I think this tread has something to do with classic planes but also with their history and the history of pattern competition and the people that did it.
I wonder that you never heard of Benito Bertolani, he was the reigning champion in Italy for more than a decade starting from 1970, he was constantly member of the Italian team since Doylestown USA 1971 , he still was in the 3rd place team in South Africa 1979, he was the only Italian entry in TOC Las vegas, and after his competitions retirement he continued to run his own company producing kits like Komet, the TOC Zlin 526, Yak PM etc.,distributed all over europe at the time...
Now he's retired and back to the first modeling love, free flight gliders (f1a) of wich he was italian champion also before pattern....he's also a front man in organising the next Free flight european championship ...sometimes I think, looking at this tread about italian modeling goods, that distances are different depending on the point of wiew : as Italian looking to States, they look near...not so from the opposite