Robin Colbourne Posted June 18, 2021 Share Posted June 18, 2021 (edited) Dieter Schlüter, who, in 1970, was first to fly a successful R/C helicopter and later the first to sell them commercially, sadly died yesterday. His designs, which included the Heliboy, Helibaby and Huey Cobra, were in many cases the first model helicopters any of us saw. Edited June 18, 2021 by Robin Colbourne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin McIntosh Posted June 18, 2021 Share Posted June 18, 2021 Sorry to hear that since to the amazement of my fellow club members and Jim Davies Models whom I bought it from I got a DS 22 by the above. I got a few flights out of it before repairs were no longer an option. Can you imagine a huge heli with lousy cooling, fixed pitch and no gyro these days? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john stones 1 - Moderator Posted June 18, 2021 Share Posted June 18, 2021 Produced my first Heli, happy days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Christy Posted June 19, 2021 Share Posted June 19, 2021 (edited) Very sad to hear this! I've recently restored a few old Schluter helis, converting a couple of them to electric. This Cobra originally belonged to John Haytree, also sadly no longer with us: Its amazing how well this old, fixed-pitch heli flies, now its converted to electric! (6S, 5AH LiPo). I've now done the same with a DS-22: The DS-22 has the collective conversion, and following a re-working of the head to remove an almighty amount of slop (!), it, too, now flies really well! It is a tribute to the man that the mechanics of these machines was so over-engineered, that even after 50 years or so, they need minimal work to keep them flying! BTW, I almost have enough bits to build a "Gazelle" - the third of Schluter's original "flat-bed" designs. The only part I'm missing is a Schluter "Expert" collective head - the one with the moving flybar. If anyone has one, tucked away in a junk box anywhere, I'm interested! -- Pete P.S. Dang it! I wish there were a preview button here! This website is different to every other one I know, and I can never remember how to post images here! ? Edited June 19, 2021 by Martin Harris - Moderator Hi Pete - I've taken the liberty of reposting your links as photos. I'm not sure where the difficulty has arisen...it's now just a simple drag and drop or copy/paste operation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan H Posted June 19, 2021 Share Posted June 19, 2021 I was saddened to hear the passing of Dieter Schlüter, a pioneer of successful R/C model helicopters. I remember seeing him give a demo of his fixed pitch Huey Cobra way back in the 1970's at Sandown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Christy Posted June 19, 2021 Share Posted June 19, 2021 Thanks Martin! I'll PM you... Alan: It was seeing DS flying his Cobra at Sandown (or was it Kempston, back then?) that inspired Peter Valentine to design the Lark! He truly was a pioneer. Keeping his design simple, with fixed pitch, enabled him to get ahead of his rivals with their complex collective designs. There's a lot to be said for keeping it simple...! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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