A Century of Indoor Models

Timeline

~1505 - da Vinci codex On the Flight of Birds

1783 - 1st human balloon flight

1799 - Cayley model proposed

1849 - 1st human glider flight

1871 - Penaud Planophore

1903 - Wright Brothers flight

1905 - FAI established

1906 - First large model airplane contest

1907 - First indoor model airplane club

1912 - Stout founds Illinois Model Aero Club

1915 - Models demonstrated to Detroit Society of Automotive Engineers

1914-18 - WWI

The dream of flight - to break the surly bonds of earth - is evidently very old, as the story of Icarus tells. But the story of Icarus is a moral fable of human hubris.

By the time Columbus sailed for India, da Vinci could write "If the eagle can sustain himself in the rarest atmosphere, why cannot likewise man?" In 18 pages "On the Flight of Birds", he proceeded to analyze flight from the perspective of stability. Da Vinci understood that flight was not a parable, but an engineering problem.

The Montgolfier brothers flew first animals and then humans in a balloon in Paris in 1783. These were lighter-than-air craft, but they proved that people could breathe while high in the air. They also raised technical problems, such as the need to seal aerodynamic surfaces like fabrics.

Soon thereafter, in 1799 at age 26, the Briton Sir George Cayley designed a model which looks much like modern aircraft. It had a cambered wing and a tail behind with surfaces to control the direction of flight. However, he was not able to solve the problem of propulsion. The only available ideas were oars and flapping wings. The former didn't work, and the latter weren't practical.

He did build a helicopter model which used the mechanism of a taut unwinding bowstring. But this does not provide the low steady power required for model flight. Cayley was interested in models as a means of prototyping large aircraft. In 1849, he developed a glider with the potential of carrying a person. The young son of one of his servants became the first human to fly.

In France in 1871, Alphose Penaud designed and flew a model he called a planophore. It used a main wing with dihedral, and a twisted rubber band as power, just as modern indoor models do. In these, it set the tone for models 50 years later. It did, however, use a pusher propeller. Spectators measured the flight of Penaud's model as about 40 meters.

An improved version of the Cayley helicopter Penaud designed was given to the Wrights as a gift, and they described it as an early inspiration of theirs.

A generation later at the turn of the century, the race was on. The Wright brothers first succeeded in controlled powered flight in 1903, less than a week after Langley had failed. But the Wrights were secretive, especially while applying for their patents. At the same time other engineers from North America, South America, and Europe were all trying to develop man-carrying aircraft.

Ever in the market for sensational stories, in 1906 the British newspaper the Daily Mail offered a prize of 250 Pounds for a successful model airplane capable of flying at least 50 feet. Some 200 competitors entered, in what was likely the first large-scale model airplane contest. The prize was won by Alliot Verdon Roe, whose rubber-powered model made more than 100 feet. Roe went on to design the Avro Lancaster. For this and other achievements, he became Sir Alliot Roe, M.B.E.

In 1908, the Graf Zeppelin demonstrated a long lighter-than-air dirigible flight which overflew several countries. The same year, the Wrights freighted an airplane to France and gave two demonstrations. The first, on a Saturday, attracted a few dozen people. Two days later, the repeat attracted thousands. A year later Bleriot crossed the English Channel, and the great Air Show in Rheims attracted tens of thousands. In 1911 a demonstration flight in California attracted an audience of 200,000. The dream of flight had burst into public consciousness.

A man-carrying craft was a great engineering project, which required much time and many resources. It could only be undertaken by the wealthy or very determined. But models of aircraft... These could be attempted by anyone.

It is only natural that the excitement would have fired the imaginations of young people. It appears that two teen-aged New Yorkers who had the opportunity to try their models in a nearby Armory founded the world's first model airplane club in 1907. About five years later a young William Stout would found the Illinois Model Aero Club. Chicago would be a modelling center for generations. Stout himself would go on to found Stout Aircraft and become a general manager of Ford.

Alas, in only a few years, the first world war would put an end to the supplies modelers needed; and for many, an end to their dreams and lives too.

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