Model Airplanes

PARMA, Ohio – Back in the day, we all had a favorite model shop to frequent for cars, planes and boats to build on snowy days. Mine was Frank’s Model Shop on Clark Avenue on Cleveland’s West Side.

Frank’s Model Shop is long gone, but the memories of stepping into that quaint, cramped shop are still with me. I used to like to build army vehicles – half-tracks, tanks and trucks. The Viking ships and dragsters were too hard to build and paint – way too much detail work for a kid who wanted instant gratification.

These days, kids don’t seem to have the patience for building model airplanes, boats or cars. Model trains are cool to the younger generation, but it’s still a hard sell unless you grew up with it.

That’s why Parma Hobby is such a throwback to an older era of hours spent at a workbench building a replica of a World War II fighter plane or a dragster. Bob and Sandy Zednik have owned the shop at 5275 Ridge Road (just south of Brookpark Road) for 20 years, and they’ve developed a clientele of hobbyists who come back for all of their model building needs.

The store has models, trains, hobby supplies, books, magazines, paint, tools and scenery for the train sets and dioramas. Sandy and Bob have an annual model car contest called Autofest, which draws contestants from all over the county. It’s held at the end of April.

The store is also the meeting place for the Cleveland

Article source: http://www.cleveland.com/parma/index.ssf/2015/02/parma_hobby_makes_sure_of_this.html

The National Model Aviation Museum, located at the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, IN, is thrilled to announce that the Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA) has completed the restoration of the Bing Autoplan. This exceptional aircraft is now on display at the museum, and is now the oldest original model airplane in its collection.

Muncie, IN (PRWEB) February 20, 2015

The National Model Aviation Museum, located at the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, IN, is thrilled to announce that the Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA) has completed the restoration of the Bing Autoplan. This exceptional aircraft is now on display at the museum, and is now the oldest original model airplane in its collection.

During the early years of aeromodeling, most airplanes were powered with rubber-powered motors, but some builders used compressed-air models when they wanted to have a “real” reciprocating engine to power the airplane. Although the compressed-air models attracted attention throughout the model airplane community, they were expensive, fragile, and did not perform well.

The National Model Aviation Museum has always wanted to acquire and display a compressed-air model, but because the aircraft are delicate, they seldom survive intact. Thanks to the generous donation by Dick Moyer, however, the museum can now display an original model. Additional information about the restoration is available on the National Model Aviation Museum blog.

The Bing Autoplan on display was manufactured in Germany circa 1914 by the Bing Toy Company—the largest toy

Article source: http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2015/02/20/national-model-aviation-museum-places-rare-1914-bing-autoplan-compressed-air-powered-mode

Sheboygan County has an interesting and deep history of aviation. One part of that history involves the Civil Air Patrol. The auxiliary arm of the Air Force, the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is known for its aid in search and rescue missions, aerospace education and cadet programs.

CAP was founded on Dec. 1, 1941, one week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. At the height of WWII, CAP had over 150,000 members, flying more than 500,000 hours of reconnaissance. They were credited with sinking two German submarines, spotting many more and rescuing sailors from sunken merchant ships. The Civil Air Patrol also supplied aviation cadets to the Army Air Corp.

A Feb. 13, 1960, issue of the Sheboygan Press brings to light another project of Civil Air Patrol members. The headline read, “Local Pilots Still Feel Pioneer Spirit of Air.” It seems a group of flying enthusiasts set out to build and fly their own aircraft.

Most pilots have at one time or another constructed model airplanes, but this group of four bought a life-size Stilts Playboy sports plane, but in pieces. The

Article source: http://www.sheboyganpress.com/story/news/local/2015/02/20/history-column/23751891/

Hear that buzz? It’s the sound of drones sweeping the nation — literally. Increasingly cheap and easy to fly, quadcopters and other flying contraptions are introducing thousands to the joy of flight — and have drawn the attention of the FAA, which has for years been mulling how best to regulate such craft.

But the hobby of recreational flying goes back way before the first drones appeared on the market. Back, in fact, to before the FAA was even established. Are these old-school flyers in the model aircraft community worried that regulations will encroach on their fun? Not really.

“It’s an interesting subject, but I’m not concerned,” said Thomas Randall, safety officer at Washington’s Mount Rainier Remote Control Society, in a phone interview with NBC News.

“I’ve been flying RC models since ’71, and before that control line,” he said, referring to wired fliers that predated radio control. “This hobby’s been around for years. There’s always going to be the guys who say ‘the government’s taking over’ and this and that, but let’s apply some common sense here.”

Academy of Model Aeronautics

“We’ve been operating under our own safety guidelines for decades,” said Rich Hanson, director of government affairs at the Academy of Model Aeronautics. “We were very much entrenched in the community when the FAA came on board.”

The AMA was founded in 1936, more than two decades before the FAA appeared in 1958. It claims a membership of over 170,000, distributed among thousands of

Article source: http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/drone-regulations-wont-stall-decades-old-model-aircraft-clubs-n307866