft, but my next utterance really
delighted him.
“When the city of Great Bend, Kansas,
took the keys to the old B-29 facility in 1951,
they held an air show, and I saw a man do the
most perfect eight-point roll I’ve ever seen in
one of these,” I said.
“That was my dad,” the young man
responded with considerable delight.
I had encountered Terry Chastain, whose
father Jack had been the demonstration pilot
for the Rawdons then. Jack had exhibited his
flying skills and the T-1’s aerobatic abilities at
many air shows, including the Miami Air
Races.
I recall Jack’s exhibition at Great Bend as
a thing of beauty, with much slower and more
precise maneuvers than the wildly
overpowered contemporary aerobatic aircraft
perform today. “Poetry in motion” describes
his flying.
Terry and his brother Phil had taken a year
off from their jobs to help their terminally ill
dad build an airplane from assembled parts.
They took Jack and their mother May Belle to
Oshkosh that year, even though the restoration
was incomplete. The T-1 was awarded many
honors at Oshkosh in the following years, but
all were after Jack’s death.
You can read more about this family; the
Creve Coeur, Missouri, airport; and the
activities surrounding the T-1 and other
restored vintage and classic aircraft hangared
there by using an Internet search engine such
as Google and typing in “Rawdon T-1.” Most
of the material I’ve presented this month is
from Internet searches of the aircraft’s name.
I was not the only one to recognize the T-1
and be struck by its superb lines. Claude
McCullough obtained photos and three-views
of the aircraft from the Chastains and
developed a 1/4-scale RC version, which he
campaigned on the national level for a year or
two.
Before everyone jumps on this, Claude
advises that he has a bundle of photos and an
excellent three-view but does not have
working drawings for the model. His address
is 102 Constance St., Montezuma IA 50171.
According to Claude, a T-1 RC model
available is by Charles Baker, but it is a bit
smaller. Ron Anderson of Classic Aviation
Models ([email protected]) was
considering a kit of the old Monogram
Speedee-Bilt models and could also have
some useful information about the Rawdon.
Wouldn’t a model of the T-1––or the other
two airplanes I presented this month––be a joy
to build and fly, whether in RC, CL, or FF?
They would certainly stand out and almost
assuredly would fly well too.
The rubber-powered FF models in this
month’s photos are by Bill Schmidt. He has
construction drawings for these aircraft for
sale, as well as many other unusual subjects in
24- to 30-inch sizes. His address is 4647
Krueger, Wichita KS 67220; Tel.: (316) 744-
0378.
Anyone who enjoys model airplanes will
be drawn to the simple beauty of Bill’s
models. Size doesn’t matter because the
craftsmanship is so excellent; after all, the
master painters’ classic appeal had nothing to
do with the size of their canvases.
Consider building a model in any size or
type from the prototypes I’ve shown lately—
and fly them for fun! MA
110 MODEL AVIATION
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