Curious why you continue to call out Americans. Gaming is a world wide phenomenon and I agree that youth in general (at least in 1st world countries) are distracted by the digital world.
Well, I’ve watched a bunch of scale R/C videos on YouTube. All of the posted ones I’ve seen have people speaking German or with Brit or Aussie accents or Asians. I have yet to see a scale jet airplane, truck, car, boat or helicopter R/C model video by somebody speaking American. Scale model trains have also died in America too. Poorer American youth can still often afford a PC with games. Hobbies have become less physical than they used to be. In 1978, some boys flew an R/C model airplane at my high school campus in Califonia. There were no PC’s with flight sims then. Not on those Radio Shack TRS-80’s. Space Invaders was a big deal on those ROM/Cassette BASIC machines.
Guns, hunting, archery, mountain bikes and fly-fishing has been on the upswing in recent decades. This also has taken from the model hobbies.
Do you know an American who pilots a scale jumbo jet like this?
That scale Boeing 747 offends my fine-scale eyes still. The intake fan blades on the engines don’t look real. There are (visible) external control horns mounted onthe tail section. The controlling surfaces move much too rapidly. At least the landing gear is operational but I don’t know if the gear is true scale. I don’t see any working aircraft navigation lights. The plane should take-off from a glass-smooth paved runway. The lawn makes it look rough-running on the ground.
Here you go: something I’d like to get into!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCaI2hcY5vM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHLykk4J1qk&t=10s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDSxlaSot1k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyd_RqVX1es
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPShZaQVQH0
US Scale Master Championships videos are awe inspiring.
Googling a bit I do agree that the super large scale stuff seems to be a european thing.
Jon , in rc sometimes you cant get what you want in exact scale for a multitude of resons. The fans you pointed out might be the way they are so the plane can fly. the control horns are exposed so they can opperate the control serfaces better. Sometimes you only have limited choices and you do the best with what is available on the market at the time. The RC world has made some huge advances in just the last 10 years in all areas. They still have a long way to go but atleast they are making the improvements as time goes on.
For that reason, it seems that model helicopters can be feasibly made more true to scale than jets and perhaps even prop airplanes. No exposed control horns needed. In the case of skid helis, no retractable landing gear needed. No I/C engines needed either. Can fly super slow and hover. Can fly indoors. Can attach a camera for aerial snooping in drone fashion.
I think that jumbo jet has ducted fan power. Here is a video with an experimental true gas turbine turbofan engine for scale model aircraft:
That prototype engine whines like the real deal!! If they could only get rid of that ugly external control linkage.
This Boeing 727 tri-engine T-tail seems to have real gas turbine engines and no exposed control linkages. The landing gear seems to operate too fast. Sounds awesome. Beautiful slow controlled landing. Doesn’t seem to have scale gear or main gear doors.
Boeing 727 = my favorite jetliner, T-tail fanatic here
Me and my sons back in the day. The Airmadillo is in front - probably the least scale plane ever, but very crash worthy.
RC boats are pretty realistic in all forms. The technology has gotten better over the years for all types of vehicles and still getting better. I started in 1985 and seen this. But like I said check out the local clubs in your area. I bet you will understand better and be totaly impressed in what you see.If you look hard enough you will find exactly what you want.
Beyond a certain scale, that might be because there is a much larger percentage of people in the US who have the hobby of flying 1:1 aircraft. That’s good for me…made a pretty lucrative career out of it for the last 29 years. [H]
Yes, the super rich would rather own a “real airplane”.
Most all of us in the US belong to AMA and that organization provides our liability insurance. There are many jet flyers in the US, but you don’t see the very large models because of both the cost and the problem of having insurance coverage. The basic limit for model airplanes is 55 pounds, if you go above that special inspections and rules for flight apply. I have several 1/4 scale R/C airplanes and though they fly well they are a logistical pain in the butt. Also, in the US there are limited airfields where such large aircaft can be flown. Europe seems to have better venues, but though you see videos of those large aircraft, it takes a pretty well heeled operator to do them. When they go down they can do a lot of damage.
Turbine powered models are not at all uncommon in the US, a number of the members of my model club fly them.
We have yearly jet meets at our field, here is a link to photos of one of them, taken by myself.
http://yolo.net/~jeaton/WDA/20190427jetfly/2019jetfly.html
As for me, although I fly all types of R/C models, the ones I really enjoy the most are “old timers”, free flight designs from the 30’s and 40’s converted to R/C.
Yes, it’s mostly old-fashioned smaller-scale prop airplanes one sees over American soil. But young American boys aren’t much into scale r/c planes or helis anymore or much of anything SCALE anymore. There are cheesy RTF kits. I’m sure if some American millionaire wants an ultra-fine-scale 1/10 Boeing 747 with true turbofan power, he can have one custom made for him from Germany, maybe, for the price of a new Mercedes. You probably fly what’s most affordable to you. I see these cheesy un-scale toy r/c helicopters with this double prop counter-rotating thing on top. No true cyclic/collective/torque pedal control like a “real” helicopter.
SCALE in modeling means “for the rich”.
I’ll imagine I’m a five-millionaire.
I would want my Boeing 747 cargo conversion (or perhaps a Boeing 727-200 Advance) with no ugly external control linkage and navigation lights to boot. True turbofan engines with fan blades painted in correct colors. I must have true-scale landing gear that operates at real-world speed. Must have braking system for wheels. Must have landing flaps. Must have a spring suspension for my retractible landing gear. Must have operating cabin doors and operating gear doors on all 18 wheels. Must have onboard camera. Must have gyros for aircraft stability. Maybe even a reverse thrust sytem if possible. How about custom purple paint with silver wings? Interior illumination through windows? Must have auto-altitude control. There’s still the trouble of locating the party one can pay to build such a dream model. I don’t know of any exclusive custom scale model builder for hire.
I guess ones gets what he puts the money out for in this hobby and everywhere else.
For 5 million up front I’ll take that job![whstl]
How about instrumentation for that super-fine-scale model airplane as well?
-absolute altimeter
-bank angle indicator
-airspeed indicator/relative GS indicator
-compass/magnitude
-pitch indicator
-battery meter
-fuel gauge
-low alitude warning buzzer
-stall warning/stick shaker
-gear-up warning at low altitudes, don’t forget to lower your gear for landing!
Navigation lights and operational landing lights. Camera to give cockpit view. HUD (heads-up display) for aircraft instruments data on video monitor goggles. Yes, video viewing goggles (VR headset?) like Michael Douglas wore in the film Disclosure, 1994. Radio in hand.
I have 100’s of hours flying experience in Microsoft Fight Simulator X Deluxe. Everything from Bell JetRanger helis to Boeing 747’s. Auto-rotation experience too in helicopters. Aircraft are much harder to fly unless you are getting the view the pilot would get seated inside the cockpit. You can almost feel the airplane’s movements while the camera is in cockpit view instead of external views.
Thats a fantstic collection there Jeaton. Very impressive.