IAN HUNTER: We've covered planes,
or no, planes, trains and automobiles.
So we've done trains on our track.
We've talked about using an Omega drive
to move an automobile.
We've talked about radio-controlled automobiles
and we've also talked about taking the Omega
and putting it in the train here, in the track,
if we wanted to move the train that way.
But now we want to fly an airplane.
We're going to talk about what's called the Lydecker method.
It was Theodore and the other brother.
Two guys named Lydecker.
They were brothers and in the 30s and 40s
they did a lot of effects for movies.
They're probably best known for doing the effects for
the Flash Gordon serials and Buck Rogers and things,
but they actually were used on less -
you know, more legitimate movies all the time too.
And especially during the war,
a lot of times they were used to simulate flying
and explosions and things like that.
And they specialized in
setting up really large miniatures outside
and then blowing them up.
And doing a lot of flying, either with people,
in the case of, like,
some of the serials had like,
guys with rocket packs, they would fly them.
They also flew a lot of airplanes.
And the way they did it,
was a system that used two guide cables
and a drive cable.
So, in our world, we can see our plane here,
we've got these two guide cables
and those go up and over our shivs here.
So we've, on this end, we've got
a pair of shivs, they're spaced apart 5 inches,
in our case. And they're mounted on this bar
and they're mounted on a stand.
So if we change the height of the stands on either end,
we can change the height of our rig.
And anyway, over these shivs,
we've got our cable.
Our cables come down, through the plane,
back up
and over another set.
There's no shivs at this end, this is the fixed end.
This is the idler, let's say.
So they would actually tie off the cables at this end
and put this into the stand.
We could raise this stand
if we wanted the plane going at a steep angle,
or we could just get it level.
And so this is the fixed end,
the two cables come down,
these are our guide cables that take the weight.
And then what we've done is, through our plane,
we've added these pieces of tubing
to run our cables through.
And let me show you something about the plane,
hold on, let me grab a...
So this is a stock Airfix Harrier Jet Kit
that we're going to use in our show.
And we're gonna paint it and decorate it later, but
for now we just need to make this work for the effect.
So I wanted access to this,
so what I did was,
I took the wings and the top of the fuselage
and I added Allens,
Allen screws,
little flathead Allen screws
to hold it together so we could get into it.
And that allows us to put in lights or
batteries or anything else we need for the plane to take with it.
I'll show you how I did that.
So I'm taking out the Allens.
So as you can see here,
I've built the plane, pretty stock,
but where I wanted to put my screws,
there's one in the front
and one for each wing,
I packed the inside
with epoxy putty.
So this is regular
steel-filled epoxy putty.
And we've packed that into
the seam between the wing and the fuselage.
And then I just built a layer of it here,
in the middle of the fuselage
where I want to put this panel.
And once I did that,
I took the panel and I slipped it in place
and then I drilled a hole through the top of it.
And that was a tap hole, so I used a 4-40,
I think it's a number 42 drill.
Whatever the right size drill is,
you want to drill through the part and into that
epoxy putty.
You let the epoxy putty get hard, naturally.
It dries pretty fast,
but still let it get hard first,
slip our piece in,
and then drill a hole through it.
That's the tap hole.
Then remove our panel we want removable
and tap this hole for a 4-40 screw.
And the same here.
I did the same thing.
I took the wing
and I put the wing on,
drilled through,
and then I tapped here and here
for 4-40 and that,
without the epoxy putty, there's not enough meat
to take a screw, so you need to put the epoxy putty in.
That gives you enough area for the threads to go into.
It reinforces that joint.
Now to keep the back part of the wing on,
I added a simple tab.
So, the wing fits against this edge,
so all I did was,
I took
a piece of plastic
and I drilled and mounted two pins in there.
So these are two brass pins
I put in the back of the wing.
And I put a piece of plastic over it.
That became a tab
that allowed me to
stick the wing into the fuselage like that,
and then
push that down,
like so,
and now I can just add
my Allens.
Tighten those down.
And that mounts my wing to
the fuselage
and that way I can take this apart and
get into it if I need to.
Very quickly.
Let's say the pilot gets hungry or something,
we can pull that out and get the pilot down.
And this has got an engine in it.
It's really not necessary,
the only reason I added the engine part is
that there's fans that go in the sides, some details.
But I'll probably pull that out.
So we put our hatch back on.
There we go. Snaps in.
Add our Allen.
So, that allows us access to our airplane.
And anything we need to put in there, like lights or batteries.
So our carry -
our weight carrying cables are here.
These are our guide cables.
They don't do anything to move the plane,
they just take the weight of it.
So in order to put those in,
what I've done is,
I've added tubing in the wings.
So I started with 1/8th inch tubing.
I started with a 1/16th inch drill bit
and I drilled a pilot hole in each wing,
the same distance apart
as our two guide shivs.
So in this case it's 5 inches,
so I measured 2.5 inches from one side,
2.5 inches from the other,
going to get a tape measure,
and I drilled two pilot holes,
then I kept going to a larger hole,
3/32 then finally up to 1/8 inch.
And drilled those holes open,
and I took my drill and I held it
parallel to the line of the plane.
So I didn't go in straight, like that, or some weird angle.
I held it parallel so that it made an elongated hole
so that I could put my tube through.
And I did the same in the back.
I started with a 1/16 inch hole,
drilled that out
and then I went to a 3/32 inch hole
and then finally to an 1/8th inch hole.
And I drilled those parallel to the line,
so that I got an elongated oval shaped hole there.
Now we want to put some tension on this
to carry the weight.
So, what do we do?
Pull this down?
So, alright, so we're gonna take our two guide cables
and pull them down like that.
There we go.
And we're using a bungie so that over the,
there it is -
and we're using a bungie cord
that we tied our cables to,
and so it's got a little give.
So now we've got our plane, and it's flying.
It's flying!
Isn't that something?
And you want this on the other side?
So now we're gonna pull this back.
It makes a great sound too.
And then, through the nose,
we've added a loop of wire
and then we've tied some monofilament to it
and that's gonna be our articulation.
That's what we're going to pull with.
So, who do you want to have pull this?
One more thing I want to show, is that uh,
can we just twist this?
RICHIE HELMER: I'll pull it, you can twist it a little bit.
IAN: Okay. Now does it just twist?
Okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Alright, you want to take it back to one?
Alright, we're going to go back to one.
I'm going to have you pull it faster.
So, one of the beauties of the Lydecker method,
is that, with these two guide cables,
as I was doing at that end,
if you twist the cables,
you can actually impart roll into the model plane.
In fact, the Lydeckers could actually get this to barrel roll,
if you saw the movie 1941,
the World War II comedy by Steven Spielberg,
there's some great scenes of P40s
flying down the streets of Hollywood
and they were done this way with Lydecker cables
and the, spinning the planes.
So I'm going to grab this again
and I'm going to call action
and Richie's going to do it.
Say 3, 2, 1 Action.
Well, you get the idea.
If we had much more room
and we were shooting at a high speed,
but you can see we can twist the plane
and pull it along.
So, in our world,
we're going to set this up over our set.
These stands will be much farther apart
and the cables will be much further apart,
but this does allow us
to -
where'd you go through here?
Just pull it down, or where'd you...
Yeah, yeah, where do you pull?
Just there? Oh, okay.
Anyway, we'll be able to wing these jets
through the set pretty quickly.
And much like the Omega drive,
this is one plane,
but if we duplicate building this
stand and shiv
and locked off end and guide cables,
we could space planes apart
so we could have a plane here,
we could have a plane here,
we could have planes at different altitudes
by changing the heights of the stands
and that way we could pull them all through.
Luis, you want to pull a plane don't you?
Actually, Luis,
Richie does it, you steer.
I want you to steer.
Yeah give this a lot of twisting as it flies.
So I'll call action okay?
Wait a minute.
Alright, I'm going to be the monster.
[Laughing]
As I often am.
Alright, on action.
Ready Richie?
3, 2, 1 Action.
[Monster growling]
[Laughing]
We lost our tail.
Anyway.
And then, unbeknownst to Richie,
at some point, when we do this Rich,
we could put cable cutters on that end right?
RICHIE: Yeah. You can drop the plane and blow it up.
IAN: Right. [Laughing]
Exactly.
So we could actually cut these cables as it goes through
and let the plane drop and blow up.
It appears to be wobbling quite a bit,
but when we shoot these things at high speed,
see, it looks like this right now,
but when you shoot at high speed
you're going at a higher frame rate,
you're getting more frames,
so in fact the plane will appear to go like this,
even though it appears to be doing this to the eye,
it's going to slow down that action when we see it on the film.
Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't jerk it,
I would just ease it in,
so you want to try that again?
Richie you want to pull?
Luis is going to, or Jerry you pull.
You want to pull?
Alright.
Yeah just on action, I'll ask you to pull.
Yeah, yeah, one, like smooth roll.
Okay.
Actually hold on a second,
start with it already twisted one way.
Uh, that isn't even helping.
Okay. Just do one smooth one, alright?
And on action, okay?
And you want to go pretty, fairly quick.
You know, just a good walking pace.
Alright.
3, 2, 1, Action.
There you go.
So, that is the Lydecker method of
doing airplanes.
Support cables,
pull cable
and using the roll feature
to give it some motion.