More Fun with the Scanner: My May '67 Issue of Model Airplane News: "The Demoiselle"

I liked the boxy biplane in movie (Farman?)…. Actually they were all really cool and fun to watch…. What a jump in technology from Demoisell to the Spad in only a few short years!!….. The Spad was a really sleek and pretty design…. The wood prop looks appropriate on it Bob…. The grain lines nearly give it a laminated look…. I’ve got a two winger to build in the future ….That’s amazing you still have your first model airplane from pre teen years!!!! …. I don’t have any models from that far back but I do have one engine I know for sure from when I was twelve yo in 1970… A PeeWee .020 from the green version of the Cox Pitts….

I was trying to think of some of my first models… BB guns and firecrackers come to mind …. Learning the props was fun…. Combines some of the stuff I already had and like to do

Somebody save me before I do something stupid!

It's a generational thing Kim.

I was setting up to test run an engine a few weeks ago and a twenty something came up and wanted to watch… Funny to see the few steps taken back after it started and seeing the look on his face even from an .020

one of my favorite movies as a kid

https://youtu.be/TO7-_fGqGTg?si=_y5MKQifAfxMZ99m

the Demoiselle was and is still one of my favorites. Santos Dumont was brilliant

in the mid 1990s, I got a wild idea that building a Bleriot X1 was really just a large scale model airplane. bought some plans, and made one, but using rudder and elevator, instead of wing-warping. couldn't find an Anzani 3 cylinder, so used a small rotax and prop from an ultralight.

Mostly bamboo, steel wires, bicycle wheels and bedsheets. really simple to build. i may try it again next year when I'm on the new ranch and bored. or a Demoselle...

Why Bleriot and NOT Demo? well, you have to extend the Demo wings, else it will only lift a 90lb pilot.

the PROBLEM was, I don't know how to fly, and I am terrified of small planes!
a neighbor in Dripping Springs had a crop duster, flew, and offered to taxi through the cow pasture, see how it felt, what the trim was like.

well. the second he got up to speed, he took off, flew a few circles and landed, pronounced it the most fun ultralight he ever flew, and demanded I sell it to him. he coached me up to speed once, but demanded I not lift, just go a little, then turn off, which is exactly what I did.

the ex-wife had the build photo album, I have nothing left but memories.

dont know if he still has it, if he still lives there, etc.. its been decades

944_Jim wrote:Somebody save me before I do something stupid!

Roddie the instigator.....

a visit to Rheinbeck is very very high on my "i wanna go before I croak" list.

burning in a plane is a horrible way to go. but 10000x better than sitting in a bed with tubes and wires hooked up to ya.

rsv1cox wrote:One of my all-time favorite movies Charles.  Terry Thomas steals the show.  

But not always fun and games.  From the current issue of Air Classics - The pictured fellow lost his life flying the Fokker D.VIII replicia with an original engine when the engine compartment caught fire, probably due to a broken fuel or oil line.  

That's scary looking , What you have to stand up to shoot the gun ? I understand they didn't have the technology to shoot through the propeller at the time .

Here's another early one that's very similar..

dont know if any of yall get the AMA magazine - Model Aviation

but this month has a demoiselle on the cover

https://www.modelaviationdigital.com/modelaviation/library/item/january_2025/4238649/