World's largest 747 RC model meets the real thing

To celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the rollout of the Boeing 747 Perth man Andrew Herzfeld (51) took his giant 747 RC (radio-controlled) model to meet the real thing at the city's airport. “It was an amazing opportunity from an aero modeler’s point of view: it was just the pinnacle of my experience with the hobby,” he told Perthnow.com. SEE our video "Dispelling the myths about flying."  The “queen of the sky”, has always held a great fascination for Mr. Herzfeld.

“On many occasions, I have been overawed by the sheer size of the aircraft and how it is possible for 360 tonnes of metal to be able to fly,” he told PerthNow’s Peta Rasdien. READ Air Niugini 737 overshoots runway and lands in the ocean.  “To be able to place my model alongside the real deal and have the opportunity to show my model to the crew of the Qantas 747 was an amazing experience.” The model is 5.6m long, 5.2m wide and weighs 65kg.

Mr Herzfeld is also president of WA’s model jet aircraft association Westjet. “It was quite an amazing opportunity for me as an aero modeler to have this one put up alongside the full-sized one and actually let the captains of that aircraft have a look at it and speak to them,” he said.

“I got a few photos with them and the model and I also got up into the cockpit of the full-sized one and had a bit of a seat in the captain’s seat.” The mini jumbo is 1/12th the size of the real thing and slightly bigger than another built in Germany in 2015 that is 1/13th scale.