They look like Mouse racers to me.  And I think the one on the right has a Venom .049 on it.

Hello Mark,

Thanks for your interest. You can find rules for Class 1 Vintage speed on one the British Barton site I believe. (or the BMFA site)
Look under Vintage Speed Rules. Really, they're quite simple. Any .051 engine produced before 1956 is eligible. The Cox Babe Bee
.049 JUST slips into that criteria. Eligible models must have been designed in that era also. A whole selection of eligible
Class I vintage speed designs can be obtained from "Tom Wilk C/L plans on CD" for about $10 I think.
The Mini-Speedster is a tiny 9" wingspan speed model. The rules allow for 'scaling' as long as one retains all the classic outlines.
I enlarged mine ~30% to give me a 12" wingspan & enough of a fuse firewall to just bolt on a Babe Bee.
Flown on two .008" X 35' lines or one .012" monoline. The British record is a 'theroetical' 85 MPH because nobody over there
actuall flew stuff that small so they guessed.  The rules allow for upgraded engine parts as long as they screw or bolt on.
SOoo..I bolted on a Venom top end (from Larry) & a Doug Galbreath glow head & drilled out 5cc tank venturi to .093".
WELL...on those short skinny lines it GOES! Especially when loaded up with 65% nitro! My best speed in Portugal was I think ~80+ MPH
or so which landed me on the podium in the combined speed event. I was thinking of tuning for faster speeds when Warren Kurth
showed up the following year (w/ a Fox .049 powered Peanut) & clobbered all of us with a ~ 95 MPH flight, setting a new Portuguese record.
Sal Angeloni from Italy campaigned the original sized model & later on, Julio Isidro of Portugal also flew a mini-speedster with a Black Widow.
(apparently eligible under the British Rules, which is VERY sporting of them).
Essentially we are flying "reed speed" which is interesting & quite fun as it does not involve a lot of time & money.

Cheers, Paulo

Thanks for the reply Paul.  Great information there.

I will go ahead and PM Tom for those plans. While we are at it how about posting some additional photos of that little plane for us???!

Mark

Jim, Awesome history there. Do you have any photos of this plane? I'd love to see it!

Mark

Here's a photo from my archives of my 'Mini-Speedster before painting.
Plans printed out on my home computer from CD 'Class I Vintage Speed Model Plans' (by Tom Wilk).

WOW, I like them.

BTW: Tom sent me the CD's yesterday... Of course I could not buy just one!

Interesting how Sal has mounted the gear on the snout of the block. That is a neat idea and should keep the model from flipping over on a rough surface.

Balsa and Basswood construction I take it with a sampling of Ply?

Mark

"I feel the Need for Speed... 1/2A Speed that iz!"

Hello Mark,
You have good observations on the various engine mountings used.
Yes, my balsa nose cowl took a bit of thinking & after it was hollowed
out & fiberglassed.  I was still thinking, but ran out of time. So... I taped
it on with 3M clear tape which works quite well. It's the same stuff the
r/c pylon guys use to attach their fiberglass cowls with. Two yrs later
(with more time) I wrapped a bandage of 6 oz carbon cloth & epoxy
around the back of the cowl overhanging the edge by ~ 1/4". When dry
I trimmed the cloth which now just fits over the plywood firewall. I then
(using 4 tiny screws) screwed the cowl onto the model.
I use 2 layers of aluminum duct tape on the bottom of the fuse
to act as a (replaceable) landing skid. I can't be bothered with a dolly
or landing gear so I just have my wife, friend or whomever, hand launch it....easy!

Only one caution: Models with tiny tails like this must take off with slight
down elevator or at most neutral!  Otherwise they WILL do an end over
end loop on take off. I've crashed several times using slight up on takeoff...!
Very strange until you know what's going on...once flying, they fly quite fine.

Cheers, Paul