Control Line Speed World Record Broken

On Saturday 13 October 2001 at Fairmile Common near Cobham in Surrey, UK, Paul Eisner made an attempt on his existing World Record for Control Line Speed (1.0 to 2.5cc) which he had held at just over 194 mph since 1987. In unseasonably warm conditions (24C) the best run of the afternoon registered a provisional speed of 208.28 mph. This beats his existing record by the considerable margin of around 14 mph. The model is powered by an Irvine 15 "special" and uses a single-blade carbon fibre prop - as is usual with models of this type.

The FAI have now confirmed the speed of 335km/h as a new World Record. See the listing in the records section of their website.

Paul is a member of the Elmbridge Club and also flys r/c on Epsom Downs so I make no excuse for going a little "off-topic" and including this on a website that is otherwise totally dedicated to r/c flying. The pictures on this page were all taken on the day. Click on the thumbnails for full-size pictures.

See the video of the world record flight, and hear what an Irvine 2-stroke sounds like at 36,000 rpm!

Choose from

  • Real Video (2.2MB)
  • Low-resolution Real Video (355k)

    • Sorry, but for bandwidth reasons the previously available Mpeg version has had to be removed. The Real Video version actually offers better quality and a filesize less than a third of the Mpeg file. A much smaller low-resolution Real Video is also supplied for anybody that doesn't either have broadband or lots of patience waiting for the file to download!

     
     
     

     
     
     

     
     
     
    And now a few words from Paul - written the day after.

    After waiting forever for some good weather we finally hit the jackpot yesterday at the Elmbridge club circles in Esher, Surrey. An air temperature of 24 deg C ,65% Relative humidity ( good for alcohol fuel) and no wind, very unusual for mid October. Using the same equipment as for the 2001 Nationals I made 5 flights of which the best (10.74 seconds 208.28 mph ( 335.19kph)) will be put forward to the FAI for ratification as the new absolute 2.5cc world record .The previous record was 313.45kph so a 21.7 kph increase ( 6.9%) on this more than justifies a claim. I wish to thank all of those who helped with the significant preparation and adjudication effort involved in yesterdays record flights , particularly Jo and Peter Halman ,David Brewin , Ted Horne and Dick McGladdery . I would also like thank all those who turned up to support me, to take the video shots and stills . Thank you Dick Miles , Martin Radcliffe and John Privett.I look forward to viewing the edited versions of the videos when you are fed up with watching that man with the knobbly knees running round and round in ever decreasing circles!


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