Mystery Model!! Need Help Finding "The Arrow"

[Dan McEntee]

  Went to a free flight club lunch get together last week, and a long time member had a photo album with lots of great old photos. One was of a free flight model designed by Dave Thornburg called "the Arrow", a typical Dave Thornburg design, and the model was posed sitting on the plan. I thought it would be easy enough to search up but no results. I obtained the photos from the other club member, and could see that on one corner, I could make out that it was in Model Aviation magazine, and was on page 62! But it does not show what year or issue. An email and a phone call to the AMA turns up that they have no record of it!! If it was published as a full size plan, or some of Dave's designs, itis reduced but he tells you what to set the copy machine for to get full size plans, and they would have no record of it. I can't believe that they don't have a simple bibliography of each edition of Model Aviation that can be searched. I have spent a lot of time in their digital archives that go from the first issue to the middle of 2015 going by several things in the photo. the plans shows designed and drawn in 2001, so I started there in January and went up all the way through 2015. checked each table of contents, and page 62 or each issue!! The font they used for that little page number and title changed over the years, and going by that I was able to determine that was only used from 2003 through 2012, I think it was, and could NOT come up with it!! I checked outerzone and Hippockets plans sites with no luck.. I sent Dave a letter back in the early 2000's I think, asking him if he had a complete list of all his publications, and he said he didn't keep really accurate records, just usually tossed the manuscripts into an old orange crate!! Very "Thornburg" like!!. He did send me as complete as he could make one, and another one I would like to find is his Long John free flight model that is similar to the Arrow, but he said he had no plans and no record of where it was published, but I'm pretty sure I have seen it in one of the thousands of old magazines I have!!! . If any one has any information on these two designs or anything regarding a Dave Thornburg bibliography, I would be very much interested in any help I can get. I can email or text the photo I have to anyone that wants it, just send me a PM on where to send it.

   Thank you very much in advance!
  Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

     PS to ad:  There is a chance that the article was not written by Dave. There is a copy of the article in the photo but I can not make  out all the print even with a magnifying glass. Dave designed the model, but there is a name up on top of the page , like where they would put the author, but it looks "longer" than Dave Thornburg.

[M Spencer]

Its NOT here .  https://outerzone.co.uk/search/results.asp?keyword=Dave%20Thornburg

Looks like he did a column , here . P 28 . https://rcbookcase.com/data/media/4/02MB_February_1980.pdf

https://www.modelaircraft.org/sites/default/files/ThornburgDavidDaveA.pdf

[Scott Richlen]

Dan:

Please post the picture!  Maybe someone will recognize it.

[Dan McEntee]

Its NOT here .  https://outerzone.co.uk/search/results.asp?keyword=Dave%20Thornburg

Looks like he did a column , here . P 28 . https://rcbookcase.com/data/media/4/02MB_February_1980.pdf

https://www.modelaircraft.org/sites/default/files/ThornburgDavidDaveA.pdf

   Thanks for taking the time to look, you are pretty good at finding the obscure stuff!! But I have been down those roads already ready, a couple of times. I definitely see  "62 Model Aviation" on the blown up plan, and the note that it was designed and drawn by Dave Thornburg in 2001. it could have been finally published untold years later. I am going to try the AMA again, and see if I can email a copy of this photo. It wouldn't be the first time that something was actually published and printed, but the publisher had no record of it!! I provided information to flying Models magazine on several plans that they got requests for, but that they knew nothing about, and it wasn't because of the fires and floods that they experienced that destroyed archives. I've taken a break from the challenge but will take it up again next week!! I have a picture of the plan plus a model built from them, so I know it's real!!! It just may be that some one else presented the plan and article, so I'm going to try that angle. I'm also hoping to hear from some one else that has built the airplane and is more familiar with it.
  Thanks again!!
  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

     Hi Scott;
     I'm not that good with computers and photo manipulation to post here, but I can email it to anyone or text it to any one. I'll see if Sean can post the picture here for me.

[Sean McEntee]

Pic

[Scott Richlen]

Thanks Sean!

[Dan McEntee]

Pic

   Yes, Thanks Sean!! As you can see, there is a model airplane, and it is sitting on the plan that it was built from , called the Arrow! If you look at the upper left hand corner of the plan, you should be able to make out "62" and Model Aviation, with 62 being the page number. The plan also has a note that it was designed and drawn in 2001, There is a stack of papers I am assuming is copies of the whole article, but I can not make out anything on this even with a blow up and a magnifying glass. The last thing in the photo is a time stamp from the man's camera that shows July 24, 2008. That could be wrong, I am not usually too on top on my camera settings either!  But this man was an accountant for his career, so I think he paid attention to numbers!
   the type of font used for the page number and magazine title was used starting in 2003, from what I have seen going through the digital copies on the AMA website, and it changed to another format in 2013, I think it was. i have gone through the table of contents of every magazine that have in the archive from January 2003 to when the font changed, and also checked page 62 in each issue. If I'm missing something, I sure would like to know what it is!!. And the people at Model Aviation and the AMA are missing it also !! The digital archives goes up to June or July 2015, and I'm going to check the page font in those later issues. I don't see any way to view any of the other later copies in digital form. I have hard copies, it's just faster doing it on the computer
  Who has the key to unlock this mystery!!??
  Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

[Steve Helmick]

Having studied model airplane magazines for 70+ years, I've discovered that some designers will use the same name for several different original designs. Maybe simply deadline pressure, perhaps just liked that name, or couldn't come up with anything better?  Steve

[Dan McEntee]

Having studied model airplane magazines for 70+ years, I've discovered that some designers will use the same name for several different original designs. Maybe simply deadline pressure, perhaps just liked that name, or couldn't come up with anything better?  Steve

   The Arrow , I think, does resemble what I think he called "Long John" but in general, none pf his other simple free flight models resemble the others. i don't think he ever used an assumed name. Others that published sport free flight models back in the 50s and 60s, such as Keith Laumer and Ted Strader are suspected of doing that. It's hard rounding up all of Laumer's designs into a bibliography! I have bibliographies of American Aircraft Modeler, and Flying Models/Flying Aces that I have found on line. I really surprised a museum like the AMA Museum in Muncie doesn't have a complete and accurate bibliography. I can't even access the digital files for magazines after 2015 unless I purchase a digital subscription.

   I have chased down mysteries like this before but this is the weirdest!

   Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee