This is the home of the Alamo Flying Aces on-line newsletter. A large collection of useful and interesting articles has been accumulated here, plus a selection of plans to download.
The D.C.Maxecuters web site is well worth a visit, and features plenty of model photos
and links to flying scale resources.
BMFA home page
The British Model Flying Association is the body delegated by the Royal Aero Club to be
responsible for all aspects of model flying in Great Britain - visit this site to find out more.
Amongst other things, you can find BMFA supported competition results.
SAMS Models
Probably Europe's premier mail order house for free flight kits, plans, materials and accessories, SAMS Models can also be found in person at various flying meetings, including the Old Warden Scale and Vintage weekends. Their latest catalogue plus handbook has no less than 100 pages and includes a useful section at the start with articles on various aspects of free flight modelling.
A useful source of free-flight kits, plans and accessories, including Esaki tissue and silk,
the KP range of electric motors,
Al Lidberg kits and plans, and an extensive collection of those excellent 1/20th scale Czech
rubber powered scale plans.
Penn Valley Hobby Centre
A splendid model shop in the USA that has a staggering range of free flight scale kits for sale at discount prices,
including their own "Scale Flight Model Co." range of reproduction vintage Dime scale kits, and the
Diels Engineering 1/24 scale models. They do an efficient world wide mail order service that I can personally recommend (especially if the exchange rate is favourable).
Nice people to deal with.
Diels Engineering
Dave Diels has now got his own web site featuring his excellent range of 1/24 scale flying model kits and accessories.
Look for special offer announcements, especially the advance order double kits for new models, which are great value.
Peanut Scale Models
This is Christophe Tardy's French site devoted to Peanut scale models, with photos, plans, 3-views and a whole stack of interesting articles.
It is in French, with some English translations, but you can always use an on-line
translator such as Alta Vista's Babelfish
The Plan Page
Gary Hunter has made it his mission to scan for posterity vintage scale model designs, mostly by Earl Stahl,
originally published back in the 1940's. You can download the designs exactly
as they appeared in magazines such as Model Airplane News and Air World, and Gary has converted the accompanying
articles into Word format, complete with the original photos.
Apparently Earl Stahl himself is quite happy for his old designs to be out in the
public domain, and is pleased (and a little surprised) that they are still so popular today. At least two model
meetings over here have competitions exclusively for Earl Stahl scale designs, and they really do fly well.
Old Time Model Airplane Magazine Home Page
An excellent site by Ken Horne in which he publishes monthly selections from various
magazines from Aviation's golden age. These include articles, old adverts, and of course vintage plans. Well worth a visit!
Free Flight Fantasies
This is Thayer Syme's excellent web site devoted mostly to free flight models,
both scale and sport types. There are plenty of fine models to admire, both by Thayer
and others, plus plans to download and hints and tips on building and trimming free-flight models. If you want to see just what is possible with a peanut scale model, have a look at the page of photos of Jiro Sugimoto's marvellous creations - just fantastic!
Small Flying Arts
This splendid on-line community was set up by the late Bhagat Dhillon who sadly died in 2007. Happily his son Arjun stepped in to continue the community created by his father and the site continues to blosssom.
It is now a huge
on-line resource dedicated to small flying models of all types, including
free-flight, radio control, scale, sport, and others. There are
articles, tips, reviews, and other content pulled together from
a wide variety of authoritative sources.
Well worth a visit, and make sure you check out the flying model forum,
where you can read about, and get involved in, all sorts of model building projects.
DB Design Bureau
Good to see that Derek Buckmaster's excellent site has reappeared with a new URL.
This site features plans for scale free flight models of aircraft which were designed,
built or flown in Australia (plus some other odds and ends). All the plans featured have been
designed using CAD, and are free of charge. You can download them in Adobe Acrobat format, print them out and build them.
Mike Smith's Free Flight Scale Site
Mike Smith is a first class free flight scale modeller specialising in I/C powered and larger electric models, and he has now started a web site. This is currently being
developed into a larger more comprehensive site and I would recommend a visit as there are some very impressive models on display.
The house of Frog (they Fly Right Off the Ground)
This is a sister site I am working on which features plans for the flying
model kits produced by International Model Aircraft Ltd. in the 1940's and 50's.
There are currently 30 or so plans to download in pdf format, including all six of the Senior Series range of
sport rubber models, some rubber duration models and many of the Frog Junior range (both scale and non-scale types).
The site is still very much work in process, so watch for more plans to be added as it develops.
Indoor News and Views
This is the home page for America's premier indoor flying newsletter, and you can browse back issues to decide if you would like to take out a subscription.
Although primarily aimed at
indoor duration classes, some of the articles are applicable to scale models, and there is a regular indoor scale column. Why not give it a look?
Replikit
This site is well worth visiting, as you will find (as the name implies) a growing collection of old scale kit
plans and short kits for some of the
splendid old designs by companies such as Keil Kraft and Veron. Some contain canopies - a very useful bonus, and prices are reasonable (especially compared to
the prices of originals on Ebay).
Easy Built Models
A long established company producing traditional balsa and tissue kits, including many scale designs. In recent years
there has been an effort to improve the range, both in terms of the quality of the kit contents (e.g. new canopies and better wood) and
with the introduction of new kits - take a look at the Tom Nallen designed Kharkov R-10 for instance with laser cut parts - it's a beauty.
Atomic Workshop
Atomic Workshop produce and sell a very useful range of products and accessories for electric free flight models, including the Zombie timer/controller, Voodoo motors and Li Poly cells.
The site also has some articles by Richard Crossley with helpful building tips.
Flitehook
Although I am a regular customer of John and Pauline Hook at the many model flying events they visit,
I only recently discovered that they had a web site, where you can
download price lists, which are regularly updated. So, here it is.
In case you have not come across Flitehook before, they sell virtually everything that a free flight modeller could want,
including kits, motors of all sorts (including Rapiers), balsa and accessories. You will find ordering instructions on the web site,
and I can recommend them as very knowledgeable and pleasant people to deal with.
Shorty's Basement
At last those living in the USA now have their own source of Rapier motors, and all the kits and accessories to go with them.
Shorty's Basement is run by Carole Kane, who is currently expanding the range of free flight goodies for sale, including kits by Aerographics,
Replikit and West Wings, together with balsa, Esaki tissue etc.
The aircraft models of John Ernst
Many of you will have admired John's models featured on this web site, and now he has set up his own web site showcasing his models,
including many new ones not found on his guest page here. There are plenty of photos of models under construction, plus notes on how
they went together and how they flew. Well worth a visit!
Skylake Models
Skylake models are producers of a fast increasing range of short kits for simple but accurate looking
16" span scale models - a modern take on the old "Dime Scale" designs from the 1930s. The kits contain a full size plan and CNC cut parts. The novel twist is that when
you buy a kit, you are supplied with pdf files to print your own full colour tissue patterns to fit that model. Some kits have multiple schemes for you to choose from. At the
time I am writing this (September 2009) new kits are coming out every week, so I recommend checking the site at regular intervals