First Foamy articles in RCM magazine

[Erasmus80]

Here are the first 20th century references to foam in my Radio Control Modeler (RCM) collection.

1. A two-part article on Foam Wings published in June and July 1967.
2. RCM Published a Book "Foam Wings" in late 1971 (attached in four zipped parts).
3. An article (packaged with the editorial) from the August 1974 issue introducing the use of foam board.
4. The first two-part article on foam aircraft construction, published in April and May of 1975.

 

[Piotrsko]

Remember those. Good times.

 

[Erasmus80]

The best of times. I built my first plane in 1974. It was the RCM Basic Trainer (1972) by Dick Tichenor, published in the "RCM Flight Training Course" book. It even flew. My #3 son has it now.

 

[Thomas B]

Wow. After a year, time for another post in this thread.

In 1972 or 1973, I purchased my first foam RC kit at a local hobby shop in Fort Worth, TX. I cannot remember the model name or manufacturer.

It was a 72” spand glider/sailplane. Simple shape. Hot wire cut wings and tails and a fuse built up out of foam sheets, with a foam nose block. Not designed to need covering.

A super easy build. I added a Cox tank mount .049 above the wing.

Great flying model. Flew it for several years and literally wore it out.

Around the same time, perhaps a year later, I acquired my first molded foam model. It was a Canyon Plastics molded foam Schweitzer 1-26, with a 78” span. I put in many slope soaring flights with it on a nearby dam.

I ran across a copy of the ad for the model.

 

[Piotrsko]

Ace proportional radios went all out with their cast foam wings and I think they had a fuselage. Mattel ( house of Barbie) did a couple but mostly everyone took a toy foamie (typically made in Asia) and stuck radios in it. Radical as all get out back then. Some places like Sepulveda Basin outlawed them. For $20 and couple hours work you had a (generally) fuel proof ready to go. Some flights were flaming spectacular

 

[Thomas B]

No posts for a year??

Was recently thinking about the first model I owned that had a foam wing and tail. It was a Lanier Hawk 750. Wingspan was 75” wing area might have been 750 sq in. Had a vac formed ABS fuse with a plywood inner structure and small parts like wingtips and such were in ABS. Quite heavy for its size, but super tough.

If I recall correctly, this fairly big ARF cost around 30-35 bucks in 1972.

We built a winch out of an old bicycle with the tire removed from the rear wheel. Worked fairly well. Flew nicely and I gained a lot of experience with it. I also slope soared it from a park in Fort Worth. The lift was not great there and I often had to land about 150 yards downhill from me in a large open area. I got a huge amount of landing practice at no operational cost, plus great exercise… I was around13-14 years old at the time.

Googled around, but found no pic of the old Hawk 750.

AI, the artificial idiot, tried to tell me there was no such model ever produced. I know better…

 

[bisco]

rc magazine caught my eye in the early 60's. i was hooked. saved my paper route, lawn mowing and snow shoveling money for a year and bought a goldberg shoestring with an OS .35 motor that was very smooth and easy to start.
we bought a very strange used radio from a guy. 5 channels with a toggle switch on each. it was screwed together sheet metal, maybe heathkit?
i was 10 years old, and my dad and i built it (mostly him)

 

[Thomas B]

rc magazine caught my eye in the early 60's. i was hooked. saved my paper route, lawn mowing and snow shoveling money for a year and bought a goldberg shoestring with an OS .35 motor that was very smooth and easy to start.
we bought a very strange used radio from a guy. 5 channels with a toggle switch on each. it was screwed together sheet metal, maybe heathkit?
i was 10 years old, and my dad and i built it (mostly him)

If that radio had a toggle switch for each channnel, it was highly likely a reed based unit. If you held one of the toggle switches deflected, the actuator/servo would stay actuated They did not offer proportional control, but skilled flyers could simulate proportional radios by rapid fire flicking of the toggle switches, which were spring loaded to center.

These went away fairly quickly with the introduction of digital proportional radio systems.

 

[bisco]

i that's exactly what it was. funny story, we were in the hobby shop looking at models and electronics. talking to the shop employee, another customer was standing their listening.
when we were walking through the aisles, he asked us if we wanted to buy his tx, as he was buing a new one.
we had no idea what it was, complete newbies, but the price was right, and i'm pretty sure he bought one with a two stick design.
i think we were a bit gullible, but fortunately, at least it worked.