Model Airplanes

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Teenagers from across the state have shown off their building skills and ambitions at the annual Science Olympiad in Providence. For some, that involved hoping their balsa wood tower could withstand weights without breaking in half.

The Providence Journal reports the event held Saturday at Rhode Island College was a preliminary round for high school and middle school students before a national tournament in Colorado in May.

Students tested mini roller coasters, model airplanes, vehicles, material science and chemistry projects in a 20-event competition that comprised about 50 public and private schools.

Barrington High School was on top of the high school division for the seventh straight year, and will head to nationals. Gallagher Middle School in Smithfield took first place for a spot in nationals, with Warren’s Kickemuit Middle School in second place.

Article source: http://www.wral.com/teens-build-towers-model-vehicles-for-science-fair/17503496/

I have never had, nor felt the need of having, a hobby. When I was a kid, friends of mine collected stamps or miniature cars or made model airplanes. I did none of these things. When I was 11 or 12, a shop moved into our neighborhood called Hobby Models, catering to hobbyists of all sorts. I found nothing of the least interest there. I didn’t disdain or put down friends with hobbies. In fact, I rather envied them. I myself seemed to have neither the temperament nor the skill to be a hobbyist.

Something there is about a hobby that suggests handsome margins of leisure in one’s life—that and interests beyond the humdrum of merely making a living. That a man or woman grows roses or keeps orchids, does woodworking, searches out coins from antiquity, seeks out first editions, or collects 19th-century cookbooks gives that man or woman’s life added dimension.

None of these hobbies, or any other I have been able to discover, has attracted me. Perhaps a writer, being too dreamy, doesn’t require a hobby. A year or so ago, my dentist having retired, I signed on with the man who had taken over his practice and who asked me to fill out a medical-history form for him. Toward the bottom of the form, on its second page, was the simple question, “Hobbies?” Not wishing to leave a blank, I wrote in “Grievance collecting.”

At one time hobbies seemed pandemic. So much so that in the early 1950s, trousers called

Article source: https://www.weeklystandard.com/joseph-epstein/the-non-hobbyist

BrainBusters, a free flight model airplane club, which was established in 1942 by National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics employees, includes over 40 members who gather to build and fly model airplanes.

Article source: http://www.dailypress.com/visuals/video/96928004-132.html

David Shuster gripped the model airplane with a light hand, his other twirling the propeller for what seemed like ages, twisting up the rubber band that serves as the plane’s power source.

The plane was featherweight, built from scratch out of balsa wood. Named the Cloud Tramp, it was designed after a real plane of the 1930s.

“Kids often get tired and think, ‘Oh, that’s enough,’” Shuster said, still twirling, twirling, twirling. “No. It’s a lot of winding.”

Finally, he and the model plane were ready. He faced into a faint breeze, hoisted the Cloud Tramp aloft and let it fly.

GLENVILLE, N.Y. (NEWS10) – A piece of aviation history has a new home in Glenville.

Model planes may be reminiscent of childhood, but at the Empire State Aerosciences Museum, adults admire them, too. In fact, one is so special, it’s drawing attention from all over New York.

“The Concorde is very special,” acquisition officer John Panoski said. “It represents a phase of aviation history.”

It all started in 1969 when British Airways flew the first ever supersonic jetliner called The Concorde. The new machine literally hit the tarmac with a boom.

“When the plane like The Concorde would break the sound barrier, there would be that sonic boom that’s caused by the shock waves,” museum VP Kevin Millington said.

The plane was so fast, it flew at twice the speed of sound. It was so popular in the United States that in 2001, British Airways mounted a model in one of the busiest tourist destinations in the country.

“It was in Times Square and 8.5 million people saw it on a daily basis,” project manager Dan Wilson said.

But

Article source: http://www.news10.com/news/special-reports/worlds-largest-model-airplane-comes-to-glenville/1130445364