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Old 08-23-2013, 09:04 AM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ltvscout
This post got me thinking about being a kid again. I was ALWAYS flying something, whether balsa planes, RC planes, U-Control planes, kites, homemade hot air balloons, water rockets or model rockets. I did a search of American Junior Aircraft and looked at a few sites. Those were not the planes I recall buying/flying. I kept looking and came across this site:

http://www.oldwoodtoys.com/new_page_2.htm

The brand I bought the most of was North Pacific. I'll bet many of you remember these as well. I also recall buying/flying folding wing balsa planes, but it wasn't the American Junior or North Pacific brand. I've yet to go through all the companies on the above site, so I may find it yet. Now that I know the name brand of the planes I flew, I'm going to have to see if I can find some on eBay. Tami will love that I found something else to collect. hehehe
The American Junior "Army Interceptor" folding wing balsa catapult gliders were also used as very cheap gunnery targets during World War II (see: http://www.google.com/#fp=8fd259d59...rmy+interceptor ). Also, speaking of North Pacific:

They made two swept-wing balsa chuck gliders (that I saw in stores back then--they made more than those two). One was the common chuck glider size (having a 9" or so wing span), while the other--which flew amazingly well--was *tiny*, with wings that spanned only five or six inches. This was the Strato (see: http://www.oldwoodtoys.com/north_pacific.htm ). Its moderately-swept wings had a (nearly) constant chord, and they had red ink "scalloped" patterns printed on them. If someone here still has one, it would make a great "minimum material" glider to clone, perhaps using laser-cut parts to enable quantity production.
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