Just time for our occasional series: "Ladies in Bikinis Holding Model Aircraft!"
I will be testing you on the aircraft...
Who filed the first patent for a 'flying machine with a boat hull'?
- Alphonse Pénaud
- Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
- Orville Wright
When built the first single engine monocoque aircraft?
- Dornier-Zeppelin
- Oswald Short
- LFG Roland
You buy a model aircraft whose controls use the 72 MHz frequency band. Which country are you NOT permitted to legally fly it in?
- Canada
- Singapore
- the Vatican city state
Which of these light jets is the fastest?
- the Cirrus Vision SF50
- the Dassault Falcon 10
- the Bombardier Learjet 25D
Which of these nations did not purchase the F4 Phantom?
- Spain
- Turkey
- Japan
Which of the following is NOT used to control a multi-pitch RC helicopter?
- the cyclic
- the collective
- the throttle
Which aircraft is depicted below?
- a Martin AM Mauler
- a Douglas A-1 Skyraider
- an NAA T28 Trojan
Well how did you do? I'm not going to tell you because I don't believe you were looking at the aircraft, but if you think you did well then well done!
More ladies in bikinis holding model aircraft another time...
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What are the pulp archetypes? Pulp novels are usually written quickly and rely on a formula, but do they use different archetypal characters to other fiction?
Let's take a look at a few...
The Outlaw is a classic pulp archetype: from Dick Turpin onwards lawbreakers have been a staple of the genre. Crime never pays, but it's exciting and trangressive!
Some pulp outlaws however are principled...
As Bob Dylan sang "to live outside the law you must be honest." Michel Gourdon's 1915 hero Dr Christopher Syn is a good example. A clergyman turned pirate and smuggler, he starts as a revenger but becomes the moral magistrate of the smuggling gangs of Romney Marsh.
Given the current heatwave, I feel obliged to ask my favourite question: is it time to bring back the leisure suit?
Let's find out...
Now we all know what a man's lounge suit is, but if we're honest it can be a bit... stuffy. Formal. Businesslike. Not what you'd wear 'in da club' as the young folks say.
So for many years tailors have been experimenting with less formal, but still upmarket gents attire. The sort of garb you could wear for both a high level business meeting AND for listening to the Moody Blues in an espresso bar. Something versatile.
Today in pulp I look back at the publishing phenomenon of gamebooks: novels in which YOU are the hero!
A pencil and dice may be required for this thread...
Gamebooks are a simple but addictive concept: you control the narrative. At the end of each section of the story you are offered a choice of outcomes, and based on that you turn to the page indicated to see what happens next.
Gamebook plots are in fact complicated decision tree maps: one or more branches end in success, but many more end in failure! It's down to you to decide which path to tread.