what's the history of 3D flying?

Quick background...my first introduction to heli's was when I was
a kid (about 1980 +- a few) and saw a guy hovering at the local
school yard on summer day.

Forgot all about it until a couple years later when I saw folks
flying planes at the local fair grounds. That got me real interested
in R/C, but alas, never did get anything. But I had a subscription
to a modeller magazine for a few years.

Then about 1991 or so I saw an electric heli in a hobby shop.
Was interested but didn't like the idea that it could barely
hold it's own weight for almost 2 minutes!!! (heavy NiCad's back
then still)

So then it's all forgot again until a few months ago. My have
things changed!! And then I see all this 3D flying in YouTube
videos. Now, I knew model heli's could do things that real one's
couldn't, like inverted flight and loops and rolls and such. But
I had no idea they could THAT!

OK, my question is, when did this type of flying get started? I'm
sure it's real easy (relatively) with all the fancy electronics
and gyros and such. But what about a long long time ago when all
there was was nitro and mechanical mixing? Did people do 3D back
then? Or did it only come about when all the fancy gizmos arrived?

Brian
-- 
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