future of RC: A new millennium in modeling, The

Model Airplane News, Jan 2000 by Aberle, Bob, Gierke, Dave

Over the last century, basic aircraft design and aerodynamic theory have been relatively constant: an airplane needs a lifting surface (a wing), control surfaces and a power source. Newer construction materials, such as carbon fiber, fiberglass and closed-bead foam, have affected RC model design and construction, but the capabilities of the radio and power systems are the driving force behind modeling innovation and growth. Today's models push the flight envelope in every possible direction: we fly giant, gas-powered, lh-scale aerobatic aircraft and tiny electric micro indoor flyers that use infrared radio systems; unlimited racers can reach speeds of more than 240mph, while slow backyard flyers can maintain controlled walking speed; scale craftsman detail models to become exact replicas of the originals, and NASA aerodynamicists use models to test concepts for full-scale craft. In the midst of these extremes, modelers have been building airplanes for the last 100 years by cutting and gluing balsa, and we anticipate that modelers will be doing the same for the next 100 years. Even while new technologies expand our possibilities for innovation, modelers have continued to embrace craftsmanship and building skill. Will balsa ever be replaced by a synthetic alternative? Perhaps, but we anticipate more likely improvements to our hobby.

We look forward to covering materials that are even easier to apply; more user-friendly, convenient adhesives that won't glue us to our models; inexpensive, turnkey trainer, sport and scale craft; new, less expensive power sources and fuels; smaller, more affordable turbine engines; virtual reality flight simulators in our homes; and hand-held lasers that cut balsa wood but not fingers!

Will model airplanes ever be independent of their pilots? Roy Clough notes, "I wrote in 1947 that model planes will eventually become 'robots,' independently capable of responding to their environment, but responsive to their operator's wishes. This, of course, implied some sort of autonomous onboard logic. Fifty years later, the forerunners of the future have arrived in the form of gyros and horizon-sensing adjuncts that control attitude and heading with no input from the operator. Much more sophisticated things are to come."

On the first free-flight airplanes, we trimmed our models, started their engines, launched them and hoped they would return-or at least, hoped that we could see where they landed! In the next century, will we come full circle to program our models, start the engines and launch them, only to stand back and watch them perform on their own? Only time will tell.

There is a belief among aerospace engineers and marketing mavens that it takes 20 years or more to develop a new air- or spacecraft, yet it may take only five years to bring new electronics equipment or systems to maturity. If that comparison is true, we should have in store for us much progress in the electronics field during the new millennium's beginning. We hope to see and enjoy a lot of that progress during our lifetimes.

With those thoughts in mind, let's take a little excursion through some of the areas in which progress will (or should) be made. This is my personal "wishbook" for the future in model aircraft electronics and electric power.

RC SYSTEMS

We are lucky to now have 50 RC channels on 72MHz dedicated by the FCC to the flying of model aircraft. Although we once thought that other services might try to use our channels, it was our good luck that cell-phone technology came along. Today, all of this tremendous new communication activity is up in the 90OMHz region, leaving us pretty much by ourselves. The downside to this is that the technology being constantly improved up at 90OMHz isn't going to help us as much way down on 72MHz. So I do look forward to future new RC channel allocations, possibly higher up in the radio spectrum, that may benefit us more. The mode of operation known as "spread spectrum" has been talked about for some time. To make that technology work for us, we will likely need a new band of frequencies. But I do see in the future something like spread spectrum, or possibly some other new form of digital coding transmission, either of which could virtually eliminate all forms of potential radio interference.

TRANSMITTERS

With sufficient memory and easier upand downloading, personal computers will enable future modelers to own only one good-quality transmitter. As I write this in late 1999, I'm looking at six of my personal transmitters, all hooked up to various trickle chargers. In the future, I hope one really good, simple-to-operate transmitter will replace them.

To make things happen without the usual accidents, I look forward to voice alarm systems that tell you which memory position is currently set in the transmitter. For example, when you turn on your transmitter to get ready to fly, a voice will tell you, "Aeronca L-3 scale electric." In the same regard, I foresee built-in channel synthesizers that will allow you to dial up all 50 RC aircraft channels without needing to change a module or crystal. Again, I would like that same voice alarm to tell you the channel number that you are set to transmit on. To prevent accidentally using someone else's channel, the alarm should sound when the transmitter case is first touched, similar to the way a motion detector works. Why? Because after the power has been turned on, the damage could already be done.