History of RC Sailboats

Rcsailing.net General Discussion
1

Hi,

I got a blog www.rcsailboatguide.com and am researching for a new article on the history of RC sailboats. If you got any knowledge of the first rc sailboats or pictures etc. please contact me on:
www.rcsailboatguide.com/contact-us

Looking forward to hear from you.

B.

PS: You can send me also any other latest interesting news on RC sailboats. Always interested :graduate:

2

Here’s a writeup on the first one we know about with sail control:

http://www.usvmyg.org/radio/radio.htm

The PDF is an article written by the first US R/C Champion.

Cheers,

Earl

3

YOu may want to look up r/c model boats in general, because they probably developed about the same time, and would give you a better understanding of the whole concept: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-controlled_boat

Also r/c yachts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_yachting

4

Tesla’s Robot Boat dates to 1898: http://www.teslasociety.com/radio.htm

5

Hi Earl, TomoHawk and Jerry,

thank you very much for the great links. Really awesome stuff. :slight_smile:
Will work on it and bring it all together in an article and post the link here once it is done.

Thanks again, really appreciated.
B. from www.rcsailboatguide.com

6

A propos Tesla’s R/C device, it was intended, like nearly all early R/C experiments, as a weapon. A controlled locomotive torpedo. Tesla made ridiculous claims for it, even suggesting that the British fleet could be sunk as Spithead without the attackers having to go beyond Sandy Hook. This overlooks problems of range, endurance, and target acquisition.

REalistic coverage of the early days of R/C (not necessarily in models) can be found in B F Miessner “Radiodynamics” New York 1916. Early radio control of powered models is in “Model Engineer” before 1914 and in books from the 1920s and 30s by Raymond Phillips.

Russell

7

Hi Russel

do you know if the first RC Boat build by Telsa was a sailing boat or a motor boat?

Cheers,
B.

8

Motor boat

9

I wouldn’t knock Tesla. He was a genius, innovative, and (best of all) a Hungarian. :smiley:

Like any inventor of the era, he made predictions about the kinds of extents his invention might have, which weren’t exactly pragmatic, but were realistic when viewed from decades later.

It wasn’t until Sr. Marconi developed and marketed Tesla’s innvention that he was to be considered successful. We call the Tesla’s invention Radio.

10

By the time of his R/C patent, Tesla was an American citizen, having started out as a subject of the Hapsburg (Austro-Hungarian) empire. He was, ethnically, a Croat, as any Croatian nationalist will tell you. Croatia was before 1918 administered as part of the Hungarian part of the Hapsburg empire, .He didn’t speak Hungarian. I have attached a drawing and photo of his device. I have an 18 page .pdf of his patent applicatin if anyone is interested.

Russell