Model Airplanes

“Welcome to the 21th century of model flying. Be the first at your airfield.” It’s always exciting to take flight with 3DLabPrint, a company we’ve covered many times in regards to their 3D printable planes and other items, along with a running list of concepts and ideas. From winning the Battle of Britain all over again to downloading, printing, and flying a P51-D Mustang model airplane or even making your own landing conversion kit, 3DLabPrint is a model plane hobbyist’s dream—especially if they have easy access to 3D printing.

Founded by Štěpán Dokoupil, a Czech Republic-based designer who is also an architect and a pilot, the model plane site will definitely allow you to learn, or re-learn, a bit about history—and of course, aircraft. The fun, however, is in the flying, and there’s more on the way now as Dokoupil releases his latest package, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 H/F, with two options in size.

Inbuilt, printed bowden lines are included in the model for the rudder and elevator, with the joint wings and fuselage made so that they are partially flexible. This allows for better durability in landings—especially if they are rough. Scale is 1:12, and the plane features a wingspan of 1032mm (40.6in) / 890mm (35.0in). Dokoupil points out that for this latest model release, they made ‘many and further improvements’ since their last project.

The Messerschmitt Bf

Article source: https://3dprint.com/149708/3dlabprint-3d-print-model-plane/

A veteran of more than 30 missions flown over Europe in a Halifax bomber, Second World War tail gunner Hank Jackson will soon retrieve the medals he lost a half century ago at a location that will house a restored Halifax.

“I wasn’t a hero,” the 95-year-old told CTV Calgary. “I mean there were so many good guys that didn’t come back.”

“We accepted the medals on behalf of those guys that didn’t come home.”

The medals include a Flying Cross. Jackson last spied the accolade more than five decades ago.

A ceremony will take place Saturday at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada, located in Nanton. The event is scheduled to include the starting of the engine of the museum’s Lancaster.

While the Lancaster looms large outside of the museum, the vast majority of the 10,000 Canadian Airmen who died in combat were flying in Halifax bombers not Lancasters.

“After the war, when the Canadians said ‘Let’s go home with our bomber squadrons’, they brought home all the Lancasters but they left behind the Halifaxs that had 70, 80 or 90 missions under their belt,” explained Karl Kjarsgaard. “They left the airframes behind in England and the British cut them up after the Canadians left.”  

At present, there are only three known Halifax bombers in existence, two in England and one in Trenton, Alberta, but volunteers at the Bomber Command Museum hope to add to the ranks and create a working tribute to the ‘Bomber Boys’.

A discarded Royal Canadian Air Force Halifax has been located

Article source: http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/tail-gunner-to-be-reunited-with-missing-medals-as-reconstruction-of-halifax-begins-in-nanton-1.3076398

When SpaceX’s pioneering Falcon 9 rocket exploded into a roiling fireball and billowing black smoke at Cape Canaveral earlier this month, the gut-wrenching failure was broadcast across the world as it happened.

It was only the Hawthorne-based company’s second disaster in about 30 flights — a respectable record for rocket makers. But the loss stunned those watching the 15-story spacecraft break apart like Legos and melt into the launch pad, badly damaging the complex SpaceX leases from the U.S. Air Force.

“The SpaceX failure is darn near a national tragedy,” said Vector Space Systems CEO Jim Cantrell, a founding member of SpaceX who now heads up the microsatellite space launch company in Huntington Beach.

“Statistically,

Article source: http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/20160917/space-race-redux-despite-spacex-setback-a-wave-of-southern-california-rocket-makers-capitalize-on-new-economy

Marshall Stanton was nearing the end of a flight when the engine on his radio-controlled airplane stalled over a soybean field.

Rather than tromp through the valuable vegetation northeast of Salina, to retrieve possible wreckage, he calmly turned the craft into a stiff crosswind and glided to a soft landing on the grassy runway at Smoky Hill R/C Field, just southeast of Salina.

The maneuver brought applause from several pilots Saturday at the Giant Scale Model Fly-In. The event was hosted by the Smoky Hill Model Flying Club, attracting more than 25 planes and pilots and nearly 100 spectators from as far away at Topeka, Wichita, Lyons and Hays.

“That was a nice save. I thought he was going into the beans,” said Jim Eastburn, 69, a hobbyist from Topeka.

He brought a scaled-down model of a Rearwin Speedster aircraft but was unsure if he would fly it, given the crosswind.

A gas-powered generator hummed next to Wayne Hittle’s pickup truck that was charging batteries for his electric-powered planes. He pointed to one that pulls 200 amps on takeoff.

“You can weld with that,” he said.

Himself a commercial pilot who works on the avionics — anything electronic — on full-size planes, Hittle, also 69, of Topeka, doubles flying the radio-controlled aircrafts.

He’s also a licensed airframe and power plant inspector.

“That and a dollar gets you a cup of coffee,” Hittle said. “Full-size planes are the most fun, but at these R/C fly-ins, I get to meet all of these nice people.”

Standing on the ground, doing rolls, loops,

Article source: http://salina.com/news/local/fun-fly-in-brings-nearly-folks-to-marvel-at-r/article_07857113-87de-54db-8e95-ab72db246263.html

A veteran of more than 30 missions flown over Europe in a Halifax bomber, Second World War tail gunner Hank Jackson will soon retrieve the medals he lost a half century ago at a location that will house a restored Halifax.

“I wasn’t a hero,” the 95-year-old told CTV Calgary. “I mean there were so many good guys that didn’t come back.”

“We accepted the medals on behalf of those guys that didn’t come home.”

The medals include a Flying Cross. Jackson last spied the accolade more than five decades ago.

A ceremony will take place Saturday at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada, located in Nanton. The event is scheduled to include the starting of the engine of the museum’s Lancaster.

While the Lancaster looms large outside of the museum, the vast majority of the 10,000 Canadian Airmen who died in combat were flying in Halifax bombers not Lancasters.

“After the war, when the Canadians said ‘Let’s go home with our bomber squadrons’, they brought home all the Lancasters but they left behind the Halifaxs that had 70, 80 or 90 missions under their belt,” explained Karl Kjarsgaard. “They left the airframes behind in England and the British cut them up after the Canadians left.”  

At present, there are only three known Halifax bombers in existence, two in England and one in Trenton, Alberta, but volunteers at the Bomber Command Museum hope to add to the ranks and create a working tribute to the ‘Bomber Boys’.

A discarded Royal Canadian Air Force Halifax has been located

Article source: http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/tail-gunner-to-be-reunited-with-missing-medals-as-reconstruction-of-halifax-begins-in-nanton-1.3076398