Special Exhibit:
Maynard Hill’s Sampey 404
(Click on any of the images
on this page to see a larger version)
This is Maynard
Hill’s Sampey 404 which he used to set World Records in the
1960s. He was a model aviation pioneer and leader and an
AMA President, but above all he was the King of the World
Records. We doubt anyone else was so successful at making
and breaking world records, at least not back then. His
historic accomplishments continued over the years, the most
recent being his transatlantic model airplane flight in
2003, at a time when he was legally blind.
Maynard Hill lived in the DC area and was prominent in his
local RC club, DCRC. But DCRC was no ordinary club. What
the legendary German Bauhaus was to architecture, the DCRC
was to radio control development. Each year DCRC hosted
Symposia and the “best and brightest” would come from
around the country and present sophisticated technical
papers. The DCRC was the avant-garde, the cutting edge of
the industry and Maynard Hill was at its forefront.
Maynard began
his assaults on the record books in the early 1960s after
learning how the existing Russian record holder achieved
his records with relatively crude equipment. Maynard Hill
thought he could do better with superior American aircraft,
engines and radios. In addition to this equipment and his
own formidable skills in model designing and building,
electronics and piloting, Maynard Hill had incomparable
leadership abilities which enabled him to assemble the
necessary teams of people to back him up and assure
success. In those cold war days beating the Russian record
holders was more than a personal triumph, it was a point of
patriotic pride for modelers around the country.
Maynard Hill pursued the Third Dream of Radio Control from
an early date. He transitioned from single channel
escapement radios to crude pulse/mechanical systems then to
the TTPW system of his good friend Walt Good, then to Space
Control. When he began his world record attempts he used
the most promising new system of that day – the Sampey 404.
Maynard Hill employed two 404’s in his record attempts
using one as a backup or alternating back and forth between
the two (especially on duration and distance flights).
The cost of two Sampey 404s in today’s terms would approach
ten thousand dollars. Maynard purchased them, with his own
funds to maintain his detachment, although Sampey may have
been willing to give him the radios in hopes of favorable
publicity. Only the truly dedicated, determined to have the
very best, would spend such a sum on model airplane radios
but this was only the beginning of Maynard Hill’s
expenditure of time and money in his quest. In the end it
all paid off, and Maynard Hill assumed his well-earned
place in model aviation history. And oh yes, Harry Sampey
got that favorable publicity and shrewdly parlayed it into
404 sales. See Sampey section.
Here is the cover of the March/April 1964 Grid Leaks picturing Maynard Hill using our transmitter in early season practice for the closed course distance record. The white noteboard or plaque at the top is the likely reason this transmitter lost its “404”. Maynard does not recall how this happened. We surmise that the whiteboard was secured with glue, 2-sided tape or the like, and when it was pulled off most of the 404 insignia came off with it (and the rest may have then been removed to “even things up”). If anyone has additional information about how this 404 lost its“404” please contact us.
Link to Sampey Company History
