| Although experiments with rotary winged aircraft | | | | generates lift by the movement of its main rotor |
| may be traced back to Leonardo da Vinci, successful | | | | blades through the air as its rotor turns. The blades |
| flights were not achieved until the 1930s, and it was | | | | have to be moved at high speed and at a |
| not until 1941 that the first practical, full size | | | | comparatively high angle of attack in order to |
| helicopter was built by lgor Sikorsky. Model | | | | produce sufficient lift to raise the model into the air. |
| enthusiasts are notably quick to emulate full-size | | | | Weight is critical and experimenters who discovered |
| aviation achievements, but were not as successful | | | | that their chosen engine had insufficient power to |
| with rotary wing aircraft, and it was not until 1968 | | | | produce the required lift were faced with a vicious |
| that the first fully controllable R/C model helicopter | | | | circle. Fitting a larger engine to increase the available |
| appeared, built by Dr. Dieter Schluter of West | | | | power also meant an increase in the weight to be |
| Germany.Many modellers were convinced that the | | | | lifted.Bigger engines require more fuel and more |
| single rotor autogiro would be an easier subject to | | | | weight! Increasing the angle of the rotor blades in the |
| tackle than the helicopter and were conducting their | | | | airflow produces more lift, up to a point but this also |
| experiments along these lines, but in fact the first | | | | increases the drag of the blade, which now requires |
| really successful British R/C autogiro, a semi-scale | | | | more power to move it at the required speed. All |
| model of the Wallace Autogiro, was first flown in | | | | problems were eventually overcome and the fully |
| 1978, ten years after the first appearance of the R | | | | controllable R/C model helicopter had arrived.There |
| C helicopter. Designers and manufacturers the world | | | | were, however, no short cuts in its development: |
| over were quick to take advantage of Schluter's | | | | engines, drive gears, rotor blades, control methods, |
| success and, In the early 1970s, model helicopter kits | | | | etc all had to follow a similar design to full-size |
| were on sale in the model shops.In order to | | | | helicopter and be built to the same exacting |
| appreciate the reasons for the slow development of | | | | standards or perhaps closer to the mechanism design |
| the model helicopter, at least a few of the problems | | | | of the full-size helicopter.So how difficult is the model |
| which faced the pioneers must be considered. These | | | | helicopter to control in fight? Well, it has been |
| problems were many and complex, for instance in | | | | described as similar to balancing a steel ball on a knife |
| order to achieve fight with any heavier-than-air | | | | edge whale riding a bicycle! more on that when you |
| machine, the lift force generated by its airfoils must | | | | visit Model Aeronautics for Dodos by following the |
| overcome the aircraft's weight. In the case of a | | | | link in my resource box.Manolito Montala was a RC |
| conventional aircraft this is achieved by its forward | | | | model airplane enthusiast and he also have a degree |
| speed through the air which flows across its | | | | in Aeronautical Engineering. He is also a CAD Engineer |
| airfoil-sectioned wing, causing a speeding-up of the | | | | and a webmaster. You will find many more topics on |
| air, and there by a reduction in pressure, over its | | | | rc model helicopters by visiting Model Aeronautics For |
| upper surface. At the same time, pressure increases | | | | Dodos. |
| across its under- surface of the wing.The helicopter | | | | |