I have always wanted a plastic fuselage Firebaby, as it was my first airplane (1958).  Mine was powered by a Thimble Drome Babe Bee.  I found an identical, virgin Bee at a swap and recently I scored the Firebaby on eBay.  Unfortunately, the Firebaby fuselage was warped and twisted, rendering it unusable.  However, I decided to keep it and Bill Smith talked us both into constructing balsa and plywood replicas.  So, we traced the parts and constructed our own versions.  Bill constructed his for a Cox product engine, using a balloon tank.  I did mine for the Babe Bee.  Mine (red fuse) is still curing and needs the controls installed.  Bill finished his and a video of the first flight can be found at:



Fred
 

Good job, guys! 

Thanks for the memories!

My first SUCCESSFUL loop was with a Firebaby!

O.K. Cub .049 & balloon tank!

"Tight Lines!"

Wes

Here's the 1st flight of my Babe Bee powered Firebaby replica.  Thanks to Bill Smith for his motivation and ideas on this project.  Bill is also my pit man on this vid:


Fred

Fred,  Have you made templates of this plane?  Great flight.  I can hear that Babe Bee burping.

I love it and it looks great.  If you have templates, the old DOC would like a set.  My address is at end of my posts.

OK; here are the templates.  As these are all pdf files, they should print out at the correct scale.
FYI:  The wing is constructed of 2 pieces of 1/16" balsa laminated together with finishing resin, with 1/8" hard balsa LE and TE.  Stab, Elevator and vertical fin are 1/16" balsa.  The fuselage is 1/4" balsa with a 1/16" plywood spine and upper wing mount.  Engine mount is 1/8" plywood with LG groove routed in.  Triangular balsa blocks added behind the engine mount.  The engine mount was offset approx. 5 deg.  Front end (engine mount plywood to triangular blocks) is reinforced with light fiberglass and laminating resin.

If you choose to use an external tank, you may want to use Bill Smith's fuse design which duplicates the actual plastic Firebaby.  Cut out the part indicated on the template and cover this with a formed aluminum cowl (held in place with screws).  Perhaps Bill will post close-up photos of the cowl area on his model.

For reference:
The wingspan is 17 3/4"
The stab span is just under 8"
the fuselage template length is 10 1/2"

Fred

**PLEASE NOTE**

This morning I decided to check the pdf files that I posted.  When I printed them, they were undersized.  I had to increase the scale slightly in the printer setup to get the proper size.  So, for reference:
The wingspan is 17 3/4"
The stab span is just under 8"
the fuselage template length is 10 1/2"

Fred

Ty,

We are fortunate to be able to fly (C/L only) at a virtually unused tarmac at the Aurora Municipal Airport in Sugar Grove.  We will eventually lose the site to Hondajet, who will be opening a sales center at that location.  The airport manager flew C/L as a youth and understood that we would in no way interfere with full-scale aircraft.  Thus, our club was given permission to use the site.  Of course, we insure the site through AMA.  We conduct 2 contests a year (one AAA and the other 1/2A); a family fun-fly and picnic; and our part of the annual Ringmaster Fly-A-Thon.  Of course, our members regularly use the site for our C/L flying activities.

Fred