Re: Re: Indoor flying in Finland from 1934

From: Tapio Linkosalo <tapio.linkosalo_at_iki.fi>
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2012 20:25:29 +0200

On 13.12.2012 19:42, John Kagan wrote:
>
> That's a great clip. There seems to be some comedy between the stern guy
> and the other timer - what are they saying to each other?

The stern guy is a lieutenant of the air force, supervising the
competition. The other guy is a flight mechanic, who will be starring
the rest of the movie (along with his pilot), as they participate in an
air race on their Blackburn Ripon planes. The joke is mostly that the
mechanic is a little too talkative to the lieutenants liking, but later
the latter starts to mumble about the flight time, too. A transcription
of the clip is something like this:


Lieutenant: And now last years champion will fly his new model for the
third time. We will soon see, if he can defend his title

Mechanic: Let's see how the old chap does this time
Lieutenant: Flight mechanic Suulanen ("big mouth") should not think aloud!
Mechanic: Yes sir, lieutenant!

Lieutenant: It will be over 5 minutes...
Mechanic: Krmph!

Lieutenant: it was good.

Lieutenant: The new model of the champion has beaten the old record by
staying aloft for 5 minutes and 25 seconds. Cheers for the champion!
Three "Hoorays!"
Everybody: HOORAY! HOORAY! HOORAY!

Lieutenant: It is a pleasure to see the popularity of these model
airplane contest among both the contestants and the audience. I hope
this will further develop, as through this kind of contests will
aviation as sport be promoted especially among the youth, encouraging
them to conquer the skies for their fatherland as active pilots in both
civil and military aviation.

Lieutenant: And now boys, let's go!

> The scene might be staged, but there is no doubt that is well built and
> trimmed model.

It definately seems staged, as the site seems quite small to fly for 5
minutes. I have been trying to figure out what the site is (I think it
should be in Helsinki), but so far to avail.

I was given a book (or a booklet) of building indoor models, written in
30-something by Aimo Siro, and it has a couple of drawings of his
design, too. The plane in the film has great resemblance to them
(although it is not exactly like none of them, but rather combines
features from 2 models), so I am convinced that the model is built by A.
Siro. That 5 minutes is about the duration they got from their models at
that time.



-Tapio-
Received on Thu Dec 13 2012 - 10:25:32 CET