Fuel & Accessories

The Good Ol' Days and Now: Brief Look at the History of RC Flight

Radio-Controlled Model Airplane Parts & Terms

If you're new to the r/c flying world, you may find all those terms a little confusing.  For example, what's an elevator doing on an airplane?  And what in the world is an aileron?  The illustration above shows just some of the most common parts of a plane.  Typically, these days, you will either fly an radio-controlled electric plane or a glow engine powered craft.  Both types of model are available in everything from small park flyers to very large scale aircraft.

One of the things not shown in the above illustration is the linkage and servos that control the ailerons, elevators, and rudder.  You can catch just a glimpse of these on our pushrod page here.  There you can see a clevis, a control horn, and a servo arm in one example of their many possible connections.

You may also find our online Catalog (downloadable in PDF format) helpful, as you can find in its pages many of the parts that go into making a radio-controlled airplane work.  And the rest of this site also features planes, engines, starters, and more that offer quick reference to most parts and accessories that are part of r/c flying.  To find a part, enter the word in our search form (a link is available on most pages) and then visit the listed results.

We at Central Hobbies hope you find these tools helpful as you add to your knowledge of r/c planes and flying.

Happy flying.