{"id":4817,"date":"2021-05-07T16:27:34","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T20:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/?p=4817"},"modified":"2023-08-30T13:28:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T17:28:17","slug":"byron-originals-radio-control-pitts-s-1a-donated-by-dave-herbert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/2021\/05\/07\/byron-originals-radio-control-pitts-s-1a-donated-by-dave-herbert\/","title":{"rendered":"Byron Originals radio control Pitts S-1A \u2013 Donated by Dave Herbert"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In the mid-1970s <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.modelaircraft.org\/sites\/default\/files\/files\/GodbersenByronLeroy.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Byron LeRoy Godbersen<\/a><\/strong> decided to take his interest in model aviation a step further and begin developing and selling large scale remote controlled models of civilian and military aircraft. In 1979, he founded Byron Originals and that same year the new company released its first kit, the <em>Pitts S-1A<\/em> in 1\/3<sup>rd<\/sup> scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amablog-modelaircraft-org.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2021\/05\/DSC01252sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"819\" src=\"https:\/\/amablog-modelaircraft-org.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2021\/05\/DSC01252sm-1024x819.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4818\" srcset=\"https:\/\/amablog-modelaircraft-org.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2021\/05\/DSC01252sm-1024x819.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/amablog-modelaircraft-org.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2021\/05\/DSC01252sm-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/amablog-modelaircraft-org.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2021\/05\/DSC01252sm-768x614.jpg 768w, https:\/\/amablog-modelaircraft-org.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2021\/05\/DSC01252sm.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Pitts used a special foam, termed Byro-Foam, for the fuselage, wings, and tail allowing aircraft details to be molded directly in the parts. It was a compressed foam that created a hard outer surface. It was even advertised that \u201cthe sages between all rib detail have been included in the foam injected parts.\u201d It\u2019s unique properties also allowed covering material to be ironed onto the foam without melting the foam. A fiberglass cowl and wheel pants, aluminum landing gear, and scale wing and cabane struts completed the kit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the finishing scale touch, Godbersen was also interested in having his aircraft turn scale sized propellers at lower rpms ,with the same number of blades as used on the full-scale aircraft. To accomplish this, and utilizing engine technology of the day, the Byro-Drive reduction belt drive system was developed. The drive was introduced with the Pitts but subsequent aircraft could utilize the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1978, Dave bought and flew one of these aircraft and 1979 even flew the model on live national tv, when news anchor Kelly Lang and weatherman Pat Sajak (of Wheel of fortune Fame) covered the first US Marine Corps Toys for Tots Model Airshow. Dave had conceived the airshow idea and has posted a video of the event on his YouTube Channel <strong>Nightflyyer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Byron Pitts, flown on NBC by Dave Herbert\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kxNXyDxqBC0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Sadly that model was lost in a fire in 2016 but through the kindness of friends he was able to build a reproduction. Michael Conti provided an original kit and Ron Ables the Byro-Drive. Dave has also posted videos of the:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Brand New in Box (42 yrs. Old) Byron Originals Pitts S-1 Box Opening!\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FsJtqpv1yRg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Unboxing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How to build a Brand New (42 year old) Byron Pitts S-1 kit in Charlie Hillard colors. Old school!\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JFo1DmPbs04?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Building<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"20 inch Prop is Belt driven with Byron Byro Drive &amp; Supertigre G61. Part 1 of NIB Byron Pitts Build.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WufnYibBXfI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Byron Byro Drive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Brand new, 1\/3rd Scale, 42 year old, Byron Originals Pitts S-1 Maiden Flight. Oh...that sound!\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hYHKz2cBOW4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Maiden flight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the mid-1970s Byron LeRoy Godbersen decided to take his interest in model aviation a step further and begin developing and selling large scale remote controlled models of civilian and military aircraft. In 1979, he founded Byron Originals and that same year the new company released its first kit, the [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1002448,"featured_media":5464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,121],"tags":[290,291,292,50],"class_list":["post-4817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-museum","category-new-addition","tag-ama","tag-aviation-museum","tag-byron-original","tag-museum-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4817","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\/1002448"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4817"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5465,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4817\/revisions\/5465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amamuseum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}