After the Wright bros., after the WW I barnstormers, after Lindbergh, airplanes were sexy. Newspapers in major cities sponsored model contests well into the 40's. Magazines published plans for flying models that could be made (and were) using relatively inexpensive materials. The military supported model plane building and contests. Pan American Airlines sponsored the Payload event at contests. Boeing and Macdonald Douglas (now Boeing Macdonald Douglas) supported Model Building for many years (perhaps they still do). Considering the contributions to the space program by the modelers who first benefited from the afore mentioned support, that `investment' (by Government, Media and Industry) was well worth it. Airplanes just are not sexy any more. Blame it on Star Wars, short sightedness and TV (which often portrayed model flying as nerdy). Regis
--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "Martin Usher" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The answer to these puzzles is simple -- is the activity a cost center or a > profit center? > > Golf courses, marinas and the like make money. Model aircraft don't. So > we're going to get neglected until someone notices that we're prepared to > make it worth their while to provide facilities. There's going to be > exceptions to the rule but in general you get what you pay for -- and if you > don't pay anything you're not going to get much. (SULA discovered that when > it comes to professional sports they don't even rate a courtesey call to > tell tham that their flying site is about to get dug up so they should come > and get their stuff.) > > The big one for me is full size aviation. I have no idea how GA works. > There's got to be subsidies hidden in there somewhere because flying should > be even more expensive than it is. Maybe with all this emphasis on RPVs > we're suddenly going to become strategically important. (We might even > witness "Pigs -- er Pork -- Flying"?) > > BTW. No flames please. I'm just describing how I see things, not how I think > they should be. > > RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
