Radio Control: Old Timers
THE ATTRACTION in building and flying miniature replicas of full-scale aircraft is the very essence of our hobby. All of us are stimulated by Scale models, be they Peanut or Monster, or Control Line, Radio Control, or Glider. Some undefinable chemistry flows between modeler and Scale model, catalyzing some to Herculean efforts in creating magnificent reproductions of complex prototypes. Meanwhile, others of us receive equal gratification from creating rather simplistic Scale models which only closely resemble the prototype, but which fly beautifully. It can be reasonably presumed that nearly every modeler reading these lines selected a Scale model kit as his first purchase, as a youth. Depending upon the reader's age, that kit may have been an Ideal, Megow, Whitman, or, perhaps, a Joe Ott or Comet, or-if much younger-one of the excellent kits available today.
Radio Control: Old Timers
OLD-TIMER of the month: Published in the July 1940 issue of Model Airplane News, the Hornet is one of Sal Taibi's lesser known designs. Seldom modeled, it is nonetheless most eminently suited for conversion to RC assist. Its large size, coupled with simple construction, makes it a potentially highly competitive machine. Quoting from the construction article: "When the AMA met some time ago, the 1940 Gas Model rules were devised, and we immediately sat ourselves at the old drawing board and scratched our head in search of a design that would be `tops' under the new regulations.
Radio Control: Old-Timers
ALTHOUGH the entire series of Berkeley Cavaliers are usually thought of as Ben Shereshaw designs, such is not the case. Some letter writing and magazine researching has revealed that only the 1936 Cavalier was the product of Ben's genius. The subsequent Custom, Custom Twin-Tail, Standard, and 60 were all team designs by Bill Effinger and his staff at Berkeley. Most kit manufacturers featured a top-of-the-line design back in the 1930s, and the "Cavs" were Berkeley's. The original Shereshaw design was sold in "plans only" form, beginning in March 1936. This version had a nearly-round cross-section on the fuselage, and the profile was very streamlined-looking, hence it is often referred to as the "thin" Cav.
Rearwin
THE REARWIN JUNIOR is a rather interesting design in that it was marketed in five different forms by four separate manufacturers. Originally designed by Noel Hockaday as a last-ditch effort to keep Ed Porterfield's American Eagle Co. afloat, only 90 of the Eaglet units were sold before the company was liquidated in 1931. At that same moment in history, Rearwin Aircraft was manufacturing the Ken-Royce biplane across the river in Kansas City, KS. R.A. Rearwin had been a successful building supply dealer in Salina, KS. In 1928 he had gone into production of the biplane named after his two sons. He moved his facilities to Kansas City in 1929, sharing half of a newly constructed building at Fairfax Airport with the makers of the Inland Sport Monoplane.
Radio Control: Old-Timers
CAVALIER TWIN. In our May column, we traced the evolution of the Cavalier series from Ben Shereshaw's original design of 1936, as kitted by Berkeley, through the "fatted" version introduced in 1938. As we pointed out in that short history, the only Cav designed by the legendary Ben Shereshaw was the original. All subsequent development was by Bill Effinger and his group. Effinger began Berkeley Models as a small living room operation in Brooklyn. By carefully reinvesting his profits, and by kitting the designs of the leaders in the hobby, he saw his business grow into one of the world's largest by the 1950s.
