String-Thing

-

 

Pictured, an article in the December 1966 issue of Aero Modeller magazine, featuring their plans for a 1/24th scale control-line model of a Handley Page Halifax bomber of WWII vintage. As you can see from the top photo, for a control-line model, it's pretty large. At around the time of the publication of this issue, or just after, my mates and I used to fly model planes in the local park, and there was always a contingent of older aeromodellers around, to show us how the more grand projects were built and flown. There was a local guy - to us, he seemed ancient, but I guess he was probably only in his early twenties: we were only twelve, after all - who'd actually built one of these beasts, and one Sunday afternoon we witnessed its inaugural test flight.

It was powered by four DC Sabre 1.5cc 'diesel' engines [two-stroke compression-ignition engines], and tethered on some rather long steel lines to its owner and builder. Getting all four engines fired up and tuned roughly to the same RPM was faff enough in itself, and the guy had to enlist the help of a couple of volunteers to hold the thing back until he was ready for takeoff. As the two kids acting as brakes released the behemoth, it taxied up to speed around the circle, and lifted ponderously off the ground in a quite realistic scaled-down sort of way. And then it went, shall we say, tits up.

Due to insufficient engine offsets to keep the control lines taut, the thing started to inch its way into the circle, effectively freeing itself from the control of its pilot. At this point, our assembled crowd scattered at the sight of this rather large and heavy piece of kit bearing four kiddie-mincing engines, aiming straight for us. However, the panic was short-lived, as the Halifax, now with zero control, aimed itself somewhat less than gracefully at Mother Earth, coming to a sticky end on the clay of the old Summerfield Park football pitch. The results were not pretty. Happy days: for some of those present, anyway.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Feedback & Wobbles

-
Image
Many years ago I came up with an analogy for poorly damped feedback loops. The feedback loop that prompted this frankly tart analogy was indeed a horror. Anyone who remembers shame-faced their first attempts at clutch control resulting in the good old kangaroo launch across the lights only to stall in the middle of the crossroads will have some idea of the kind of data transfer lag involved in said system. The analogy I made was that of a large blancmange. Untouched, a model of stasis and eminently stable and predictable; but prod the bugger and the resultant chaotic behaviour needs a very complex physical model and some very decent computing horsepower to predict its outputs, if at all. The system in question was a large and complex audio-visual display at what eventually became 'The Electric Mountain' in Llanberis. We were ultimately contracted to maintain the thing having been witness to and peripherally involved in its installation. Certainly not involved in its des
Read more

Sister Ray

-
Image
Ray Keats - aka Ann Key - local artist & family friend, died this morning. She'd been ill for some years, but never let it get in the way of her work or of tending to the massive network of friends, colleagues and fans she had accumulated over the decades. Her house on the High Street of Rachub, just below where we live - a former cockle factory(!) - bought many years ago when she and her late husband Ronald moved here from Manchester to set up home in Yr Achub, is currently still home to her paintings and drawings, and the front window displays her work, including the last drawing she made in hospital, just days before she died. Her good friend Colin has been a diamond in her latter years, looking out for her and just being there when she needed him. She will be much missed by this tiny community of ageing bohemians up here in the hills, but suffice it to say, George, her cat, will be well looked after now she's gone.
Read more

A Time of Connection

-
Image
I was just reflecting on the vacuum of continuity that's left behind when someone dies: that sudden sense of disjoint, of fracture, in one's personal history that takes one completely by surprise at the oddest moments. These pinch-points in memory can often yield some surprising revelations of fact about periods in one's past. One such occurred to me tonight, tending my rather lazy meal of pizza in its journey from shrink-wrap to mouth via the oven. Al's recent demise still catches me out from time to time: the space he left bounded by forty plus years of friendship. But the thing that struck me tonight was just how much change was happening on a personal and social level in the very early years of our acquaintance. Between moving here from Birmingham in September 1980 and our buying our first proper house eighteen months later, all manner of things occurred that would chart the course of our lives to the present day. At around the time of our meeting Alan & Irene [
Read more