The 1970 Airfix toy catalogue had a lot of cool stuff in it, including the Diving Submarine, Water Rocket and tucked away in the corner, an Arrowcopter. As a kid, I always loved flying toys like gliders and flying saucers and frisbees etc. The Arrowcopter seemed to be a really simple catapult like toy and at the time, passed by my attention. It wasnt till years later, when I was on holiday in Cornwall that I saw that the Arrowcopter was still being produced today.
I snapped one up, more for nostalgias sake than any expectation of it actually working. When I got back to the camp site, I opened it up and took off to the big field leading down the beach. The Arrowcopter is basically a pair of plastic wings attached to a weighted pole. As the 'copter ascends, the wings are folded back, as it reaches the apex and falls back to Earth, the wings bring it back, spinning like a sycamore seed.
The whole assembly was launched by a simple elastic band, so I stood in the middle of the field, casually drew back the band and aimed for the sky. Either I misjudged the strength of the band or the aerodynamic properties of the Arrowcopter, but as I released it, it literally vanished into the ether. The packs says it reaches 300 feet and i could well believe it! It shot straight up and disappeared from view. I assume it must have come down somewhere, but i couldnt see it descend and several hours of patient searching revealed nothing! I had to wait another 12 months till I returned for another holiday in Falmouth before I could buy another - and this time, I left it securely in the packet.
