The Gee Bee.com Archives - The Gee Bee.com

High Performance Golden Age Reproductions Model Comparison

Making Indoor Scale Models Perform

Rubber powered flying scale models built from the popular Golden Age Reproductions plans & kits can deliver fantastic flight performance.

Several years ago a top New England (US) flyer built a couple of popular Golden Age Reproductions flying scale models. One was the Megow 20″ span Caudron C460 Racer (plan available here) and the other a 25″ wingspan Scientific Curtiss Robin. They were fabulous flyers with flight times of 80sec to 2min duration indoors.

Being an engineer, the author documented the key specifications for his models – weights, wing area, motor dimensions, etc. He also charted the empirical results from a number of flights on each model.

The analysis compares the performance of the two models and draws some insightful conclusions relative to high wing vs. low wing configuration, the effects of drag and wing undercamber, etc.

There’s lots of great information in this brief analysis for both experienced and newer modelers. Aim to replicate these specifications and you’ll have a great flying rubber scale model.

Read Article Now

Specifications and flight performance charts for Golden Age Reproduction models

click images to view larger

Key Model Specifications Table (see article for more)

Join the Start-to-Finish build of the Miles M.18

We’ll document this Build in a series of photo essay posts.

Click image to get Plan and Build Special price

Join the Miles M.18 Build!

Join the start-to-finish Build of the Tom Nallen-designed Miles M.18 Mk2 rubber powered free flight scale model.

This relatively simple FAC Scale model will make a nice addition to your fleet. The model can also be flown in the FAC Low Wing Military Trainer event if finished in the appropriate color scheme.

We’ll document this Build in a series of photo essay style posts to the Aeromodelling blog on thegeebee.com. Why not build one along with the group and share your questions, tips and techniques, in the comment stream on the posts? We can all learn from each other.

Get M.18 Plan

We’ll document this Build in a series of photo essay posts.

Share your questions, tips and techniques, in the comment stream

Doug’s Gee Bee R-1 Free Flight Model

A photo essay with commentary on the Gee Bee R-1 build, plus a test flight video. This Gee Bee flies!

Flight testing at Waywayanda NY July 2020, courtesy Tom Hallman

The R-1 has been on my Free-Flight (FF) build list for years. It is such an icon for aviation buffs- with its winning history and dramatic color scheme. As this ship moved up my build list, I began to reacquaint myself with the airplane and its history.

Continue reading “Doug’s Gee Bee R-1 Free Flight Model”

Re-Building the Q.E.D. Model Wing

A short photo essay with commentary on the Q.E.D. wing rebuild

I recall the anticipation of the first test glides of my Gee Bee Q.E.D. model more than 20yrs ago in the back yard of our first house. In the time between then and now, this model – I know, it’s not really a Gee Bee (see post) – has been flown hard in fair weather and poor, placing in its share of contests and even winning a few. And I must admit to a crash or two along the way.

Continue reading “Re-Building the Q.E.D. Model Wing”