A dedicated, but attention shy, museum volunteer has stepped up to help draw a set of plans for the Bing Autoplan. And since plans are useless unless they are as accurate as possible, we spent several hours recently examining the Bing Autoplan in close detail. Right now the plans will […]
Continue readingTag: artifact
WAA-08 SQuiRT Joins Museum Collection
During an adventure lasting 5 years, 145 days, 21 hours and 50 minutes, the Wings across America 2008 SQuiRT helped educate countless people about model aviation, and helped build camaraderie between the over 800 participating pilots. On October 18, 2013 the SQuiRT began a new adventure as part of the […]
Continue readingWhen you build… tips from the past pt. 2
It is surprisingly difficult to get good building tips from the older model building manuals. Primarily because the models discussed in those sources are generally A-frame pushers, tractor monoplanes or non-flying scale models. Some basic wisdom survives the decades, though. Cutting Tools Elmer Allen in the 1928 book, Model Airplanes: […]
Continue readingBing Autoplan Conservation, pt. 1
This Bing Autoplan was manufactured in Germany in 1914, was powered by compressed air, and was originally covered in silk. The silk has, unfortunately, deteriorated away leaving only a few scraps attached to the wire framework of the wings and tail. The metal is corroding and is bent out of […]
Continue readingJoe Konefes’ Buzzard Bombshell
The museum portion of August’s Model Aviation “In the Air” column looks at Joe Konefes’ Buzzard Bombshell in the museum collection. There wasn’t enough room in the column to share all of the information related to the model, so it is shared here in a “deleted scenes” type format. Joe […]
Continue readingMadman Yates and his Madman model
The museum portion of April’s Model Aviation “In the Air” column looks at J.C. Yates’ Madman CL Aerobatics airplane that is in the museum collection. There wasn’t enough room in the column to share all of the information related to the model, so it is shared here in a “deleted scenes” type […]
Continue readingBehind Glass
“I love the old: when it’s behind glass. Thank God for 2.4.” This comment was recently left in regards to the museum’s radio control equipment exhibit, which encourages visitors to leave comments and information about the radios on display. It raises a good point – the past is the past, and […]
Continue readingMiss Shirley 360
Oba St. Clair designed, built, and flew the first Control Line model, the Miss Shirley, in 1937. A reproduction of the Miss Shirley was built for the museum and unveiled this year. You can now see a full rotating 360 view of the model aircraft at this link: https://www.modelaircraft.org/museum/missshirley.aspx If […]
Continue readingBoeing 747 and Space Shuttle models on loan to NASA
When the National Aeronautic and Space Administration’s (NASA) 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) takes off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida this week to bring the Space Shuttle Endeavour to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, two models from the National Model Aviation Museum are going along for the […]
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Radio-Controlled 747 and Space Shuttle models
Boeing 747 and Space Shuttle Radio-Controlled 1/40-scale Test Models Donated by John Kiker Astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson, who serves as AMA Ambassador, was a friend of John. Hear him discuss about the models’ history in this video. In the mid-1970s, during the development of the Space Shuttle program, National Aeronautics […]
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