Most of us are inclined to take our radio control systems pretty much for granted - to the extent that we've probably not given much thought to the pioneers of radio-controlled flight. So if you're interested in a bit of history - read on.

There's no question as to who designed, built and flew the first R/C model - it was an American modeller by the name of Chester Lanzo with his 'RC-l' in 1934. Chet was a champion modeller in rubber-powered free flight - his cabin style designs were frequent contest winners.  When gasoline-powered engines became available in the early thirties he extended his rubber-powered designs to gas-powered models.

Free flight events in those days resulted in extensive flights that led to many models being lost or damaged. Those $21 engines were precious during the Depression! Chet concluded that if he could control the model it could land safely and the long chases which were the order of the day could also be eliminated. Some form of radio control seemed the logical approach.

Chet had little knowledge of electronics and no-one had found a way to reduce the domestic radios, with their thermionic valves and huge batteries, to a size and weight that would suit model aircraft. So it was off to the library for study. Chet determined that the earliest method of radio transmission, as practiced by Marconi, might be more adaptable than the new-fangled valves. Such a transmitter was simply a sparking coil that energised a tuned circuit and this in turn transmitted a radio wave.

The heart of the receiver was a 'coherer' - a glass tube loosely filled with iron filings. When a radio wave was received, the filings would become magnetically aligned and create a circuit within the tube. The closed circuit would then pass the current needed to activate a relay-like actuator whose arm operated the model's rudder.

There was no attempt at frequency - the transmitter simply blasted the atmosphere with a radio wave! I can remember as a kid making a spark transmitter using a car ignition coil to create a spark across a gap, the two sides of which were connected to an aerial and an earth. I used it to transmit morse-code to a friend who received it on his crystal set several houses away, not knowing at the time this was terribly illegal!

When the system was finally operational, Chet determined that he could do better with a model which had been expressly designed to be controlled (unlike the free flight models). The result was his 'RC-I' a boxy cabin model of about 2.4 metres wingspan. The RC-1 was first flown as a free flight model and found to be docile and stable. Various rudder settings were used and the RC-I responded to each without vice. The stage was set for radio!

The first attempts revealed a bug - the spark ignition engine interfered with the radio wave. Various attempts to cure the problem resulted in about a 30 metre range, which proved to be the maximum for the system. Chet was delighted to get an occasional command through while the model was free flying, but control was, to say the least, less than positive. After the RC-I had met its demise on one of these flights, Chet decided that the coherer system was impractical.

His next design, built in 1935, was a 4 metre monster called "The Racer". Its size was necessary to carry the heavy, thermionic valve equipment he had now switched to. With the concept of radio control now firmly established, others took tip the challenge, developing more miniaturised valve equipment which was not only more reliable but lighter and smaller. When these sets were mass produced and marketed commercially after WWII, radio control really mushroomed.  The biggest breakthrough came in the early sixties with miniaturised transistor equipment which had less current drain from lower voltage batteries. From these humble beginnings we have seen the evolution of multi channel, reed sets, pulse proportional, digital proportional, IC chips, FM, PCM, and now computer radios - all the time becoming smaller, lighter and more efficient.

One of my favourite aircraft is a Lanzo RC- I, built from the original plan and powered with a vintage O&R 60 spark ignition engine running on petrol. The one concession to modernity is using an FM computer radio. I fly it, with some success, in Old Timer 38 Antique events. But every time it takes to the air I can't help thinking about that great pioneer Chester Lanzo and his original RC-1, the first radio controlled aircraft.