Sunday, January 31, 2021

The 1934 Lanzo RC-1


 Plan is now available at Outerzone:   https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=12778

Friday, January 15, 2021

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Another Great SAM competitor passes

When people would say he was old as dirt, he would blush and say: No, but when I was born dirt was still pretty new.  As a modeler, he was one of a kind.  He wore a T-shirt that read: I'd rather eat worms than fly a Lanzo Bomber!  He was always drawn to the most unorthodox looking models whether they be V-tailed, tailless or even canards.   He was probably best known for Bunch Scorpions and Lancers and he had one approved design:  the Sylph.    At a minimum, the model had to look like it could carry a pilot and to that end, he had scale Taylorcrafts that could give a hot Playboy a run for the money. He never showed up with a pylon model or a polyhedral wing.
He was a perennial thorn in the side to some CDs because he could identify and exploit loopholes like no one else.  Case in point, early on he realized that A-Texaco, with its 15 minute max, was little more than an engine running contest.  So, he set about making a mockery of the event with a Cox .010 powered Rasssitoodus that could putter around in ground effect and then glide like clump of sod after maxing.
I visited him twice at his home in Carmichael.   The whole house was a model shop except for one room.  His disabled late wife had predeceased him by many years and her room was kept as she left it.