The Westwind, designed by Ted Strader in the 50's for escapement. My first scratch-built R/C airplane. It flew, but I sort of goofed on it in a few different ways.
Basically, these old R/C models were meant to be free-flighters that you could kind of herd around over the field instead of worrying about them setting down in a yard full of rottweilers. As such, they are very stable and have pretty tiny control surfaces. I was hoping for a more responsive aircraft, so I should probably have scaled these up a lot... but I only grew the rudder a tiny bit. I also added pretty darn small ailerons way out on the very tips, where tip vortices start to make them less effective. Taking some dihedral out might also have been smart. The plane ended up needing a lot of rudder and aileron into the turn to bank well.
Something else about old plans that drives a lot of people crazy is nose stubbiness. Presumably, the .049 and tank that were meant to go up front of this thing were no heavier than the motor and battery I used, especially when low on fuel. Combine this with the heavy-ass radio gear they were using over the wing and it's hard to see why it takes so much weight to get the CG in a good place. I ended up doing surgery to move the wing back half an inch. So, build a long nose. This is a cool plane, though.
Plan on Outerzone: https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=3228
Basically, these old R/C models were meant to be free-flighters that you could kind of herd around over the field instead of worrying about them setting down in a yard full of rottweilers. As such, they are very stable and have pretty tiny control surfaces. I was hoping for a more responsive aircraft, so I should probably have scaled these up a lot... but I only grew the rudder a tiny bit. I also added pretty darn small ailerons way out on the very tips, where tip vortices start to make them less effective. Taking some dihedral out might also have been smart. The plane ended up needing a lot of rudder and aileron into the turn to bank well.
Something else about old plans that drives a lot of people crazy is nose stubbiness. Presumably, the .049 and tank that were meant to go up front of this thing were no heavier than the motor and battery I used, especially when low on fuel. Combine this with the heavy-ass radio gear they were using over the wing and it's hard to see why it takes so much weight to get the CG in a good place. I ended up doing surgery to move the wing back half an inch. So, build a long nose. This is a cool plane, though.
Plan on Outerzone: https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=3228
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