I saw a posting of some scans of a 1955 Model Airplane News  This brought back memories of that magazine equipped with cardboard covers and offered for checkout from the Detroit Public Library.  I checked-out and studied every issue.

The subject of this posting is a Guardian which won US Navy Carrier, the only carrier event, at the 1953 and 1954 AMA Nats.
It was powered by a Fox 35 Stunt, equipped with a homemade choke plate in lieu of a throttle. The seems to be actuated by a single line, not attached to the traditional 3" bellcrank.  It must have been spring-loaded to high, but this does not appear in the article.
I made a "throttle" per the article, without much success.  The pull-for-low setup reduces line pull on the up/down lines, which in not a good thing.
M.A.N. used to offer plans in a 3-pack which included the FF, CL, and RC planes from the month's issue.  They were printed two-sided, mixed in with each other.  This seemed like bad deal for a CL guy, so the accepted practice was to hand-scale the magazine plan, using the 3" bellcrank to crack the code.  This was good practice for a future in engineering.
The author espoused the failed theory that making the model a lot smaller was the only way to gain speed advantage.  I believed that once, too.

417 points.  Pretty good for a Fox 35 Stunt with a crude choke plate as a throttle.

80/34 or 75/28, or 70/21.  Per the article 73/25.

Maybe they let him get away with having the throttle line aft to cock the nose out.  Some of the current rules are the offshoot of ancient tricks.

This was the traditional pre-1976 system of reckoning which produced higher numbers than the current system.

I tried to research this via the AMA Muncie library and found that US Navy Carrier was not a Rule Book event in the 1953-1956 time frame. 
I'm currently looking for the first advent of carrier as a Rule Book event.

Quote from: Paul Smith on August 20, 2026, 08:02:18 AMI tried to research this via the AMA Muncie library and found that US Navy Carrier was not a Rule Book event in the 1953-1956 time frame. 
I'm currently looking for the first advent of carrier as a Rule Book event.

In the June 1951 Issue of Air Trails:  A construction article for the Douglas Skyraider by S. Calhoun Smith:  Article headline:  "National Championship Winner for new Navy model event was this Douglas AD2 Skyraider"  From the article by Smith:  The model "was developed especially for the Navy Carrier Event held at the 1950 Nationals.  We were fortunate enough to take 1st place in that event with this model"

Smith's Skyraider had a wing span of 43 3/4".  Powered by an "Orwick 60 Ignition 2-speed engine".  "7/8" = 1'"  A big airplane with scale/thick wing airfoil about 18% at the root.

May not be the first Carrier contest, but was the first Carrier contest at the  Nationals - 1950.

Keith

I got some good research from the AMA library.  The first appearance of CL US Navy Carrier was in the 1957 Rule Book.  I paid them to have a hard copy reprint sent to me. 

Prior to that, the rules at the Navy Nats came from The Navy itself:

100 points for scale
One point per MPH high speed. Example: 73 MPH = 73 points
Low score is three times the high/low difference.  Ex: 73-25 x 3 = 144 points
Landing is 100 points for correct with deductions for cause.
Thus 417 for the subject flight.

That system is still in use today except in 1976 the low speed scoring was changed to favor those who lacked the ability to go fast.

I believe that the 1953-1954 model that got my attention achieved the 21 MPH low by means of a .006" throttle line at the trailing edge of the wing that cocked the nose out at low speed.  This tactic was disallowed, but replaced by "sliders" that have the same effect.

Hi guys great thread! Newby question here and I apologise if this is not the right place, I'm just finishing my first carrier model (not a big thing in Australia unfortunately!) a brodak Guardian. Clearly the control system is much different to the stunt models I'm used to building, but how much deflection should the elevators have? Cheers, Phil Thomas

What will probably be the limiting factor is the ability to fly (reasonably) level during high speed. If you can't control it, slow down or land and take out some travel by changing holes on the control horn. Just like stunt, there's a trimming process involved.

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