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Basics first - Airborne section - No frills
It is an interesting fact that there used to be as many R/C equipment manufacturers in England as in the rest of the western world. A careful survey might reveal that this is still true, since there are still many manufacturers in this country who produce equipment on demand but don't bother - or can't afford - to advertise the fact.
Many well-known names have gone on to other things, or simply disappeared, while smaller companies have grown bigger. Through all this, Mick Wilshere, of World Electronics, has soldiered steadily on.
Mick started with a part-time business forming the British off-shoot of the American World Engines company and imported their kits for equipment such as the 'Digitrio' and 'MAN-2-3-4' (which became the 'RCM&E Digital'). Increasing business saw a change to full-time status with the production of finished 'Blue Max' outfits.
It soon became obvious that it was uneconomical to import everything from the States and increasing use was made of British components, together with the adaptation of sets to suit the UK market. A point was eventually reached where the majority of sets were of British design and origin, which did not go too well with the parent company.
This eventually led to the formation of the World Electronics company and it's associate Tigre Engines. This coincided with the US World Engines changing hands, although it has since passed back into the possession of its founder, John Maloney.
One is immediately struck by the small size of the transmitter, which is very comfortable to hold and specially suited to those with small hands. Despite this, power is provided by a 12 volt 600 mAH button cell ni-cad made by Varta under the original DEAC name. The use of a 12 volt supply gives high power with low current consumption and the transmitter has a claimed operating time of 5 hours.
The sticks are the very compact and neat Dunham units which are well proven and utilise 'cermet' type potentiometers of the type usually found in servo's. All the stick and auxiliary inputs plug into a very small circuit board via three pin plugs which can be reversed to give servo reversing. This also has the secondary advantage that it is possible to change the channel sequence (or firing order) if you should require.
One of the beauties of this whole arrangement is that it allows considerable versatility. The same basic set-up can be used for anything from two (or even one if required) to seven channels. As all the metalwork is made 'in house', you can have any known, or unknown, stick or control layout you may wish. World Electronics are, in fact, one of the very few manufacturers who are able to offer a transmitter with a three-axis stick - sometimes known as 'mode 3'. The review sample was supplied as a six channel outfit with one switched and one proportional auxiliary channel. Both mode 1 and mode 2 types are available but, if you don't specify, mode 2 will be supplied as standard.
Channel changing is accomplished by means of plug-in crystals; the transmitter crystal being accessible by removing the rear cover, which is a push fit.
Basics first
