Model Airplane News

One thing is for sure. With our RC hobbies, the quality of Almost Ready to Fly models is at an all time high, and at the same time, prices continue to improve. This is especially true of the new breed of turbine powered RC jets, specifically the newe

SHOWCASING WHAT YOU BUILD & FLY EMAIL ENTRIES TO: MAN@AIRAGE.COM Matt Morley, St. Paul, Minnesota Matt decided to dress up his Four Star 120 in Mustang livery! He spent three weeks building the Sig kit, using mostly wood glue so his 5-year-old son St

A great way to recycle junk mail is to use it in the shop when mixing two-part epoxy. We all get junk mail printed on glossy paper and some are even booklet size. Save the mail and when you need a surface to mix up your adhesive, tear off an appropri

REVIEWS | PERSONALITIES | GEAR | FUN STUFF | NEWS Christened “The Grande,” the new ¼-scale A-10 Warthog from Mibo Jets is a true showstopper! Following the success of Mibo’s 1/5.8-scale Generation 6 A-10 Warthog, this impressive ¼-scale beast is trul

Our friends down under at Booma RC make several products of interest to those flying larger gas models and turbine jets. I’ve used their redundant pin switches in many projects over the years and was looking for another when I struck up a conversatio

I have owned both gas and kerosene versions of the RC Fueling Systems for several years now with great success. Life in Florida means I can fly year-round, and I fly a LOT whether I’m working on review projects, flying my own stuff, or helping someon

The humpty bump is a fun and versatile maneuver. The two primary humpty bumps, or “humptys”” as they are often called, are the pull-pull-pull and pull-push-pull versions. Each starts by pulling up and maintaining a perfect vertical upline, the same w

Extreme Flight has added another champion to their amazing line up with the new 104” Laser EXP. The Laser is constructed of balsa, fiberglass, and lots of carbon fiber to give it incredible strength and keep the weight as low as possible. The Laser i

In 2019, Team Extreme pilot Jase Dussia flew his Extreme Flight 104” Laser EXP to top finishes in the most three most prestigious International Freestyle contests: the XFC v2, The Clover Creek Invitational and the Tuscan Shootout. This unprecedented

I often see an otherwise fine-looking scale model degraded by a really poor trailingedge construction technique. All but a very few specially designed aircraft have sharp trailing edges on all their flying surfaces. For my scale models, I try to alwa

Long before he was whisked away to the black hole known as the Lockheed Skunkworks, Clarence “Kelly” Johnson designed the first jet aircraft used operationally by the United States Army Air Forces; the P-80 Shooting Star. The P-80 didn’t last very lo

Perhaps the most common “extra” thing we buy nowadays for our RC aircraft is a battery. Years ago, there was only one type of battery used for a flight pack and that was a nickel cadmium, or Ni-Cd, soon followed by better technology with Nickle-Metal

Ninety minutes before daybreak on February 17, 1944, Operation Hailstone was launched from three U.S. aircraft carrier groups in the South Pacific. Hundreds of American warplanes ravaged the Japanese-held island airfields and harbors of Truk Lagoon,

A nonprofit volunteer organization, Project Recover works to find and bring home Americans missing in action since World War II. The group was established in 2012 with support from the United States Office of Naval Research, and was formalized in 201

If you like building vintage biplane models, there are many WW I warbirds that make excellent scale projects. One of the more popular aircraft to come out of the Great War is the Nieuport XVII (Type 17). Not a true biplane, this French fighter was a

FREE DOWNLOADABLE PLAN! Ever since I was young, I have been drawn to small model airplanes. Today, with brushless and coreless motors, modern batteries and microelectronics, truly small (micro) airplanes are a reality! Electric flight enthusiasts wil

At full-scale and RC airshows, watching aerobatic aircraft equipped with smoke systems adds greatly to the appeal for both the spectators and the pilots alike. Experienced pilots can make their aircraft all but disappear within the bellowing smoke du

Smoke systems should be used to add excitement to your overall flight performance. Don’t just leave the smoke on from start to finish as this will quickly use up all the oil in your smoke tank. Rather, turn it on at the start of your maneuver and the

Back in 2007-08, Mike Gross had the opportunity to fly my aging giant-scale, Ziroli-designed Japanese Zero. This was his first flight with a giant-scale warbird. He enjoyed is so much that he built one himself. After a dozen years and hundreds of fli