Kenny's Old Time Model Airplane Magazine:
December 2002
Editorial
This month we again look back at the Flying Boat. I have just finished Graham Coster's fine book Corsairville - The Lost Domain of the Flying Boat, and am again struck to reexamine those boats with wings that we looked at in the March 2002 issue.
Coster's book was a fascinating read not only as a study of the past and lamentably small present use of Flying Boats, but also on our western concept of nostalgia. I really hadn't considered what luxury nostalgia is, something that only the well off are able to be bothered with. In many ways it is also a by-product of the material - consumer world we live in. I certainly have more artifacts of auld-lang-syne than I probably need. This is not to say that we should, once again, be made to feel guilty of our pleasures, but perhaps a touch thankful of the blessings those before have provided for us.
So with the warm glow of the good old days emanating from your monitor, please enjoy Vol. 4 No. 1.
The Story
Once again we visit our hero Bill Barnes in a fight over the water. This month he battles his arch-rival Mordecai Murphy, the Saver of Souls. Of particular interest this month is the Boeing Flying Boat Memphis. In Coster's book he discusses how these machines were truly considered boats that flew, rather than planes that could land on water. Emotionally too were these craft were treated with the pomp of a grand sea cruiser. The story's description of the excitement surrounding its maiden voyage is fantastic.
To set the mood of nostalgia, drop some Glenn Miller into the CD player and enjoy Bill Barnes Takes a Holiday.
Bill Barnes Takes a Holiday to print
Bill Barnes Takes a Holiday to read off the web
The Rubber Powered Model Airplane Plans
O.K., You're right. This Curtiss R-6 is not a sea plane, but its family heritage includes the famous float plane racers, so I'll include it this month on that loophole.
Already an old-timer by 1936, this classic represents one of the finest accomplishments of bi-plane design, soon to be forever replaced by the monoplane plan form that has dominated the skies ever since. From the August 1936 issue of Flying Aces, check out
Cliff Cole's Curtiss Racer
Gordon Light, the 1932 Wakefield Winner, and Model Editor at Air Trails, brings us this month's sport model, the Ducky-Wucky. With a pair of beautiful floats, picture it rising from a calm lake some warm summer morning.
Its streamlined body and open cock-pit identify this model as being from a bygone era. Add floats and a charming name and you have nostalgia at its best. From the crackling pages of the October, 1935 issue of Air Trails, check out...
Gordon Light's Ducky-Wucky
Thermals.
The Solid Model Airplane Plan
We return this month to the sea in a Short Empire boat! The central character of Corsairville, this plan is William Winter's rendition of the same model presented in the March 2002 issue. I am currently building this model and have found Winter's plan more accurate, though I am using bits of Limber's plan as well. I'll share my results next month.
Feel free to join in on the fun, check out
William Winter's Empire Boat Caledonia
The Novelty Model Airplane Plan
One of my greatest pleasures derived from this magazine has been the e-mail responses from all points of the globe. Imagine my thrill when I checked my in-box one morning to see a letter from Herbert K. Weiss! Still interested and excited by model airplanes well into his eighties, it has been an honour to add his name to my list of email pen-pals.
Inspired by this months cover "composite" aircraft, the Pick-A-Back is one of those novelty models that seems to have been built half as an experiment in what could be done, and half just for the fun of it.
So in honour of one of our greats, why not just pick up some scraps of balsa and bits of wire and accept the challenge, and maybe have some fun to boot. Try...
Herbert K. Weiss' Pick-A-Back
All the News...
Again looking at the Empire Boat, here is an article by the great Air Trails artist Frank Tinsley. As cover artist, and article illustrator and writer, Mr. Tinsley seemed to have as much work at Air Trails as Arch Whitehouse did at Flying Aces! For a contemporary view of Flying Boats in general, and the Empire Boats in particular, check out...
Frank Tinsley's The Short Empire Boat
The Advertisement
This month's ad comes from the back of the same issue as this month's cover. For all you New Yorker Old-Timers, I suspect that this add will bring back a memory or two. From the February, 1938 issue of Flying Aces...
1938 Polk's Model Craft Hobbies Inc.
Many of the documents I will be sharing will be in .pdf format
PDF files are to be read using Adobe Acrobat Reader. This is a free download from Adobe and is a simple tool from which these documents can be viewed and printed. To print, under print options select "print as image." This should result in a printed copy equal in size to the original.
Please e-mail me at khorne@ualberta.ca if you have any comments or suggestions for my website!
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