New Addition: CL Pesco Special

In the late 1950s, the Gulf Hawks Club of Northern Florida revived the Thompson Trophy Air Races by racing 1/12 scale CL profile models of famous racers. After a description of the event was published in American Aircraft Modeler in September 1959, this form of modeling caught on and, after a few modifications to the scale requirements and engine size, eventually became Control Line Scale racing. Control Line Scale – or Goodyear – Racing is still flown at Nats today.

A bright, shiny, gray profile CL scale model sits in the Hobby Shop exhibit at the National Model Aviation Museum. The airplane is a profile scale version of a Pesco Special.
The finished Laird Turner LTR-14 Pesco Special.

To document the early history of CL Racing, the museum commissioned Bill Bischoff to build a replica Pesco Special from plans published by the Gulf Hawks Club in July 1960. Bill built the model according to the original plans, but did have to make some modifications to the landing gear design due to unclear instructions and an over complicated design. The Pesco Special has also been slightly modernized in that Bill used fiberglass and epoxy to finish the model – except for the tail surfaces, which he covered with tissue and dope in order to use traditional cloth hinges for the elevators.

The finished model is beautiful with correct scale details, and an installed K&B 15 green head engine.

The Pesco Special is in the front right corner, sitting next to a text panel on CL Racing. 3 other CL Races are around the panel.
The newly added Pesco Special with other Control Line Racing models.

Come see it in the Control Line exhibit the next time you’re in Muncie!

Thank you Bill for volunteering your time and your skills to build the model for the museum!

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For more information on the National Model Aviation Museum, including our location, hours and admission fees visit: www.modelaircraft.org/museum

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