The hobby of model aircraft flying has been popular since the early part of the 20th century.Indeed, the very concept of powered flight depended on using models to test theory. Flying model aircraft is by no means restricted to radio control and before the advent of this advanced technology, modellers were flying a variety of free flight and fixed control line models.
A free flight model flies under its own power, but there’s no means of controlling its direction of flight.It has to be pre-trimmed and it has it’s own flight plan!Control line flying is still popular and features two long control wires attached to the model’s elevator via a handle that resembles a kite control handle. There is no direction control of course as the aircraft is forced to fly the circle around the operator (who also has to spin with his machine) dictated by the length of the control wires.
During the 1950s, miniature diesel and petrol engines were further developed and more importantly electronics began to reduce in size and weight with the introduction of the transistor to replace valve components. Radio control aircraft became a practical reality and more recently electric rc helicopters have bought thousands of people into the hobby. Similarly, small electric rc aircraft can be bought from practically any kind of hobby or toy store and flown with no experience whatsoever. Like any hobby that evolves from toys, model aircraft come in distinct grades of complexity.
The cheap and cheerful plastic/electric toys are great for kids but further up the scale, some model aircraft are genuine scaled down engineering copies of actual aircraft.The attraction of radio control flying lies in the fact of being in control of something and being able to make it do what you like in all that free airspace.Learning to fly and control tour rc aircraft or helicopter is a big part of the fun too. Crashing is all part of the radio control hobby, and such incidents are almost always laughed and joked about – after the event!
As in the real aviation world with STD (Synthetic Training Devices) you can even buy rc flight simulator software products that let you learn to fly rc from the comfort of your own home.For many, the pleasure of radio control aircraft comes not only from flying them, but also from building an rc aircraft, helicopter or any other type of model. Indeed, many modellers see the building of a model more of an attraction than flying it, and it’s true that there’s a huge amount of satisfaction in seeing a model develop from a box of bits into a fully flying plane or helicopter, built with your own hands and skill.
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