Video of 1st radio control toy from 1950s

Frankie says: "Yesterday, flipping trought the new issue of the Japanese magazine RC Sports, I found the very first RC model produced in the world: Radicon Bus. This toy has been produced in Japan during the mid '50s and is the very first example of a radio controlled model!" Link

[#1 posted by ernie , September 5, 2007 9:28 AM]

[rcgeek]It's RADIO control, toys that operated REMOTELY from a wire tether existed before this.[/rcgeek]

[#2 posted by Mark Frauenfelder , September 5, 2007 10:06 AM]

Thanks, Ernie. I corrected it.

[#3 posted by Anonymous , September 5, 2007 10:39 AM]

The first radio control "toy" was actually flown by the brothers Good in 1937.

http://jimsrc.com/good-information.html

[#4 posted by ernie , September 5, 2007 11:19 AM]

Actually I was digging at the guy in the video (he said it) but this is a nerd website after all.

[#5 posted by DaveX , September 5, 2007 11:21 AM]

Does it make anyone else giggle to watch how terribly careful he's being with the packaging? I'm on the edge of my seat, waiting for him to drop some cardboard and freak out.

[#6 posted by Nile Kinnick , September 5, 2007 5:49 PM]

Actually Tesla demonstrated a remotely controlled toy boat in 1898. See http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ins/lab_remotec.html

[#7 posted by Anonymous , September 6, 2007 6:07 AM]

Mr.Kinnick is correct in Tesla beating everyone to the punch on this. However, his achievement was so far ahead of it's time, that the US Navy rejected it because they didn't know what to use it for (duh). Consider the fact that this device was built using entirely PASSIVE components - no tubes, no transistors. We today wouldn't be able to make one like that...

[#8 posted by C Holmes , September 7, 2007 9:23 AM]

I wonder if the bus is on a carpet, and therefore much slower than it would be on a hard surface.