7 South Front Street....Montezuma, Iowa 50171
Introduction
by Bruce Tharpe
People often ask me what the inspiration was for the Wonder. Well, did you ever see the Flying Sub from "Voyage to the Bottom
of the Sea"? As a kid, I thought that was just about the coolest flying machine ever conceived. No, the Wonder doesn't look
exactly like the Flying Sub, but it had to be somewhere in the back of my mind when I was doodling the first Wonder years ago. I
suppose there's a bit of old
time control line combat influence in the design as well.
The design presented here actually evolved from many years of "Wonder-Type" designs, starting with 1/2A versions back in the
early 1980s. There have been swept wings, straight wings, single tails, twin tails, and tripple tails. The basic idea has never
changed, however. I wanted dirt-simple models that featured a shoulder wing (for easy hand launches) with a large stabilizer
butted up against the trailing edge. Many people call them flying wings, but technically, they're not. Actually the extended tail
simplifies hooking up the ailerons and elevator, and provides a smoother pitch response than most true flying wings.
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