Choice number 1 for the future. USA-1!! My current classic plane is a very close 2nd and flies great!!

Quote from: Matt Colan on February 20, 2026, 08:42:06 PMChoice number 1 for the future. USA-1!! My current classic plane is a very close 2nd and flies great!!

As the owner of a USA-1, I concur. It remains one of the best flying and friendliest models I've ever flown

Although never published, my Avanti design (named that well before Bob Baron's Avanti...) is fully Classic legal. It was also inspired by the "new wave" style airplanes of the late 1960s. It flew extremely well, but was short lived due to a tank rupture that soaked the inside of the fuselage. Up to that point I had not used removable tanks that rested in a compartment sealed off from the fuselage's interior. Predictably I started doing that with my very next airplane, the F-105 Thunderchief.

The Avanti had a stretched Chipmunk wing (higher aspect ratio), half span flaps (thank you Charles Mackey), trike gear with wheel pants (thank you Jim Van Loo), and it was powered by an OS Max H40S engine. It might be time for me to retire the Caprice and build a new Avanti! At least with electric I won't have to worry about fuel soakage...

Later - Bob

 

Hey Bob! Great looking ship!

Thanks, Bill!

The Avanti was inspired (as was my later design, the Genesis) by the incredible designs I saw while attending the 1969 Nats in Willow Grove, PA. I think that everyone at that Nats were stunned by the number of fresh, modern designs that appeared on the flight line. I know that it had a huge impact on Gene Schaffer, Bill Simons and me. Gene's very next design after having seen those "new wave" ships at that Nats was his Oosa-Amma. Actually that airplane was not named by Gene. He rarely in those days gave his airplanes names. That ship had a huge "USA" on the left wing panel, and an equally huge "AMA' on the right wing panel. When he brought it to the Garden State Circle Burner's spring meet in 1970, Bill Simons asked him what the name meant. Gene, baffled, said "It doesn't have a name." Bill said, "It sure does, Oosa-Amma." Everyone there just laughed... Except Gene. He hated that name, but it stuck immediately when Bill coined it. And over time even Gene started calling it the Oosa-Amma.

The 1969 Nats was a turning point in stunt model design. More and more futuristic looking airplanes began showing up at stunt contests and in magazine articles. Th Avanti was my first expression of this new thinking. I now wish I had built another one and campaigned it. It was a great flying ship. In reality, I had so many new ideas at that time that I wanted to just design a lot of new airplanes. I still have the pencil drawing of that ship - faded a bit now - but something I might just revisit.   

Bob Hunt

Quote from: Bob Hunt on February 28, 2026, 08:01:41 AMThanks, Bill!

The Avanti was inspired (as was my later design, the Genesis) by the incredible designs I saw while attending the 1969 Nats in Willow Grove, PA. I think that everyone at that Nats were stunned by the number of fresh, modern designs that appeared on the flight line. I know that it had a huge impact on Gene Schaffer, Bill Simons and me. Gene's very next design after having seen those "new wave" ships at that Nats was his Oosa-Amma. Actually that airplane was not named by Gene. He rarely in those days gave his airplanes names. That ship had a huge "USA" on the left wing panel, and an equally huge "AMA' on the right wing panel. When he brought it to the Garden State Circle Burner's spring meet in 1970, Bill Simons asked him what the name meant. Gene, baffled, said "It doesn't have a name." Bill said, "It sure does, Oosa-Amma." Everyone there just laughed... Except Gene. He hated that name, but it stuck immediately when Bill coined it. And over time even Gene started calling it the Oosa-Amma.

The 1969 Nats was a turning point in stunt model design. More and more futuristic looking airplanes began showing up at stunt contests and in magazine articles. Th Avanti was my first expression of this new thinking. I now wish I had built another one and campaigned it. It was a great flying ship. In reality, I had so many new ideas at that time that I wanted to just design a lot of new airplanes. I still have the pencil drawing of that ship - faded a bit now - but something I might just revisit.   

Bob Hunt

Bob,

What prop was that?

Keith

Weelllllll, I'm kinda fond of THIS one..!

That was a Grish 10-5 nylon three blade prop. It worked okay, but not like today's props. Makes me wonder just how well some of those old designs might have flown with modern props and power. I know my latest Caprice is far superior to my first one that was flown back in 1967. The electric power, with modern electronic active control, and a light prop have made it something far beyond what I had back then.

Later - Bob

 

Quote from: Dennis Adamisin on March 01, 2026, 08:34:29 AMWeelllllll, I'm kinda fond of THIS one..!

Well... At least the airplane hasn't changed too much! All kidding aside, Denny is one of the premiere designing geniuses of our time. But, then again, he came from a family of modeling geniuses.

Bob Hunt

Favorites , Shark 45,   and Midas 45

Does any one here have one of Toms plans of the plane and the magazine plans.   It would be easy to compare them.  Like I have the magazine plans of the still Stuka and the kit plans of same plane.  A lot of differences in the plans.   The kit has every thing on a zero degree diviation between the thrust line, wing angle and stab mounting in fuselage.   The magazine shows all at a positive angle to the fuselage line.  LL three were stillat same angle to each other. In his coments if I remember right he stated that it made the fuselage line look level while flying level laps.  I have both plans and magazine in the shop some where.  Right now they won't let me out of the house with out my oxygin generater. I call it my ball and chain like some prisoners were attached to.

Matt mentioned John Havel's Folkerts Speed King in an above post. That was indeed a gorgeous airplane. It was also suspiciously similar to George Aldrich's Magnum (no relation to the Sig Magnum). Not sure which came first, however... 

Bob Hunt

For those who might be interested, I have the distinct honor of being the person selected by the Scarinzi family to present Larry Scarinzi's Blue Angel, Sky Devil, and the original Super Satan combat ship to the AMA museum during Nats week this year. The presentation will happen at the replica hobby shop inside the museum on August 8th. The presentation will happen right after the PAMPA general meeting. If you are going to be attending the Nats, please make a special effort to be there to honor one of our hobby's greatest designer/builder/fliers.

Larry's Trident (also originally known as the "U-Name-It; a marketing gimmick by Consolidated Models, which kitted the airplane) was donated by the family to Pat Hartness, the owner of the Triple Tree Aerodrome in South Carolina. It will reside in Pat's museum there. Larry's long-time friend, Bruce Douglas transported the Trident to Triple Tree and made the presentation to Pat. That's Pat in the white shirt in the attached photo, and that's Bruce to his left in the photo with the sunglasses.

Later - Bob