Building and Flying Model Aircraft

DOVER CRAFT BOOKS

THE CRAFTSMAN’s HANDBOOK, Cennino Cennini. (20054-X) $6.95

IT’S FUN TO MAKE THINGS FROM SCRAP MATERIALS, Evelyn Hershoff. (21251-3) $7.95

THE BOOK OF ARTS AND CRAFTS, Marguerite lckis, Reba S. Esh. (21472-9) $5.95

MAKING PRESSED FLOWER PICTURES, Margaret Kennedy Scott and Mary Beazley. (Available in United States and Canada only) (24422-9) $9.95

TECHNIQUES IN AMERICAN FOLK DECORATION, Jean Lipman. (22217-9) $10.95

OLD-FASHIONED RIBBON TRIMMINGS AND FLOWERS, Mary Brooks Picken. (27521-3) $3.50

EASY-TO-MAKE OLD-FASHIONED Toys, Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr. and Asterie Baker Provenzo. (25958-7) $8.95

HAND PUPPETS: HOW TO MAKE AND USE THEM, Laura Ross. (26161-1) $6.95

BUILDING AND FLYING MODEL AIRCRAFT, Robert Schleicher and James R. Barr. (25801-7)

THE ART & CRAFT OF HANDMADE PAPER, Vance Studley. (26421-1) $7.95

CREATING WITH PAPER: BASIC FORMS AND VARIATIONS, Pauline Johnson. (26837-3) $9.95

THE ART OF MAKING PAPER FLOWERS: FULL-SIZE PATTERNS AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR 15 REALISTIC BLOSSOMS, Constance Rutherford. (24378-8) $4.95

BATIK AND TIE DYE TECHNIQUES, Nancy Belfer. (27131-5) $8.95

TRACING PAPER FOR ARTISTS AND CRAFTSPEOPL.E, Paul E. Kennedy. (27296-6) $2.50

MAKE YOUR OWN ARTIST’S TOOLS AND MATERIALS, Vance Studley. (27246-X) $10.95

DESIGNS FOR GLASS ETCHING, Robert G. Bush. (26000-3) $3.95

CREATIVE BOOKBINDING, Pauline Johnson. (26307-X) $12.95

CLOISSONNÉ ENAMELING AND JEWELRY MAKING, Felicia Liban and Louise Mitchell. (25971-4) $9.95

THE COMPLETE BOOK OF RUG HOOKING, Joan Moshimer. (25945-5) $10.95

MAKING DOLLHOUSES AND DIORAMAS, Robert Schleicher. (26335-5) $9.95

EASY-TO-MAKE DECORATIVE KITES, Alan and Gill Bridgewater. (24981-6) $3.95

GLASS ETCHING, Robert A. Capp & Robert G. Bush. (24578-0) $5.95

MAKING CHAIR SEATS FROM CANE, RUSH AND OTHER NATURAL MATERIALS, Ruth B. Comstock. (25693-6) $3.95

PAPERCRAFT PROJECTS WITH ONE PIECE OF PAPER, Michael Grater. (25504-2) $5.95

How TO MARBLEIZE PAPER, Gabriele Grünebaum. (24651-5) $2.95

OLD-FASHIONED RIBBON ART, Ribbon Art Publishing Company. (25174-8) $2.95

AUTHENTIC AMERICAN INDIAN BEADWORK AND HOW TO Do IT, Pamela Stanley-Millner. (24739-2) $3.95

THE COMPLETE BOOK OF STENCILCRAFT, JoAnne Day. (25372-4) $10.95

EASY-TO-MAKE DECORATIVE SNOWFLAKES. Brenda Lee Reed. (25408-9) $3.95

NATURAL DYES AND HOME DYEING, Rita J. Adrosko. (22688-3) $5.95

THE COMPLETE BOOK OF SILK SCREEN PRINTING PRODUCTION, J. I. Biegeleisen. (21100-2) $6.95

SILK SCREEN TECHNIQUES, J. I. Biegeleisen and J. A. Cohn. (20433-2) $6.95

VICTORIAN COLOR VIGNETTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS FOR ARTISTS AND CRAFTSMEN, Carol Belanger Grafton (ed.). (24477-6) $6.95

BATIK, TIE DYEING, STENCILING, SILK SCREEN, BLOCK PRINTING, Francis J. Kafka. (21401-X) $7.95

JEWELRY MAKING AND DESIGN, Augustus F. Rose and Antonio Cirino. (21750-7) $7.95

SUNDIALS: THEIR THEORY AND CONSTRUCTION, Albert Waugh. (22947-5) $7.95

THE ARTIST’S AND CRAFTSMAN’S GUIDE TO REDUCING, ENLARGING AND TRANSFERRING DESIGNS, Rita Weiss. (24142-4) $4.95

Copyright © 1980,1988 by Robert Schleicher.

All rights reserved under Pan American and International Copyright Conventions.

Published in Canada by General Publishing Company, Ltd., 30 Lesmill Road, Don Mills, Toronto, Ontario.

This Dover edition, first published in 1988, is an unabridged and slightly corrected republication of the work originally published by Chilton Book Company, Radnor, Pennsylvania, in 1980. The Sources of Supply section has been updated for the present edition.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Schleicher, Robert H.

Building and flying model aircraft / by Robert Schleicher and James R. Barr.

p. cm.

An unabridged and slightly corrected republication of the work originally published by Chilton Book Company, Radnor, Pennsylvania, in 1980—T.p. verso.

Bibliography: p.

Includes index.

9780486156774

1. Airplanes—Models. I. Barr, James R. II. Title.

TL770.S328 1988

629.133’134-dc19

88-16177 CIP

Table of Contents

DOVER CRAFT BOOKS

Title Page

Copyright Page

Chapter 1 - The Wings of Man

Chapter 2 - Basic Aerodynamics

Chapter 3 - Power Plants

Chapter 4 - Fly-by-Wire

Chapter 5 - Radio Gontrol

Chapter 6 - Flight Magic

Chapter 7 - Free Flight

Chapter 8 - Helicopters

Chapter 9 - Kit Building

Chapter 10 - Paint and Other Finishes

Chapter 11 - super Scale

Chapter 12 - Glubs and Competition

Glossary

Sources of Supply Publications and Glubs

Clubs

Index

A CATALOG OF SELECTED DOVER BOOKS IN ALL FIELDS OF INTEREST

Chapter 1

The Wings of Man

The dream of freedom often includes the dream of flight. The whole concept of being as free as a bird is so strong in many of us that one wonders if, perhaps, man really was meant to fly. The fantasy of flight has haunted man since the beginning of recorded time; countless legends, gods imbued with the power to fly, and biblical references to man’s flight predate the actual event. For those of us who would rather risk time and money, rather than life and limb, building and flying model aircraft may be the ideal fulfillment of a fantasy.

The hobby encompasses a number of delights and certainly is not limited to toy airplanes. This is one leisure activity that involves enough time outdoors to qualify as a sport for the whole family. You’ll get about as much exercise flying a radio-control (R/C) or a control-line (C/L) model aircraft as you would sailing a small boat. Flying model aircraft can be a more fascinating hobby if you build your own models, but there are dozens of truly excellent quick-to-build and almost-ready-to-fly models, and almost every hobby shop offers built-up kit models and often provide a building service. If you prefer the hobby aspect, there’s plenty of challenge available, ranging from the assembly of simple kits that can be completed on a single Saturday to built-from-plans exact-scale models that might take a year or more to finish.

Many pilots of full-size private and commercial aircraft feel that flying a model aircraft actually provides more freedom and enjoyment than flying the real thing. There are, for example, no complex regulations to worry about with model aircraft and only a fraction of the investment to risk when you attempt an aerobatic maneuver. Hundreds of hours of very expensive practice are needed to solo in a real aircraft and you have to pass some pretty grueling written and flight tests. You can duplicate those flying maneuvers with a model aircraft, however, after only a few months of practice. Potential insurance problems are taken care of when you join the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA). The AMA membership provides liability insurance as part of the package, and it applies anywhere you fly as long as you are flying according to the AMA safety code, a copy of which you’ll receive with your membership (it is sometimes changed, to comply with the insurance company regulations, so don’t rely on just the safety code shown here). In all, there’s more freedom, relaxation and exciting fun in flying model aircraft than you’ll find anywhere.

Fig.1-1 A Flyline Models’ radio-control Fairchild 22 preparing to land. Courtesy Flyline Models.

Flight Forms

You can envision your model aircraft any way that pleases you. Consider it your own little bird who flies exactly where and how you wish you could, or consider your model to be full-size and shrink yourself enough to imagine yourself in the cockpit. Most model aircraft enthusiasts imagine both situations at one time or another. The choice of model aircraft will place more or less emphasis on the bird or cockpit flights of fancy. The airplanes that are launched with no form of remote control are called free-flight models, and they are certainly the closest thing you’ll get to a bird. The other extreme of the hobby is occupied with flying model aircraft where the rudder (for right and left turns), the elevator (for up and down movements), the ailerons (the movable flying surfaces that roll the plane into a right or left bank), the engine speed, and sometimes even retractable landing gear, dive brakes, or bomb bay doors are all controlled by a radio transmitter sending signals to a radio receiver on board the aircraft. There are, to be sure, less complicated radio-control model aircraft, just as there are more complex free-flight models, but this will give you a hint of the possible range this hobby encompasses.

More control-line model airplanes are sold than any other. Firms like Cox and Testors sell millions of their inexpensive fuel-powered plastic model airplanes in toy and hobby stores and departments every year. Most control-line models have a simple lever inside the plane (called a bell crank) that is pushed or pulled by a lever in the full-size flier’s hand. The two levers are connected by two nylon cords or steel cables that are each 10 to 70 feet long. When the flier cocks the lever (called a control handle) forward or backward, the tow lines force the bell crank in the model airplane to move a corresponding distance. The bell crank is, in turn, connected by a steel rod (called a push rod) to a pivot point on the elevator to give the flier full control over the plane’s up-and-down movement during flight. The engine speed remains on full until the power plant runs out of fuel. The rudder is canted to the right to keep the two flying lines taut for full flier control. The airplane will then fly around and around the circle until it runs out of gas or until the flier forces it to land (or crashes it). The flier has only elevator control with a control-line model aircraft, but that is enough to allow virtually any type of aerobatic maneuver from a simple loop to advanced stunt flights. Experienced control-line modelers can even place two or more fliers in the center of the circle so each person controls one plane. The two fliers then stage mock combat or duplicate the maneuvers of aerobatic formation flying.

Fig. 1-2 Simple almost-ready-to-fly control-line models, like this Cox Stuka, offer incredible realism. Courtesy Cox Hobbies.

Air Power Plants

You can duplicate just about any type of full-size aircraft you wish with a flying model. Almost any of them are available as inexpensive ready-to-fly models, simple kits, or complex kits including both powered and non-powered types. The limitations of the control lines restrict this type of model aircraft to the powered types, but you can find just about anything from a scale-model piper cub to a multi-engined bomber to special stunt planes that will actually outperform the prototype aircraft. Most modelers, even the most experienced, use the simple single-cylinder two-stroke engines, but there are some ducted-fan two-strokes that perform like jet engines and a few planes that utilize actual jet engines. Stick to the simple engines with propellers for now; if you need blinding speed, then try model rockets with vehicles designed for ultimate speed, performance—you’ll have trouble enough learning to fly an aircraft at the speeds that the tiny .020 or .049-cubic-inch displacement engines allow. Engines up to about 2.6-cubic-inch displacement are available for those who demand really gigantic planes, and some of the .61-cubic-inch engines have enough power to pull a lightweight model to a genuine 150 miles an hour.

The free-flight and radio-control model aircraft ready-to-fly and kit selection includes every imaginable type of full-size aircraft from biplanes of the World War I era to helicopters to four-engined bombers to powered gliders or sailplanes. The same two-stroke internal combustion power plants that power the control-line models are used for the radio-control models and many of the free-flight aircraft miniatures. Electric motors, powered by rechargeable on-board ni-cad (nickel-cadmium) batteries are becoming increasingly popular with radio-control modelers, thanks to the quiet simplicity of the motors. The non-powered gliders are launched by on-the-ground engines like the elastic band (actually surgical tubing) Hi-Start sold by Cox and others or by electric winches. These engines simply pull the aircraft forward, and lift created by the model’s wings carries it upward about 400 feet into the air. An experienced free-flight modeler can build and launch an airplane that will stay in the air for 10 minutes or more; a radio-controlled sailplane can be kept in the air for an hour. Most sailplane modelers are happy enough with five-minute flights, however.

Fig. 1-3 An electric winch (in the box) is used to launch some radio-control sailplanes. This is the Cox Olympic H.

Costs

The amount of money you spend on a flying model aircraft will depend mostly on how much control you expect to have over it and just how closely you want to match (or improve on) the performance of the full-size aircraft. The least expensive models are the balsa wood hand-launched gliders that sell for about a dollar. The cost can range upward to $1000 or more for an exact-scale twin-engined bomber with a seven-channel radio-control rig. The cost will depend somewhat on whether you are willing to build the model from a kit or if you want it to be ready to fly. If we were to rank model airplanes by cost category, then the free-flight aircraft would certainly be the least expensive, followed by the control-line powered models, then radio-control gliders or sailplanes, and finally the most expensive radio-control powered aircraft. There’s a considerable amount of price overlap among the categories; the best free-flight models with timers can cost as much as $200, while you can buy a ready-to-fly Cox R/C E-Z Bee powered radio-control trainer or an inexpensive kit and a two-channel radio for only $150 to $200.

Free-Flight Models

That dollar hand-launched glider is the simplest form of a free-flight model. There are kits that will allow you to carry the concept of non-controlled flight all the way to a 12-foot wingspan. The larger gliders can be launched by hand just like that simple balsa wood sheet model, but there are better ways of doing the job, including a 150-foot-long line on a reel to pull the model over your head while you run into the wind in much the same way you would launch a kite. There are also some free-flight models that have fuel-powered ,.049-cubic-inch displacement (also called Half A or ½A) engines to carry them into the air. Free flight includes those balsa wood stick models with tissue paper coverings and rubber band-powered propellers. The smaller balsa wood stick models can even be flown indoors. Most free-flight kits range in price from about $2 to $12, but some of the larger models of real aircraft and the competition free-flight kits can run as much as $80. Most of the kits that have rubber bands to power the propeller can be modified to accept the fuel-burning engines. The engine will run between $10 and $100, depending on the size and whether or not you have to have one of the hand-fitted and tuned competition engines. A timer, for the release of the stabilizer to dethermalize the model so it won’t fly completely out of sight,