Clarke launches his free flight Playboy powered by an Ohlsson .23 in the summer of 1941. Les Robinson looks on.
This shot was taken on the farm on O'Connor Drive where they flew on weekends.
Clarke E. Sheppard.
Born in Toronto in 1923, his first model was a breakfast cereal mail-in with two
boxtops plus 10 cents for a model of a rubber-powered Vought Corsair biplane in
1934. From that point on, he built models from plans that he got in 'Air Trails'
and 'Flying Aces' magazines. In 1936, he taught classes of 9 year olds how to
build rubber jobs at the Broadview YMCA.
Clarke and several of his friends joined the "Canadian Gas Model Club"
around 1940-41, which at the time was run by the Hocking family in the west end
of Toronto. Sometime in early 1942, six (or more) of them split off and formed
the "Toronto Gas Model Club". Among them were Les Robinson, Len
Thifault, and Harold Speaker. Most of the building materials came from Speaker's
Hobbies on Danforth Avenue.
His first gas job was a free-flight 'Simplex' in 1941. Then he was smitten with
the 'Playboy'. Around this time, he read an article about an American named
Victor Stanzel who had devised a control line system for model aircraft, so
Clarke designed his own rigging and scratch-built a solid balsa B-25 Mitchell.
It was powered by two Forster .29's. I am still looking for that photo.
In August 1942, he built the "Brooklyn Dodger" powered with a Forster
.29, and took it to his first contest, the T. Eaton Model Airplane Contest in
Mount Hope. He took first place in "B" Free Flight. He had to leave
before the flying was finished that day, to catch a bus to get to the train that
took him home. Someone was supposed to pick up his trophy for him, but he
unfortunately never received it. In October 1942, he enlisted in the RCAF.
The P-47 Thunderbolt was built in 1945 at the base he was stationed at, and
although he did some work on the model, he gives full credit to Ralph Bolitsky
of Guelph.
Clarke taught me (Norm Sheppard) to built ROG's in 1962, when I was 8 years old.
Until very recently, he scratchbuilt models for the Don McLure Aviation Museum
at Moncton International Airport in New Brunswick. He also built a 1/10th
Mosquito for the Bob Stuart Museum in Oshawa, Ontario. In his later modelling
years, I helped him with exterior finishing and markings on his museum aircraft.
Norm Sheppard
Sackville NB
Clarke's scratchbuilt B-25 Mitchell control line model with twin Forster .29's was all carved
from solid balsa! It had a 30 inch wingspan, approximately. Picture taken in Toronto in 1942. You can make
out the twin switches atop the fuselage for the ignition.
A joint build between Clarke and Ralph Bolitsky of Guelph. Picture was taken at RCAF Debert, Nova Scotia in June of 1945. It has a hand carved wood prop.
Clarke carved nearly all of his props himself. Note the control wires hanging from the port wing.
Debert NS 1945 after the Thunderbolt had a hard landing.
An original design by Clarke Sheppard in Toronto in 1948. U-control all scratch built.
A friend of Clarke's, Dave Foxcroft starts up a U-control biplane in the late 1940's.
Built by Dave Foxcroft of Leaside, Ontario in the late 1940's.
Clarke and Wilson White in Goderich, Ontario in 1946 with
Clarke's Forster .29 powered Megow Commander.