[8D]70sflyer

I'm not a radio expert, but I think the specs on the 72MHZ radios were changed in the 90s to make the receivers more selective. Although using the Kraft radio would be great for period realism, I would check with someone who really knows about radios before actually flying with it since I fear that a shootdown by radio interference is a likely result. Would be a shame to loose a classic when radios are so cheap and reliable these days. If it is 27MHZ, all the cars sold in toy stores and operated by kids all over the place would also almost surely result in fatal interference.

Mike H.

yes, the had the jester, capri, dart and p-51. they all used the the same wing and plastic fuselage. the fuse's came in four different solid colors or you could get them two-tone. the capri was a jester with a turtle deck. the dart had plastic blisters that glued on the sides of the nose to give a racing cowled in engine look. the p-51 had plastic scoop for the belly of the fuse. they were popular with a group of guys i flew with many years ago. i had two jesters. i still have a jester replacement wing kit that i bought 16 years ago but never used. two years ago a young flyer in our group found one of the capri's at a garage sell for $15.00, new still in the box. he built it and flew but did not like it at all. he keep refering to it as "plastic piece of junk". when i told him the plane was older than him he was stunned. ..........i personaly liked them. they were not that bad! they flew decent.

Back in 1975 MRC had a Cessna with a airbrushed glass fuse and sheeted foam wing, a beautiful plane. If you can locate old mags from the time you'll see it advertised.

It was so long ago that I'm not sure of the manufacturer, but I think it was a Pilot. It was a thin plastic, and it immediately developed lots of little cracks. The only positive thing was I learned a lot about trimming, since it had to be trimmed every flight. Once trimmed, it flew reasonably well, but not great. I was so disallusioned I went back to kits and stayed there long after arf's started getting good. In fact, it took some nerve to show up with an arf since kit builders showed disdain. Now I'm into arf's again, and I love them. The quality is usually excellent, and I have gotten to old to spend my time building. They have come a long way!

Incidentally, if someone shows up with a plane built from a kit or from plans, it causes a lot of curiosity and admiration, plus a few comments like "why would anyone do that". Take care.

Soarstar. Fantastic flying plane.

I'm seeing a LOT of posts that appear to be written without actually reading your post. The one for the SoarStar gave me a chuckle. Great first plane, but I don't think your "...looks and quality..." qualifier applies.

Early on, there were private builders who advertised in the RC magazines, who would produce just about any build you wanted, from framed-up to turn-key. They're probably still around, in some measure.

I had a Lanier plastic TR-260, and it was great. Easy to put together, flew with precision on a .46 twostroke, and was reasonably sturdy. About the same time, I bought a Global Tequila Sunrise, a beautiful sport plane with a kind of starburst finish, nice quality and good fiberglas cowl. I doubt they were pivotal manufactures, but they were nice planes.

The first ARF manufacturer that had consistently good rankings in the online forums was (as I recall) World Models. It seemed there were a lot of posts expressing surprise at the quality.

I can definitely say I had an older ARF that was great, and I know it had a lot of bad ratings : the Cermark Sukhoi. Wonderful aerobat on a .91FX, pretty sturdy, and pretty good looks. Other people hated it, and I couldn't believe the old posts I read about it. Ah, well.

Good luck,
Dave Olson

my first arf was a lanier "citron" with a webra 60 blackhead in the late sixtys or early seventys.
wonderful plane.
ben

Dave your dead on , the post have been fun but yes , I was looking for the turning point in ARfs , world is a good one , they warbirds were one of the best for there time

nobody really answered your question but i do not believe it was 'lanier" because they were plastic and foam.i suppose nobody really knows who came out with the first wood and film covered arfs. one of my flying buddies thinks "royal" was the first to manufacture wood and film arfs. i do know their arfs were very popular when they came out.

I had a Royal , it was a trainer and very top notch for an ARF , way ahead of all the ARFs trainers of the time .

I'll stand by the MRC plane. I don't think most builders could have made a more beautiful plane at the time.

As for modern arf's that were of highest quality, that honor would have gone to Yellow Aircraft. They were the best looking aerobatic Arf's available when they came out. Multi colored cowls and pants with flawless paint. Much like the best from World Model, GP or Horizon today.

Yes , Yellow seems to be the gold standard , there P40 is incredible , I dont know how ARf it actually is because there are differant versions .

It looks to me that the answer depends upon when you began flying and what you can acceptably call an ARF.


Ed Cregger

well yes and no , with my original question , many ARFs -second generation -late 90ties were really the transition period that led upto the 2004 releases thru all composite planes of 2007 .

As far as ARf yes that is really subject to your own definition , not from the "look what i have to fix standpoint " but more from how fast you can actually fly it

In the early 60s a friend of mine had a tiny foam Cessna 172 c/w Futaba single channel radio and Baby Bee 020. All in the same box almost ready to fly. It now resides in my attic (sadly) no longer flyable.

btw,,,,,,,,,,,,for years in the 70s and 80s kits with a glass fuzz and foam wings with solid stab and con surfaces were described as ARTF.
they were generally heavy but could be got flying in a weekend.

Interesting , I did have an ARF in the 80ties from Kyosho named the Patricia 10 , white plastic fuse , very large wing span , for .10 power engines or e-flight . I tried flying it with a .10 lol , what a joke so I moth balled it disassembled and put back in storage , it was ahead of its time now that I think of it .

R-1st,
Sounds like Lanier was king of the ARF's. I had a Comet with an Enya .45 and a O.S. Diamond Series 6 channel on 27 mhz. Huge blue see-through servos and a fitted leather cover for the TX.
Oh, but I soon moved up to a Shell Fly B with a Kraft 7 powered by an HP .40 motor. (That motor had the smooth head on it without any fins and a LOUD flow-through muffler. ) Love to find one of those motors NIB!
Terry

I am sure most of us tried the Cox ARF Typhoons with the plastic blow molded fuse and the all foam powered Cox ARF planes with the two channel radios with the sticks backwards. I always tried to pull back on the rudder stick but it only went side to side. Elev. was on the left stick. Great fliers even with the .049's on them. Even retro fit a .10 throttle on one of em and flew it quite a while!

Since you did not state that the ARF has to be R/C (....), the real first ARFs would have to be some of the control line models by Jim Walker. like the Fireball and the Firebaby:

[link]http://www.americanjuniorclassics.com/[/link]

They pioneered the concept of ARF models. The Fireball could be built in as little as 6 hours and had a fully pre-carved balsa fuse and all parts were ready to assemble.

The Firebaby could be built in a couple of hours.

There were any number of lightweight ARF and RTF control line models in the 1950s, some made from very thin aluminum.

I remember lusting after the magazine ads for the Testors .049 powered low wing RTF R/C model (looked like a Cherokee, but was called a Shyhawk for some reason) in the late 1960s.

I seem to remember that Mattel gets the nod for the first parkflyer electric ARF, for the R/C version of the programmable FF electrci Super Star from the 1970s.

I do think Lanier gets the credit for mainstreaming plastic and foam ARFs in the early 1970s.

The famous Hobie Hawk (made in the USA!) sailplane could be obtained as an ARC, and ARF and a RTF, with a Kraft 2 ch brink pre-installed. The Hobie Hawl was quite advanced for its time...curved and molded presheeted with 1/64 ply foam wings, glass and plastic fuse.

Dynaflight Piece-o-cake got me started

Hi All,

For me the first ARF that I remember was the Carl Goldberg all foam Cardinal that flew with a .o49 to .15 I think that model predates the Lanier kits although not by much. We use to refer to the Lanier ARF's as "Rubber Ducks" due to their plastic construction.

That poor little foamy Cardinal took allot of beating as we learned to fly and flnally was retired to the trash due to being more 30minute epoxy than foam(5min epoxy hadn't been widely available yet). It was more of an interupted free flight than radio control but it taught us the basics.

The little Electric Super Cub from Horizon is currently about the closest thing to that Goldberg Cardinal now.

Ah the good ol' days

Carlos G

Actually, Carl Goldberg never made a foam Cardinal. That great classic small foamy of theirs was the Ranger 42. It was a generic sort of Cessna looking high wing light plane. One of the early great foam models.

I had a couple of them and one was my very first electrci model, back around 1977. It turns out that an Astro 05 Can motor was a friction fit in the motor compartment. Ass a 6-3 cox prop and an on off servo operated switch and you were in business.

Pics for the fun of it:

Hi Thomas,

Yep thats the one, I just couldnt remember the name of it . Damn this getting old crap is for the birds! I figured if I got it wrong someone would be sure to correct my memories

Thanks

Carlos G

At work we call it the group mind...6 of us have aout 4.2 brains in total...but one of us usually knows the answer to something...

Babcock made ARF's back in the late 50's for RC. And back when control line was king, Cox and Wen-Mac.