Back in 1973 the Sig Banshee was haralded as a nice big easy to assemble profile stunter.  Pretty near everybody built one.

Unless you used an ultra-light engine with no muffler, the nose was way too long. It was good planning to install extra-long hardwoods for when you shorten the nose, as I did several times. 

I didn't care for the low profile tail fin and put on a more "scale-like" rudder.  I used it and abused it until it wore out and I replaced it with a Twister which I still can fly if I feel like dabbling in stunt.

Quote from: Paul Smith on June 03, 2026, 10:03:49 AMBack in 1973 the Sig Banshee was haralded as a nice big easy to assemble profile stunter.  Pretty near everybody built one.

Unless you used an ultra-light engine with no muffler, the nose was way too long. It was good planning to install extra-long hardwoods for when you shorten the nose, as I did several times. 

I didn't care for the low profile tail fin and put on a more "scale-like" rudder.  I used it and abused it until it wore out and I replaced it with a Twister which I still can fly if I feel like dabbling in stunt.

    The Banshee was designed and introduced after the success of the SIG Chipmunk, and Glenn SIG tasked Mike Stott with coming up with a profile practice plane that flew just like the Chipmunk did, and the result was the Banshee. The most popular engine at that time for C/L stunt was the Fox .35, the ultra light engine that you refer to, and that is the engine shown on the plans, and the plane was designed around that. Mufflers had not come into prominent use at that time either, and that helped make the nose a bit longer. The other big question about the Banshee is if it is Classic legal or not. Mike Gretz was pretty sure that Stott had the original plan drawn up and prototype finished and flying by December of 1969, but he searched high and low through everything at the SIG factory and could not find any documentation of any kind supporting that, so was always reluctant to say that it was. SIG just didn't keep any record of it at that time but it was always a good seller. It did predate the Twister, though.
   Type at you later,
    Dan McEntee

Regardless of when the designer might have been "thinking about" or "developing" it, the Banshee became available to the customer in 1973.  Maybe somebody could come up with a magazine ad to squeeze out another year or two.

Quote from: Paul Smith on June 04, 2026, 04:39:05 AMRegardless of when the designer might have been "thinking about" or "developing" it, the Banshee became available to the customer in 1973.  Maybe somebody could come up with a magazine ad to squeeze out another year or two.

It was at least 1972, and probably a bit earlier.

These pics are right off of the kit box that I'm currently building. Says juniors Daniel Osdoba (5th at NATS in 1972) and David Fitsgerald (2nd at NATS in 1975)

I hope back in the day SIG was paying royalties to these 2 up and coming flyers for using them to advertise the SIG Banshee kit. If not their parents were not very good business people.   

Colin

Here are the pics

Colin

Although not big "royalties", Sig did offer awards to guys who won The Nats with Sig planes. 

Quote from: Paul Smith on June 04, 2026, 04:39:05 AMRegardless of when the designer might have been "thinking about" or "developing" it, the Banshee became available to the customer in 1973.  Maybe somebody could come up with a magazine ad to squeeze out another year or two.

  As I said in my first reply, the Banshee was thought by Mike Gretz,( who worked at SIG at the time, and was a good friend of Mike Stott, since they knew each other flying in Minnesota where they both were from,) to have been drawn up and prototype finished by the end of 1969, which would have made it Classic legal, but Mike could not find any documentation to support that when the question first came up, only a faded memory. They might have been trying to get it to market in time for the Christmas season, but who knows. Things probably got really slow in winter at SIG during that time and nothing new came down the pipe. The first mention of it that I can find in a quick search was in December 1970 M.A.N. magazine. That was in the days of 3 month lead times, so that would lead you to believe they had it ready to fly earlier that year and probably flew it at most of the contests the attended that summer to prove it out before making a run of kits. This was also before laser cutting, and dies had to be made up, plans printed, and other kits parts engineered and manufactured, labels printed, and the kit packing order worked out and that took time. I also found mention in a SIG catalog # 22R. Now, SIG didn't put any dates in their catalogs, just came out with a new one when there was enough change in inventory, prices, and any new products that might need to be added to make it worth the cost of the process. It's always easier and cheaper to just send out a single update price list of two. The 22R catalog has a printed update sheet with corrections and additions that is for the year 1971, and there is no mention of the Banshee on it, because it's already in the catalog. Again, this is the day and age of at least three month lead times for printed media, so that leads one the believe the kit was available earlier, also. There is also a private web site that was put together by a gentleman with some help from Mike Gretz to make a record of things separate from the company. Lots of stuff on that site. Mike Gretz also had a page for many years with the history of the SIG control line stunt kits, but it's been gone a for a while now. If I  saved it, it's in a deep , dark hole on my computer somewhere!! here is a link: https://wanderings-ds.jimdofree.com/
  So there you have it, and as Paul Harvey would say, "And that's the rest of the story!"
  Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

  Here is the page from the 22R Catalog, and the update sheet.  Oh how I wish we could still go to Montezuma and get great stuff like what is in that catalog!!
  Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee