It can hardly have escaped your notice that there are an awful lot of 'vintage' models around these days which are powered by four stroke engines and covered with Solartex. Both are, in fact, encouraged by SAM rules as being 'vintage style'. Now vintage in model terms is defined as being pre-December 31st 1950. I was quite an active modeller in those days - some people think I still am - and I don't remember seeing a four-stroke diesel around, do you.
Mind you, that iron-on Modelspan was great stuff once you got the gas-ring set just right to heat up the iron!
For those who are now saying to themselves, "What on earth is he blabbering on about?", let me explain (think yourselves lucky - in future I shall be as cryptic as hell!).
Very few people seem to be able to remember just how primitive things were in 1950. The only glues we had were balsa cement and a glue intended for hardwoods and called Durofix (imagine the laughs a word like that would produce in todays society). Apart from a few well-off people who still used petrol engines, most of us ordinary mortals used diesels. We knew about Glowplug motors, of course, but they were still very rare animals - and generally not too well understood. In a couple of years or so they would become very common, but in 1950 no.
I am prepared to accept that there may have been such a thing as a working model 4 stroke engine at this time, but I would take some convincing that it was capable of flying a model aircraft. It would have to have been a spark ignition engine. A 4 stroke glowplug motor would certainly have been beyond the current technology and I have yet to hear of a 4 stroke diesel.
Covering materials consisted of just tissue or silk. Nylon was available and advocated by such as the late Col Bowden. In my circles it was very definitely not popular. It was too difficult to attach, warped everything very badly and it was heavy. For those of you who have never tried silk, it is a joy to use but not very durable. Perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me but I am sure that the modern 'modelspan type' tissue is not a patch on the real thing.
Hopefully you will now understand just what I was getting at and can answer a question for me. If Solartex is acceptable as 'vintage style' because it looks like nylon, why is Micafilm not similarly regarded? After all, it looks uncannily like tissue.
Since we are on the subject of 4 stroke engines, have you noticed that our American cousins insist on calling them 4 cycle engines? Does this annoy you as much as it annoys me? If we define a cycle as a repeating series of events then it should be obvious that the 4 stroke engine has only one cycle. This is known throughout the world as the Otto cycle after Professor Otto. Has no-one told our American friends or do they call it something else - the Schultz cycle perhaps? No that will not do either; to be consistent it would have to be the Schultz cycles.
Have you heard the story about the US Navy pilot during WW2 who was incredibly accident prone? During his training he wrote off several aircraft in various accidents and continued to create havoc when he began his duties aboard a carrier. Eventually his squadron reached the fighting area and were due to make their first active sortie against the Japanese.
Before take-off his commanding officer drew him to one side and said, "Now look here Pavlovski, I want you to stay 2 miles behind and 5000 feet above the rest of the guys. Just watch what goes on and stay out of trouble."
So he dutifully did as he was told and followed along at a safe distance. After a while his attention was caught by a flight of Zero's which were above the squadron, hidden from them in the sun and obviously about to attack. He quickly climbed to a position above the Japanese planes and attacked them out of the sun just in time to forestall their surprise attack.
He shot down two of the Zero's and most of the others were destroyed by his squadron. Having finally made good, he was overjoyed and hurried back to the carrier where he made a perfect landing - which was an event in itself.
Switching off, he jumped out of his plane and hurried up to the commanding officer. "What do you think of that then, Sir?" he asked proudly. The officer looked him up and down with a strange light in his eyes.
"Velly funny, Amelican swine", he replied.
A few years ago a member of our model club became very interested in electric flight. This side of the hobby was then in a very primitive state and success was by no means guaranteed. However, not for our friend the gentle approach so he proceeded to build a large twin engined scale model. This appeared at the field on numerous occasions when it could usually be persuaded to do little more than a fast taxi. Various people tried their hand at coaxing it off the ground, but the best attempts only resulted in a brief semi-stalled lift off followed by the inevitable snap roll.
Attempts at hand launching the brute produced results ranging from a short powered glide to higher snap rolls. Different propellers and battery combinations were experimented with and a stage was reached where it was felt that it would fly if only the first few precarious seconds could be safely negotiated.
The culmination came at the club scale day when an attempt was made to launch the model from the open roof of a moving Dormobile van. For a few seconds all seemed well and the model seemed to be getting away at last. Sadly, it was not to be. Following yet another snap roll the model plunged into the ground with a sickening thud - and was promptly run over by the van!
In what is intended to be a regular feature, it might perhaps be a good idea to end with a statement of intent, so here goes.
Basically we intend to be humorous, but with a sting in the tail. We will try not to be sarcastic - ironic yes, cynical perhaps - but sarcastic never! Wherever possible, stories used will be true - though not necessarily attributable.
Or, as the Prime Minister might have said following a spate of fires in the model business, "There is a lot of arson about."