Air Hogs.. "Visionary"

@akjgardner wrote:found this on the web............Air Hogs was created in 1996 when Spin Master was approached by British inventors John Dixon and Peter Manning, whose prototype of a compressed air powered toy airplane had been rejected by everyone they had shown it to..............I had one of the early ones....It flew really well

Yes.. I seem to remember reading about this same info, back when my dad gave it to me. The RC community has used PET bottles/vessels to operate their "Spring-air" retractable gear for decades. I've read horror-stories of models being reduced to "splinters".. because of the over-inflation of homemade PET air-tanks.. and the resultant rupturing/explosion!!!

@roddie wrote:

@akjgardner wrote:found this on the web............Air Hogs was created in 1996 when Spin Master was approached by British inventors John Dixon and Peter Manning, whose prototype of a compressed air powered toy airplane had been rejected by everyone they had shown it to..............I had one of the early ones....It flew really well

Yes.. I seem to remember reading about this same info, back when my dad gave it to me. The RC community has used PET bottles/vessels to operate their "Spring-air" retractable gear for decades. I've read horror-stories of models being reduced to "splinters".. because of the over-inflation of homemade PET air-tanks.. and the resultant rupturing/explosion!!!  

I still have a couple of the early ones somewhere out in the garage. I think the instructions recommended a specific number of pump strokes (40?) and included a caution about over inflation. Of course we all probably snuck-in a few extra pump strokes.

George

@gcb wrote:

I still have a couple of the early ones somewhere out in the garage. I think the instructions recommended a specific number of pump strokes (40?) and included a caution about over inflation. Of course we all probably snuck-in a few extra pump strokes.

George

Of course George.. just like the Crossman 760 Power-master air-rifle..  

This "Visionary" model is from 2003, commemorating "100 years of flight". The instructions don't warn about over-inflation.. (surprisingly..) but state; "Pump up the plane until you feel a lot of pressure and it becomes very difficult to pump. It will take 40 to 60 pumps to pressurize your plane. (Tip: For maximum performance, try 60 to 80 pumps.) When pumping, make sure you push the pump handle all the way down."

I'm sure the tank would rupture at some point beyond the maximum-recommended strokes of the pump.. but there's no mention of that anywhere in the instructions.

The engine starts by smartly "flicking" the propeller in the direction of the arrow on the nose-cone. The engine may "kick-back" and run in reverse if the prop is not flicked hard enough. Hmmm.. does this remind us of a certain type of Cox engine?

The specs. list this Air-Hogs model engine as .046 cu. in. which I find quite interesting.