In 1950, Tony Sale was 19 years old and serving in the British Royal Air Force. He built a human-sized robot out of scrap metal from a crashed Wellington bomber. Sale named the robot George and got quite a bit of press attention at the time. George was used for several years and then put in storage for the next 45. Sale, now 79, recently decided to see if George would still work:
Link via Gizmodo | Photo: Geoff Robinson/Daily mail
'I dug him out of the garage where he had been standing for 45 years,' he said.
'I had a fair bit of confidence he would work again and luckily I was right.
'I put some oil on the bearings and added a couple of new lithium batteries in his legs, switched him on and away he went. It was a lovely moment.'
Mr Sale has always been interested in mechanics and built his first ‘George’ using Meccano when he was just 12 years old. The instructions for making the robot were in the Meccano manual and it could walk at a steady pace by shuffling its feet.
In 1945 Mr Sale made a second George the robot and three years later at the age of 17 he improved it by making it bigger and controlling it by radio.
Link via Gizmodo | Photo: Geoff Robinson/Daily mail
Seriously though there have been several Royal Air Forces around the world over the years. Remember there isn't a single royal family in the world, although Victoria did her best to make it so.