Make Engine Cowls: Easy tips for Beginner
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Workshop Tips: Smooth Sheeting
One of the important tasks you need to do correctly while building a giant scale airplane is to produce a smooth and flowing outer surface to apply your finish and paint too. There’s an old saying that a fair paint job applied to a superior surface will look much better than a great paint job […]
Seriously Scale Turbine Helicopter
Filmed at the Tokoroa Airfield in New Zealand, this Russian heli has a multitude of scale details, including rockets that explode when they hit the ground! The poster notes that New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority had approved the rockets, which are reportedly Bird Bangers, pyrotechnics used to scare away nuisance birds from an area. With or […]
Model Airplane Crash Repair — 5 Quick & Easy Fixes
One of the apprehensions all pilots experience is knowing our planes are at risk every time they take to the air. Then there is a real sense of accomplishment when the plane makes it safely back to terra firma. As our confidence builds, we start doing maneuvers closer to the ground and thereby increase the […]
Keep it cool: controling air flow
When working with an internal combustion engine, we always have to deal with the heat that is created by this process. In many cases, the opening in the cowl will allow enough air to flow over the engine to maintain a cool temperature. But when performing extended 3D maneuvers, we have only the air produced by […]
Straight and Level Flight — Master the basics.
If you’ve seen individual IMAC maneuvers, you’ve probably noticed one factor that ties everything together: straight and level flight. When flying an aerobatic sequence, you must start and finish each of your maneuvers in straight and level flight. Since straight and level flight signifies the end of one maneuver and the beginning of the next […]
Functional Scale Cockpit Hatch RC Airplane Access
When it comes to RC Golden Age racers, no one does flying models better than the world recognized guru of scale Gee Bees – Henry Haffke. When I teamed up with Henry to build the 1/3-scale version of his Howard DGA-5 “Ike” Golden Age racer, I added several details that a racer this size needed to look right. One […]
We Mourned as a Nation: Space Shuttle Challenger
On January 28, 1986, the NASA shuttle orbiter mission STS-51-L and the tenth flight of Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-99) broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members. The crew consisted of five NASA astronauts and two payload specialists. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of Cape […]
Repairing a Fiberglass Cowl
The great thing about almost ready to fly airplanes is that for the most part, they come with great looking fiberglass engine cowls that fit beautifully and often are painted at the factory. The general method of attachment to the fuselage is the use of through-the-cowl screws making assembly quick and simple. After time however, […]
Boeing’s Autonomous Drone Takes Flight
Where do we sign up to take a ride in this super-size drone? Here’s the scoop from creator Boeing: Boeing yesterday successfully completed the first test flight of its autonomous passenger air vehicle (PAV) prototype in Manassas, Virginia. Boeing NeXt, which leads the company’s urban air mobility efforts, utilized Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences to design […]
Making Heavy Duty Steel Brackets
When you want to make something that will take a lot abuse, like the axle guides on a giant scale airplane’s landing gear, there’s nothing tougher than steel. For my current 27.5% scale Nieuport 24 WW I biplane project, I decided to use 0.032 (1/32 inch) mild steel sheet to form the bottom guide plates. […]
Model Airplane News Favorite Reader Tips
Check out these reader tips! Betcha you’ll use at least one on your next building project. (Have a tip you’d like to share? Send it to MAN@airage.com … no photo required!) GET A GRIP Converting scale aircraft to electric is becoming commonplace. Here’s a neat trick that solves a simple but perplexing problem often encountered […]
