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Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

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Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#151

Post by nigamanth »

greenbit wrote: post #49
tragomaskhalos wrote: post #19

The 70s really were another country - see also: chemistry sets. These are pale and anodyne things now with a mere handful of bland household-level chemicals - assuming you can even find one in a toy shop at all. But as a lad these were both readily available and full of dozens of intriguing substances that would send a modern health and safety wonk into apoplexy. Who among us did not incinerate all of the supplied ma…

Those sure were different times. I recall in the mid 1970s, as a kid no less, being able to go into a pharmacy and buy sulfur or KNO3 w/o any trouble at all. However it wasn't more than a couple years later, when a request for phosphorus was met with an icy "do I need to call your mother" stare, that my budding career as a chemist came to an end. Besides, the Radio Shack across the street had this computer set up for…

Life was so safe back then, I remember not even locking the door in the mid 80s LOL.

The door to my house was open, and we were sure no-one would enter.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#152

Post by mlindner »

tragomaskhalos wrote: post #85
denton-scratch wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So regulate charcoal. And black powder requires saltpetre, and doesn't require nitric acid. You can make saltpetre from piss, but I don't know how. And is black powder so scary? You can get it out of firecrackers, which are sold (here) without ID, although I guess you might have to prove your age to buy fireworks. It doesn't detonate, so it can't be used to prime a high-explosive like ammonium nitrate fertilizer.

Saltpetre was available from chemists (ie pharmacies) in the UK, but me and my pals had limited success making decent gunpowder with it - I strongly suspect it was heavily laced with some form of fire retardant precisely to thwart pyromaniacal little herberts like us.

It's still available from hardware stores in the US, in the form of stump remover. It's really pure as well.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#153

Post by nl »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #131
implements wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn’t there a flying toy where an engine was mounted between two counter-rotating disks? (80s or before, possibly)

I remember playing with one of these. I remember it went up and never came back down. https://www.flyingdiscmuseum.com/novelty/multi-piece/h242871...

What an amazing site this is!

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#154

Post by kqr »

nibbleshifter wrote: post #134
tragomaskhalos wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saltpetre was available from chemists (ie pharmacies) in the UK, but me and my pals had limited success making decent gunpowder with it - I strongly suspect it was heavily laced with some form of fire retardant precisely to thwart pyromaniacal little herberts like us.

Its still sold in the UK for certain culinary purposes, surprisingly enough. As for why your experiments weren't as spectacular as you hoped: the particular charcoal you use is really important. Its best to make your own with a paint can, some willow, a nail, and a campfire. Adequate crushing of components into floury powder follows, then adequate mixing, and ideally wet-pressing and corning. Source: an extremely mis…

The thing sold in grocery stores is usually CaNO3 though and not KNO3.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#155

Post by speakspokespok »

implements wrote: post #113
JasonFruit wrote: post #97

We removed the engine from my control line model and made a much more dangerous device! We mounted three wheels on the edge of a Frisbee and mounted the engine vertically in the cut out center. Then we started it and let it uncontrollably bounce, fly, and spin around the driveway, scattering gravel, until it ran out of gas or quit running from sheer abuse.

Wasn’t there a flying toy where an engine was mounted between two counter-rotating disks? (80s or before, possibly)

Wow. Way to bring me back. Looking at the link above I immediately recognized a similar toy that I had in the early 90's. it was of a similar design but with a small electric motor, and a stiff wire about 3ft long running to a control box that also had batteries. The UFO would hover. As I recall it was red and looked like a UFO.

If we're talking toys that don't exist anymore, anybody here ever have a water pressure rocket? You'd add water and then pressurize it with a hand pump. They'd go about 50 ft in the air I think. Once by accident I released a pressurized rocket in my parents kitchen leaving a nice dent in the ceiling.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#156

Post by asdff »

nigamanth wrote: post #151
greenbit wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those sure were different times. I recall in the mid 1970s, as a kid no less, being able to go into a pharmacy and buy sulfur or KNO3 w/o any trouble at all. However it wasn't more than a couple years later, when a request for phosphorus was met with an icy "do I need to call your mother" stare, that my budding career as a chemist came to an end. Besides, the Radio Shack across the street had this computer set up for…

Life was so safe back then, I remember not even locking the door in the mid 80s LOL. The door to my house was open, and we were sure no-one would enter.

I know a family that continues to do this. They say if someone breaks in they'd rather not have to replace a window on top of it all.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#157

Post by asdff »

ramesh31 wrote: post #57
fxtentacle wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My biggest concern about modern toys is that we have dumbed them down to work for the lowest common denominator. That's why a 3 year old today can (with a bit of training) assemble 12+ LEGO sets. Back in the day, when I was playing with LEGO Mindstorms, I thought the fact that you compile binaries and flash them with a USB cable was a feature, because it gave you full control. There was even alternative OS choices li…

>My biggest concern about modern toys is that we have dumbed them down to work for the lowest common denominator. That's why a 3 year old today can (with a bit of training) assemble 12+ LEGO sets. I think Lego is the perfect example of this. I never understood the point of it as a kid. Why would I want something that comes with an instruction booklet to recreate the exact thing shown on the box? Why wouldn't I just a…

The best experience with legos is if you had older siblings who got the legos. Then by the time you got the hand me down legos, you ended up with just a big bin of random parts, no sets, no manuals. I would create elaborate bases or freighter style space ships for playing with my other toys, play with them for a while, then take them apart and make something else. It was kind of like minecraft is with kids today, but with your two hands.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#158

Post by asdff »

giantg2 wrote: post #53
meheleventyone wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re making slime out of household cleaning products so yup!

That's a little different from stuff like The Golden Book of Chemistry teaching you to distill alcohol and create chloroform.

Wow. My college organic chemistry lab class was basically a childs chemistry set from the 70s then.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#159

Post by asdff »

neilv wrote: post #33
JoyfulTurkey wrote: post #8

I had one of these in the 80s, a P-51 Mustang. I vaguely recall it being annoying to start, but was with my dad so he definitely helped with getting it going. We had a bunch of soccer fields behind where we lived, so we flew it there to avoid any accidents. It did eventually crash, but was fun while it lasted.

Yes, in the 1980s. It must've been Christmas gifts, and my brother got a P-51, and I got a Spitfire. They were made of plastic, and looked more like realistic scale models, rather than what in the photo looks like a hand-painted balsa wood kit. (I don't recall we ever ran the engines. Probably told to wait until we went to a place with room to fly them, and then probably parts were lost before that could happen.) Spe…

I still have some lawn darts at my parents house that were illegal even when we got them. Javelins were banned in my state for track and field too.

Re: Fun, danger, and 70s airplane toys

#160

Post by Doxin »

WalterBright wrote: post #29
wrp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a concern about starting fires when they came down. I heard the rocket club at my school had to notify the fire department beforehand. I just remembered I also had a gas engine helicopter. Much more fun since it was free-flying. It would go pretty much straight up then rotor down when it ran out of gas. Couldn't do it on a windy day.

Those helicopters were very difficult to fly, or so I've been told, as they were unstable. The modern electric copters cheat because they use a computer to stabilize them.

It's possible to build a passively stabilized helicopter and a lot of modern model helicopters use that method. You can even get away with two axis control!
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