Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Roucraft vs Fokker Triplane over Boppolia
John Dana sent this recently uncovered historic photo of his infamous Guillow Fokker Triplane (free-flight fluuper) engaged in a rou with an unidentified roucraft flown by Colonel Macy Hallock (shirtless below). The event took place in 1972 or '73 in Boppolia, Jungolia.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Womb with a Rou
On 2/6/2013 2:14 PM, Gary Hallock wrote via e-mail to Austin Bruce Hallock & others:
Mom and I have been reading through a bunch of her old Boppo letters. This particular one was from June of 1951, shortly before I was born. (As Boppo apparently expected me to be a girl, in his mind he refers to me by my working title, "Cherry Jean." - However I I'd always been told that Dad's working name for me was "Martin Gale.")
At any rate the back side of his page was blank, so upon receiving this, I guess Mom allowed an enterprising Curley Spatano to fill the space with doodles with a bright red pencil. Apparently he has travelled across time to sketch out few early designs in hopes that Lt. Cherry Jean could have a "womb with rou." (The one at the top seems like it could be a seaper.) I think the sketch at the top right may be a detail for a landing gear that was sub-contracted by BKH.
Lt. Gary (Cherry) Mac
[See response below picture.]
Austin Bot Lloyd Bruce deHelyarch Hallock responds:
Ah, yes! Curley Spatano will, indeed, have drawn this series of images in the dim and distant past, and he has, perforce (I just like that word), assigned me the task of explaining it all. So here goes.
As you may have guessed, there is more here than meets the eye of the semi-astute beholder. What we're actually looking at is part etiological tract and part magical talisman. First of all, please understand that this astonishing pictographic document must be read from bottom to top. This unorthodox sequencing was employed for reasons probably incomprehensible to anyone unaccustomed to non-linear timeframes, so please just take my word as an ultra-sard-forever that this is so.
Now, with those basic principles elucidated, I shall endeavor to reveal the actual meaning of the document.
The bottom drawing (1st in the series) represents the great multi-engine mother ship, pregnant with the promise of delivering many new rougers into the world. The numerous ova and spermatozoa represented by the circles and lines within the fuselage make this perfectly obvious, so no further explanation is required.
The next drawing up shows an unborn future-rouger fetus-soul (FRFS) emerging, in the symbolic form of an airplane, from the dark clouds of mystery, the veil from which we all emerge and to which we must someday return. The cryptic lettering at the rear of the fuselage is the yet-unformed name of the new being. The number "664," which appears above the airplane in the guise of a flock of birds is not a curse or variant "mark of the beast," but simply an apotropaic device that Curley employed to ward off untoward names for the soon-to-be-born baganine. Also note the wad of gerp balled up behind the propeller. This is typical of unborn baganines and is nothing to worry about, as they all get over it (see next drawing).
The 3rd drawing (second from the top) shows a more advanced FRFS. There's a lot going on here. First note the "664" charm remains in place, a good sign. Just above that, the rectangle with the squiggles inside is a cutaway showing that the newly forming rouger has finally got his gerp in order. All seems well, but a definite wall of some kind looms ahead. And beyond that wall, we see the tines of a fork in the stream of time. Yes, there is a choice to be made here. Will this FRFS become a girl or a boy rouger? It seems a cruel thing, but every proto-baganine must decide before he or she is born into the world whether his rouing career will be better served as a boy or a girl. (see next drawing).
The final drawing (at top) reveals that all will, indeed, turn out well. Yes, thanks to Curley's retroactive intervention, the FRFS will emerge from the womb like a powerful Roltin-esque roucraft. Furthermore he will grow up to be an ultra-berry-berry boy baganine bearing the name of "Got," which is clearly spelled out in "rounic" letters above the (on second thought, somewhat gronky looking) Roltin-esque roucraft. And furthermorethanthat, despite the ungainly appearance of this Roltin-esque roucraft, the young soul will be headed for -- not a detail of a landing gear, as some have posited -- but a shining ace medal to be won, after much travail, on a cool morning in the distant future in the skies above the hard pavement of the South Lamar K-Mart parking lot.
Whether Boppo was right and Gary would have fared better as Cherry, only Curley Spatano, the navigator of alternate timelines, can tell, and on this matter he is (for now) silent. But it seems clear that Curley had his reasons for intervening as he did.
A side note: Tice the style of the circles throughout this series of drawings. All of them, including the one on the ace-medal-landing-gear, seem to have been drawn in a clockwise direction and closed at about 10 o'clock. I currently tend to draw circles counter-clockwise and close them at 2 o'clock. I don't know if this has anything to do with my left-handedness, but Curley, of course, is ambidextrous. I would however draw your attention to the little potato thingy just below the ace medal. It seems to be a baganinish attempt at a circle, and it closes closer to 2 o'clock. Go figure.
Another aside: I have always habitually drawn airplane profiles with the nose facing right (another artifact of my left-handedness, I suppose). I remember Dad admonishing me against this at an early age, insisting that it violated standard engineering-drawing practice.
~ABot
Mom and I have been reading through a bunch of her old Boppo letters. This particular one was from June of 1951, shortly before I was born. (As Boppo apparently expected me to be a girl, in his mind he refers to me by my working title, "Cherry Jean." - However I I'd always been told that Dad's working name for me was "Martin Gale.")
At any rate the back side of his page was blank, so upon receiving this, I guess Mom allowed an enterprising Curley Spatano to fill the space with doodles with a bright red pencil. Apparently he has travelled across time to sketch out few early designs in hopes that Lt. Cherry Jean could have a "womb with rou." (The one at the top seems like it could be a seaper.) I think the sketch at the top right may be a detail for a landing gear that was sub-contracted by BKH.
Lt. Gary (Cherry) Mac
[See response below picture.]
Austin Bot Lloyd Bruce deHelyarch Hallock responds:
Ah, yes! Curley Spatano will, indeed, have drawn this series of images in the dim and distant past, and he has, perforce (I just like that word), assigned me the task of explaining it all. So here goes.
As you may have guessed, there is more here than meets the eye of the semi-astute beholder. What we're actually looking at is part etiological tract and part magical talisman. First of all, please understand that this astonishing pictographic document must be read from bottom to top. This unorthodox sequencing was employed for reasons probably incomprehensible to anyone unaccustomed to non-linear timeframes, so please just take my word as an ultra-sard-forever that this is so.
Now, with those basic principles elucidated, I shall endeavor to reveal the actual meaning of the document.
The bottom drawing (1st in the series) represents the great multi-engine mother ship, pregnant with the promise of delivering many new rougers into the world. The numerous ova and spermatozoa represented by the circles and lines within the fuselage make this perfectly obvious, so no further explanation is required.
The next drawing up shows an unborn future-rouger fetus-soul (FRFS) emerging, in the symbolic form of an airplane, from the dark clouds of mystery, the veil from which we all emerge and to which we must someday return. The cryptic lettering at the rear of the fuselage is the yet-unformed name of the new being. The number "664," which appears above the airplane in the guise of a flock of birds is not a curse or variant "mark of the beast," but simply an apotropaic device that Curley employed to ward off untoward names for the soon-to-be-born baganine. Also note the wad of gerp balled up behind the propeller. This is typical of unborn baganines and is nothing to worry about, as they all get over it (see next drawing).
The 3rd drawing (second from the top) shows a more advanced FRFS. There's a lot going on here. First note the "664" charm remains in place, a good sign. Just above that, the rectangle with the squiggles inside is a cutaway showing that the newly forming rouger has finally got his gerp in order. All seems well, but a definite wall of some kind looms ahead. And beyond that wall, we see the tines of a fork in the stream of time. Yes, there is a choice to be made here. Will this FRFS become a girl or a boy rouger? It seems a cruel thing, but every proto-baganine must decide before he or she is born into the world whether his rouing career will be better served as a boy or a girl. (see next drawing).
The final drawing (at top) reveals that all will, indeed, turn out well. Yes, thanks to Curley's retroactive intervention, the FRFS will emerge from the womb like a powerful Roltin-esque roucraft. Furthermore he will grow up to be an ultra-berry-berry boy baganine bearing the name of "Got," which is clearly spelled out in "rounic" letters above the (on second thought, somewhat gronky looking) Roltin-esque roucraft. And furthermorethanthat, despite the ungainly appearance of this Roltin-esque roucraft, the young soul will be headed for -- not a detail of a landing gear, as some have posited -- but a shining ace medal to be won, after much travail, on a cool morning in the distant future in the skies above the hard pavement of the South Lamar K-Mart parking lot.
Whether Boppo was right and Gary would have fared better as Cherry, only Curley Spatano, the navigator of alternate timelines, can tell, and on this matter he is (for now) silent. But it seems clear that Curley had his reasons for intervening as he did.
A side note: Tice the style of the circles throughout this series of drawings. All of them, including the one on the ace-medal-landing-gear, seem to have been drawn in a clockwise direction and closed at about 10 o'clock. I currently tend to draw circles counter-clockwise and close them at 2 o'clock. I don't know if this has anything to do with my left-handedness, but Curley, of course, is ambidextrous. I would however draw your attention to the little potato thingy just below the ace medal. It seems to be a baganinish attempt at a circle, and it closes closer to 2 o'clock. Go figure.
Another aside: I have always habitually drawn airplane profiles with the nose facing right (another artifact of my left-handedness, I suppose). I remember Dad admonishing me against this at an early age, insisting that it violated standard engineering-drawing practice.
~ABot
Sunday, September 2, 2012
A. J. Aircraft Factory Pilgrimage
The American Junior Classics website has a video of a 1961 TV documentary about the A. J. Aircraft Company in which the address of the factory is mentioned: 1201 SE 3rd Street, Portland, Oregon. (The video is worth a look; here's a direct link.) So when my wife Leela and I were in Portland a couple of weeks ago, I decided to check out the address to see what had become of the place. No telling what would be there now: A parking lot? A skate park? A highway off-ramp? Well, it turned out the building is still standing -- and looking quite spiffy at that. It now houses the Pratt & Larson Tile Company, a maker of elegant decorator ceramics.
I viewed the building from different angles trying to discern some trace of its former tenant. The only clue even remotely linking the place to its illustrious past was a model sailboat seen in a second-floor office window.
From this scant evidence I drew hope. Then I looked into the window below and spied Leela signaling to me from within. She had penetrated the premises! I joined her and was not surprised to find that the place was given over to the glorification of ceramic décor, with nary a nod to its august history.
Leela was delighted, but I was frustrated. Surely there must be some scrap, some remnant, however slight or inadvertent, of the fabled past. (Yes, I did check under the white skirts on those chairs!) I was just about to give up all hope when...
We entered an un-air-conditioned area of remnants and factory seconds. Well, this is better, I thought. And, yes, beyond the bins of miscellaneous sale tiles, I espied the factory floor looking much as it did in the 1961 documentary. Indeed, when I squinted my eyes and held my nose just right, I could almost smell the balsa dust. I raised my camera, and just as I snapped the following photo, a burley fellow grabbed me by the collar and hustled me out of there.
At home I subjected the photo to sophisticated computer analysis. Note the dark area on the left side. In the lower corner, there's just the slightest hint of red. After magnifying and enhancing this area, I was rewarded with an image that all rougers will surely recognize...
 |
| Then and now: The top picture is from the American Junior Classics website. The lower picture I took two weeks ago. |
 |
| Blurry shot of Pratt & Larson factory floor looking much as it did in the 1961 A. J. factory-tour documentary. |
 |
| Note enlarged area showing clear evidence of "Jim Walker" signature rudder with distinctive blue scalloped trim. Is it a fortuitous bit of tile? Or is it the real thing? We may never know the answer. |
 |
| ~Austin Bruce Hallock |
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Obscure Old Roucraft Sparks Inquiry
A recent e-mail discussion brought up a question about an obscure roucraft. With a little detective work (searching through musty photo albums and early victory records), I was able shed some light on the subject and perhaps provide a little lesson in memory for all of us. The question involved a stick-and-tissue Guillow kit Sopwith Camel gerper, originally constructed by John Dana and later sold to (Donald) Macy Hallock, probably in 1961. Hallock promptly turned the airplane over to Macy Aircraft Works, which then (for reasons known only to Douglas Dash) converted it to a low-wing monoplane. Under Jungolian law, the modification was sufficiently extensive to qualify the airplane for a Jungolian designation, and it was dubbed the Macy M-2. The M-2 then went into service as a rouer. In the recent e-mail discussion mentioned above, Col. Macy Hallock (JAC, retired) described the aircraft as "pure agony.......a defeat just waiting to happen." Hallock said he remembers Dale Wingard (a.k.a. Michael Howard, his preferred nom de guerre) flying the M-2 as a guest rouer and that Howard suffered a defeat while using it. This may be at least partly correct, but it's not the whole story.
It must be remembered that this was in the very early days of rouing. By the end of 1961, only nine victories had been recorded. The next three vics occurred on New Year's Day, 1962. The first two vics of that day were scored by David Smii with his new AJ-2 Pursuit, which he had just received as a Christmas gift. These were only his third and fourth vics (he wasn't even an ace yet). The third and final vic of that day was scored by Macy Hallock over Pin Croft, who was flying an NP-3 Sleek Streek. This was Hallock's first vic, and he achieved it flying none other than the one-and-only Macy M-2 Converted Sopwith Thingy! The vic occurred at The Regular Rouing Corner at 5:25 P.M. (so it must have been nearly dark).
The M-2 went on to make at least one other appearance in the record book. On January 15, 1962, John Dana, flying an NP-4 Star Flyer, finally vanquished the until-then undefeated M-2 flown by -- yes -- Macy Hallock. This was Dana's fourth vic, and it occurred at Hillman, site of his first vic. John's jumbled memory of this incident may have been what led him to later misremember (in the latest e-mail discussion) obtaining his very first vic over the M-2.
About Macy Hallock's insistence that Michael Howard flew the M-2 to inglorious defeat, we must remain somewhat uncertain -- but it certainly could have happened. Rouing vics accumulated so fast in early 1962 that the official record keeper (that would be me) was unable to keep up. I remember hastily writing down notes on scraps of paper and stuffing them in my rou box to be transcribed later into the official record. For many of these vics, I neglected to note the aircraft involved. However, the persons were always noted, and the name of Howard appears twice, both times in the defeated column. David Smii's AJ-2 (dubbed the Fluged Nose) treated him to his first defeat as he flew an NP-2. The documentation of Howard's second defeat, also delivered by Smii, is more sparse, as neither airplane is noted. It's a safe bet that Smii was again flying his famed Fluged Nose. And there's a good chance that Howard was flying the notorious Macy M-2. Aside from Macy Hallock's memory, we also have this tantalizing evidence (see photo below):
Moral of the story: Always keep good records!
~Lloyd Bruce
It must be remembered that this was in the very early days of rouing. By the end of 1961, only nine victories had been recorded. The next three vics occurred on New Year's Day, 1962. The first two vics of that day were scored by David Smii with his new AJ-2 Pursuit, which he had just received as a Christmas gift. These were only his third and fourth vics (he wasn't even an ace yet). The third and final vic of that day was scored by Macy Hallock over Pin Croft, who was flying an NP-3 Sleek Streek. This was Hallock's first vic, and he achieved it flying none other than the one-and-only Macy M-2 Converted Sopwith Thingy! The vic occurred at The Regular Rouing Corner at 5:25 P.M. (so it must have been nearly dark).
The M-2 went on to make at least one other appearance in the record book. On January 15, 1962, John Dana, flying an NP-4 Star Flyer, finally vanquished the until-then undefeated M-2 flown by -- yes -- Macy Hallock. This was Dana's fourth vic, and it occurred at Hillman, site of his first vic. John's jumbled memory of this incident may have been what led him to later misremember (in the latest e-mail discussion) obtaining his very first vic over the M-2.
About Macy Hallock's insistence that Michael Howard flew the M-2 to inglorious defeat, we must remain somewhat uncertain -- but it certainly could have happened. Rouing vics accumulated so fast in early 1962 that the official record keeper (that would be me) was unable to keep up. I remember hastily writing down notes on scraps of paper and stuffing them in my rou box to be transcribed later into the official record. For many of these vics, I neglected to note the aircraft involved. However, the persons were always noted, and the name of Howard appears twice, both times in the defeated column. David Smii's AJ-2 (dubbed the Fluged Nose) treated him to his first defeat as he flew an NP-2. The documentation of Howard's second defeat, also delivered by Smii, is more sparse, as neither airplane is noted. It's a safe bet that Smii was again flying his famed Fluged Nose. And there's a good chance that Howard was flying the notorious Macy M-2. Aside from Macy Hallock's memory, we also have this tantalizing evidence (see photo below):
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| Dale Wingard (aka Michael Howard) with the Macy M-2 in 1962. |
~Lloyd Bruce
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Time Traveler Snaps Pic of First Vic
Well, it's the last day of November, and the 50th anniversary of the first JAC victory (which occurred sometime in November of 1961) almost passed without incident. But with just a few hours left in the month, I received this photo from renown time traveler Curly Spatano. He claims to have just visited "The Hill" on the date in question and snapped the photo using one of John's old cameras (hence the sluggish shutter speed). The photo semi-clearly shows John Dana's DA-2 Taub (note distinctive wing tabs) headed for its fateful encounter with Macy Hallock's NP-2b (essentially a North Pacific Skeeter fitted with tricycle landing gear). The ensuing tango resulted in the defeat of Hallock's NP-2b and life-long glory for John Dana. Thanks, Curley, for having the hindsight to nab this (now) historic photo!
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| Click on photo to enlarge. |
Monday, September 5, 2011
North Pacific Advertisement Inspires Wonder
I promise this will be my next-to-the-last post about North Pacific -- for a while. (I still have one more NP-related post in mind.) Anyway, I found this on the RC Groups' "Sleek Streek" discussion thread without much accompanying explanation:
It appears to be from a hobby catalog or some such. It's dated 1966. I clearly remember all the planes in the right column, as well as the Space Flyer, but the others I can't say I ever saw in the flesh. That 21-inch span ROG'r looks especially interesting. Also curious is the 10¢ Space Flyer (12" wingspan) vs. the 10¢ Stunt Flyer (13½" span). I clearly remember both of these nearly identical gliders, but I didn't realize they'd been marketed simultaneously for the same price.
~Austin Bruce Hallock
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| Click on image to enlarge. |
~Austin Bruce Hallock
Zombie Sleek Streeks and Corporate Vampires
The story of the North Pacific company is one of triumph and tragedy. The triumph was the well-deserved commercial success of their best products. The tragedy was the downward spiral in the quality of those brilliant products, brought on by changing social and economic conditions.
Over the years, NP offered a wide array of flying toys, some more successful than others. But the company was probably best known for its premier line of little gliders and stick gerpers -- the ones with the red plastic wing clips -- the Strato, the Skeeter, the Sleek Streek, and the Star Flyer, plus a few variations on these basic themes. What began as inexpensive, simple, well-crafted, good-performing model planes morphed, over the decades, into perverted caricatures of themselves.
The company founders apparently knew and loved model airplanes and cared about quality. But when the company fell on hard times in the 1980s, it was sold -- more than once. The airplanes continued to be produced under other brand names, but the manufacturing was sent overseas. Poor materials were used. The die cutting and plastic parts were faulty. The day the words "BEND OREGON" disappeared from the tails of these planes was the day the Sleek Streek died. Although the Korean-made Zombie Streeks managed to glide for a while, buoyed only by NP's former reputation, they soon fell from the scene completely. No one wanted a warped-winged, soft-fuselaged ghost of a gerper with a backwards (this is true!) freewheeling ratchet. The corporate vampires who had acquired the original NP designs had sucked the life out of line.
The NP story has more twists and turns than I've described here, but that's the gist of it. For an interesting visual comparison between the original Sleek Streek and the later Comet (Korean-made) version, see this RC Group's discussion post [LINK]. Warning -- it's not pretty! (Click on his individual thumbnails to view them enlarged.)
Over the years, NP offered a wide array of flying toys, some more successful than others. But the company was probably best known for its premier line of little gliders and stick gerpers -- the ones with the red plastic wing clips -- the Strato, the Skeeter, the Sleek Streek, and the Star Flyer, plus a few variations on these basic themes. What began as inexpensive, simple, well-crafted, good-performing model planes morphed, over the decades, into perverted caricatures of themselves.
The company founders apparently knew and loved model airplanes and cared about quality. But when the company fell on hard times in the 1980s, it was sold -- more than once. The airplanes continued to be produced under other brand names, but the manufacturing was sent overseas. Poor materials were used. The die cutting and plastic parts were faulty. The day the words "BEND OREGON" disappeared from the tails of these planes was the day the Sleek Streek died. Although the Korean-made Zombie Streeks managed to glide for a while, buoyed only by NP's former reputation, they soon fell from the scene completely. No one wanted a warped-winged, soft-fuselaged ghost of a gerper with a backwards (this is true!) freewheeling ratchet. The corporate vampires who had acquired the original NP designs had sucked the life out of line.
The NP story has more twists and turns than I've described here, but that's the gist of it. For an interesting visual comparison between the original Sleek Streek and the later Comet (Korean-made) version, see this RC Group's discussion post [LINK]. Warning -- it's not pretty! (Click on his individual thumbnails to view them enlarged.)
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