Mark Allen M wrote:
I think many years ago I read about the Byron airshows and always wanted to ge check one out. As can be seen in the first video there seems to be quite a large crowd and the need for bleachers so the shows must have been very popular. Amazing the size and amount of detail some of those folks put into their RC planes. That B-29 is simply amazing. I would venture a guess that B-29 cost a bundle to make and I wonder if it's still around today. Bruce did you ever attend a show? What was the intent of the carrier? Would these very large RC planes actually try to land on that carrier? Hmmm! that would be quite something to see.
I'm not a huge RC guy, I respect the guys who are deep into it and I love the attention to detail and great attention to what looks like authentic paint schemes when not moving, but the smaller RC planes simply fly too fast and eratic for me to be entertained with anything looking remotely real. I do like the larger RC planes like the B-29 above that much better come close to looking real in the air. It's just hard to enjoy a B-17 flying as fast as a jet
Take a look at the video when the B-29 is on takeoff roll. That to me looks about as real to an actual full size B-29 as it gets for RC. Without the guy standing there and just seeing the C47 and B-29 I would think it was the real deal.
Also looks like the B-29 has real convincing props doesn't it? Why is it that most RC planes have those non-authentic type props? Are those needed for flight control?
I did attend several of the shows in Ida Grove sadly it was a victim of it's own success, the crowds grew rapidly as the shows added more and more visual effects and these large crowds quickly overwhelmed the logistics of Ida Grove which was and is a small town. A fatal accident by one of the Tora team aircraft may have expedited the move to Ankeny but it was mainly due to space constraints. Once in Ankeny the show quickly died off.
The carriers were for visual effect only, a dozen or so aircraft were placed on the deck as props but I don't think any were actually flown off the deck although the carriers did move in and out of crowd view as the show went on.
The entire show was a weekend long affair, activities started with r/c aircraft of various classes in e morning and into early afternoon, then a full size airshow and the day culminated with the Byron Orginals Striking Back show which was a condensed version of the Pacific war with R/C vehicles, tanks, ships and aircraft, some of which were rigged to explode in flight while others were shot down by a real flak gun (yes really) mid air collisions galore.... Most of the aircraft in the striking back show were quite large as evidenced by the museum pics.
It was one of the more entertaining aviation events I've ever experienced, unfortunately it iis gone forever.