The value of model aeronautics.

THE VALUE OF MODEL AERONAUTICS

Model aeronautics offers many fields of
endeavor to its devotees* and f conversely, those
who engage in model aircraft activities comprise a
vastly heterogeneous group. Men and women, both
young and old, from all walks of life, spend consid-
erable portions of their spare time delving into the
pleasures afforded by model aeronautics. Throughout
the world there are eager followers of this hobby.
In Africa, Australia, India, and China there are just
as ardent and accomplished modellers as in Homevllle,
U. S. A. As a result of international contests such
as the Moffett, Wakefield, and others, mod el -builders
from all nations are brought closer together under the
influence of a mutual devotion to model aeronautics.

In the United States alone there are over two
million model aircraft builders who are the customers
of an industry valued in excess of three million

dollars. Model aviation, combines three types of
'hobbiesi (l) collecting, (2) craft, and (3) rec-
reation. In the course of time, a hobbyist will
collect valuable friendships, experiences and
knowledge, airplane pictures and magazines, contest
awards, and many kinds of aircraft models. Handi-
craft is practiced when models are built and re-
paired. In the case of model airplane construction
there is something else, an intangible quality,
that serves to make this phase of model aeronautics
very satisfying to the individual. There is some-
thing Yery inspiring in the realization that the
graceful miniature flying so majestically overhead
is the brain-child of its builder. Recreation is
achieved when the models are flown. Very often a
modeler has to combine the talents of a monkey and
superman when pursuing a wayward model; which, after
a five or six mile chase, finally comes to a not so
graceful landing in the branches of the biggest tree
in the neighborhood.

The educational value of model aeronautics
is another one of the hobby* s assets. This edu-
cation is decidedly informal and usually accumu-
lates as the result of much painful experience.
Spiral dives and stalls are relatively easy to
explain and account for in theory, but any model
builder who has sadly raked together the remnants
of a once perfectly good model can tell you with
all his heart and soul the meaning of such terms,
Model builders gradually develop a steady hand,
patience (ah that's the one the layman apprecia-
tes), and resourcefulness. Building successful
models necessitates a knowledge of mathematics,
characteristics of airfoils and methods of plott-
ing them, relationships between areas of different
flying surfaces, the proper placement of aerody-
namic forces, and an appreciation of stress and
structural design. One soon becomes versed in watch
repairing (mending timers), soldering, electrical
hook-ups, and the mechanics of internal combustion

)

engines. Throughout this educational process the
modeller gains a profound respect for the practical
limitations of empirical formulas and techniques
and the compromises on theory required "by actual
working conditions and materials.

Model aeronautics serves both as a prepara-
tion for and an incentive to a career in some aero-
nautical activity* Such men as Donald Douglas,
Igijor Sikorsky, the Wright Brothers and William
Stout started as model builders. Recent polls
taken at air schools throughout the country reveal
that from fifty to seventy five per cent of the
students are model builders. At the same time this
survey showed that these same students exhibited
greater proficiency in the use of aircraft termin-
ology and tools than di* those who had never built
models.

Today, as well as in the past when men merely
dreamed flying, model aircraft are indespen sable

factors in the success of full size airplanes.
It is to research with models that full-scale
aircraft largely owe the refinements of design
which are the admiration of the laymen. As yet,
aeronautics is not an exact, mathematically
proven science and thus many results and formulas
are largely empirical. Consequently, exact- so ale
models and parts are essential in determining the
relative performance of full-scale aircraft. Many
aircraft plants have their own research divisions,
but probably the "best known research center is that
at Langley Field, Virginia. Here many of the skilled
model makers were formerly model hobbyists. The
characteristics of the scale models are directly
determined in wind tunnels, free flight tunnels,
free spin tunnels, gust tunnels and towing basins.
After certain correction factors are applied to
the experimental data to account for scale effect
and difference in working conditions, the perfor-
mance of the full-scale craft may be determined

within two or three percent.

The aircraft industry is Ti tally concerned
with the acquletion of plant personnel, and thus
the educational value of "building models works both
ways. It is as much a boon to the employer as it
is to the employee. It might be amusing to send
new workers to the boss for "dihedral grease", hut
it is no joke to plant managers trying to speed up
production and increase plant efficiency. Any new
worker who is already familliar with the language
of aviation is a valuable asset to the aviation
industry.

Considerable effort has been expended in
educating the public to the advantages and safety
of aviation, hut it is the model builder who has
brought aviation into the American home. We are
all familiar with the circus barker type at the
neighboring airport and the polished high-pressure
advertising of aircraft plants and transport lines.
Yet it is young model-minded America assiduously at

work in home workshops who have largely made the ,
American family aware of the potentialities of
aeronautics. A Sunday afternoon's visit to a
model airplane contest and it isn't long before
the entire family will at least acknowledge that
aviation does "have something".

The United States, in a war torn world, has
come to the abrupt realisation of the essential
position of aircraft in modern wars. Model

aeronautics is also essential. Germany, Russia,
Japan, and England all foster a youth movement
emphasizing and establishing aviation backgrounds
through the medium of model aviation. In the
United States such organizations as the Junior
Birdman of America (now defunct) and the Academy
of Model Aeronautics have served to guide and con-
solidate developments in model aeronautics. A
fundamental doctrine of the social sciences is that
of multiple causation, and thus no claims are made
that model aviation is all important or even strictly

essential, but it certainly can be an important
factor both as a source of pleasure and as a
chance to profit by the gaining of valuable
knowledge and training.