Few people would believe that the model published in 'Model Engineer' in 1909 could have flown. There is no indication on which direction the model flew. If flown in the conventional direction (mainplane first) it would be impossible to get the CG in a reasonable position for flight. If flown as a canard, it might just be possible, but seems very unlikely.

There is some irony in the fact that Col Taplin challenged the flight and offered a prize to anyone who could duplicate it, because some of the Col's own claims have been similarly challenged.

During a conversation with Pete Cock (1948 Gold Trophy winner), in 1999, he shed some light on the Col's claim of having made the first electric powered flight. Pete worked for the ED company at the same time as Taplin. He claims that the original 'Radio Queen' was so badly designed that he completely redesigned the model before it could be kitted by ED. He did so on the understanding that the resulting model must be known as 'Col Taplin's Radio Queen'.

Regarding the electric flight, Pete stated that the model would not fly until it had been lightened as much as possible, including removing the radio gear. The resulting F/F model was then finally persuaded to fly by launching it from an open-topped car at some speed. The model flew for a maximum of 30 seconds before crashing!

Technically, of course, this could still be called the first electric powered flight - after all, it was longer than the Wright Brothers managed.