Free Flight

Wakefield CupThe first competition for the oldest trophy in international aeromodelling, the Wakefield Cup, was held on September 29 1928. September 2008 thus marks the 80th anniversary of this trophy for free flight rubber powered aircraft, which is now awarded at World Championships for category F1B.
A full history of the Wakefield Cup, starting with the first Cup donated by Lord Wakefield in 1911, was written by Charles Dennis Rushing and has been made available in electronic form in the free flight section of this web site
http://www.fai.org/aeromodelling/freeflight/wakefield

Free Flight models are flown without any form of mechanical or radio control over the model in flight. This is the earliest form of aeromodelling, a particular milestone being the first model powered by a rubber band built and flown by Alphonse Penaud in 1871. Always present since that time has been the joy and achievement of releasing a model and seeing it soar overhead in its planned flight pattern.

Free Flight World Championships and many major competitions are flown with the following model classes:
Hopfler F1A: photo by Wilhelm Kamp

The World Championships class F1D permits rubber motors of up to 0.6 gram in an aircraft with a minimum weight of 1.2g the without rubber motor. Dimensional limits are maximum wing span of 550mm, maximum chord of lifting surfaces 200mm, and maximum tail span 450mm. Models are usually made of a balsa frame covered with a lightweight transparent covering, either microfilm or plastic. Flights of up to 40 minutes are possible with F1D models.

There are two other rubber powered classes for smaller models:

The members of the subcommittee are listed below. If you have any comments or suggestions on Free Flight matters, you can contact the subcommittee at ciam-f1@fai.org.