Combat continues to evolve
By
Rich Lopez [email protected]
Early contests
The first Western Associated Modelers (WAM) contest I attended was in the early 1960s at Frank Youell Field in Oakland, California. This field was the first home of the Oakland Raiders football team. I was attracted to the grass field where the Combat events were being held.
The first event that day was 1/2A Combat Open, where pilots were grouped by skill. The models I saw were Top Flite Combat Kittens, Baby Flite Streaks, and numerous homemade designs mostly powered by Cox Tee Dee and Holland Hornet .049s. In those days some pilots used hard metal tanks for either pressure feed or suction. One or two pilots were using pen bladders to force-feed fuel to the engines; these bladders were not durable and would burst if overfilled. It looked as if the competitors were having plenty of fun chasing each other’s streamers. The WAM pilots always flew for cuts because there was a no-kill rule.
I knew I would have to save some money and buy a 1/2A Combat setup. I eventually found a used Tee Dee mounted on a Baby Flite Streak for $8. It took me a while to master the engine-starting procedures, and I often spent hours trying to fire the engine with a weak dry-cell doorbell battery.
Models and notable pilots
After attending more contests I saw other pilots with excellent models and inventive ideas:
- Gordon Delaney (Utah) showed up with a miniature VooDoo running on crankcase pressure; he later developed 1/2A Challenger models.
- Jeff Hollfelder (Castro Valley, CA) built 1/2A Splinters with bulges in the wings to accommodate baby-pacifier fuel tanks. The models were fast and turned tightly; Jeff gave me one that I wore out from so much flying.
- Alex Sinkevitch (Flying Tigers, San Francisco) built Sneekers for 1/2A use.
- Ed Bridant modified 1/2A Snappers for Combat.
- Norm McFadden used an ugly, rectangular 1/2A for several years and scored an impressive number of wins.
My designs
I got a rib pattern from a local Stunt pilot and built a short, squatty model that I named Kometa 1. It was rock solid and flew well; I used the same model for an entire flying season. That success motivated me to design Li'l Snip (published in Model Builder, February 1974), which was sold to Midwest Models for kit production. I then built the 1/2A Matador (published in Model Airplane News, September 1976) and the 1/2A Samurai (published in Model Airplane News, February 1979).
Other builders around the country
Meanwhile, across the country, "Dirty" Dan Rutherford (Seattle area) was building Dirty Beaver and Golly Gee Whiz models. Dan liked his models to be touchy. After the 1977 Nats in Riverside, California, a group of us went to Mission Bay in San Diego to fly. Dan let others try his Golly Gee Whiz; when I took the handle the model was so touchy I planted the airplane immediately. Dan and the other pilots had a great laugh.
Dan paid close attention to detail when building models, such as making sure the Cox heads were flat and fit flush on the cylinders. He also was not afraid to run the Tee Dee on 50% to 65% nitro fuel.
In Texas, Steve Fauble was designing 1/2A models on what was called the Whetstone and also shrank Howard Rush’s Nemesis design. In Southern California, Steve Hills developed foam wings and incorporated them in his 1/2A SlySir design. I was unfamiliar with foam building and cutting until I met Steve and his flying partner, "Sneeky" Pete Athans. I spent many afternoons and evenings building models with them. Steve gave me permission to draw the plans to the SlySir and to submit an article to MA, which was published in March 1984.
Engines and evolution
In the quest for more power, Fred Baldwin designed a 1/2A engine called Shuriken. These engines were attractive, with red-anodized crankcases and a sleek shape, but they were expensive (roughly $175) and tricky to run properly. The motors would tease with one good run followed by a few sour ones. Fred sponsored a few $1,000 contests in Los Angeles and gave away a number of his engines; the Shuriken spent only a short stint on the market.
The Russian Cyclon factory, under the direction of Alexander Kalymnikov, later developed a 1/2A engine that essentially displaced the widespread use of the Tee Dee engines and changed the landscape of 1/2A Combat powerplants.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
