[RKDinOKC]

When I was into RC one of the RC plane magazines had a contest for the widest flying envelope with a 40 size engine. You got 3 points for every MPH it would fly controllably under 25mph without special skills and 1 for every mph over. You had to video it flying it's fastest and it's slowest over a specific distance, and submit the video with plans for the plane.

It stared with a $1000 prize, then some aerospace companies got involved in sponsoring the contest and the prize grew to $15,000. It went on for about six months. There were a couple of articles about submitted planes. One had an engine nacel that rotated like the wings on the Osprey from hover to forward. Another was a submission by Burt Rattan, the winges would pivot on the CG to prevent low speed stalling and the fuselage and engine rotated 45 degrees from the tail boom/horiontal stabilizers to provide both lift and forward power at low speeds. It was pretty cool because it could lift and carry a 9lb. payload (that's huge for a 40 size plane).

Then 3 months before the submission deadline the contest disappeared. No more mention of it in the magazine, no advertising, no winner announced, nothing. It was like it never happened.

I sometimes wonder what it was that someone came up with that was so cool not only killed but hushed the contest.