The first ever soft mounted engine

This was the first aerobatic (may be even the first model aircraft) to have a soft mounted engine.  This was the late seventies and little had been done to reduce noise levels, indeed aerobatic models generally had a bad name for high noise levels. We we sill running at high RPM levels with 11 x 7 1/3 propellers.  The idea was born when Schluter helicopters used a small hard rubber bobbin on their undercarriage mounts.  I managed to buy four as spares and the soft mount was born.  Noise levels dropped from a 106 dbA to 96 dbA.  A two metre aerobatic model  of  today is one of the quietest aircraft in the competition scene, a tribute to those who took on the idea and developed so many new innovations to reduce noise levels.

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