History - The History of Miniature Aircraft

[carey shurley]

Back in 2006 I was commissioned by Miniature Aircraft to create this article for a European R/C magazine. I don't know if it was published or not but this is the complete article

The Schoonard family gave me access to a recording of Walt Schoonard himself describing how this all got originally started.

Perhaps a LITTLE off topic but given MA's history with gas helicopters I think it fits

Obviously the "future" of Miniature Aircraft changed in 2009 when it was acquired by Flyco but enjoy.

Click on the page to download the PDF

http://helifreak.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=289715&stc=1&d=1329272050
(http://helifreak.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=289710&stc=1&d=1329272050)

[rbort]

Good interesting read, and I thought of myself and where I was during all the dates of development. Unfortunately I never got to meet Walt, but his machines still fly on :)

-=>Raja.

[ngin]

Thank you Carey. Very Interesting. Myself and a friend were the first two in our area with the original X-Cell, way back in the day, when most of the locals were flying GMP's and Schluters. I flew MinAirs for many years after.

I think it would be great to have similar histories about all the other long standing companies that are still going strong today. e.g. Hirobo, JR, Vario & Century.

[carey shurley]

I'm not opposed to that, but with the exceptions of Century or Bergen it would probably be very hard for me to find the right person within the company who knows the history and to have a 1-2 hour conversation with them. I listened to about 4 hours of tapes of Walt to be able to put the story together.

[Doug Darby]

Very interesting article.

Thanks for sharing.