- Russell, D. A.
The
Design and Construction of Flying Model Aircraft.
Leicester, England: Harborough Publishing, [1937, 1940] 1941.
British Library Shelfmark 08771.b.3.
-
In 1941, Britain stood alone in the West against Nazi
Germany, absorbing bombing raids on its cities, while
battling back and forth in North Africa. So confident
was Hitler that the British threat had been neutralised, that
in June he launched the assault against the Soviet Union.
And in that dark year, some people in Britain put the war
out of their minds by thinking instead about model
airplanes, guided by this book, written by the editor
of The Aero-Modeller magazine and published in
that war year.
Modellers of this era scratch built their planes—the word
“kit” is absent from this book and seemingly from
the vocabulary of the hobby at the time. The author addresses
an audience who not only build their models from scratch, but also
design them from first principles of aerodynamics—in fact, the
first few chapters are one of the most lucid expositions of basic
practical aerodynamics I have ever read. The text bristles with
empirical equations, charts, and diagrams, as well as plenty of
practical advice to the designer and builder.
While many modellers of the era built featherweight aircraft powered
by rubber bands, others flew petrol-powered beasts which would
intimidate many modellers today. Throughout the book the author uses
as an example one of his own designs, with a wingspan of 10 feet,
all-up weight in excess of 14 pounds, and powered by an 18 cc. petrol
engine.
There was no radio control, of course. All of these planes simply
flew free until a clockwork mechanism cut the ignition, then glided
to a landing on whatever happened to be beneath them at the time.
If the time switch should fail, the plane would fly on until
the fuel was exhausted. Given the size, weight, and flammability
of the fuel, one worried about the possibility of burning down
somebody's house or barn in such a mishap, and in fact p. 214
is a full-page advert for liability insurance backed by Lloyds!
This book was found in an antique shop in the British Isles.
It is, of course, hopelessly out of print, but used copies
are generally available at reasonable prices. Note that the
second edition (first published in 1940, reprinted in 1941)
contains substantially more material than the 1937 first
edition.
April 2007 