Aircraft and Gear


Sopwith Camel

Sopwith Camel

A classic 1/4-scale British icon of World War I. Viewed by many as the British airplane that best defined air combat during World War I, the Sopwith Camel is one of the best-known fighters to come out of the Great War. First introduced at the end of 1916, it was a replacement for the Sopwith […]
Pilatus Porter PC-6

Pilatus Porter PC-6

A sport-scale STOL aircraft for glow or electric power. My original goal was to develop a light 50-inch-span airplane to fly with the small-block O.S. LA .15 glow engine. I chose the Pilatus Porter (PC-6) because of its beauty and full-scale performance and because it was in my “someday” list. After seeing the glow version […]
De Havilland Turbo Beaver

De Havilland Turbo Beaver

The Turbo Beaver is a large, light-weight park flyer with good small-field performance. With a 60-inch wingspan, it’s rather large as park flyers go, but it handles beautifully in tight places and performs well on small economical brushless power systems. The wings plug in and are retained by rare earth magnets. A hatch provides access […]
Avions Fairey Tipsy S2

Avions Fairey Tipsy S2

Scale and unique airplanes always appeal to me, and when I first saw an article on the full-size Tipsy S2, I knew I needed to model it.  I used 3-view drawing from the article to develop my 1/6-scale plans. The Tipsy airplane line was designed by Belgium designer Ernest Tips. The S2 was designed and […]
1958 Piper Tri-Pacer

1958 Piper Tri-Pacer

I was looking for a new electric park flyer project and discovered, to my surprise, that a Piper Tri-Pacer was not available. Apparently, Berkeley and Sterling produced the last Tri-Pacer kits back in the 1950s. Armed with 3-view drawing and my CAD program, I produced a scale 36-inch span electric model with a scale one-piece […]
Omen III

Omen III

Don Wilke’s “Omen II” from 1968 is one of those birds that just grabs your attention and won’t let go. I’ve had my dad’s 1968 RC Modeler magazine for years, and there was something that kept bringing me back to it. It seems to have the classic early pattern proportions, perfect for today’s sport models. […]
SkyEye Pusher

SkyEye Pusher

Fourteen years ago, my original SkyCrawler design was published in Model Aviation. At that time, neither LiPo batteries nor brushless outrunner motors were available, and video cameras were still pretty big and bulky. As these technologies developed and affordable versions became available, I decided to update my old SkyCrawler. With a name change and a […]
Shockwave Reno Racer

Shockwave Reno Racer

I first learned about Shockwave in an Air Classics article that had a few photos and several artist concepts of the roughly half completed full-scale unlimited racer.  The purpose of this strange airplane is an attempt to hit 600mph using a radial engine. Yes, 600mph! With Reno unlimited racers often bouncing off the 500mph mark, […]
The DH 90 Dragonfly

The DH 90 Dragonfly

The De Havilland Aircraft Company built a series of multi-engine biplanes in the 1930s and the DH 90 Dragonfly was the last of this series. The first design was the DH 84 Dragon powered by 4-cylinder 130hp Gypsy Major inline inverted engines. The DH 86 Express was next, powered by four Gypsy Six engines. The […]
S.E.5a WW 1 Scout

S.E.5a WW 1 Scout

The S.E.5a Scout had much better performance than the Sopwith Camel, but was plagued with problems from the underdeveloped Hispano Suiza-geared H-S 8B engine. However, together with the Camel, the S.E.5a was instrumental in maintaining British air superiority from mid-1917 and throughout the rest of World War 1. It had a wingspan of 26 feet […]
Sky Skooter

Sky Skooter

Before we begin, I need to explain why I designed the Sky Skooter. I have always been intrigued by the idea of taking my wife and kids or some friends to a distant place, 500 or 600 miles away, faster than I could in a car. The Cirrus, the Lancair, and a few other 200-plus […]
A6M3 Zero

A6M3 Zero

The Imperial Japanese Navy’s Type “0” fighter is probably the most recognized Japanese aircraft of World War II. Coming as a bit of a surprise to the Americans at the beginning of the war, it was widely used during the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Years ago, my father started building .19-sized Zero, but he […]
1 2 3 4 … 7
Air Age Media ©
WordPress Lightbox