Mill

I thought this was really cool. There is no Hobbies section so i'll post it here.

They made a model airplane capable of going from Newfoundland to Ireland using a satellite and AOL. Of cource AOL messed up and they thought the plane was lost for a while, but it made it. Here's the whole artical.


A model e-mail trans-Atlantic flight
5-kilo craft goes to Ireland from Newfoundland
Designed by legally blind 77-year-old man


The airplane disappeared in the early morning hours, somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean.

Engineers were using an unheard of system to track the flight from Newfoundland to Ireland. Once per minute, the plane transmitted its flight details to a satellite array. Those numbers were sent back down to Earth, and America Online delivered the information via e-mail to flight planners on the ground.

After 3 1/2 hours without an e-mail, most of the ground crew knew it was over. When Les Hamilton recalls the moment his crew telephoned counterparts in County Galway, Ireland, his throat constricts.

"We called several of the people in Ireland," Hamilton says. "They were on their way to the landing site and we told them they can turn around and go home."

Dave Brown, an engineer waiting in Ireland, was taking one of those sombre calls when AOL chimed in with its trademark announcement.

They had mail.

The wayward flier was 2,588 kilometres into its flight from Newfoundland to Ireland, soaring high above the Atlantic. All 5 kilograms of it.

When the plane arrived in Ireland last Monday, 'The Spirit of Butts Farm' landed in the history books — as the first model airplane to cross the Atlantic.

The plane's designer, a near-deaf, legally blind 77-year old named Maynard Hill broke into tears and hugged his wife.

"He dissolved," says Hamilton, who became friends with Hill after driving him to aviation club meetings. "This has been his dream for a good many years."

Hill's dream took flight at about 6:15 EDT, from a farm in Cape Spear Newfoundland on Saturday night. The trip, with a ground speed of 88 km/h, took the mylar and balsa wood plane 38 hours and 23 minutes — shattering previous flight records for model airplanes.

With a cruising level of 300 metres, The Spirit of Butts Farm flew high enough to dodge ocean trawlers and low enough to avoid real airplanes.

The Spirit of Butts Farm flew most of the way on autopilot but, as it buzzed into Irish airspace, engineers on the ground took control and guided it to the ground with a shot-glass of fuel to spare.

If certified by the governing body for model aircraft, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the flight could set world records for distance travelled by a model airplane and duration of flight.

"We're a strange bunch," Hamilton says. "Each of us has particular talents and skills that we can bring to the project. It truly is a team effort."

With a wingspan just under two metres, The Spirit of Butts Farm, did bear a kind of passenger list.

"We put on board the airplane a single sheet of paper, listing the companies, the model airplanes and the individuals we wanted to recognize as having contributed to this project."

With files from Associated Press