Pioneers of aeromodelling progress-Earl Stahl.

[wonwinglo]

Glance back in the old 'Model airplane news' magazines and the name Earl Stahl crops up again and again,every month for many years this prolific model builder produced what are still today some of the finest plans for scale flying rubber models,the story goes that Stahl started submitting his plans to MAN after designing a few models for himself,the drawings proved so popular that every month he managed to produce a new warplane model that provided reasonable care was taken it would fly,there was nothing complicated about the construction and having built several of his designs myself can say also that they have all performed well in flight.Stahl mentioned once that all of his scale models were doped black overall and when he came out of the U.S Air force they were still all pinned to the wall of his den just as he had left them,like many of such genius he got involved with full sized aeronautics and could hardly find time to produce any more models or drawings,but thankfully the internet is full of his models which serve as a fitting testiment to their integrity.

One combination that has always intrigued me was his Aeronca design which actually towed a scale model glider around the sky,all on its own free flight without any form of radio control whatsoever,it takes a really stable model to do such a thing and there is also photographic proof of the combination flying.

So I place Earl Stahl firmly in our hall of fame as a real pioneer of small scale models that flew well.

 

[Kiwi]

If you want to build one, all of his plans are available for download here:

http://www.theplanpage.com/esp.htm