The Giant Benoist Flies! [VIDEO]

The Giant Benoist Flies! [VIDEO]

Bob Walker’s 15-foot-span giant-scale flying boat has taken to the air! This RC model was built to celebrate the 10oth anniversary of the first passenger carrying aircraft in the world (on January 1, 1914 the full-size Benoist flew a passenger from St. Petersburg to Tampa). Here’s a note from Bob:

HEY GUYS  WE FLEW the BEN-WAH !  It was a very harried flight.  Carl Bachhuber came down from Wisconsin and did the honors. He says I put a lot of grey hairs on his head. The pictures here are from Nick Ziroli. I’ve got some work to do so we can try it again. The first flight was all over the place and I don’t know how Carl got it down with a pullout the last second on its wheels.” Stay tuned for more news on this giant beast! To see photos and more details of the Benoist during its first test float, click here.

Model Airplane News - RC Airplane News | The Giant Benoist Flies! [VIDEO]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Model Airplane News - RC Airplane News | The Giant Benoist Flies! [VIDEO]

Updated: July 16, 2015 — 10:40 AM

3 Comments

  1. Beautiful work, love the plane and would like to have a smaller one myself. By the way, what causes to “rocking motion'” fore and aft ?

  2. Great test pilots, great aircraft designers, and great aircraft builders, sometimes one and the same, are indispensible in both the full scale and model aircraft realm. It is really hard to tell from the in-flight video, but it appears maybe airframe flexing caused the instability problems. Airspeed did not seem to make a lot of difference in the pitch oscillations, further supporting the flex theory, IMHO.

  3. Guys, I am a communications manager for IATA, and I am an organiser for a campaign to mark the 100th anniversary of the first flight across Tampa in the Benoist. Do you still have the model and does it still fly? Please contact me on goaterc@iata.org

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