Loads of high quality plans drawn
using computer aided draughting sofware, and freely offered by Dave as a resource for
the free flight community. The two racers shown here were built by Dave using these
plans. The yellow one is the Floyd Bean Special and the white and red one is the 1937 Loose
Special.
Dave is currently reconstructing his site, and new plans are being added
(check out his Yahoo plans briefcase),
including
a good collection of peanut scale models, and some easy to build models for beginners.
The Windy Sock
This is the home of the Alamo Flying Aces on-line newsletter. A large collection of useful and interesting articles has been accumulated here, plus a selection of plans to download.
The D.C.Maxecuters web site is well worth a visit, and features plenty of model photos
and links to flying scale resources.
BMFA home page
The British Model Flying Association is the body delegated by the Royal Aero Club to be
responsible for all aspects of model flying in Great Britain - visit this site to find out more.
Amongst other things, you can find BMFA supported competition results.
SAMS Models
Probably Europe's premier mail order house for free flight kits, plans, materials and accessories, SAMS Models can also be found in person at various flying meetings, including the Old Warden Scale and Vintage weekends. Their latest catalogue plus handbook has no less than 100 pages and includes a useful section at the start with articles on various aspects of free flight modelling.
A useful source of free-flight kits, plans and accessories, including Esaki tissue and silk,
the KP range of electric motors,
Al Lidberg kits and plans, and an extensive collection of those excellent 1/20th scale Czech
rubber powered scale plans.
Penn Valley Hobby Centre
A splendid model shop in the USA that has a staggering range of free flight scale kits for sale at discount prices,
including their own "Scale Flight Model Co." range of reproduction vintage Dime scale kits, and the
Diels Engineering 1/24 scale models. They do an efficient world wide mail order service that I can personally recommend (especially if the exchange rate is favourable).
Nice people to deal with.
Diels Engineering
Dave Diels has now got his own web site featuring his excellent range of 1/24 scale flying model kits and accessories.
Look for special offer announcements, especially the advance order double kits for new models, which are great value.
Scale Free Flight Plans
by Derek Buckmaster
An expanding collection of excellent downloadable CAD drawn free flight scale plans of mostly Australian designed aircraft,
plus 3-views and other resources (including an excellent list of web sites offering free plan downloads)
and a comprehensive set of links.
Yannick Grange's indoor flying site
This excellent site offers a French slant on the world of indoor flight.
As well as model photos and contest dates and
results, there are a good selection of Peanut scale plans by Jacques Cartigny
to download. Some are nice and simple (e.g. a Daphne), some for the much more
ambitious (how about a Chance Vought V-173 Flying Pancake!) As well as the Peanuts,
there are a couple of Pistachios, some non scale plans (mini sticks etc.) and a
larger CO2 powered Sopwith Swallow. Well worth a visit.
The Plan Page
Gary Hunter has made it his mission to scan for posterity vintage scale model designs, mostly by Earl Stahl,
originally published back in the 1940's. You can download the designs exactly
as they appeared in magazines such as Model Airplane News and Air World, and Gary has converted the accompanying
articles into Word format, complete with the original photos.
Apparently Earl Stahl himself is quite happy for his old designs to be out in the
public domain, and is pleased (and a little surprised) that they are still so popular today. At least two model
meetings over here have competitions exclusively for Earl Stahl scale designs, and they really do fly well.
Old Time Model Airplane Magazine Home Page
An excellent site by Ken Horne in which he publishes monthly selections from various
magazines from Aviation's golden age. These include articles, old adverts, and of course vintage plans. Well worth a visit!
Free Flight Fantasies
This is Thayer Syme's excellent web site devoted mostly to free flight models,
both scale and sport types. There are plenty of fine models to admire, both by Thayer
and others, plus plans to download and hints and tips on building and trimming free-flight models. If you want to see just what is possible with a peanut scale model, have a look at the page of photos of Jiro Sugimoto's marvellous creations - just fantastic!
Small Flying Arts
This ever growing site is the work of Bhagat Dhillon (who consquently does not
have time to make models any more!)
It is an
on-line magazine dedicated to small flying models of all types, including
free-flight, radio control, scale, sport, and others. There are
articles, tips, reviews, and other content pulled together from
a wide variety of authoritative sources.
Well worth a visit, and make sure you check out the flying model forum,
where you can read about, and get involved in, all sorts of model building projects.
Mike Smith's Free Flight Scale Site
Mike Smith is a first class free flight scale modeller specialising in I/C powered and larger electric models, and he has now started a web site. This is currently being
developed into a larger more comprehensive site, but even as it is, I would recommend a visit as there are some very impressive models on display.
The house of Frog (they Fly Right Off the Ground)
This is a new sister site I am working on which features plans for the flying
model kits produced by International Model Aircraft Ltd. in the 1940's and 50's.
There are currently 16 plans to download in pdf format, including all six of the Senior Series range of
sport rubber models, some rubber duration models and the latest additions, seven of the Frog Junior range (both scale and non-scale types).
The site is still very much work in process, so watch for more plans to be added as it develops.