Radio Controlled B-29 and X-1

Vaughn McMillan

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My boss sent me this link...apologies if you've already seen it. It's an 8-minute video of a large scale model of a B-29 bomber with a few tricks up its sleeve. Some pretty impressive flying, too. Big boy toys, for sure. (Right-click the link and save the file to your computer. It's about 2.5 MB, so it might take some time to download on a dialup connection.)

users.skynet.be/fa926657/files/B29.wmv
 
That was very cool, indeed! :thumb:

I have 2 brief stories to share that are kind of related to this.

Story 1 (RC related):
My uncle's neighbor is really big in to RC planes. He built a big B-25. The landing gears worked on phneumatic actuators, using compressed air. The compressed air was contained in a modified 3 litre bottle within the body of the plane. He was transporting the plane to the field where he flew it (with the bottle charged with air), when the bottle ruptured! :eek: It blew the plane in half. I saw the pictures. The inside of his van was covered with shreds of balsa and RC parts. The funny thing is that his home owner's insurance covered it.

Story 2 (X-1 related):
My Grandfather (on my Dad's side) worked for Bell Areospace after WWII. He worked on the Bell X-1 project. It was so top secret at the time that he couldn't even tell my grandmother what he was working on. :thumb:
 
That was cool! I love to watch these things. The B-52 Robert mentioned made the circulation a couple years ago. It too was neat to watch, but sad to see get demolished. The really sad thing is there was a real B-52 that went down trying to perform the same stunt. Killed all 8 crew members aboard. Something about the aerodynamics of the plane not being able to do that particular maneuver. Jim.
 
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