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In 1960 I left my job at the research laboratories of Westinghouse Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and took a job at the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) of Johns Hopkins University in Silver Spring, Maryland. I had grown tired of “basic research” that didn’t seem to be going anywhere useful and I liked the word “applied.” I do not deny that my friendship with Walt Good influenced the decision. We spent many lively lunch hours talking RC, and we had many sessions on the flying field. In 1962 Walt pulled some strings with the organizers of the forthcoming second World Championships for Aerobatics. I had written the first RC judges’ guide for AMA, and Walt pointed out that I’d make a good chief judge at Kenley Aerodrome, England. More than 20 years earlier Kenley airfield had housed hundreds of Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots and swarms of Spitfires and Hurricanes at the ready to fight against Luftwaffe bombers during the Battle of Britain. Although that battle was won and past, there was still a military presence; in 1962 the Cold War with the Soviet Union was hot. The Soviet Union sent a team of modelers to the contest. They were a bit standoffish and reluctant to allow their models to be examined. I was shocked by what I saw from my privileged position as judge. The Soviet modelers could not purchase smooth-cut balsa in a hobby shop, their propellers were hand-carved, some capacitors were homemade from waxed paper and aluminum foil, and at least one control transmitter was an olive-drab box with “RCA” embossed on it because it had been shipped by the United States according to the Lend-Lease Act during the war. Clearly the model-airplane hobby was not part of the “Five Year Plans.” The contrast with other countries’ models and equipment was astonishing. Tom Brett’s sleek navy-blue-and-gold low-wing Perigee won for the United States, and the British team finished first in the team competition with lots of flashy red, white, and blue. All of these models were colorful beauties. All of the pilots had handheld transmitters. The Soviet team, with their dull black-and-white shoulder-wingers and ground-based recycled transmitters came in last. A blatant anomaly hit me hard. A blatant anomaly hit me hard. Soviet competitor Pietrov Velitchkovsky wore a small pin on his CCCP-labeled T-shirt. It honored him as a “Hero of the Soviet Union” for having set seven FAI world records for RC aeromodels! I came home from Kenley with two conclusions. One, communism was very bad! No balsa wood! Two, if Velitchkovsky could set records with such poor stuff, Americans ought to be able to raise the marks considerably with their far-superior equipment. |