Radi-O-Too (oz9175)

 

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I was wondering when this aircraft would surface. When I was a young teen back in the early 60s plans for this plane were included in one of the model magazines I subscribed to ... probably Model Airplane News. As they were only magazine page size I took a few days to draft them up to the 24 inch span and then started scratch building. Kids couldn't afford RC gear in those days as it was huge money so I built it up as a free flight. Then I got my driver's license so it sat around for a few years as model planes took a back seat. I gave it to a young kid I knew who put in a Baby Bee .049 and I saw it fly once. It was a pretty looking biplane with nice proportions that flew reasonably well. Would probably make a nice electric three channel for today's use, or put ailerons on the lower wing.
SteveC - 11/09/2017
I remember this magazine but never considered building the model because of its small size, waaaay too tiny for my radio gear. I had a Berkeley Aero-Trol, bought mail order from America's Hobby Center in New York, and it turned out to be a hopeless piece of crap. It featured a single tube receiver, multiple expensive batteries and a crude escapement that never worked, even on the bench. Besides that, the whole concept was out of date by at least ten years, AHC dumping the remains at a cheap price. Don't remember the cost but it was a big wasted chunk of my paper route money. Another year went by until I was able to acquire a real, working R/C system. But that's not the subject, it's the magazine listed as American Aircraft Modeler, incorrect for 1961. For many years, the title was American Modeler, so why the change? In the early to mid sixties, the slot car phenomenon hit the modeling world, and slot car tracks sprouted like weeds in strip malls everywhere. Some of the model magazines carried a couple of pages on slot cars and a few ads too, but not like American Modeler, who rapidly went all-out into the slot car craze. Soon, that's all there was, no airplanes were to found inside the covers. Hobby shop sales dropped to zero among modelers and subscriptions plummeted. Then the predictable came to pass, the go-fast boys took over and ruined the event like they always do. It got to the point where, if you wanted to be competitive with your slot car, you had to send your cheap little Mabuchi motor off to a guru in California to get it reworked for more power. At that time, my brother, who ran slot cars, packed his in and wished them well. Sometime about '65 or '66, the entire slot car movement died suddenly, tracks shut down and it was all over. Somewhere in the USA there must be a slot car track still in use, frequented by aging hippies clad in ponytails and bell bottoms, but I haven't seen one in decades. Now, what did this do for American Modeler, without ad revenue from defunct slot producers, and no readers from the airplane guys? Simple, just change your name to American Aircraft Modeler and say "never mind". It didn't work of course, modelers being a non-forgiving bunch, not willing to risk another worthless subscription. AAM hung on for another couple of years but eventually faded into obscurity after their financing ran out. And that's the rest of the story, with credit to Paul Harvey.
DougSmith - 14/09/2017
Here are some photos of the Radio Too deigned by Herb Clukey [more pics 003-005]. I scaled up the drawings from the magazine article, but since I had no RC gear I built it as a free flight machine and with pendulum operated elevator. The power was originally a Cox 010. The first flight went well but on the second flight attempt, the hand launch was a little too vigorous and it promptly dove into the dirt and bent the crankshaft. I then replaced the .010 engine with a Cox .049! On a ten second run and a careful launch the excitement began as it immediately commenced a very steep left hand spiral climb and at about 200 feet the engine quit and it transitioned into a very flat and sedate glide back to the ground. On the second flight I forgot to burn off most of the fuel and with a nearly full tank it went OOS and we found it the next morning in a neighbour's orchard about 1/2 mile from the launch site! It hasn?t flown in many years, but I may get it ready for flying next summer.
GerardKillam - 05/12/2017
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