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General control line discussion => Open Forum => Topic started by: Don Jenkins on December 30, 2017, 07:41:05 AM
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I recently met a gentleman who owned a hobby shop in the 70's and flew sport control line, and he donated some of his modeling items to me. I got several pristine ignition engines, lots of free flight and rubber powered kits (some quite old but in great condition) and a number of CL kits, such as the Sterling profile Hellcat, Sterling Stearman, reproduction kits of a Barnstormer and American Stunt, Profile Fokker D-VII, and what appears to be an old CL kit called the Tiger Shark, which I believe falsely claims to be the world's first control line model. This kit is in perfect condition except the dope and glue are dried up. Does anyone have any back ground on this kit!
Don
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That claim may be true, take a look: http://stanzelmuseum.org/test.html
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Watch the video in this thread. https://stunthanger.com/smf/open-forum/ama-introl-to-control-line/
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Don,
The Tiger Shark was a really popular model of it's day AND over many years. Even to this day. Popular over the Pond. The model's looks surpass the time of the design.
Many models have been built for CL as well as R/C. The R/C guys enlarged the model and in some cases really large.
I scaled one up to 72" in span for R/C but held true to the original design except for the airfoil and the wing mounted gear. I have a few sets of plans.
I'll convert mine to CL if I live long enough. LL~
I see a Tiger Shark kit offered on ebay from time to time which, I believe, is a repro.
Plans are always available on ebay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-TIGER-SHARK-1938-UC-PLAN-Patterns-INFO-SHEET-for-a-Model-Airplane/222759536620?hash=item33dd80c7ec:g:YcYAAOxyMZVTjncm
If you have an original kit, I'm envious. You have something really nice there. A great find!
Your Thread gives me incentive to dig my 72" Tiger Shark out and continue with it.
Please do a Build Thread when it comes time, I'd like to see this model come together.
Hope you don't mind this photo of my Tiger Shark.
Congratulations on your Tiger Shark kit! H^^
Charles
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I may be wrong, but I think the late Charley Bruce had one at VSC many years ago. D>K
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Not more than a few years ago Stanzel was selling the last of their kits for the Shark series for less than $50,00 if I remember right. I should have bought one then. Dale Kirn worked for Stanzel promoting his monoline control system. He also built many of the models in the museum. Not sure, but I think the one in the AMA museum was built by Dale.
I have one of he earlier control systems that Dale gave me before the monoline came out. I believe Bob English had a Tiger Shark at VSC one year that he flew for a demo with and OS 40 FP. Wooden wheels and all. A really modern looking plane for its time. It had a great glide after the engine quit.
The Stanzel Shark series and Jim walkers Fireball were really popular in the 40's. Another popular plane was Earl Caytons Tethered Trainer. I am old enough to remember when round and round if you could get your ignition engine to run at all was the norm. Kansas City's Swope Park was full of the noise makers after the war. My folks had to drag me home kicking and screaming. LOL. Fortunately for me, my folks loved to picnic at the park on many weekends, and I got my love for model aviation there. My older brother could care less. Nothing like the smell of burning 70wt. oil. Some things stick with you for a life time.
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Depending on how you read it, it's either the first control line model, or the first control line model educational kit.
I'm pretty sure that Oba St. Clair had the first documented flight; there was a patent battle over it, and "his" side (actually Leroy Cox and all of the not-Jim-Walker side) won.
The Stanzel museum claims the first control line kit; Oba's first documented flight was in 1936 -- and he was a careful guy, so he wasn't just putting some experiment up in the air -- http://obastclair.com/ (http://obastclair.com/).
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[quote
I may be wrong, but I think the late Charley Bruce had one at VSC many years ago. D>K
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I photographed one many years back at the VSC and the name I put with it was Bob English. Several could have shown up over the years.
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Yes Elwyn, that is the one of Bob English's that I remember. It has the OS 40 FP and wooden wheels. He did a beautiful job on it. Still would have liked it with ignition. With the batteries we have now ignition is not that hard. I guess you have to be a little bit kooky like me. LOL
Thanks for posting the picture.
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In 2007 a lady showed up at our contest with her father, William Schwab. This is the only picture in my file, but I KNOW I took others. Mr. Schwab may actually have predated the walker publications and kits with his own CL model and system. He published it in one of the three major American publications, and I read it at the field. He also set a national (Edit) FF record one year. He brought one of his historic models to the field. I will try to find my other material - like photos. This is a scan made of one of the photos I took. Mr. Schwab built some very nice models, and when he died, we received some of them to support the club - 'had them at the field for our annual contest. For now, here is a picture of a real CL pioneer.
Edit: I found the October/2007 NCCL club newsletter. This is what I said then in my editor's column:
"One of the real highlights of any contest for me came off the flying circles. During the morning flights, a nice lady and her father placed two seats in the shade at the edge of our scoring tent. I noted that she was quite enthusiastic and, in addition to reminiscing, asked him many questions, keeping up a lively discussion. When I had a break in scoring, I walked over, took a couple pictures, and introduced myself. As Phil has noted elsewhere in this newsletter, I learned that he is Mr. William Schwab and is 90 years old. I forget how his daughter learned of our contest, but she said that she just knew that he would love to attend and arranged this outing.
"It turned out that Mr. Schwab, a charming and personable man, is a true pioneer of U-Control modeling and flight. He and his daughter showed me a 1941 M.A.N. article he authored entitled "Controlled Lightning", detailing his U-control plane of that name and his methods of
construction and flying it. Diagrams showed a vertical beam pivoted on a horizontal one, functioning as our modern 2-line handles, and a
second lever for a third-line (spring loaded) throttle control that retarded the spark. He still owns his original Class-C model, although the article was about a later Class-A plane ('hope I don't have these reversed). He told me that he used to fly "at the Clark Ave. bridge in the
flats." He had worked for 36 years for NASA (and presumably NACA) on nuclear-power devices (incl. reactor cores) at Lewis Research Center and Plumb Brook (Sandusky). I learned further that Mr. Schwab had owned the class C FF world record, which he set with a Playboy Sr.
"Looking through Charles Mackey's book, Pioneers of Control Line Flying, I don't see him mentioned. There was apparently some controlled tethered flying as early as 1925, but Mr. Mackey seems to feel that Oba St. Clair deserves status as the originator in 1937, and that Jim Walker talked to him in 1938. Mr. Schwab said that he knew Jim Walker, first having met him when Mr. Walker demonstrated UC at the stadium. He remarked that Jim Walker asked him whether he wanted to try flying UC, and he accepted the opportunity, not telling Jim that he'd been doing it for a couple years already. I didn't think to ask him when he first flew UC and whether he thought of it independently. I suspect that he did." - SK
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[quote
I may be wrong, but I think the late Charley Bruce had one at VSC many years ago. D>K
I photographed one many years back at the VSC and the name I put with it was Bob English. Several could have shown up over the years.
Thanks Elwyn as the old DOC has mental lapses once in a while. Remember the rubber powered CL plane that was flown one year? D>K