ORIGINAL: rainedave
Good research David! Wikipedia is no doubt a great source of info. Individual entries are usually edited by multiple parties, and are kept more reliable than a lot of of other web info. But, even though there is a ton of interlinking between related entries, you don't see enough editing of bodies of related entries as a whole. So, depending on how one enters Wikipedia, conflicting info can be found
From a historical point of view it would also be interesting to know how much Prettner and Matt knew about South American hunting practices and where they got their info. Maybe their interests derived from popular art and literature (sort of like trying to learn about American Indians from watching Hollywood westerns).[X(] [
]
Anyway, looking at the RCM&E article I spied a familiar engine. The Webra 1030 with a Dynamix, just like the one I was testing last week. I'm getting more interested in building an Arrow. I would consider renaming it the Dart, but Lanier already grabbed that name.
David
David,
Ihave come to learn about that issue with Wikipedia too. I was curious about the
Dart aspect of the use of Curare and never imagined that some of it was animal derived - always assuming that plants were the exclusive source. Iwas also told as a boy that it was in the "jungles of Brazil" that it was used but I've yet to find any reference to Brazil. Mind you, borders such as the one between Colombia and Brazil were probably of little interest (or discernible difference) to the people who used Curare and Darts.
Having an awareness of how education proceeded in Europe during my father's generation (that of Prettner and Matt) with all the Greek and Latin that was taught on a regular basis, Isuspect that the two were not in the dark as to the history, origin and use of poisons such as Curare. Perhaps one day, I'll get my neighbor to translate into German (out of politeness) a simple letter to Prettner asking him about this story. While Prettner's Curare had "rotationally symmetric" tail surfaces (anhedral) that are reminiscent of the feathers on the back of arrows to insure tracking stability, Isuspect that Hanno named his pattern ship Curare, among other reasons, due to the shape of it's nose. Hanno rarely used spinners prior to the Magic and the prop nut and shape of the fuse nose does convey the image of a
Dart. On the other hand, Matt's Arrow does look much more like one despite its flat stab.
The Arrow/Magic era (they competed at the same time although Hanno's Magic was down in Acapulco '79 due to over heating in the first Magic prototype which didn't have the inverted engine) must have been the height of classic pattern sophistication - variable pitch props, in flight mixture control, double tuned pipes, flaps, spoliers, dual flaperon servos, etc.
Unfortunately, the word "Dart"in English is not a great word for a pattern ship to my mind (Ihad the same idea). But you might consider renaming it the
Richtungspfeil 
Whatever the name, I do think that your 1030 should go into one!
Now... I wouldn't be surprised if you fellas down under have a variation of Arrow's and Curare! That pumped 61 VF is going to spool up the Arrow into the lower troposphere! If only the cutoff date for SPAwas Jan 1st, 1981...
David.