The proverb usually mentions a fifth wheel. However, some car designers use a formula reflected in the title of our article. They really do consider the fourth wheel on a car redundant. Judge for yourself: unlike a four-legged stool, a three-legged one does not rock even on uneven ground (remember from school: through three points Read more…
The mast is the foundation of the rig of any sailing tourist or sports craft, its most important unit. Its design and position determine sail area, configuration and aerodynamics, the ability to adjust sail thrust, and the design of the centerboard and the “ship” as a whole. When building a small sailboat, you have to Read more…
When designing and building the “Shmel,” the creative team “Vzlet” took as a basis the micro autogyro designed by V. Barkovsky, V. Vinitsky, and Yu. Rysyuk, described in detail in “M-K” (see: 1969, No. 6; 1970, Nos. 3 and 10; and 1971, No. 6). This very well-made machine, the first in our country of its Read more…
I decided to make this boat specifically for fishing in quiet lake backwaters — small and maneuverable. And, of course, lightweight, so I could handle it alone. The right material was already available: for several years, under the garage roof, there had been a large duralumin sheet 2700x1800x2 mm stored there, and cutting it into Read more…
This mini-tractor was built in the Pavlov family’s amateur design bureau: under the head of the family, Valery Vasilyevich, it was assembled by his sons Sergey and Andrei. All three are long-time regular readers of «Modelist-Konstruktor» magazine. The compact tractor, named SAP (S. and A. Pavlov) by its makers, was developed as a universal agricultural Read more…
In “M-K” No. 4 for 1989, an article devoted to skis-boats… was published. I read it and regretted that I hadn’t written to the editors earlier, nor shared my developments with the readers of “M-K”. Of course, the idea of float-skis is not new. But enthusiasts of this “vehicle” constantly repeat the mistakes of their Read more…
I was born and raised in a region where the ground stays under a thick snow cover for most of the year — so it’s no surprise that people consider this place the homeland of Ded Moroz. Probably, that’s why, alongside my general interest in technology, snowmobile machines have always drawn my special attention. Owning Read more…
During the winter season, motor-sport enthusiasts experience a period of relative calm. The reason is the poor conditions in which the rider finds himself: once he rides his two-wheeled “friend” onto a snow-covered road, sometimes with ice patches. And off-road you can go only on a specially prepared motorcycle (with studded tires). Using the idea Read more…
A windsurfer, like any sailboat, needs wind. Meanwhile, on its hull-float it is possible to swim even in calm weather if necessary. In the magazine “Modelist-Konstruktor” there was once a mention of using the hull in a rowing version — with a two-blade kayak oar, or with an ordinary pair of oars (though in the Read more…
Before introducing the material below, we’d like to recall a short note in issue No. 2 of our journal for 1979 — “Folding sleds.” The reason is that the author of both designs is the same — our reader from Kazan, E. Zakharov. His technical creativity was prompted by a little son who every morning Read more…
