My name is Doriano. I am living in north Italy and just in Savona. She is a small and beautiful town and with one ancient history. Click here if You desire more to know about Savona.

From when I was a boy, I was interested to the models and in particular to the aeromodelling. Later, to this hobby the interest for the electronics has joined: the mixture of the two has carried me to the R/C.

It has always fascinated me to understand as the things were developed and, in the field of the R/C, has carried to search the technical documentation of the past time.

Since surely I will not be able to recover all how much of important has been published, I have had the idea to put on behalf of the interested modelers the documentation that I found: joining our forces by sharing the various sources, there is more possibility to complete the pioneering history of the past R/C development.

Through the electronic scanning and the use of software for image enhancement, it is possible to clean up the old pages with the paper yellowed and to bring back them to the ancient splendour, as (or nearly) if the magazine or the book has been published today and not 40-50 or more years ago.

A my goal is of being able to exchange the reconstructed documentation and to ask the modelers that have interesting documentation, magazines or books about the argument to be so kind to lend temporary it to me the time closely necessary for the scansion (the documentation will be promptly returned to the owner) so to widen the list of the titles to which all can reach, and in final word, to preserve the history of the technical development of the R/C.

Being documentation much ancient and out of print from decades, I suppose that there is no copyrights infringement, moreover, I do not intend this as a business! If there were of the violations of which I do not have known, I pray to inform me and will be my cure to cancel those from the site.

A list of titles that actually I have is given in the bottom and they are growing, thanks to the people that has joined my efforts and helped me.

Here, You will found some of my restoring work of old publication. Click on the title of publication and You will have to read about from the past! Good reading.

Were possible, a low resolution copy of the whole publication will be made and hosted in the site on behalf of the interested modelers. I think that are not infringed copyright due the fact that all are old and out of print publications. It was not possible for me to find the owner. However, if anyone knows the owner of the copyright of this document, please let me know. I will remove this material immediately when I learn that copyright of this document is still valid.

"MODEL FLYING BOATS"   (Author J. A. Sizer   HARBOROUGH PUBLISHING) a delightful old publication about the project with the calculation of various types of seaplanes. The date of publication is 1943

"PROPO PRIMER"   (Author Howard G. Mc Entee  A. KALMBACH PUBLICATION) here we are in the more modern size of the technical developmetn of R/C. This was a manual with the divulgation intent: there are no electric drawings or construction articles of R/C gears. An interesting little book about the "state of the art" in the late '60.

"GRID LEAKS"   The name is well known from the most experimenting inclided and not so young modelers. Roguebay hosted the whole publication so is not need duplication of the great effort made from the owner of the site (thanks, Bill). I extrapolated an interesting article with plans for two very little and exceptional (for these years) R/C models.

The "B&D project"  this is an interesting construction article serie that was published in M.A.N. about the construction of an R/C proportional rig. The title is from the initial of the authors name: Don Dikerson and Norm Beeler. This project was published in the MAR. APR. and MAY 1963 issues of Model Airplane News. Later, in the JUL. and AUG. 1964, one issue deals with a complete transmitter and in the other is a servo update along a tone discriminator for an additional channel.

This is a complete description and I am grateful to Mr. Howell Gwin that was so kind to lend me the May 1963 (other than the M.A.N. May 1964, need for others articles) and grateful to Mr. Orville Olm that scanned for me the pages from Mar. Apr. and Aug. 1963, all issues that are lacking from my collection.

I called from the M.A.N. publisher the authorization to upload in the site copies of the whole issues of M.A.N. in which there were interesting articles. As they do not communicate forbiddances, I upload a low resolution PDF file copy of MODEL AIRPLANE NEWS May 1963 issue. Be careful because the file is 40 MB big and, due its dimension, will be deleted when other material will be available.

If You are interested, can download the issues (please note that is a LARGE file of 40 Mb): in it there is a part three of the B&D proportional project and many others interesting articles, other than model airplane plans.

If You need, I can make a reprinted copy, exact copy as the original, of the whole magazine to insert in Your bookshelf.

I hope that You appreciate the effort and collaborate giving me the possibility to have the others issues of M.A.N. dealing the B&D article, in order to have a complete segment of the magazines of that era. If You have the issues please communicate me Your collaboration, loaning to me the issue or, if have the scanner access (and the need spare time!), making a 300 dpi scan of the pages.

Please, consider that this work is on behalf of the modellers community.

"CONTROL LINE MANUAL" Author Mr. R. G. Moulton (Model & Allied Publications). 216 pages. Some reprinted copies available to share with the modelers.

A book dealing an aspect of the model airplanes hobby in which the modeller has the possibility to "pilot" the airframe through the air and to have a physical sensation of the model reaction to the forces applied to it in the flying. The book had various editions: the first in October 1961. That I have is a late, being of 1972. Arguments are divided in sixteen chapters and appendices, spacing from origin, system requirements, various C/L categories and so on.

A very interesting and complete book.

"THALER MOTOR CONSTRUCTION BOOK" Author Mr. H. Thaler. Published in Germany in the 1938 year; 56 pages. The book is a detailed step by step description to build a miniature .55 c.i. aeromodel spark engine. At these times very few was in Europe firms on the model engine market and Thaler was one. This little book was a way to spread to the German modelers the opportunity to build a model engine, either by oneself, or by the pieces offered on sale from the author of the book. Each part of the engine is described with the drawings and dimensions. Complete the book two very detailed drawings of the whole engine. An interesting book for the model engine amateur and for the skilled engine machinist interested to build an European old engine.

The Radio Control Models & Electronics  magazine

The English magazine RADIO CONTROL MODELS & ELECTRONICS was born on the wave of R/C diffusion in the fifties/sixties: time was right for a sister publications of the already famous "AEROMODELLER", with the goal of R/C as the only subject.

The subject was to provide model-makers with some electronics applied to modeling, to propose projects of radio rigs, theory of electronics, new components and their use. At the same time, it provided advertising and the divulgation on its pages of the first commercial realizations of then new-born electronics industry of R/C. It was the European counterpart of the American "GRID LEAKS", born few years before.

The target of the magazine was the modeler: in those years the electronics equipments were very expensive and difficult to get, so modelers were supposed to have electronic engineering skills to be able to build such rigs.

In the beginning transistors were rarely used in the radio frequency stages for their inherent inefficiency at high frequencies; tubes were usually used instead and it is not difficult to imagine the challenge in building and flying models with a tube receiver on board, due to its weight and fragility!

As time went by, the magazine continued to offer a lot of innovations and studies provided by modelers, electronic engineers, and the industry itself (which was still at a pioneer level). The radio control systems evolved towards analogic proportional and the attention was focused more and more on commercial products.

With the introduction of the so called "digital" proportional (the system we still use nowadays) at the end of the ’60s, we can say that the pioneer era of the amateur R/C reached its end, as it had been replaced by the electronic industry commercially dedicated to the R/C activity.

What I am providing with these pages is the result of gathering and restoration work in order to give the possibility to read old RCM&E magazines published in the sixties, the Golden Era of the technical evolution of R/C.

Click in the issue to view more of the magazine and to download a low resolution full issue, until available

RCM&E         May 1960

RCM&E         June 1960

RCM&E         July 1960

RCM&E         August 1960

This is all for the moment. I give the list of the material that I have an can share: if there are kind modelers that desire to join my efforts for the preservation of the old model publications, I will be very grateful.

You may reach me at the address  

THE LIST OF AVAILABLE DOCUMENTATION IN MY BIBLIOGRAPHY

RC4         various authors: installing r/c in four popular kits (Mercury "GALAHAD"; Frog "JACKDAW"; KeilKraft                    "SUPER 60"; Veron "VISCOUNT") with theirs drawings

I hope that we may join our forces to complete the pioneering history of the past R/C development.

Who is Rocky?    Who is Billy?