A Pair Of Bats
THIS PAIR of simple models has given me more enjoyment per hour of construction time than any other model I can remember. My biggest regret is that I cannot claim to be the originator of the basic layout. This honor must go to Mr. Peter Fisher whose Noctule I was published by Aeromodeler in early 1988 (the Noctule is a small bat of England). When I first saw the article, I wanted to start building right away. However, as I was recovering from an accident and was burdened with a long arm cast, I had to wait until I progressed to a short cast, providing elbow movement, before I could actually start construction.
Hemiptere Peanut
THE OLDER EXPERIMENTAL tandem-wing airplanes have always interested me. Except for the machines that Samuel Langley built in the late 1890s, tandemwing ships have almost exclusively been French lightplanes. Of those designs, I consider the Maboussin Type 40 Hemiptere to be the most attractive. I don't know of any true aerodynamic advantage to the tandem configuration in full-size airplanes, but the models I have built all seem to fly well. To me, that in itself is aerodynamic advantage enough. My Hemiptere is no exception to this, as it has a very stable flight pattern, and early duration flights of about one minute are not uncommon, using amounts of rubber that were only guessed at.
