As kids, teens, and young men my brother Ken and I were reasonably obsessed with aviation and particularly aviation modeling. We built all kinds of static models - plastic, Guillows and other balsa, etc. We also loved flying models. Dad got us going with rubber-powered, little U-control and even pulse RC models. As we got older we got into higher performance U-control, full RC gliders, and RC powered models. Eventually we had full pattern RC planes that we could toss around the sky doing all kinds of stunts. We even had a float plane we flew from Oyster Bay Harbor and a powerful twin-engine RC model.
Unfortunately, University, jobs, lack of flying fields and other distractions got in the way of our flying much any more. To recall those fun times I put together the little project below wherein I collected as many photos of ours as I could find, even frame grabs from Super-8 movies. I selected ideally two for each model, one static and one flying. Some were a challenge, and I had to include photos taken at our parents house right before the models were discarded, years after being used last. For others I even had to resort to using some generic online photos to support the presentation. I then organized the photos alphabetically by model name, then again by the first flying date.
An adventure with one of our model planes, the "Swizzle Stick", is particularly noteworthy. Since it tied in with our boating fun, Ken wrote an article for Offshore Magazine, published in February 2005. Below is the tease from the table of contents, and here is the article.
Alphabetical by Model Name
Date Order of First Time Flown
