{"id":2156,"date":"2015-03-16T19:03:04","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T19:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/?p=2156"},"modified":"2015-04-21T13:15:26","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T13:15:26","slug":"the-earliest-small-scale-flying-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/2015\/03\/16\/the-earliest-small-scale-flying-model\/","title":{"rendered":"The earliest small scale flying model"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do you know about the history of early Free Flight models?\u00a0 The museum is looking for the earliest advertised kit or published plan of a scale model with a wingspan of 13″ or less.\u00a0 There’s some history below to jog your memory.\u00a0 If you have anything to share, please email Maria at mariav@modelaircraft.org.<\/p>\n

Update:\u00a0 We’ve been informed that in the early 2000s a collection of National kits and catalog were auctioned off on eBay.\u00a0 Does anyone happen to know who bought them?<\/p>\n

Peanut scale models as a class began in 1967 when Dave Stott and Bob Thompson decided to hold a contest featuring the small scale pre-WWII kits after reminiscing about how much fun they were to build and fly.\u00a0 The two of them coined the term \u201cPeanut Scale\u201d for any scale Free Flight model with a wingspan of 13\u201d or less.<\/p>\n

\"Source:<\/a>
Source: National Model Aviation Museum Library. Ad, National Model Aircraft & Supply Co. \u201cNEW 12\u201d Midget Flying Scale Models.\u201d Model Airplane News<\/em>, March 1931, pg. 3.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just what small scale models from before World War II were the two talking about?\u00a0 When did they come on the market?\u00a0 What about published plans?\u00a0 For an upcoming exhibit on the history of Peanut Scale models, the museum decided to find out.
\nThanks to the work of dedicated museum volunteers Tom Hallman and Vance Gilbert, museum intern Max Madson, and the advice of Bill Hannan, the earliest mention of a model that meets Peanut Scale regulations was found in the March 1931 issue of Model Airplane News<\/em>.\u00a0 National Model Aircraft & Supply Co. advertised their new line of Midget models as a sensation that could be flown anywhere and were practically indestructible.\u00a0 The first two models in the line, both with a wingspan of 12\u201d, were a Curtiss Hawk and a Heath Parasol.\u00a0 The next month saw additions of a S.E.5 and a Fokker D-7.\u00a0 By March of the next year there were 21 National Midget models, according to their full-page ad inside the back cover of Model Airplane News<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Source:<\/a>
Source: National Model Aviation Museum Library. Ad, National Model Aircraft & Supply Co.\u201d National Midget Flying Scale Model Airplanes.\u201d Model Airplane News<\/em>, April 1931, pg. 45.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Source:<\/a>
Source: National Model Aviation Museum Library. Ad, National Model Aircraft & Supply Co. \u201cReal Value in National Kits.\u201d Model Airplane News<\/em>, March 1932, inside back cover.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Plans for the Heath Parasol have been located in a KAPA Kollector<\/em>, and the museum has the Fokker D-7 kit in the collection.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Source:<\/a>
Source: National Model Aviation Museum Permanent Collection. Fokker D-7 Midget Models kit by National Model Aircraft & Supply Co. Donated by Jim Smith, 2006.27.01.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before we go forward with building a reproduction of one of these early National Midget models, the museum wants to know: do you have any knowledge of any early scale Free Flight models with a wingspan of 13\u201d or less?\u00a0 Do you have access to any copies of old National Midget plans?\u00a0 If you do, let us know by emailing Maria at mariav@modelaircraft.org.\u00a0 Please provide any documentation you can, including magazine article dates, kit names and or plan information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do you know about the history of early Free Flight models?\u00a0 The museum is looking for the earliest advertised kit or published plan of a scale model with a wingspan of 13″ or less.\u00a0 There’s some history below to jog your memory.\u00a0 If you have anything to share, please […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,54,47,107],"tags":[246,109,164,160],"class_list":["post-2156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-early-model-aviation","category-free-flight","category-museum","category-old-magazines","tag-free-flight","tag-old-magazines-2","tag-peanut-scale","tag-rubber-powered"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2156"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2201,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156\/revisions\/2201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}