40 Fun Facts About Radio-Controlled Aircraft

Which future film star was spotted by an Army photographer while assembling radio-controlled target drones?

Marilyn Monroe was Norma Jeane Dougherty, a Radioplane assembly-line worker, when the pictures led to modelling work and a screen test.

Which inventor steered a small radio-controlled boat at Madison Square Garden in 1898, long before RC planes existed?

Nikola Tesla hoped to sell the idea to the US government as a torpedo, and his patent included a frequency changer so that an enemy could not take control of it.

Which radio-controlled British target plane, a pilotless Tiger Moth, is said to have inspired the word drone?

Queen Bee targets trained anti-aircraft gunners from 1935. A drone is a male bee, which makes a single flight in search of a queen.

In 2003 the model plane TAM-5 left Newfoundland and became the first to fly the Atlantic, landing in which country?

Ireland's Mannin Beach, near Clifden, was the finish line after almost 39 hours aloft. The model landed with under two fluid ounces of fuel left.

Which Olympic throwing event gives its name to the spinning wingtip launch used to fling small RC gliders skyward?

Discus launching has the flier grip one wingtip and spin round before letting go, which is easier and more efficient than the older overarm javelin-style throw.

Which Hollywood actress co-invented a frequency-hopping radio guidance system for torpedoes during World War II?

Hedy Lamarr devised it with composer George Antheil to defeat jamming. Frequency hopping is one of the spread spectrum methods that modern RC transmitters use.

The earliest radio-guided model aircraft, flown around theatres as a music hall act, were what type of craft?

Airships filled with hydrogen were steered over the audience by a basic spark-emitted radio signal.

Which very light wood, from a fast-growing tree grown mainly in Ecuador, is the classic material for model planes?

Balsa counts as a hardwood despite being the softest commercial one, and its rapid growth leaves it less dense than cork.

What name do glider pilots give the rising columns of warm air that RC sailplanes ride to gain height?

Thermals cannot be seen, so contest fliers read signs such as circling birds, bugs and shifts in the surface wind.

Which British-born Hollywood actor ran a model plane shop in the 1930s and founded the drone maker Radioplane?

Reginald Denny flew with the Royal Flying Corps in World War I, and his company built nearly fifteen thousand target drones during World War II.

Which Indiana city is home to the National Model Aviation Museum and the Academy of Model Aeronautics?

Muncie is where the museum keeps the world's largest collection of RC aviation history, and it sells kit plans for models from every era.

Which rechargeable battery type, a fire risk if mishandled, powers most electric RC planes and hobby drones?

Lithium polymer packs must be balance-charged on smart chargers that connect to every cell in the pack.

Which liquid is the main ingredient of model engine glow fuel, where it is blended with oil and nitromethane?

Methanol provides the bulk of the mix, so the nickname nitro misleads: some glow fuels contain no nitromethane at all.

Which hinged surfaces on the trailing edges of an RC plane's wings move in opposite directions to roll the model?

Ailerons can also be mixed at the transmitter to droop together as flaperons or rise together as spoilerons.

On a Mode 2 transmitter, the stick layout most drone racers use, what does moving the left stick up and down control?

Throttle shares the left stick with yaw in Mode 2, while the right stick handles pitch and roll.

Which small geared motor units inside an RC plane push and pull the rods that move its control surfaces?

Servos replaced the escapement, a clock-like device driven by a rubber band that could only step between a few set positions.

What is the technical name for a model aircraft that flies by flapping its wings?

Ornithopter joins the Greek words for bird and wing, and RC versions often surprise spectators simply by staying airborne.

Which frequency band, shared with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, do modern spread spectrum RC transmitters broadcast on?

2.4 GHz spread spectrum lets many pilots transmit side by side with little fear of conflict, and the receivers are virtually immune to most electrical interference.

Which Shenzhen company, founded by Frank Wang in 2006, came to dominate camera drones with its Phantom series?

DJI launched the first Phantom in 2013 as a fully assembled entry-level model, and it is considered the first commercially successful recreational drone.

Which gliding technique, looping through the wind shear behind a ridge, has taken unpowered RC models past 500 mph?

Dynamic soaring has no official sanctioning body, so speeds are clocked by radar gun, and a run of 548 mph was logged in 2021.

What do RC fliers call two transmitters joined by a cable so that an instructor can take over from a student?

Buddy box training gives the student control only while the instructor holds a spring-loaded switch, and letting go takes the model straight back.

Which plant-derived lubricant is traditionally blended into model engine glow fuel, often alongside synthetics?

Castor oil is not there to burn: almost all the lubricant in the mix passes through the engine unconsumed and comes out of the exhaust.

Which mechanism on an RC helicopter's rotor mast passes the stick commands to the spinning main rotor blades?

Swashplate assemblies pair a stationary plate with a rotating one, which carries the commands from the non-spinning airframe up to the turning rotor hub.

Which rotor layout, with two rotors spinning opposite ways on one mast, makes beginner RC helicopters so stable?

Coaxial models are steady enough to fly indoors in tight quarters, though they have limited forward speed, especially outdoors.

Which aerobatic manoeuvre flown by RC sport planes is a climbing half loop followed by a half roll?

Immelmann turn is the tribute to Max Immelmann, a Fokker Eindecker ace, and it leaves the plane higher and heading back the way it came.

Which brand of foam sheet, the type used for meat trays, do hobbyists cut and glue into lightweight RC planes?

Depron blends rigidity with flexibility, letting an airframe absorb the stress of flying. Foam models are nicknamed foamies.

Which household item did RC clubs traditionally fix to a transmitter aerial to show a flier had claimed a frequency?

Clothespin markers, colour-coded by channel, kept two fliers off one frequency, a clash that almost always ended in a crash.

The 27 MHz frequencies, the first opened to RC models in the United States, were shared with users of which service?

CB radio users still share 27 MHz, so those frequencies are now preferred for ground-based models and older toys rather than aircraft.

Which US federal agency banned launching model aircraft and drones from nearly all the land it manages in 2014?

National Park Service rules cover only flights operated from its land, because the airspace overhead is governed exclusively by the FAA.

What is the traditional name for the lacquer brushed over a model plane's tissue covering to tighten it?

Dope has largely given way to iron-on plastic films, which shrink tight under heat and are more durable and quicker to repair.

Which iron-on plastic film for covering model planes was trademarked by the model aircraft maker Top Flite?

MonoKote was named for being a one-step covering: its heat-activated adhesive is stuck down with a hobby iron and finished with a heat gun.

Which type of motor, fed three-phase power by its speed controller, became the favourite of electric RC fliers?

Brushless motors beat traditional brushed ones on efficiency, power, longevity and light weight, which won over RC plane hobbyists.

Which propulsion unit, hidden inside the fuselage, lets most foam RC jets fly without a real turbine engine?

Ducted fan units driven by glow engines were the first achievable way to model a scale jet, and electric ones remain popular on smaller, cheaper models.

Which bottled gas did model jet turbines traditionally burn for a few seconds at start-up before switching to jet fuel?

Propane lights the engine, then a solenoid lets in the jet fuel, all overseen by an onboard digital engine controller, as on a full-size aircraft.

RC racers in classes such as Q500 and Q40 fly laps at over 150 mph around which course markers?

Pylons mark out a track of two, three or four turns, and the fastest glow-powered class, F3D, tops 225 mph on the course.

Which volatile liquid, once a surgical anaesthetic, joins kerosene in the fuel that model 'diesel' engines burn?

Ether is the ignition agent that lets the mix fire by compression alone, so a model diesel needs neither a glow plug nor a spark.

What is the upward V-angle of an RC trainer's wings called, which lets rudder alone bank the model into turns?

Dihedral makes a plane roll whenever the rudder skids it sideways, a stabilising effect that Sir George Cayley described in 1810.

What term describes an RC plane's wing losing lift because its angle to the oncoming air has become too steep?

Stall speed is the reason models carry flaps: lowering them lets a plane fly slower before the wing gives up, for gentler landings on shorter runways.

Which Japanese company, founded in 1948 to make vacuum tubes, became a leading name in hobby radio control systems?

Futaba went on to make vacuum fluorescent displays too, and its radio gear steers models in the air, on the water and even underwater.

Which precious metal in a model engine's glow plug coil reacts with fuel vapour to keep the engine firing?

Platinum catalyses the fuel so the coil stays hot between strokes, which is why the starting battery can be unclipped once the engine is running.