Fred's Firebaby 1st Flight

1st flight with my Firebaby replica. A plastic fuselage Firebaby was my very first powered airplane (1957). It was powered by a Thimble Drome 'Babe Bee". This replica was made by tracing the parts of a plastic fuselage Firebay and constructing the fuselage of balsa and plywood. The wing is laminated for stiffness (no dihedral or camber). The engine is a late '50s Baby Bee (purchased new at a swap). Bill Smith also made a comparable model powered by a Cox 'product engine'.

[@OcotilloTom]

I have always liked airplanes. I got my first flying model airplane when I was about 10. It was a Carl Goldberg (I think) "Fire Baby" with a 0.49 engine, "U" control of course. Neither my dad nor I knew anything about gas models.. this was about 1957. So the hobby shop where we bought it in Monroe, Louisiana gave us the name of a kid who did and we went to his house and he helped us build it. It didn't take long since it was a "profile" model meaning the fuselage was 2 dimensional basically being a flat stick of balsa wood, the wings and tail were too.
The kid showed us how to start and fly it and then my dad tried. It went UP and then DOWN. It survived the crash but it took a beating before I figured it out. It moved very fast and you got dizzy quickly. I took up model airplanes again in the 60's when I was in the Marine Corps and lived in San Diego. The local Navy base had a great hobby shop and you could buy kits for 2 dollars and engines (K&B .35's) for $7. I became fairly proficient at flying them. Then in the 80's I came back to the hobby but now it was radio controlled, and I built some nice BIG models, some from kits and some from plans and flew them for a few years. Now it's electric motors etc., etc. and everything costs a fortune but I'm not up to that anymore. I'm going on 75 and my Harley's and old Cushman motor scooters keep my busy.

[@frederickkrueger783]

Tom; thanks for the story! I received help from our local HS priciple, who maintained a small hobby shop in his home. This was in a small town in Wisconsin (Horicon). I'm 75 today and still doing this as one of my hobby interests. Check out some of my other videos.

[@GuitarGuys7299]

Very Cool and Very Retro!