Building Model Planes: Before the Balsa Era
IT'S A SPECIAL challenge and a source of great satisfaction to build a replica of a model plane with the same materials used in the pre-balsa era of 1907-1927. The original plans for such airplanes were published long ago in various magazines, which can be found in larger libraries today. Usually the magazines are in bound volumes, but individual pages can be photocopied, leaving the modeler only to produce a full-sized line drawing over which his model can be built. A list of most of these magazines is found at the end of this article.
Milwaukee Model Aero Club
AT AGE 10 IN 1927 I became an "aeronaut." Lindy flew to Paris, visited my adopted hometown of Milwaukee on his national tour following the flight, and before you knew it the skies began to fill with planes. Among them was Milwaukee's own Hamilton Metalplane. Eventually I discovered model airplanes through books in the public library and quickly found out that model building was already much older than I was.
Milwaukee Model Aero Club
IT WAS ONLY LOGICAL that my interest in this pioneering club and newly acquired knowledge of club members' building methods and model designs led me to build replicas of their models. Most were fine fliers despite the fact they were built of basswood, pine, spruce, and a lot of bamboo. It was the rubber they were forced to use that really told the tale. Their best time by a twin pusher (132 sec.) was easily beaten on November 1, 1970 with a 181-sec. flight that had no help from thermals. That was real testimony to the superiority of good Pirelli. The model climbed very high among the RC planes on the field-to the surprise of the RC guys who would not believe we had carved the pine props ourselves.
The Way It Was
WHATEVER YOUR AGE, chances are the word Old-Timer evokes a series of model aircraft from your past. Actually, the era of flying models began when your ancestors were alive, having been ushered in by an Englishman named George Cayley in 1840. The first models were experiments in heavier-than-air (mechanical) flight. When this became a reality in 1903, the rapid improvement in design led to the sport of flying-and to the related activity of model flying. One of the more innovative and influential of these early model designers and builders was Wilhelm Kress of Vienna. Between 1865 and 1900 Kress' experimentation with model construction took him from his first drachenflieger (kite
