The broken ends fit together pretty good.
What engines were you running in your Noblers? I guess you have moved on from Noblers to better things?
As long as the fibers interlock, it will pretty much be as strong as it was originally once you apply the glue. I always chicken out and fiberglass over it, though.
I was using Fox 35's in my Noblers. Despite my reputation as a Fox-basher, I put something on the order of 3000 flights on a series of Green Box Noblers with Foxes, and once I got it running reliably, it was fine. At the time (late 70's) there wasn't anything that was tremendously better. Before I got it working on Top Flite Tutors, I probably crashed from "burp" issues maybe 2 dozen times. I finally got it to run, more-or-less, through and entire pattern in the Tutor, my first pattern ever. On the same flight, I went back to try the hourglass again, and of course, 3rd corner, burp, quit, crash. I had some issues with it in the Nobler until I found that the Sullivan round tank fit perfectly and ran well, and I was off to the races. I had something like 7 different airplanes and I flew literally every day for quite a while, snow, wind, etc. and I crashed them all multiple times. I had a set of jigs and I could build and entire airplane, with decent quality (although a poor finish) in about a week.
Another contributing factor is that I always practices by myself and with no help, but with 45 degree markers around the circle, and flew to the correct size no matter what and tried to hit the (at the time) 5 foot radius. That is essentially impossible with a Nobler/Fox, or at least impossible to fly the right size and still have the right shapes, intersections, and bottoms. Forcing it, particularly in marginal conditions, had predictable results. I wish I still had one of the airplane because I would be interested in how well they flew in the trim I flew them. Must have had something right because I could at least get through patterns doing it as I did, and I sure would know better now.
I then moved on to the ST46 in a Dick Mathis Genesis 40FSR kit. I flew that for many years, and went from my first contest to my first 500 point pattern with it. That flew very well although the controls were grossly too fast. Once I got an adjustable handle and got the controls slowed down, it flew very well.
Now I fly my own design Infinity, which is an unabashed evolution of Ted Fancher's "Imitation", but about 4 generations removed so nothing about it is actually like the original design. It was designed on the same basic principles and theories as the Trivial Pursuit/Great Expectations (AKA Star Gazer -same airplane), but shares no details, it was a logical scale-up of the Imitation with a full fuse and a Nobleresque turtledeck to provide great passive yaw stability for additional power handling. It was designed for a 40VF, but has been flown on the 40VF, 46VF, PA61 and currently, the RO-Jett 61 BSE. It might be pretty surprising but while they sound and feel different, their ultimate potential is about the same and I have flown them back-to-back-to-back several times and they are all very good. I am sure there are some pictures of it around.
Brett